I'll preface this by saying that I've pretty much had no problems with sprint, and I'm gonna stick with them...
Been with Sprint for close to 10 years. Over the years, I've managed to get myself into a 1000 minute plan for $39.99 a month, with unlimited text and data, and 100 free roaming minutes. Pretty f***ing awesome I think. They claim it was because I've been a loyal customer who pays his bills. Cool.
My parents finally decide they should get phones (their folks are mid-upper eighties and starting to depend on others for help), but aren't sure which carrier/plan/phones to get. I offer to help. They accept said help. Cool.
I mention the idea of adding two additional lines to my current plan, and we could all share the minutes. Based on their phone usage, we could then review independent plans for them to share (so they wouldn't be on mine anymore.) Think of it a softened entrance into the cell phone scene: They get to preview what they would be getting/what they would need.
My plan is eligible for up to 3 lines at no additional monthly charge for the 2nd and 3rd phone. Ok. Three phones sharing 1000 minutes, all for the price of my single plan as it stood before all of the rigamuhrole.
Then sh*t hits the fan...
Turns out the family free + clear 1000 plan I am on is no longer offered. I am still in contract with it for another year, but only because I'm grandfathered in. Though its' not offered, it is still eligible for those three lines. At least four of the customer service agents I talked said it was. The other three said it wasn't. The three said I would either need to cancel my current plan ($$$) and enroll in a new, unimproved family plan with the three lines for a lot more $$$ than I pay now with fewer minutes, OR, I could keep my plan as is, start the new phones off on new lines with independent monthly fees from my own.
Well, the 7th agent I spoke with assured me that I could still add-a-line to my existing plan., no additional fees (gotta pay for the handset, but that's all), and all three lines would pull from the same 1000 minute pool. Well, got the phones, set them up, and a few weeks later, what shows up in the mail? A $340 bill from Sprint for my line, two handset purchases (didn't send the $100 total in rebates, nor apply it anywhere), two NEW individual plans ($40 a month per plan, plus some stupid prorated monthly charge - don't understand that, have only had them three weeks max, so how does that count as more than one month?!?), an additional handset purchases (this charge was credited back, but without the tax...nice
), and then a $28 charge for the casual data usage which I specifically had them block when I had the phone activated.
Bastards.
I called Sprint, and managed to work my way up to a Retentions agent. Everyone was polite, and the agent, Matt, was very forthcoming and apologetic. He acknowledge from the archived notes all the conversations I had with previous agent regarding the plan questions and whatnot, and he said he didn't know why the agent who "said I could" did just that. If it was an option, that agent would have added the lines right away rather than create two new lines. Matt is actually trying to work around this crap with me so I don't get majorly screwed. I don't have to worry about losing my sweet plan, but now I gotta tell mom and dad that they might have to foot some of their own cell phone bill, which will inevitably be overpriced and low on minutes (this was supposed to be a gift from me to them for everything they have helped me with.) Thats' the crappiest part. Damn Sprint.
I hate call centers. I'd bet money all this crap (at least all the misunderstanding and misdirection) could've been avoided if I had not been transferred to a high volume call center. I tend to find that with customer service situations, volume negates quality, and vice versa. I'd rather the people I talk to only have a few customers a day and know what they doing than 150 a day and know how to say yessir and nosir.
Aside from that, I love Sprint...
but not my Motorola V3 Razr.
Chris
