Sprint PCS

Sprint PCS

August 15, 2005

Sprint PCS Automated Services and Customer Support? After receiveing medeocre service with Sprint for the last 3 years, I have now cancelled my service with the company. I struggled with lost signals in my kitchen but clear signals in the rest of my home, dropped calls for which there was no reimbursement, missing texts, voicemails and emails, outrageous customer support transfers resulting in no answers but plenty of frustration and vague descriptions called details regarding service and coverage. My issues are this. First, I was paying $10 a month on top of my monthy rate for "prepaid services" as they were called by the service rep with a strong accent. I agreed to pay this fee in order to be free from any binding contract. 3 years later, after falling into some hardship, I missed my payment and went over my spending limit which caused interruption of my service. 2 months later, I get a bill for 3 times what was due when my service was suspended and wondererd why. How is this? I'm

not on contract and can't receive or make any calls. I called 5 times,

repeated name, number, password, address, and last 4 digits of my social too many times to count for both every automated system that protects the reps and the reps themselves when they finally finished reading their scripts for the other customers with issues. I was only able to come up with this after being told "even if you're not on contract, you can still be charged for monthly service until you cancel your account." - I've paid $10 a month every month extra to avoid paying a $150 cancellation fee for early termination of a contract. But I've also paid nearly $360 to date to avoind being charged $150? It was not made clear to me when I chose the "prepaid" option that I would still be charged each month no matter if i used the phone or not It was not made clear to me that my $10 was for account maintainance. ACCOUNT MAINTAINANCE? Contract or not, I'm still a sprint customer. My bills are printed and shipped from the same office as the contracted customers. I still have the sames rules and conditions as contracted customers, i still have the same features, and problems as the contracted customers so what the MAINTAINANCE all about? What is there to maintain if you don't have to check any signed documents or legal jargin for hidden message? What is there to maintain if I'm not bound? I posed this question to a rep in some department that handles cancellations and she said this. "Customers on contract are given a "discount" for chosing to sign a contract". Thats because they're getting their money from wherever they can get it. Contratct - monthy rate, bonus plans, fun tools, misc crap, reoccuring monthly charges even if you don't want the service anymore and then, finally a $150 termination fee. Non-Contract - same as above but add $10 to any of the minute plans you choose and subtract $150 to cancel cause you pay the cancellation fee each month with that $10. I could have purchased another, higher powerd, faster, more improved phone that hit the marked today versus the high powerd, fast and improved phone I bought yesterday that I can't trade, sell or turn in for credit with the money I spent trying not to spend money. I was told I could cancel my account and reserve my number and avoid any further charges but I'd have to keep calling with a confirmation number to see if my number is still reserved or not. Before I made the choice, before I even asked any questions, the rep had already cancelled my account and reserved the number. She was aggitated that I kept asking her to explain herself forwards and backwards. I just wanted her to answer the questions I asked directly instead of further trying to sell me on their features or ways they could "support" me. Then when I asked if I'd be charged another deposit, there was no gurantee that they wouldn't. I was told since I had been a customer for so long, she was sure they could work with me regarding another deposit. LESSON: Ask questions and ask them more than once to more than one person. Don't let them tell you what you want. You tell them. Even if they're pushy or act like they know what you mean when they don't. For whatever reason, the reps not all trained using the same manuals. Some are in the know and some you have to hint around to subtly that you know what they're not telling you for them to spill all of the beans. Part of the problem is that a lot of their customer service locations aren't even in this country so before you battle your bills or technical issues, you must first conquer the Language Barriers. That means, that they aren't even elegible to use the subscriber they're assisting customers for. Does anyone else find this crazy? Click this link to e-mail the message author: Email User