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.