Back It Up
A few months ago Charlie's phone began malfunctioning. He'd had it for a short while, maybe a year, but it wasn't an expensive phone and to repair it would cost as much as it would to replace it. Nope, didn't have it insured, wasn't an expensive phone. It was a flip phone and every time he'd shut it, it'd randomly dial out.
I called Sprint to see about having it replaced, but it's time wasn't 'up' to have it upgraded. However, two of my other phones were; my phone and my spare car phone. I've had four lines on my Sprint account for years, one of them a free line (which I kept in my car as a spare) and the other three belonging to each of the boys and myself. So, we retired Charlie's old broken phone, I gave him my spare phone for which he upgraded to a Rumor and I upgraded my phone to the Palm Centro. I say we retired Charlie's old phone because to cancel it, it would have cost me a $200 early termination fee, but to keep it I pay $9.99 a month for another 9 months.
I know...try and stay with me.
Charlie and I ordered our phones from Sprint on-line because of the on-line savings. Huge. We get our phones and have them activated. Charlie loves his and me...not so much. Granted, I didn't give it much time but it doesn't have a 'back' button. No back button.
I took it to the Sprint Store and asked them where the back button was. I've never had a phone without a back button. Plus, it had said on-line that it was GPS enabled, but that was a mistake. It had Google Maps which needs a starting and destination address. The problem is that when I'm lost, I don't have an address to where I am. If I knew that, I'd not be lost. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a direction disorder. It's a little known disorder, but a disorder all the same. Okay, I've termed it, but I'm sure it's real and I have suffered from it for years.
The Sprint Store (two of the employees working at the time I went in) told me that, and I quote, they hated the Centro. They showed me the new Blackberry Pearl that was coming out in about a week. The Pearl had GPS...and a back button. :) They suggested strongly that I send my Centro back and order the Pearl.
I sent the Centro back and ordered the Pearl.
The Pearl arrived in about a week, and I hated the Pearl. It simply didn't work. I can't begin to remember all the problems I had with it from programs not working, the trackball not working and the Blackberry department at Sprint telling me that there was a problem with some of it's programs and they couldn't tell me when they would have a patch available to repair all of it's problems, simply that they were aware of them and working on them.
I called Sprint and told them I wanted to return it. They told me that I couldn't return two phones. The Sprint store told me that they do not repair phones that were purchased on-line, that I had to send it back to Sprint for repair. I'd have no replacement phone...no phone period. *I later found out that the Sprint store was wrong, they have to repair on-line purchased phone. They were either wrong, or lying. I'm hoping they were wrong.
I've been with Sprint for probably 10 years. Love Sprint, never had a problem, never had bad reception or lost calls. Loved them. Until November, my bill for four phones with unlimited minutes and texting was about $140. Not bad. Then I got my November's phone bill, for $1,700. SEVENTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. Naturally I refused to pay, and then I was faced with a disconnect notice.
Sprint has a serious problem with it's customer service. It took me nearly five weeks of spending countless hours on the phone with customer service before Sprint fessed up and took responsibility for their errors. Once I was on the phone for nearly three hours, another for nearly two hours and probably a dozen times ranging between 45 minutes and 90 minutes. Every time I'd call I'd either get passed from department to department, disconnected, argued with, insulted or connected to someone who had extremely limited English. Honestly, one man could not understand what I was saying and for fifteen minutes I listened to him tell me that I didn't have an order for 'headphones', he didn't speak nor understand basic English. I kept telling him I wasn't saying the words 'headphones' and he'd come back and tell me that he couldn't find an order for headphones.
One rep told me to go to a Sprint Store to talk to someone in person about my bill. The Sprint Store told me that they're not able to pull up a customer's billing, that none of their stores were able to do that. This was one of the many lunch hours I spent at Sprint. I called a couple of Sprint stores when I got back from lunch, and yes, they were correct. However, the store did give the most helpful information I'd received up to this point, the phone number to Sprint's Retention Department.
By this time, my phone bill was now up to $1,900. More mistakes on December's bill...crazy mistakes. But, I now had a light at the end of this tunnel. I contacted the Retention Department and was connected to my Sprint angel. After two hours on the phone with her, after going over line, by line, by line of my November and December's bill, it had been corrected by $1,200.00. She also told me she'd take my Pearl back and when they received it they'd take an additional $300 off of my bill. I told them I'd like to try the Centro once more (I'd met several people by now who had and loved the Centro) and my Sprint Angel had it sent to me within a few days. What's funny is when I took it and my Pearl into a Sprint store to have my Centro activated and my info from my Pearl transferred to my Centro, the people at the store couldn't believe how bad my Pearl was. It took them over 40 minutes to get what they needed off of the Pearl because the trackball just didn't work. Yeah, tell me about it.
My Sprint angel offered me many financial compensations to keep me as a customer, for which I'm greatly appreciative. But, seriously, the past two months have been a nightmare with my phones. I've now had my Centro for two weeks. I love it. It doesn't have the GPS, but I've programmed all my locations and all my contact's addy's into it, so that should help...all I need is the destination address and I'm good to go. The Centro is fast and I love all the programs...but I do still miss that back button.
I called Sprint to see about having it replaced, but it's time wasn't 'up' to have it upgraded. However, two of my other phones were; my phone and my spare car phone. I've had four lines on my Sprint account for years, one of them a free line (which I kept in my car as a spare) and the other three belonging to each of the boys and myself. So, we retired Charlie's old broken phone, I gave him my spare phone for which he upgraded to a Rumor and I upgraded my phone to the Palm Centro. I say we retired Charlie's old phone because to cancel it, it would have cost me a $200 early termination fee, but to keep it I pay $9.99 a month for another 9 months.
I know...try and stay with me.
Charlie and I ordered our phones from Sprint on-line because of the on-line savings. Huge. We get our phones and have them activated. Charlie loves his and me...not so much. Granted, I didn't give it much time but it doesn't have a 'back' button. No back button.
I took it to the Sprint Store and asked them where the back button was. I've never had a phone without a back button. Plus, it had said on-line that it was GPS enabled, but that was a mistake. It had Google Maps which needs a starting and destination address. The problem is that when I'm lost, I don't have an address to where I am. If I knew that, I'd not be lost. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a direction disorder. It's a little known disorder, but a disorder all the same. Okay, I've termed it, but I'm sure it's real and I have suffered from it for years.
The Sprint Store (two of the employees working at the time I went in) told me that, and I quote, they hated the Centro. They showed me the new Blackberry Pearl that was coming out in about a week. The Pearl had GPS...and a back button. :) They suggested strongly that I send my Centro back and order the Pearl.
I sent the Centro back and ordered the Pearl.
The Pearl arrived in about a week, and I hated the Pearl. It simply didn't work. I can't begin to remember all the problems I had with it from programs not working, the trackball not working and the Blackberry department at Sprint telling me that there was a problem with some of it's programs and they couldn't tell me when they would have a patch available to repair all of it's problems, simply that they were aware of them and working on them.
I called Sprint and told them I wanted to return it. They told me that I couldn't return two phones. The Sprint store told me that they do not repair phones that were purchased on-line, that I had to send it back to Sprint for repair. I'd have no replacement phone...no phone period. *I later found out that the Sprint store was wrong, they have to repair on-line purchased phone. They were either wrong, or lying. I'm hoping they were wrong.
I've been with Sprint for probably 10 years. Love Sprint, never had a problem, never had bad reception or lost calls. Loved them. Until November, my bill for four phones with unlimited minutes and texting was about $140. Not bad. Then I got my November's phone bill, for $1,700. SEVENTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. Naturally I refused to pay, and then I was faced with a disconnect notice.
Sprint has a serious problem with it's customer service. It took me nearly five weeks of spending countless hours on the phone with customer service before Sprint fessed up and took responsibility for their errors. Once I was on the phone for nearly three hours, another for nearly two hours and probably a dozen times ranging between 45 minutes and 90 minutes. Every time I'd call I'd either get passed from department to department, disconnected, argued with, insulted or connected to someone who had extremely limited English. Honestly, one man could not understand what I was saying and for fifteen minutes I listened to him tell me that I didn't have an order for 'headphones', he didn't speak nor understand basic English. I kept telling him I wasn't saying the words 'headphones' and he'd come back and tell me that he couldn't find an order for headphones.
One rep told me to go to a Sprint Store to talk to someone in person about my bill. The Sprint Store told me that they're not able to pull up a customer's billing, that none of their stores were able to do that. This was one of the many lunch hours I spent at Sprint. I called a couple of Sprint stores when I got back from lunch, and yes, they were correct. However, the store did give the most helpful information I'd received up to this point, the phone number to Sprint's Retention Department.
By this time, my phone bill was now up to $1,900. More mistakes on December's bill...crazy mistakes. But, I now had a light at the end of this tunnel. I contacted the Retention Department and was connected to my Sprint angel. After two hours on the phone with her, after going over line, by line, by line of my November and December's bill, it had been corrected by $1,200.00. She also told me she'd take my Pearl back and when they received it they'd take an additional $300 off of my bill. I told them I'd like to try the Centro once more (I'd met several people by now who had and loved the Centro) and my Sprint Angel had it sent to me within a few days. What's funny is when I took it and my Pearl into a Sprint store to have my Centro activated and my info from my Pearl transferred to my Centro, the people at the store couldn't believe how bad my Pearl was. It took them over 40 minutes to get what they needed off of the Pearl because the trackball just didn't work. Yeah, tell me about it.
My Sprint angel offered me many financial compensations to keep me as a customer, for which I'm greatly appreciative. But, seriously, the past two months have been a nightmare with my phones. I've now had my Centro for two weeks. I love it. It doesn't have the GPS, but I've programmed all my locations and all my contact's addy's into it, so that should help...all I need is the destination address and I'm good to go. The Centro is fast and I love all the programs...but I do still miss that back button.
posted by kathi | 9:28 PM
11 Comments:
Good GAWD, woman, that's totally sinful. And to think you're STILL with Sprint lol.
My daughter works for Sprint in Pittsburgh. Loves it for the most part. We have a cheapie cell, and it does what we want. That's all I ask :)
Ughhh !!! I've had problems with Nextel - which now Sprint owns. I really believe that problem resides in the "kids" that they hire. They're still in high school or just got out and they just don't give a rat's ass. Really.
What an ordeal!
On a much easier note: did you want American Idol last night??? It was hysterical!
Sounds like a complete nightmare. I hate when customer service people are completely incompetent, or worse can't speak English.
Glad you finally were able to get it worked out!! :)
I'm glad you got it worked out. My daughter and hub had Sprint for a long time. I don't think they had any huge problems like this, but they had lots of irritating issues, and finally, they gave up and switched to Verizon who I've been with since time began. I had a couple friends with similar experiences, so I think you either love Sprint or hate it, but not much in between!
I hate cell phones so I can't contribute anything useful. lol
missing you....
and yes, I still love ya'!
Lisa
ohhh... we are sprint people too and in every other respect, we love sprint... until it comes to customer service. they have the absolute worst cs ever. i have had many conversations like the one you described! that customer retention line is a God send... keep that number and call them first in the event of other issues... we have that number programed into our phones ;~) glad to hear everything worked out... damn skippy they should offer compensation to keep you!
Hi Kathi
I'm just stopping in to wish you a Happy New Year!
I've been thinking about you and hope all is wonderful in your life!
I'm finally am back to posting again!
Gosh, that was quite an ordeal you went through, but at least it worked out ok!
Margie
That's just so screwy! The horrible part is all that stress trying to fix their mistakes. Furthermore, your personal time is lost. Still, it ended well and you did meet up with that Sprint angel. :)
PS You've been tagged!
I have never watched Idol before this week. A woman I am trying to date, or whatever it's called today is a big Idol fan. So of course I had to watch. I had tears in my eyes with that poor linebacker girl. Come on, I like making fun of those with no talent, (I am one,) but do not want anyone to really get hurt. That poor girl was delusional and probably a bit mentally deficient...I felt bad for her. On a side note, how do I get my teeth as white as that english dude?
After having all those phone troubles, I would have just told them i dont want a damn phone!!
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