It's story time. Sure, I'm a disgruntled uncustomer of Sprint, and I'm venting now. But I'm not exaggerating...

Chapter One: Cool! I Got A Cell Phone!

As a first-time cell user, I spent a lot of time comparing plans and companies and phones. One of the websites I used was point.com, which made comparisons easy, so I ordered a Sprint phone and plan online, charging it on my credit card. This was in October of 2000. I received an email confirmation from point.com, but after a few days, nothing. A call to Sprint revealed that they had not received a complete order (i.e. no area code). That's odd, since point.com's order form was very thorough.

After a few days, the phone arrived. It worked. A week later, however, I decided to cancel the plan because of spotty coverages in a specific area that I spend most of my time. So I called Sprint "customer service" to cancel my plan and receive a full refund minus activation fee (since it was within the first 14 days). The call went through smoothly and I was told that a package would come for me to return my phone and all charges would be cancelled upon their receipt of the phone. Ok, fine. Package came with UPS label, and I returned the phone.

Chapter Two: "That's a Mistake."

Two weeks later, I received a bill of over $400.00 of charges. As I perused the statement, I noticed that I was charged TWICE, once for the phone and plan that I had ordered, and another for a phone and plan for a different area code. I called Sprint immediately to resolve the issue. Customer Advocate agreed that the second charge was in error and the charges would be removed. Fine.

A few weeks later, it's now November and still no credit has appeared on my credit card. A new bill arrives showing some credits, but none of the credit amounts matched any of the previous charges, and TWO cancellation charges totalling $300.00 were added! Frustrated, I spent an entire morning talking to several advocates. At one point, one advocate attempted to transfer me to the billing department, at which point my call was dropped. I called again, waited on hold for half an hour, and yes! found an advocate who understood why I should get a refund! He sent a "template" to the billing department and told me that my credit card would be credited.

Chapter 3: You believed him?

A few days later, a rep from the billing department courteously called me and left a message saying that I could not be credited because there's a balance on the account! What the?! Do these guys know how to communicate to each other?

I called back, and this time an advocate looked at my account history (this is December now), and after pondering a few minutes, asked me if I ever returned the second phone! "We can't issue you a credit until you return the phone." Of course, I let her know that one of her fellow advocates had already told me that the second phone and plan were Sprint's mistakes. She persisted and stated that she would send off a request to investigate why the phone was never sent to me and that I should call back in 3 to 5 business days. At this point, I wondered if Customer Advocates should be renamed to Sprint Corp. Advocates. I said, no, that's unacceptable. I cancelled the plan two months ago, and you still haven't refunded my money. So I tried to make her understand what the problem was by telling the whole story from day 1. In the end, she sent another mysterious "template" to the billing department and assured me that my credit card would be credited. In retrospect, I think when they say "I'm sending a template off that says..." they really mean, "I don't know what to do, so I'm going to terminate this conversation and take a coffee break."

Chapter 4: Are we having fun yet?

One day, while checking my credit card account online, I noticed a $69.99 credit from Sprint! That's nowhere near the $260.00 I paid originally, but it was a start.

After a winter vacation I received my third bill in January, for the month of December. Sure enough there were some positive adjustments as well as a new unexplained *charge* of $69.99. "Angry" was an understatement of my condition. And those soothing words while I was on hold just made me angrier. This time, being sick of telling the whole story again, I just straight out told the advocate to transfer me to his supervisor or someone with the authority of refunding my money. His response, "Threats will get you nowhere. There's nothing that the supervisor can do that I can't do after I look at your account." That just made me angrier. So I fumed in silence as he examined my account and its long history. Then he put me on hold. Then he came back and said he was going to talk to his superviser, would you like to hold or leave a number for us to call you back? Sprint had already pulled this trick on me before, so I chose to hold.

When he came back, he asked what I wanted him to do. Well, isn't it obvious? I gathered my remaining calm and spelled out slowly: I want my money back, and I want the account closed. So he put me on hold again.

A few minutes later, a supervisor was on the line. Finally! He spelled out clearly that the remaining money was to be credited to my account and that the current balance on my account was $0.00 and that the account is closed. I don't understand why he was able to say that when all the other advocates could only say that they would send a "template" to the billing department and to call back later. So I asked him if he was going to send off another template. No, apparently, things were different this time.

And sure enough, things were different. A credit for the remaining money appeared on my credit card account two days later. My January bill arrived with a balance of $0.00.

If Sprint were paying me for the hours I spent assisting their advocates with understanding my situation, I'd be rich.


Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 39.00/month