Sprint Haunts Me Still...

It's been a while since I last posted; I mean, after all, I'm no longer with Sprint, right...?? So then you might be wondering, "Why is Mark still blogging about them again?"

Well, you see, even though I escaped the grips of that terrible provider, my brother was still under contract through this past November - and because it was a family plan that I set up, the account was still in my name. For a year now, excitement has grown in me at the prospect of calling up Sprint and telling them that I was cancelling the last line of service on their network to never return.

That fateful day finally came on November 27, 2010. We first attempted to port Paul's number to AT&T, but to no avail. When we called Sprint, the agent shared that as part of the porting process, the line was cancelled. Not trusting anything Sprint tells me, I asked to speak with a supervisor to confirm. Of course, that meant I would need to hold. The agent took my number in case we got disconnected.

In case we got disconnected? Really? I don't know that the company has yet trained a single one of their agents how to properly use a phone or headset. There hasn't been a time that I haven't been disconnected! And this, my friends, was no exception. Only guess what, Sprint never called back. Typical. Piece of **** company.

Ok, so fast-forward a couple weeks later. I decided to call Sprint again to speak with another agent to confirm that the line had been indeed cancelled. Again, I've learned the hard way that the ability for the company to get anything right is near impossible. When I spoke to the agent, she sounded genuinely surprised that the account had indeed been cancelled. Curiously, she had to put me on hold to "talk to a supervisor" a couple times to understand something about my account (that always concerns me!) But when she came back, she assured me the account was cancelled - and even tried to see if I might be interested in this "4G" thing they've made up.

No thank you. Just calling to make sure that I am officially done with Sprint. Check.

Fast forward to today, January 11, 2011. I get home from work and my brother hands me a bill. Any guesses who it was from?

Wow! If you said Sprint, you're psychic! Sure enough, there it was in black and white, a bill for $59 for the month of December.

So I called determined to get to the bottom of this issue. If nothing else, I had already decided that I would dispute the charge with Mastercard and let them deal with the endless hold times and non-existent customer service.

As always, I had to key in my 10-digit telephone number only to have to provide it to the agent once again. When the agent pulled up the account, she saw that, sure enough, it was still open! LOL - it is kind of comical in some way! After sharing that I called on 11/27/2010 and then again in December to confirm, all she could say was, "There's not record of that in your account." She even asked me, "Did you call and speak to one of our operators?" No. I called Verizon. Whoops.

YES. I called you. Several times! And every time was told that the account was closed.

Then I got the inevitable, "I'm going to put you on hold for a moment while I look into your account." Oh no. Here we go... Nearly 10 minutes later, the agent comes back and says, "Ok, I've wiped out the balance for the future and have closed the account." When asked about the charges that I received for December, she immediately said, "Let me go look" and sent me back into Sprint's endless waiting room.

At the 19 minute mark, she came back on the line - and then I heard the most terrifying sound when talking to Sprint - silence. Sure enough, the agent had disconnected me after 19 minutes on the phone.

Livid. Paul tried to calm me down, but there was no going back now. I dialed that number one more time and vowed that it would be the last time I called this *$*#$ company. This was it.

After entering my 10-digit number and then repeating it (twice) to the agent, Jessica introduced herself and asked if I was having a good day. Hmmm. Maybe folks from Sprint should be trained not to ask folks that have their service that question. LOL - When I shared with her what happened, she seemed very understanding and told me that she would need a few minutes to research my account. However, this time, instead of putting me on hold, she simply kept me on the line. This one simple step could eliminate so many problems for their call centers. Thank you Jessica!

After nearly 10 minutes, and a couple check-ins with me to ensure we were still connected, she said she needed to put me on a brief hold, but took my phone number in case we got disconnected. Another 5 minutes go by before she comes back. When she finally does, she says, "Ok, so this is complicated, but I'm going to try to explain it to you the best I can..."

It turns out that somehow, when we cancelled Patrick's line 2 years ago, the agent didn't do it correctly and ended up creating a "second account" for Paul and my line. When I cancelled a year ago, there were no issues. The problem came when cancelling the final line. You see, the calls to cancel the account were noted on the wrong account - leaving Paul's number fully in service since 11/27/2010. Both accounts needed to be cancelled in the system at the same time in order for the change to go into effect.

So Jessica did it. She cancelled both accounts. I asked her to verify that the first agent that had disconnected me indeed credited my account. Guess what... *grin* Nope! Turns out that she did the credit in the wrong place, so Jessica had to start from scratch to issue a credit to the account.

When all was said and done, I was on the phone with Sprint for another 49 minutes tonight. 49 minutes and I don't even have a single line of service with them anymore!

I can only hope that today's announcement of Verizon getting the iPhone will drive additional subscribers away from Sprint. If I ever win the lotto, I've committed that a portion of that money will be spent providing users who leave Sprint a credit on their first several months of service at a competitor. Yes. I would spend my own money to "buy" people away from them. Petty? Pretty sure it is. Come on lotto numbers!!

So, my only question to you, the reader, is this: What are the odds that on February 10th, I won't receive another bill from Sprint? I'd say, about the same odds I have of winning that lotto...

Signal Faded; Unreliable Service

I took a quick trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin this weekend - and wouldn't you know, Sprint let me down again and again. Not only does my phone die after hours of searching for signal, it rarely receives text messages or phone calls in a timely manner. This morning, when I woke up, I grabbed my phone and it read: "SMS \ MMS: 25 unread" - which included several text messages that were several days old.

Some of the texts I've missed this weekend include:
"Hey, where are you? Come outside"
"Text me when you get this so we can hang"
"Just walking the dog. Sorry I missed ya! You still around?"
"Still up? Just got home... Call if not too late"

Sadly, I've had to tell my friends: Don't text me if you need an immediate answer. However, I've also had to tell them: Don't call me if you need an immediate answer, because my phone doesn't ring most of the time, nor does it realize that I've missed a call or that I have voicemail - and so no notifications are displayed.

So how can folks get ahold of me? I've asked people to message me on Facebook so that I can MANUALLY check my account when I'm at a computer in the event that someone needs me. Sometimes, the phone has signal long enough where I can check Facebook over the air, but most of the time, I just get "page cannot load."

On the way home, the phone died (3 hours into the 4 hour trip). So much for anyone being able to get ahold of me. *shakes head*

Maybe Sprint could change their slogan: Unreliable, just when you need it the most.

Sprint Horror Stories: Welcome Post

Well hello there. I'm glad you stumbled upon this blog. Perhaps you Google'd "Sprint Service" or "Sprint Problems" or perhaps you navigated your way here from Facebook or another site - whatever the case, welcome.

I've set up this blog to share with you some of the stories that I've had with Sprint, along with stories that readers submit to me. My goal with this blog is to help share with the world some of the problems, issues and challenges many customers face when interacting with Sprint - helping shape YOUR decision regarding your current or future cell phone needs.

If you're wondering who I am? Well, I'm an 8+ year long Sprint customer (yes, still in present tense). And while I've had some problems with my service over the years, ranging from incorrect bills, contract mishaps and limited service issues - nothing could have prepared me for the nightmare of the last six months.

You see, I'm on my SIXTH device in the past half year. In fact, my SEVENTH device is currently on order. While I plan to share my story in detail, the gist of it comes down to this: I upgraded my phone in November and that unit had a defect. Sprint has since replaced it with device after device - all of which have been defective!

Instead of Sprint owning the issue, I have been the one left on countless hours of hold (don't worry, I've documented this!) along with multiple trips to local Sprint Repair Centers to confirm that my devices are defective. In fact, I just returned from the Repair Center earlier this evening where I learned that Sprint is ordering yet another device. The saddest thing about this visit? One of the reps said, "Hey, I recognize you from the last time you were here." Not really the kind of recognition I would hope for Sprint.

Ok, this first post has gotten long, so I'm going to sign off for now. Please stay tuned to learn more about my story - including such highlights as:

- Getting disconnected by Chantera after 19 minutes
- Learning from Shyra about how Sprint had changed some of their extensions, and how as a result, I might just hear dead air when I'm transferred
- Wendy telling me that Sprint's policy had changed (from the previous day!)
- Jason telling me how I could rig a claim with the insurance protection program on my device in order to receive a new product (since Sprint wasn't willing to replace my device)
- The non-English speaking rep Evric "That is a effect of defective device"

Great news my friends, it's all documented and ready to be shared with the world! Keep reading, commenting and most importantly, sharing this site with friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, strangers on the bus... anyone who will listen!

Stay strong. -Mark