Sprint/Nextel over charges phone bill by $241, and said they cant take off charges unless I sign 2 year contract.

Hi,

I have been a customer with Nextel for over 5 Years now. I have signed multiple 2 year contracts with them.

On October 31, 2004 I signed a 2 year contract, and purchased a Nextel I860 phone and also added a Insurance plan. August 10, 2006, my phone finally broke and I called Nextel to find out that they did not add the insurance. The rep. was nice enough to send me a new phone anyways, free of charge. He said that he will add the Insurance as well. 2 weeks after I get the new phone a Nextel I850, downgrade ofcourse. The phone was defective, and I went online to see if others had problems. The phone would randomly shut off. After reading many complaints online about the specific model, I called Nextel and told them there was a problem with the phone. They said they could not help me out because I had used the phone for more than 30 minutes.

Yes their warranty is only 30 minutes of phone usage. They said I could goto a Nextel store and do a phone Swap for $36. They would give me the same phone, a refurbished one . I went there, and talked to the young lady, she said that she had the same problem with her Nextel I850 phone. She had me sign some paper work and $36 later I had a refurbished phone again. I used that phone for about 3 weeks and I ran into the same problem. I went in and asked if I could get a different phone. She said that since I had used it for more than 30 minutes she could not, but I could pay $36 again and I could get a refurb. phone again. I did not want the same phone again. So I sold it on Ebay for a small profit and purchased a used phone.

Two months later Nextel sends me a bill for the full price of the Nextel I850 phone. I call their customer service and they tell me that the phone as "BEYOND REPAIRABLE" so that is why I have to pay. I explained the phone was barely used, and only a couple weeks old She said maybe you dropped the phone too many times, or you had water damage. I asked "Does the description say that I had water damage or that I had dropped the phone too many times". She said "NO, it only says the phone is beyond repairable". I asked "What is beyond repairable?". She said "It just means you have to pay".

I asked to talk to her supervisor. 20 minutes after, I get to talk to one. After talking to her forever, she said that if I signed a 2year contract again, as I was out of a contract. She could possibly remove the charges. I asked "Is this your normal way of treating your customers?' She said "I do not understand what you mean by that?". I asked "Is this what you do to all your customers that are out of contracts, you get them to sign a 2year again, and then take care of the fraud charges you add on". She said "NO, I am just doing as I am instructed by the company".

I said "thank you for your time, I will be contacting the corporate offices". As I hung up, I could hear her say "Just wait". I also had problems with them charging me for long distance, and they told me that there was an error in my billing the previous month but they could not take care of it because "The billing department has already looked at the bill, and even though there might be an error, I can't help you out. Its been decided, and thats all". I finally called to cancel service 2 minutes later, and got a manager that said he would take care of the problem. I explained that "BRIAN S, from the TEXAS CALL CENTER, told me that I was out of luck pretty much. He said "That is what we are instructed to say by the company".

I hope you guys can help me out by posting this story on the internet.

Thank You

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Jaideep Gajerawala

MIS Business College

Email User

515-707-0860 (Cell)