Sprint PCS can kiss my cellular ass.

The BBQ Pit
1

Some background: I recently moved from Texas to Oregon. I’ve been using SprintPCS for over six years now. I’ve also been patiently waiting for my contract to run out (which happens in March 05) so that I can start shopping around for a new cellular phone service- not that I necessarily want a new service, mind you, I just like the idea of being able to switch if I so choose.

About a week or so after I moved here, I called up Sprint to get a new, local phone number- having my new boss call long distance whenever he wants to reach me didn’t seem like such a good idea. The Sprint tech gave me a new number in just a few minutes, and all was good.

Microbug called Sprint on this last Saturday to do the same. However…

Apparently, her contract had already run out. The Sprint tech insisted that she either had to a) renew her contract for another year, or b) pay ten bucks a month for the privilege of not being contracted. We decided there was another option- keep the old, Texas number. :wally

After she angrily hung up, I called to see when my contract would expire- sure enough, when I got my new phone number, Sprint went ahead and slammed me with another year-long contract.

Without telling me. If Microbug hadn’t called, I would never have known that my contract had been extended.

And if I’d tried to cancel in this coming March, when my previous contract would’ve expired, I would’ve been charged $150.

BASTARDS.

So I called Sprint. I asked them to explain why my contract had been renewed, and why I hadn’t been told. They said that switching to a new coverage area automatically requires a new “agreement”. I asked them how it could possibly be a new “agreement” when I never actually “agreed” to the damn thing. They said they’d look into why I wasn’t told about it. I said, “Put me on the ten dollar/month option, and get ready for this six-year customer to cancel his account in favor of a provider that doesn’t try to scam its customers.”

So… now I get to look for a new provider. And a new phone. Dammit, this shit pisses me off.

2

All I can tell you is avoid AT&T like the plague.

Biggest crooks ever.

3

It’s strange to me that so many people don’t understand their cellphone serivce, or how contracts work.

Let me lay it out for you-

  • New service requires a 1 or more likely 2 year contract(2 years is probably 10% cheaper to you). It guarantees them revenue from you for that period of time and you are therefore granted a better price.

  • Upgrading service packages(more minutes or features), does not require a renewed contract.

  • Downgrading a service or feature(less minutes or features), generally does. If not, there is a certain number of changes that can be made to your account before requiring a new contract.

  • Changing numbers would probably require a renewed contract. It’s in your policy.

  • Changing numbers without a contract would probably require that $10 fee you were talking about. Remember, a contract guarantees them revenue and in exchange they reduce your rates.

I’ll almost put my life and reputation on the line here at the SDMB in telling you that most of the terms you’re complaining about are most certainly laid out in legal language in your original contract. Changes to that language are usually sent with your bill as an addendum.

Contracts are a bitch, but these providers have built in many money-saving bonuses to us, the loyal consumer. Products are cheaper, monthly services are cheaper, and since they’re guaranteed that money, service is generally better(not a guarantee). If you don’t want to play ball, get a TRACphone or MetroPCS or another service that doesn’t require a contract.

Sam

P.S.- I don’t now, nor have I ever worked for a teleservices provider, but I am a SprintPCS customer so I know their policies pretty well.

4

Mind telling me, then, why Sprint’s leaving nasty text messages threatening to turn off my service unless I call them? Bill’s paid up (and not due until November anyway), usage is minimal.

5

Not a clue. I think my brother had a problem with them once like that, but I’ve never received text messages expressing their displeasure with me. I don’t believe my wife or M-I-L have either.

Geeze, I didn’t say I could answer all questions about Sprint PCS’s operations! :smack:

Sam

6

A big hallelujah from the amen corner. Their theving ways are documented here.

7

sigh

I’ve been using Sprint for over six years now- I’m by no means a new customer. They’ve been making nice, reliable money from me every month.

The ten dollars isn’t a one-time charge for getting a new phone number; that I could understand. It’s a monthly charge because I’m no longer on contract.

What they wanted to do was put me on a new, one-year contract because I wanted to change my phone number. If I hadn’t called up for a new phone number, they wouldn’t have tried to get me onto a new contract. There is NO REASON a new phone number requires a new contract. Same customer, same service plan, different number. The only reason they tried to get me onto a new contract is to keep me from shopping around.

Hell, the rep told me that he couldn’t even give me a new number, unless I agreed to a new contract. Here’s the thing, though- I was never told that. I only found out after the fact. They had me “agree” to a new contract without ever, you know, giving me the chance to agree. What kind of contract can be agreed to without both parties knowing about it?

8

:shrug: Sigh all you like, but it makes perfect sense to me. $10 per month for not having a contract, Lots of companies are doing that today. Cingular did it to my wife, and that’s why she finally got on my Sprint account.

The Cellular world is changing as we speak. More customers are jumping ship for all of the same reasons, from ALL of the providers. I guess they kind of figure that you’re not staying with their service anyways, since you don’t want a new contract, so they might as well get an extra $10-50 from you.

You made a change to your account that cost them money, therefore they ask for a new contract. It makes good business sense to me, and as a consumer, the discounts offered for one and especially 2 year discounts are more than worth it.

Sam

9

How about those clauses that say “We reserve the right to amend this agreement, at any time, without notice”?

The last time I signed up for a cell phone, they didn’t provide me with a legible contract to examine. The “contract” was printed on cash register tape by one of those horrible printers that are used for sales receipts. The contract was presented to me, along with the credit card receipt, for signature, after I had agreed to a service plan and they had pulled a phone from stock and had it programmed and tested.

10

How about them?

You probably should have asked for a printed out copy if you had problems with the copy you recieved. I’m sure they could have, would have and are most likely required by law to do so at your request.

Like I said before, if you have a problem with contracts, go with a no contract service. We’re heading into a situation where longer and more stringent contracts will probably be required going forward.

Sam

11

How did assigning me a new phone number cost them any appreciable amount of money? It took them less than five minutes to do it- hell, if anything, I saved them money by doing so (less routing for local calls, I’d imagine). If it did cost them, did it really cost them an amount equivalent to me getting a new year-long contract that would’ve cost me 150 bucks to break out of?

No. The only reason they did it was to keep me locked in and to keep me from looking at other services. They didn’t offer me any sort of deal to sign another contract- hell, they didn’t even tell me I was doing it!

Look, if they had said, “Well, you agreed to this way back when you first signed up for the service”, I wouldn’t have had a problem with them, and I wouldn’t be looking for a new company. I didn’t complain when I got my new phone almost two years ago and upgraded my service- at that time, they gave me some incentives to go with another contract. This time, though- they just “forgot” to mention to me that they’d put me on another contract. How can you possibly defend that?

Rather than keeping their current customers happy, they seem intent on making it impossible for us to switch to someone else. That’s not good business- that’s scummy.

12

It’s easy to defend*-

A- you shoulda known fucking better.

B- the actions of one CSR do not determine an entire company “scummy”.

C- as a call center rep of many years, it’s easy to forget things, and things are lost in conversation.

You made a major change to your account, that ALWAYS requires a new contract. Fucking deal, man. If you feel they are “scummy” and purposely lied about you agreeing to a contract, call them back and get them to break contract with you. There should be a department called “account retention”, and they should probably be able to help you.

Sam

*- Though I think I have yet to endorse “lying” about re-upping your contract(which should have been a foregone conclusion, hello!), just the nature of the business and wireless contracts

13

:stuck_out_tongue:

14

The five minutes it took to port your account to a new number was made possible by about two years of backbreaking labor on the part of Sprint and the local telcos to integrate their systems to allow numbers to move from provider to provider. Two years and untold millions of dollars. I know, I worked on it. It is transparent and easy now because of those years of 14-16 hour days that my co-workers and I pulled to make it happen. I’m not sure if the company has made that money back yet, but there was a lot more to that process than meets the eye of a customer today.

Still, that’s not the customer’s problem and I mention it only as a background fact which may or may not have driven the decision to extend a contract or require a new one when porting a number.

They were supposed to tell you. The operator who took care of you probably fucked up. The procedures, as far as I am aware and this has been my experience with similar transactions, require notifying a customer whenever a contract term is in play. If something you want requires a new/extended/renewed contract they are supposed to ask and get verbal confirmation before they execute that change. They are also supposed to record that part of the conversation to ensure they have a record of the change. If you call customer service back and argue(politely if you can, the person who will likely answer this call isn’t the person who screwed up originally) that the original representative did not present the contract term change as part of the transaction to port your number then you can probably get something done. I’m not sure what their options are, but letting you out of the contract without the fee is probably one of the options. You have a fairly strong arguement against extending/renewing/signing a new contract because without a recorded statement saying you accept the new contract terms the case to enforce that contract is fairly weak. Call and escalate to a supervisor/manager and see what they can do. Alternatively you can email me and I’ll do what I can from within the company. I can open a ticket on the issue internally.

On the topic of different prices for contract/no contract. The $10 difference is due to a discount applied for customers with a current contract. If the plan costs $49.95 a month, then you can get it for $39.95 per month by signing up for a contract. The end effect is the same as a price hike for those without contracts, but it shouldn’t be seen as a price increase. It is actually a end to the discount which was being recieved for having a contract. A return to the actual price, rather than an increase in the price.

Rysler, I would be happy to work with you as well on the issue of nagging text pages when your account is not overdue. Odds are it is a SNAFU. Or you could just save one of the messages and call customer service and have them confirm your account is not overdue and tell them you either want it to stop or you want a credit on your account for putting up with wrongful nagging if it won’t stop immediately.

Enjoy,
Steven

15

AT&T pulled this shit with me when I called to leave them. I had made what I considered to be a relatively minor change awhile back, and now they’re telling me I agreed to a new contract that doesn’t expire for another year. I said to produce a copy or a recording of me agreeing or go fuck yourselves. They went and fucked themselves.

16

I don’t know what your deal was with AT&T, but I don’t understand why some consumers have a hard time dealing with the nature of contracts, how they affect them, why they affect them, and why they are in place. Maybe my experience in law and business allows me to understand and accept these nuances better than most consumers, I don’t know.

Whatever it is, I encourage more consumers to understand their contracts with providers, and accept them as the way of things going forward.

Sam

17

Without the ‘Go Fuck Yourselves’ part, this is the best way to deal with these sorts of situations. I used to work for a phone company, a CLEC not a cell phone company, and they recorded every instance of a customer signing up for service through a third party verification company. If Sprint can’t produce something in writing or a verbal recording of you agreeing to a new contract threaten to call the state PUC.

BTW, all cell phone companies have their quirks. The trick is to find the one that you can deal with best.

18

Yeah. I should’ve expected Sprint to try to lock me into yet ANOTHER contract. Heaven forbid I should want to find a better deal. Hell, I should just give them extra money each month just 'cause they deserve it.

Do the actions of FOUR CSRs determine it? 'Cause that’s how many I talked to. I got the CSR runaround for three hours yesterday. What’s the minimum number for perceived scumminess? What’s a good statistical sampling?

That was a convenient lack of recall. How often do you suppose that sort of thing happens? And besides- if they “forget” to mention to me that I’m agreeing to a new contract, then, in my view, I didn’t agree to no fuckin’ contract.

A new phone number should NOT be a “major change”. They certainly didn’t present it as such- it took them less than five minutes to do it, and they didn’t say anything about how big a change it was. Hell, I didn’t even HAVE to do it- I could’ve kept using the Texas number. If I’d known that they’d slam me with another contract (or charge me ten bucks a month thereafter), I would’ve just kept the damn number. Now, unfortunately, it’s too late- they won’t just change it back.

And, yeah, you bet your ass I’m dealing with it. Today, for example, I’m shopping around the other providers. If Sprint had their way, I wouldn’t even be able to do THAT.

19

Yes, you should’ve. It’s in your contract, after all.

You would’ve had that option in March. Or you can take the option now, and pay the early termination fee. Because that, too, is in your contract.

You did read the contract before you agreed to it, right?

20

Oh, I just caught this:

Apparently you didn’t read the contract.

And yet, Sprint is at fault. :rolleyes: