SPRINT? SPRINT FOR COVER WHEN SOMETHING GOES WRONG IS THEIR MOTTO
Written: Jun 03 '02 (Updated Jun 03 '02)
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Pros: Well it doesn't cost much.
Cons: There's a reason for that.
The Bottom Line: Ok I Know I was dealing with Sprint Canada and not Sprint but I'm sure NAFTA allows for the free transfer of surly incompetence across the world's longest undefended border.
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| JAMES23's Full Review: General Reviews of Sprint Customer Service |
Most regular readers of my stuff here get a little excited whenever they see I've posted a review in a category that I usually don't write in. The majority of my body of work here is in travel, movies and books, with an occasional foray into the cigar section of gourmet. Those are the areas I'm interested in and consequently know most about. I'm still one of those few who actually believes you should have a basic knowledge of the product in question before rambling off at the mouth about it, or as is often the case here merrily cutting and pasting.
Therefore when I post a review in a different section as is in this case it can only mean one of two things. One, James has found some great product or service and just has to share this with his friends, neighbours, and those who have no life and spend all their pathetic hours glued in front of their computer monitors. More often than not though it's the exact opposite.
Yep, James has just been royally screwed over by some large corporation, yet again, and is seeking the only pitiful revenge open to the average consumer. This is what drags em in. My rants can be good ones, especially when I've been inconvenienced and worse yet am out of pocket some of my hard earned and relatively useless Canadian dollars.
A couple of months ago I began to pay attention to a series of ads from Sprint Canada about their new local service plan. They were offering basic service with one free feature, call waiting, voice mail etc., for a little over $30.00 a month Canadian. The assorted add on services were also reasonably priced and a whole line of long distance plans could be co-ordinated with it.
Best of all the switch over would be easy and you would even get to keep your old phone number. Now this was good as Toronto had just joined the ranks of the really big cities and now has two area codes (416) and (647). My number has the old area code and a certain "snobbish" attitude seems to have developed about which area code you have. Remember the Seinfeld episode where Elaine doesn't want to lose her old phone number and get the "new" area code. Well I guess a lot of people here in the big smoke must have seen that episode and actually though it was important.
The final bonus, there's always another final bonus, Sprint was offering was a special switch over deal. For the first three months, they would take a third off of your local bill. That's right boys and girls instead of $30.00 plus a month it would only be twenty something. Hey that's a savings of some thirty bucks over three months. OK sure they're Canadian bucks but that buys a lot, all right a couple, of beers up here.
At the time Bell Canada was billing me some $60.00-65.00 a month for just my local service. That was for a single line and a couple of features, voice mail and call display. At least as far as I knew I only had a couple of features. They were the only two I used and could figure out.
Now I'm no rocket science as Ada my old math teacher will point out, but even I could see that was a good deal. I could save thirty bucks a month for like ever, in addition to that original thirty bucks a month. That translates into a lot of beers and wings as long as I stick to the cheap places in the rundown sections of town.
Actually the difference would just about cover the monthly costs of my new cell phone. That little exercise in torture was a Christmas present from the better half. Of course Christmas didn't seem to cover the monthly costs for the next two years of the contract. The first week of April I accidentally left the phone in the back of a cab, and found it was cheaper to pay the $7.00 a month to keep the number available but not in use than cancel the contract or get a new phone. Oh yeah it was a (647) area code too.
Any ways back to Sprint. It was a great deal and I should have signed up right away. I'm basically lazy though and I didn't. Then one miserably evening in late March while I was basically doing nothing the phone rang. It was a telemarketer and obviously a new one who doesn't know that middle aged bachelors don't eat supper at supper time and so was not interrupting my meal.
Normally I deal with telemarketers in a set manner. I usually respond in a language other than English. I find Sanskrit is a good bet in this multi cultural city. Failing that I often respond with my old stand by.
"Bill is that you? You have to come over quick. I finally did it. I need your help to get the body parts out of the freezer." This usually ensures they don't press the sales pitch and rarely ever call back.
I must have been feeling bored or lonely this time because I actually let the poor schmuck on the other end start his sales pitch. It turned out they were calling about, you guessed it, Sprint. I let the poor sod go on and on about the benefits of their new local service and then said "sure why not, sign me up."
There was a thud at the other end of the line, and a slight pause while they dragged away the telelmarketer who'd fainted and brought in someone new. This person confirmed that yes I did want to switch services. Yes I was actually wanting to avail myself of the product/service they were pitching. No I wasn't some twisted soul who after I let them take down all the information was going to scream out "April fools."
They then took down the pertinent information required to switch service companies and explained how it would work. I didn't have to do anything. They would call Bell and advise them of everything on my behalf. I'd never even notice the switch I was assured.
On April 16, 2002 Sprint Canada would replace Bell Canada as my local telephone service provider. I was advised that Bell may call me and try to get me to change my mind, but that would be it. They then hung up, obviously to go and crack open the champagne.
April 16th came and went and I noticed nothing different about my phone service. Boy that was a smooth transition I thought when I actually stopped and remembered that it had happened. Bell Canada never even called me and tried to get me to change my mind either.
I was I admit a little disappointed in that. I was kind of hoping they would. I guess they just didn't really care about my years of loyal patronage as much as all the junk mail I received from them over the years said they did. I was sure they would at least miss the six or seven hundred bucks a year they were milking out of me.
Friday April 26th was a particularly brutal day at work for me. By the time I got home at around 5:00 p.m. though I really didn't care. I had a busy weekend lined up. I'd be on the go all weekend but it was fun things. First I had to run a couple of errands and check out some formal wear places for the wedding coming up in the fall. Later on I had a family BBQ to celebrate my Aunt's birthday north of the city.
As I normally due after work I flopped down in front of my computer and went through the mail while I perused e-mails. There in the standard buff envelope was something from Bell. If I didn't know better I'd have sworn it was bill. No that was impossible I'd stopped being their customer 10 days earlier. Maybe it was thank you note for all those loyal years of patronage. I opened the envelope.
It was a bill. There in front of me in black and white, well actually black ink on off yellow, was a bill for local service for the period of April 26th to May 26th 2002. Not only were they billing me for future service, they were billing me for service I'd never use.
The nerve of them. I was just about to call their customer service line and complain when I had a thought. Maybe just maybe I'd better check with Sprint first just in case. I located their customer service number and dialled.
After about twenty minutes of muzak hell while on hold and a half dozen recorded messages reminding me how important I was, I was finally put through to a real live person. I quickly explained my situation and they put me on hold while they checked into it. A little more muzak, OK a lot, later and he came back on the line.
Nope no problem he said. I was a Sprint customer and Bell had made a mistake with the bill. He even suggested I toss it in the garbage.
Now much as I wanted to do as he suggested I decided to double check just in case. I called Bell and after another twenty minutes or so of canned muzak and insincere messages I was connected to one of their customer service reps. Incidentally I am able to report that Bell Canada has slightly less crappier muzak than Sprint Canada. Their insincere we really, really love you canned messages though are I feel not as good.
After again explaining the entire recent history of my local telephone service I was again put on hold for another "brief period." The Bell rep then came back and gave me the good news. Good news for Bell that is.
It seemed that I was still a customer of Bell and therefore should be billed. They went on to explain that yes they had received a notification from Sprint advising them of the upcoming switch over of my service but that was it. Sprint had never followed up with the final request or whatever on the 16th.
Sprint it seemed did this all the time I was advised and somewhat gleefully I might add. I was still with Bell and therefore would I please pay my bill thank you very much. I was told that if and when I did switch carriers in the near or distant future that a credit for any unused service would be applied to my account. Well at least that explained the little mystery of why Bell had never called begging me to stay with them. I'd never left.
I called Sprint back and of course was put on hold and forced to listen to guess what again. This time it couldn't have lasted more than 15 minutes so that was some improvement. For the third time I again explained the situation and for the third time was put on hold while someone looked into it. By this time I was actually humming along to the music and caught myself fortunately before the customer service rep came back on.
They advised me that no I was with Sprint and Bell was wrong the computer screen in front of them told them so. This incidentally was explained to me in a tone not unlike one would use to a rather petulant child.
Well if they were going to treat me like a four year old, I was going to act like one. I begged them to please, please, pretty please just double check. Reluctantly they agreed to and back on hold I went. Soon, OK not really, a new person came on who after a fourth explanation told me she'd run me through a series of tests to see who my provider was.
She told me I'd have to hang up and dial a couple of numbers and based on the responses from these tests we'd know who was my service provider was. I pointed out that I was reluctant to hang up but she promised to call me back, so I did. I made the calls and made note of the responses.
Sure enough she called me back a few minutes later and I started to give her the information from the test calls. Just then the battery on my cordless phone died. Well I had been on it for a while now. Fortunately this particular service rep seemed to be the exception that proves the rule. Right after we were cut off she called back again. I took this call on the handset of my fax machine after returning the cordless, purchased from Bell Canada by the way, to its cradle to recharge.
After listening to my answers and checking a couple of things at her end there was a brief pause then the pin dropped. "Mr .Smith" she said rather reluctantly. "It seems that your service is still being provided by Bell." gee no kidding I thought. I also noticed there was no sorry about that or even acknowledgement that they'd been wrong all along.
She then told me that she would contact the appropriate people to have my Bell service cut off and my Sprint service started as soon as possible. She also assured me that a note would be placed in my file regarding all this and ensuring that I would not be billed for service until today. I hung up content. Soon after my local phone service was completely disconnected.
It was now a little past 7:00 p.m. and I had been on the phone for more than two hours. Well over half that time had been spent in muzak hell. So much in fact that I was starting to develop an unhealthy appreciation for the subtle nuances of Muskrat Love.
I'm not sure of exactly when my service was cut off exactly, but I can estimate. It was sometime between when I finally hung up on Sprint and 7:30 p.m. when I tried to call my fiancee to discuss tomorrow's plans and got dead silence.
I figured there was some minor delay in the switch over and decided to give it a couple of more minutes. At 8:00 p.m. I tried again, nothing. 8:30 p.m., still nothing. At 9:00 p.m. I was getting a bit peeved off at the situation when I tried yet again and still dead silence.
I grabbed my jacket and fumbled around for a couple of quarters and dashed outside. Across the street from my apartment building was a small corner coffee shop. Outside of it near an alley was a pay phone. Naturally it was one without a booth. Naturally it was also cold and raining outside.
I called my fiancee and quickly explained the situation. She had of course been trying to reach me and was quite concerned because she was getting a recorded "this line is no longer in service" message. I told her I'd be in touch tomorrow morning and signed off.
Aside from the inclement weather there was another reason I really didn't want to keep using this pay phone. The usual residents of the alley were all giving me dirty looks. It appeared that this particular pay phone was the personal property of several "address challenged" or "housing disadvantaged" individuals as our city council likes to call them. They seemed to resent my presence there as did the other group of individuals watching me who also used this particular pay phone on a regular basis.
This group needed it to conduct business as they are a part of the city's entrepreneurial community. Most urban areas have them. I don't know what they call them in your city, but here we refer to them as "free lance recreational pharmaceutical salesmen."
It could have been worse, at least they allowed me to make one call before I beat a hasty retreat. Also this phone was working. The city and the phone company have been turning off pay phones in some neighbourhoods at night to discourage certain entrepreneurial activities. Obviously it's very effective.
Saturday morning found me at the local mall perusing cell phones. I'd waited by my phone until the mall opened, checking every few minutes for a dial tone with no luck. As I noted I'd lost my cell phone earlier in the month. I wasn't ready to replace it just yet as I was still trying to negotiate with my insurance company and VISA to see if I was covered or not.
This however was an emergency. In other words they realised I was desperate and saw me coming. Half an hour later I had a new cell phone identical to the free one I'd received at Christmas. Of course it had been free with the purchase of a two year service plan. This time around it involved a $130.00 hit on my credit card. That plus a $50.00 service reactivation fee that would show up on my next bill.
Well at least I had a phone. I also had a lot of calls to make. It seems that more than one person had tried to reach me on Friday night. Amongst those was a cousin who was co-ordinating the weekend family BBQ. Naturally when they received the canned this line is no longer in service message they panicked. Phone calls were made to family members far and wide. They included my parents in blissful retirement in Nova Scotia.
My father for some strange and touching reason still worries about me. This is not the kind of call he needs to get. Visions of his four heart attacks and bypass operation were dancing through my mind as I called home. I couldn't reach him but I was able to get through to my sister who later relayed a message. All in all I used up most of my 200 free minutes a month that Saturday morning.
The rest of the weekend went well thank you very much. I'd given up on calling Sprint until Monday morning as their customer service department doesn't work on Weekends. The better half had called them late on Friday and surprisingly caught someone before they scampered home for the weekend. This unlucky person assured her that someone would come around on Sunday and fix it. I spent all Sunday at home waiting patiently. No one showed up.
Monday morning found me back at work and in the proverbial good mood most people are in at the start of the working week At 9:00 a.m. I called Sprint Canada. The thirty minutes renewed acquaintance I had with the top ten elevator music hits ensured I was in the appropriate mood when a new and perky customer service rep finally came on the line.
After a quick explanation of the preceding events I was assured that one it was not their fault and two was I sure my phone wasn't still working. Yes I replied. OK I actually used several other words, most of them small ones of four or so letters. A quick check ensured that I was right my service wasn't up and running but it was still not their fault. Silly me it was obviously mine for presuming they knew what they were doing when I decided to switch providers.
I was then assured they could fix the problem but it would involve a visit by a technician to my humble abode. That little gem hadn't been mentioned on Friday, Apparently there were some problems that had arisen in my service. Incidentally it would be a Bell Technician. I guess because if it wasn't my fault and it wasn't Sprint's fault then it must be Bell's fault. Finally would I mind staying at home all day and they'd try and get someone over.
Yes I would mind staying at home all day. Silly me, but it was a condition of my employment that my employers actually preferred it if I stayed at my place of work all day. Preferably doing some work, but they were usually satisfied if I just sat there and looked busy. Well then could I be home on Tuesday? Again in a word no.
I then explained what appeared to be an alien concept to her. I worked every day and therefore could not stay at home twiddling my thumbs waiting for some mythical creature who may or may not appear.
At least now I understood why Sprint's prices were so low. Their entire client base must be the unemployed, excuse me the "employment disadvantaged." She then suggested that they could have someone come on Saturday, would that be OK. I tried to point out rationally that no that would be OK as I would prefer not to be without basic telephone service for a further six days, having done without for two and a half already. At this point in time the call was terminated.
I called my apartment building manager and checked to see if they could make arrangements to let someone in during the day. No problem he said. He also pointed out that he would also grant access to the telephone room in the basement which is where the technician would probably need to go in the first place. That little piece of information had slipped the perky little customer service rep's mind I guess.
I called Sprint back, and endured the muzak hell once more. Again I explained the circumstances to yet another anonymous customer service rep. I should point out that all along I'd asked them to make notes on all this on my file which by now should have been approaching the size of a phone book or at least this review. I'm not sure if they were or not, or rather standard operating procedure with dealing with irate and dissatisfied customers involved deliberately not reading the notes on previous calls.
I somehow managed to get through this call without needing some of my Dad's heart medication, barely. By now my co-workers were gathered about my cubicle to listen in on the calls. Not so much for moral support mind, but because it was the most entertaining thing going on in the office at that time.
I gave Sprint the contact information for the building manager and they assured me that a service technician would be despatched. Probably not that day though, but most likely on Tuesday. I called back my Apartment manager and asked him to call me if and when the telephone guy showed up.
Monday passed and no phone service. I amused myself by calling my home number and listening to the recorded out of service message every now and tehn until quitting time. When I got home I changed this to the equally amusing game of picking up the receiver every now and then and listening to....nothing.
Tuesday morning I called Sprint again just to let them know that I hadn't changed my mind overnight and still actually wanted a working phone service. They assured me that they'd have someone over to fix it that day. I was also assured that it was not their fault and that the Easter Bunny, Santa and the Tooth Fairy were real and presumably satisfied Sprint customers too.
Tuesday passed with no change. Tuesday night still no service. Hey look at the bright side no annoying telemarketers calling me while I was… sitting around doing nothing but stare at my phone.
Wednesday I called Sprint again. This time as soon as the muzak cut out I went on the offensive. This guy most have not read the employee manual because he actually took a minute and read my file. He then assured me that my phone service had been restored as of Tuesday evening so what was all the fuss about. Well the fuss was he was lying, and even if he wasn't four days without service was at least in my humble opinion a bit of a fuss. I put him on hold grabbed my cell, now a permanent fixture, and dialled my home number. Surprise it worked.
I then told him it was working, now but I was still for some strange reason a bit peeved at Sprint Canada. I then stated that I wanted to speak with someone in authority who would then explain to me why this had happened, admit responsibility for it, apologise for it, and last but not least offer me some sort of compensation. I was told it was not company policy to have complaints answered by higher ups. Some one would be in touch re compensation but that was it.
No it wasn't. I'd been saying this little spiel since Monday and wasn't taking a brush off from some minimum wage drone in a cubicle who I really didn't have a problem with because he was only doing his job. I wanted to talk to someone with a title after their name. The words lawyer, press, Consumer Affairs and Better Business Bureau came up in the conversation and I left it at that for now.
A week later I got a phone message at work from someone named Laurie calling from the President of Sprint Canada's office to discuss my situation. Laurie and I played phone tag for a couple of days and then she called me at home one evening and we actually spoke. Now I will admit that her asking me in the messages left at my office if my phone service was working yet was nice. Asking me when I answered on my home line the same question though seemed a little shall we say redundant.
That was a nice way to start our little tete a tete I thought. After assuring her that yes my phone was now working, otherwise the conversation we were now having would be slightly one sided I thanked her for checking up on that and only more than two weeks since I'd reported it down.
She then asked if I had any other problems with my service. Yes of course I did. My voice mail wasn't working or at least I wasn't able to access it because the password had been changed on me. Another little tid bit of information that had been missing from my initial welcome to Sprint's big happy family spiel way back when. Laurie then advised me that this info and my new password were in the official welcome to Sprint brochure I'd been sent.
She seemed rather put off when I told I'd never received such an item and promised to get one right out to me. She'd also have some technical type call me right after we were finished and walk me through the procedures for accessing my voice mail. I will admit this helped as it was a complex process. The new temporary access number/password was my phone number.
Anything else. Yeah for some strange reason call display was now showing the name associated with my number as R. Robert Smith and not my name. Okey dokey we'll get that fixed right away. Now onto the good stuff.
Laurie apologised for the inconvenience I had been through and assured me that it was both an unfortunate mishap and not a normal occurance at Sprint. That assured me, like they were going to admit that this happened all the time and expect me to stay a customer. That was it though as far as a detailed explanation of what had happened and apology were concerned.
Now on to the good stuff. Laurie like some benevolent telecommunications deity dispensing manna from heaven was authorised to give me two months credit towards my local service in compensation for my minor inconvenience. After tugging my forelock in gratitude I asked her if this was it.
Oh yeah that was it, take it of leave it. So basically that's all the crap I went through was worth. I really was more interested in a real explanation of this clusterhump than anything else. That and a sincere real apology, but it was obvious that was not forthcoming. So I'd get no bill for two months and then the special one third off deal for the next three right.
Oh no she explained. The two would run concurrently. Effective immediately I would not have to pay my bill for the next two months, May and June. July I would then only have to pay the twenty odd bucks as per the sign up deal. Starting after that my regular rate would kick in.
I tried to point out the obvious that they were in fact ripping me off of the very deal that had lured me to them in the first place. Laurie though saw nothing wrong with this. After all I was getting "free" service for two whole months. Whoopee I'd be saving a whopping forty bucks by my count. Laurie then asked me what I wanted, and before I could reply began to moan about that if they offered more they wouldn't be able to offer their great service at such low prices. They were a business after all or didn't I understand that.
Obviously explaining to Laurie the concept of customer loyalty and satisfaction would be a waste of time. That and the fact it was the ethical thing to do. The fact that I would hopefully over the years become a valued customer of Sprint Canada and spend thousands of dollars was beyond her. Also was the very real possibility that I may switch ISP and when the time came my cell phone contract to their company was not clear.
Finally there was the possibility of how my continued goodwill would affect other new customers. Friends, relatives, and co-workers, OK maybe not co-workers or at least those within earshot of my desk, would of course ask me how I liked my new service in anticipation of maybe changing themselves.
It could have been that I would have replied with an overall not bad. Sure there had been a minor glitch in the switch over but it had been quickly and efficiently dealt with. They were also most understanding with their compensation for my inconvenience. Nope now I would have to tell anyone who asked the truth.
That truth was that my telephone service had been cut off without warning. Further it had remained disconnected for five days. This was more than a minor inconvenience to both me and friends and family. More importantly I had been repeatedly lied to by Sprint Canada throughout this whole process.
First I had been lied to when I was told the process would be automatic. It wasn't. Then I was lied to a couple of times when I called to point out that the service had not switched over. Next I was lied to on what was required to reconnect it. I was first told that it could be done without anyone accessing my apartment. Then I was told that someone had to go in there. As it turned out I checked with my building manager, no service person had called. Finally of course I was lied to about the actual date/time my service was restored. Of course no one at Sprint seemed concerned about all this, and that's the most terrifying part.
My first Sprint Canada bill has since shown up. As promised there is a credit so the amount owing is zero. Incidentally an adjusted Bell Canada bill also showed up for the correct amount owed for May. It was a trifle sum and I gladly paid it.
By my count after three months with Sprint Canada I will have shelled out twenty bucks for local service. That's not bad when compared to the $180-195.00 I would have paid for the same period had I stayed with Bell. Then I remember the $180.00 I had to shell out for the emergency reactivation of my cell phone. Well so much for savings.
I think that before August when my last "cheap" month with Sprint expires I will have given Bell Canada a call. A colleague of mine also did the Sprint switch and was royally screwed by them, although not as thoroughly as I was. Had I known this before hand I'd never have switched. She's since gone back to Bell, and got a special welcome back deal out of them on long distance.
Right now I'm willing to discuss the "please come back special deal" with Bell. To be honest I'd probably settle for the "so you've come crawling back have you deal" as long as it's less than the twice as much for basic service I was paying.
I'm still waiting for my lengthy letter of explanation/apology from the high mucky mucks at Sprint. Something tells me it's going to be a long wait. I thought of writing them a letter but this is so much more therapeutic not to mention effective. Sprint Canada has a web site with a send us your comments e-mail. I'm sending them the link. I do hope Laurie enjoys it.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): TOO MUCH
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JAMES23
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Member: James Smith
Location: Toronto Ontario CANADA
Reviews written: 450
Trusted by: 222 members
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