A week later I called to confirm my plan and was assured I had insurance and nights and weekends after 6pm. My phone bill was on auto pay and I never looked to see if they made the changes. Later on I had problems with my phone and I called Sprint and they said I did not have insurance. Again, I had to purchase a new phone and plan. My bad for not checking my billing statement. I got rid of auto pay as I seen potential problems in not getting a paper bill.

After purchasing a new phone I don’t have any issues until three months later when I get a phone bill for $577 in roaming fees. When I called Sprint they said to check to see if the phone is set on Sprint only, which it was. I was polite with the representative and explained I went from a lower plan to a higher plan, which is more expensive because they don’t have rollover minutes and I wanted to be safe, but now I’m even paying above and beyond my plan. My plan cost $57.00 that includes $12.00 in discounts. In the eight (8) years I never had roaming issues.

She placed me on hold then confirmed that my calls were in Sprint areas, therefore, I would not responsible for the roaming calls and would be reimbursed $499 plus taxes, however, it would take 72 hours for the changes to take effect. I was then informed my balance would be $74.– I told the representative I was happy with this and would call back in 72 hours to confirm the my bill and make payment.

A few days later I get a text message saying my bill is excessively delinquent and I need to make payment in order to stop interruption. When I called Sprint make payment they informed me I was responsible for all roaming fees. I explained that when I entered my last contract I checked with Sprint and they confirmed all the areas I travel to are Sprint coverage areas. I have been Sprint customer for more than eight (8) years and I’ve never had this issue until now. I was on the phone for about 1 ½ hours to no avail was I able to resolve the issue.

The following day called Sprint and the representative read the previous notes and said they could not help. After arguing with the representative I finally had enough and requested to speak to a representative. I was place on hold numerous times then the representative came back and said that they would credit my account $490 plus tax. I never spoke to a supervisor. I then asked to be transferred to billing and when the representative pulled up my account it only showed a $200 credit and in order to avoid interruption I was informed I would need to pay the balance of $377. I asked then asked to speak to a Supervisor and was informed there was no supervisor on duty. I informed the representative I did not believe this because I have been in management for 22 years and there is always a supervisor present on shift. Then she said hold while I transfer you to another representative. I was on line for 15 minutes then was disconnected.

An hour or so later I called billing and the lady was very cordial. I asked if I could have the name of someone up the chain whom I could send a complaint. I went on and explained my problem and she gave me a name and address.

Later in the evening I called again and the gentleman said it was showing a credit of $431 and a balance of $262 that’s $693 of which he stated was additional charges for the next months bill also for roaming fees. I explained my issue and he recommended I wait until tomorrow to give finance or billing time to make all the current adjustments. Then see if they can make additional adjustments for the next months roaming fees. He said it looks like there may be around $100 in credits coming but it was hard to tell.

Curious I went online to see if other complaints were made to the Better Business Bureau. When I seen this sight and I had to share my event. I don’t see this see this ending well, however, if it does I will let you know. I recommend not having auto pay because if this were deducted from my account getting credit or reimbursement would be next to impossible.

I had read a lot of articles online about Sprint before calling, and knew ahead of time she would try to “wear me down”. Perhaps she thought that having me listen to easy listening music repeatedly, would get me to finally hang up and forget about me wanting to cancel. Or maybe the music has subliminal messages embedded that say “YOU LOVE SPRINT”. Perhaps she was just new and didn’t know how to cancel an account!

Whatever the reason, I FINALLY got my account closed. I asked her that phone service stop at the end of my billing cycle (Aug 12th). She repeated back to me that service would stop on Aug 12th and I THOUGHT I was all set.

Next thing I know, I go to pick up my phone and they’ve SHUT my phone off! Yep, they basically said “screw you for leaving Sprint!”

I KNEW it wasn’t a simple mistake. She repeated back to me my wishes…and the same thing happened to my girlfriend when she called! SPRINT SUCKS!

You say as a Sprint employee that you often are on hold having to wait at least 8 mins, and must do this day after day. Then you’re basically saying that Sprint sucks on that end, too…so why work there???

I’ve had it with Sprint. I had been a loyal customer for 6 yrs+ always defending them, but they starting going downhill and now NOTHING will get me back as their customer EVER!

I got SO sick of being on hold over the years. If a CSR calls off, that’s one thing…but EVERYTIME I call in??? HIRE more employees! Oh wait…I get it….nobody wants to work there.

I’ve not even been able to login to their website to pay my own bill in at least 4 months! Yes, I’ve spoke with technical support many times, but nothing was ever resolved.

I can’t dial *3 because the call never goes through for whatever reason.

Just calling last night to cancel my account I was on hold for 56 mins only to have the call drop!!! Calling back I was on hold for another 23 mins, then FINALLY got some CSR who wanted to play games and get me to stay. She could not guarantee calls wouldn’t be dropped, on hold times would improve, etc., so why stay???

Sprint phones are not that great either. Verizon has AWESOME phones, so last night we headed over to the Verizon dealer. We all purchased new phones, will be saving each month, and won’t hopefully have poor customer service and dropped calls.

Bottom line: Sprint SUCKS! And as the CSR above mentioned, if she works there and they don’t have their act together on their end, what makes you think they will have it together for their customers?

From some of the information that i have recieved - unofficially of course - the letter ( and i only found out about it today ) was sent to people who call in excess of 50 times per month. That’s almost 2 calls a day for the same reason every month for 6-12 months! Honestly, don’t you have something else to do than spend your day sitting on hold and yelling at somone who you’ve never spoken to before in your life? If your issue isn’t fixed that’s one thing, but calling in for something unreasonable is quite another.

As far as hold times are concerned, I spend an average of 3 hours per day, sometimes longer, on hold trying to get issued resolved for customers through other departments. We have one department right now that has an average wait time of 35 minutes because they’re working on a new system and the learning process is taking a little while to get used to. So starting off the conversation with: “Finally, i’ve been waiting for 12 minutes!” or “Oh My God, i can’t believe it takes you so long to answer the phone, i’ve been waiting 17 minutes!” will get you no sympathy from me. Chances are, i just off of a call where i spent AT LEAST 8 minutes on hold (for the 12th time that morning).

As CSR’s we pride ourselves on assisting a customer and trying to fix their problem on the first call. Sometimes though, it’s very difficult to determine exactally what that problem is. A plan may have been set up incorrectly, or the representitive in the store may not have given the customer all of the necessary information and now the customer is confused. That’s understandable. All this however shouldn’t take more than 3 or 4 calls for the one issue at most.(It should take no more than 1 but sometimes confusion on the part of the customer or the agent would create the need for another call.)

The customers that have recieved that letter are the types described so well by Rob.

The customers know that they’re making unreasonable demands (ex: a customer knows they don’t have a text messaging plan on thier account and yet call in every month DEMANDING a credit for the texting that they do and refusing to add a text plan to help offset the costs) and call in multiple times until they reach an agent who will do it for them. These customers know what they’re doing is wrong, and will only continue to make those demands because they know that if they call in enough, chances are, someone will give them the credit. The unnecessary time on the phones costs sprint money and causes agents frustration when we answer a call and are greeted not by a confused customer willing to let us help set things right, but by a voice hollering and cursing at us…

Though we have pride and gratitude for the company we work for, the chances that the person who answered your call PERSONALLY did something to negativly affect your account are very, very, very, slim. We understand that it’s not us personally that you are upset with, just the service you’ve recieved so far. But please understand that it’s difficult to get anything done when you won’t stop yelling long enough to answer a few questions.

One last thing, as i know that i’ve been typing for a little while and if you’ve read down this far, then i appreciate your patience and giving me a chance to share my side. Keep something in mind; every time you call, we pull up your account, every time we pull up your account, we make notes that any other CSR can access. It’s the accounts that are constantly being accessed and notated for the same reason are the ones that have to worry about this letter. The old saying holds true, you’ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar. If the agent that you speak with can’t help you, ask to speak to someone who can. Be polite, be calm, we will help you. We will make it right.

I used to have a cell phone from Qwest and the first bill after my two-year contract was up all my calls where charged as roaming (my bill had gone from $45 bucks to over $200). For the next four months I had to continue to call to have my bill straighten out, of which I was told a multitude of reasons why all my calls where being billed at roaming charges (even though roaming was blocked on the phone).

One of the service reps told me that they don’t guaranteed coverage and it was MY fault that I was getting roaming charges, even though calls from my home were going through as roaming and hadn’t been prior to the end of my contract. I mean, you can at least expect coverage in your own home? Not only that I live in downtown Seattle, so it’s not like I was in the boondocks or anything.

Finally, I got through to a tech rep who knew exactly what the problem was, it was a flag that gets set in the computer billing system when a contract is up. He removed the flag and lo and behold the roaming charges ended.

It was only because I repeatedly called customer service that I was able to get the issue resolved. I’m sure if I had been a Sprint customer in the same position I would have been dropped…

I used to work at a chain department store and there were times when no amount of customer service can help the customer, especially when they started giving unreasonable demands or becoming abusive. You simple have to let them go. I once watch this lady walk up to a register and demand a refund on a shirt that was clearly never, ever sold by the chain I worked at. (The fact that it had a price sticker from a competitor was the dead giveaway) Even after that fact was pointed out this lady still threatened to do everything from lawsuits to the old “I’ll never shop here again” claim.

Who ever first said “The customer is always right” probable never actually had to deal with these kind of customers.

Come on, John. Don’t be “that guy” who blames consumers for not reading the fine print. The fine print is always the same — we reserve the right to screw you, and you have to take it. Do you really want to be the “fine print” police, John?

If customers are unwilling to read the fine print, they only have themselves to blame though.