Sprint PCS offers me comprehensive, cross-country cellular phone service at a relatively low price. It fits my needs perfectly:

- I like their nationwide coverage, because we have young adult children living 350 miles away, as well as family and friends all over the country. I have a 500 anytime/500 nights and weekend minute plan, and I do all my long-distance calling on Sprint.

- Because we travel to see our sons, relatives, and friends, I like being able to use my cell phone wherever I visit within the digital network area. Although we are sometimes out of digital range while traveling on rural highways, I know I can use the roam feature if I’m faced with an automobile emergency.

- I like being able to share my 1000 minutes with my son in college at a low additional cost which makes phone service more economical for both of us.

- Every time I see phone service ads offering better prices, the fine print tells me it’s for local calling area service only, and that cellular long distance is much more expensive.

The fact that Sprint PCS offers me the best plan almost makes up for their appallingly bad customer service. To experience Sprint PCS Customer Service in action, read on:

Customer Service v. Me--Round One

- I wanted to change cell phone plans from 500 minutes to 500 anytime/500 night and weekend minutes at the same price. Because I didn’t have a contract, I could make the change immediately, without penalty. Or almost immediately, since I waited a half-hour to speak to a customer service representative.

“Can’t you call back on the 17th?” she asked. “Your billing date is on the 17th, and it’s much simpler if we make this change at the start of your billing date.”

“Do you realize that I just waited a half-hour to talk to you?” I said. “And now you’re not going to change my service because I’m calling up on the wrong day? I would like it changed now, because I don’t want to wait on the phone a half-hour again.”

She changed it, after spending an additional five minutes trying to persuade me how unreasonable my request was.

Customer Service v. Me: Round Two

Having secured my 1000 minutes, I purchased a second cell phone for my son in college so that we could share our minutes, and he could call his girlfriend long-distance at a reasonable cost.

The low prices never materialized. In each of the first two months we got bills listing $25 worth of additional minutes. When I took out the calculator and manually added up the minutes we‘d used , I saw we weren’t anywhere near the limit.

I tried to contact Sprint PCS Customer Service through its website, but they were making changes and this avenue of communication was unavailable. (When I checked last night, the Customer Service feature was once again activated, but I had no reason to try it.)

I came to the phone call prepared. I went to a room where my speaker phone is located, dialed the number and put it on speaker, prepared to dash over when a human being answered the phone. I brought two loads of laundry, folded them, and put them away in closets and drawers. I paid some bills. I read the newspaper. Forty-two minutes passed before someone answered my call, and, when she did, she was not receptive to my complaint.

She kept trying to tell me that the reason I was being billed the extra $25 was because most of my minutes were in the “anytime” category. I disputed this, pointing out the fact that all of my son’s minutes were used during nights and weekends, and yet he had some calls charged at $.35 a minute. She explained the phone plan to me about three times. I refused to acquiesce. Finally, she said that a customer service rep would look into the charges and call me within 72 hours.

She told me that the current month’s bill, which I had not yet received, also showed extra charges. I asked her to have that bill looked into as well. She didn’t want to do it. She wanted me to wait till I had gotten the bill and call back.

I guess it didn’t matter, because no one called me in 72 hours.

Customer Service v. Me and Planet Feedback: Round 3

After waiting a week for a call that never came, I wrote through Planet Feedback, enumerating exactly how many peak and off peak minutes had been used in each billing period. In each month we’d used about 700 minutes and stayed under 500 minutes for peak usage.

I never received any written acknowledgment from my Planet Feedback letter, but, about a week after I’d written it (and two weeks after I’d spoken to PCS Customer Service) a customer service representative called me. She said that, when I’d added my son’s phone to the plan, the “add-a-phone” option hadn’t been linked correctly. She took the extra charges off my bill for both months, and said I shouldn’t have a problem again. I haven’t--thank goodness!

How Sprint PCS Can Improve Its Customer Service

Sprint PCS’ website can be helpful to customers with service problems, mainly because it helps them bypass the nightmarish phone experience.

But, because billing questions are a frequent cause of customer service calls, Sprint’s website would be better if it added the following features:

- For add-a-phone customers, make both phones accessible for viewing under one log-in and password. I have to access mine separately, and, unfortunately, if I am in the same viewing session, I just get logged on to the same phone number over and over again. Because I am billed for both phones, I like to check my son’s phone number once or twice during the month so that I can see where we are on remaining minutes.

- During the month, visitors to the site are able to see the total minutes used during a billing period, but these minutes are not divided into peak and off-peak. Last night, for example, I saw that I had used 408 minutes with 11 days to go in the billing period. This didn’t surprise me, since I have a friend who is seriously ill in another state and I’ve made numerous calls to see how she‘s doing and offer my comfort and support. When a customer has a plan offering a combination of peak and off-peak minutes, knowing exactly how many minutes are used is of no value unless those minutes are divided.

The ideal solution would be a screen combining the anytime and night/weekend phone usage of both phones and letting customers know how many minutes were available before reaching the limit.

I am glad that the website will now accept e-mail customer service inquiries, although I’ll still have to call Customer Service to change service options. When my one-year contract expires in early fall, I plan to do that, because the $49.99 plan I currently have is now being offered for $25.

The Customer Service representative did give me a hint. “Call in the middle of the night,” she said. “We’re open 24 hours.”

And they’re seriously understaffed for at least 23 of them.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 49.99