I've long suspected Sprint was an evil corporation. Now it appears they will stop at nothing to complete their quest of world domination.
My trusty Samsung SCP8500 died the other day. It was great phone, but I dropped it one too many times and then suddenly, it stopped working. This by itself is a big inconvenience, but now Sprint PCS appear to have made it near impossible for me to get a new phone. Nevermind the fact that I've been a loyal, pay-on-time customer for 2+ years.
I suppose they have not so much made it impossible as they have made it unpleasant and costly. And limited my options to:
1) expensive
2) really, really expensive
The worst part is not the cost, but the fact that it's for services I don't want and features I won't use. But Sprint has given me about as much choice as Iraqis had in the last election.
And I find lots of brochures and advertisements around that talk about your nighttime switchover to 7pm instead of 9pm, and unlimited minutes for this or that. It all sounds so good. But you have to talk to somebody (near impossible) or get out a microscope to find out that to get the good stuff, you sign an 8yr agreement, or that to get the extra minutes you must get a "PCS Vision" phone, and to get the "PCS Vision" phone you have to sign up for "PCS Vision", an expensive monthly service that lets you download games and screensavers and rings. "Oh, okay," I think. "So if I pay the extra monthly fee I can surf the web and download pictures and rings for free, right?" No, you have to pay AS YOU USE the Vision services, IN ADDITION to the monthly fee.
Attention, Sprint:
I DON'T WANT A PHONE THAT CAN PLAY "STAYIN' ALIVE"!!!! I DON'T WANT SCREEN SAVERS!!! I DON'T WANT ANYMORE NIGHTTIME MINUTES!!!!
I just want a phone that will stay connected. And I would like a few extra ANYtime minutes on my plan. I'd trade all the stupid rings to get 5 extra daytime minutes.
Scott Adams, in his landmark book "The Dilbert Future: Thriving on Stupidity in the 21st Century" predicts that in the future, "All barriers of entry will go away and confusopolies will form: groups of companies that make similar products and that intentionally confuse customers instead of competing on price."
Sprint has given up improving their product or even keeping customers happy and instead tried to confuse the consumer with prequisites and distract the user by offering bells and whistles instead of service improvements. "Wow, I can choose any of 300,000 rings! Who cares about countless dropped calls and horrible customer service when I can have Justin Timberlake tell me I've got a new call!"
And the sad thing is, I see through it. I see how I've been trapped into paying out the [earbud] to use a phone again. I see through Sprint's heinous trickery but am unable to do anything about it. I am hopelessly confined to a lifetime of indentured servitude to Sprint, of long wait times, of ringtones galore, of crappy pictures, of dropped calls.
Anybody else have a horror story? I know Levy does.
Posted by aokie at February 24, 2004 07:49 PMI hate Sprint. JL and I had one of their phones for a couple of years and, in the heart of Alpharetta, Ga, one of the bigger suburbs of Atlanta, the commercial capitol of the southeast, would not-infrequently be out of service or have calls disconnected. SO frustrating. My folks use Verizon and it works everywhere, even in the rural area where they live. I hate Sprint.
Posted by: gosey at February 25, 2004 08:46 AMI hate sprint as well. I would get to my house. Zero reception. None. Then I could drive to the end of my street not 500 yards away and full coverage. We are with t-mobile now and have reception. not too great of a service though.
Posted by: crabby at February 25, 2004 10:53 PMEver seen the movie Brazil. The whole world was preoccupied with there own vanity and never saw the terrorist action going on around them. The one man whom defied all of that ended up being consumed by the insanity. We are fast becoming that world. When phat farm releases a phone that cost $400 and the only thing it does is play rap music it points out the stupid of people who buy it. The music itself is just a computation of one-liners and a beat to play in a club so it makes more money. The more money sprint and other conglomerates make the more they charge. The people who run that company have more money than they could ever spend in one lifetime and they want more. Me, well I am just tired of it all.
Posted by: Tired at April 10, 2004 12:10 AMI have been with sprint faithfully for over 2 years and have used the same phone untill the silver was white and the antenna began to not just break but crumble. When I went into the local sprint store I had a 45 minute wait to be told I had to call coustomer service and wait another 25 minutes. Then pay 50$, then wait 3-5 days with no phone to get a new one. I spend 5$ a month on insurance for 2 years thats 120$ they took from me now they want another 50$ to send me a old phone???? or I have to buy a new car charger and case and phone and just suck it up!!! well I HATE SPRINT!!!! DONT pay insurance unless you are prone to water dammage or lose your phone every month otherwise it isint worth it. Glad im not alone
Posted by: rina1257 at March 14, 2005 01:31 AMI just think that you people that are on here need to look at the big picture. If you would a ll learn to read then nothing would have ever happend. everything is listed in the contracts. And when you call the cusetomer service how do you expect those ppl to react when you are yelling and screaming at them like a bunch of fucking idots......and who are the stupid ones........
Posted by: jana at April 16, 2005 11:16 PMthanks, jana, for your highly insightful comments. had YOU learned to read, you would have realized that there is no contract provision for bad customer service and spotty reception.
also, you should learn to spell "idiot" before you start calling people that.
Posted by: abe at April 17, 2005 01:02 AM I hope that this letter finds you well. It was my hope not to write this letter but due to the circumstances, I feel that it is necessary as you are about to loose
another customer, not to better service plans, not to better minutes or service areas, but you are loosing a customer to the one thing that can be fixed and that
is bad customer service.
I have a VI600 Handset. My phone was dropped acidentally and is missing one screw. The screw that is missing is in an area that holds the connectors to the battery. Without the screw my phone will turn on and off depending on how I hold the phone.
Last week Tuesday, at noon, I had walked into the Sprint Store on Reisterstown Road (Owings Mills, Md) and explained to them about my phone dilema and they only have technicians available to look at the phone between the hours of 1:00 and 6:00 and I would have to come back between those hours. So I had to leave work early on Friday to speak with a techinican about my phone. The technician stated that the store was not a repair facility and that I would have to goto the Sprint Store in Towson Town Center Mall to have it looked at and apologized for the inconvience. So I went to the Towson Town Center Mall and went to the Sprint Kisok and they told me that I had to go to the Towson Common's (about 1 mile away) to their other location to have the phone repaired. So on Saturday (July 2) I traveled to the Towson Commons Store and they told me that they could not repair the phone due to difficulties with their computer system being down, and that I would have to travel 25 miles away to the Glen Burine Store. I still have no idea why the Sprint Computer System is needed to put a screw in my phone, to have it repaired. They did offer me to purchase a new phone and to renew my contract for another two years. So I decided to at least try the Sprint Store at Golden Ring just in case they may be able to help me. I explained my dilema and what had happened to me, and a very young lady called a few locations and wanted to see if the Towson Commons Store computer system was down or not. She stated that the phone was outdated and they do not have a screw to repair the phone. Then she offered me a rubber band to fix my phone in the mean time so I can make calls from my phone and even recommended that I take a a handful of rubber bands on the counter in front of her. I was completely shocked, and walked out of the store.
Now, without a viable cell phone to use. I contacted the Sprint PCS Customer Service department. They explained that I would have to pay a $50.00 fee for me to get a new phone thru my extended service agreement with Sprint and that they would be able to mail me out a new phone. They stated that they could not get me a new screw for my phone unless I was willing to travel to other locations to see if they may have a screw to repair my phone. Since my contractual buyout is only $150.00 I would much rather spend the money and not have to deal with the absurd, abhorrent, worst customer service on the planet ever again.
I would like to know if this type of customer service is expected in the cellular industry. I would think with all of the service providers, that there would be a push to keep good customers, and to at least treat them with some type of respect and not use just a rubber band to fix things. I realize to you, I may be just another lost customer, but I cannot believe that any respectable company would let this type of customer service go unnoticed. I would appreciate any feed back that you may have, before I start on my search for a new service provider.
Scott,
I know exactly what you are talking about. I have been a customer of SprintPCS for eight years this October. I have always been a good paying customer with multiple phone lines. For about 2 years I have had 4 phones, but unfortunately, I lost my job at the beginning of the year and with all of our medical bills, we just havent been able to get caught up. I did get a new job and finally received my first check in April, nearly 4 months after being laid off. The problem is we were so far behind by then that we knew we were not going to be able to keep our cell phones. I contacted sprint in February explaining I knew there was going to be some problems and that I really just wanted to cancel the account. WELL, I guess when we switched to the earlier nights/weekend, they added another 2 year contract to all 4 of my phones... without telling me i might add. Now because my contract isnt up until December, they want $150 per phone to cancel. I told them I didnt have that kind of money and that if I did, I wouldnt need to cancel. Add to that the fact that my Treo 600 (one of those $400 phones) hadnt worked right for some time. They swapped it out, but the knew one started doing the same thing too.
So, now I am supposed to pay them $600 to cancel or $150 each month until December and then I can cancel. I HATE Sprint PCS. They are the most rude un-customer service oriented company I have ever dealt with... I would rather call the IRS than these assholes. I couldnt believe there was no hardship clause in the contract and was basically told that the only way out of the contract was if I DIED!!! I had said, geez, so if I die do i still owe you? He said, actually that is the only way you can get out of the contract. I have always been happy with Sprint up until now. It is amazing to me that they are not willing to work with a person that has been paying a bill for over seven years. No matter what... I will never go back to them.
Thanks for listening.
Posted by: Kim Huff at July 12, 2005 10:56 PMI know another way to get out of contract is to call and tell them you have moved to Alaska. Have an address for them, but they will let you out of contract then.
I do know what you mean about bad customer service. I had changed my plan and customer care "forgot" to add Vision back to my Treo650. Over $100 in charges later, they put Vison back on, (the wrong one, without my BCPE) grrr, sprint is the great satan
Posted by: Anna ( A Sprint Tech) at July 19, 2005 07:16 AMhttp://zanal.freedns.us/
free anal movies http://zanal.freedns.us/black-anal.php
black anal http://zanal.freedns.us/anal-valley.php
anal valley http://zanal.freedns.us/anal-sex-pics.php
anal sex pics