{"id":133,"date":"2006-01-16T16:43:21","date_gmt":"2006-01-16T23:43:21","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2006-02-05T00:01:48","modified_gmt":"2006-02-05T00:01:48","slug":"sprint_customer_service_nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/2006\/sprint_customer_service_nightmare\/","title":{"rendered":"Sprint Customer Service Nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"
Heads up, this content is 20 years old. Please keep its age in mind while reading.<\/div>

Update: 1\/29\/06<\/b>The very sweet manager at the local Sprint store defended me to the higher-ups and secured my insurance. Thank you, Duane. And thank you, Sprint. We’ll just put this matter behind us now and get back to the mutually beneficial relationship that we’ve had in the past… sound good?-Sarah<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Attention Blogosphere:<\/b> Sprint is providing me with extremely poor customer service right now to the point where I’m seriously angry, and they just don’t seem to care.Attention Sprint:<\/b> If you’ll just resolve<\/b> my issue, I’ll retract this public complaint and once again sing your praises to the world. I really don’t like being angry with you, but you’re displaying a level of incompetence right now that I just can’t accept.Generally, I’m pretty happy with Sprint<\/a>. They have great coverage in the places I’ve lived. Their customer service is friendly. Their phones tend to have more features than most companies. Their new Fair and Flexible plan makes me jump for joy. They didn’t charge me a contract-breaking fee when my ex left my plan and started his own account. They even have a great website, which is something that matters to me. But they’re not<\/b> treating me well right now, and I’m running out of options. We’re talking about 3 months of back-and-forth phone calls that have done no more than send me in circles, as well as a number of blatant customer service botches. Let me take you through the experience. <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I bought my Treo<\/a> in mid-October. The sales rep was very cool<\/a>, and I was very pleased with the experience. While I was checking out, he asked if I’d like insurance on my phone<\/b>. I had been planning on asking about that, and was happy to hear him get there first. He explained that $6\/mo will cover loss, theft, or any kind of physical damage, including dropping the phone down concrete stairs. Since I’m prone to dropping cell phones on streets and don’t want to pay for this expensive phone more than once, I eagerly said yes. $6\/mo for peace of mind is a great deal. Sign me up.<\/b><\/i><\/li>\n
  2. Later that month, I decided I didn’t need “video and picture mail,” and decided to take that off my account before its 30-day free trial ran out. I checked the website to see when that would be, and it was giving me a little more than 30 days–the rest of October, plus the next full month for the billing cycle. Thanks, Sprint! That was nice of you!<\/i> So I decided to make the most of my free trial, and call them on the last few days of November. <\/li>\n
  3. Around that time, I got my bill and noticed that the insurance wasn’t on it<\/b>. Hey… that’s not cool, Sprint. Here, I’ve been thinking for the past month and a half that I had full insurance on this mini-laptop, and now you’re telling me that if I’d dropped it, it would have been gone.<\/i> So I figured, I’m due for a Sprint call now anyway. I’ll fix this matter right up over the phone.<\/li>\n
  4. I called as planned, and talked to a customer service rep. She was very friendly. “Yes, ma’am, I’ll remove your “video and picture mail” so you only have the basic PCS vision package, and I’ll add insurance. Would you like the $3\/mo protection against mechanical defects or the full $6\/mo protection against any damage or loss? Alright, I’m putting the full insurance on your account.<\/b> Thank you very much and have a nice day.” Easy. Fabulous. Thanks!<\/i><\/li>\n
  5. Here’s where things get start to ugly. On Dec 30, my ex and I walked into a Sprint store together to get him off of my plan and onto his own. Smooth changeover, no fees. Thanks again for being cool, Sprint!<\/i> But while I was there, I asked the rep to double check the features on my account. Much to my surprise, there was no insurance listed, and I was still paying for “video and picture mail.” The rep I had talked to did absolutely nothing.<\/b> I kindly explained that I’ve already asked for these changes, and would he please take care of them now. He removed the picture mail, but the insurance, he explained, was handled by another company and I’d need to call them directly. Okay, now I’m getting annoyed, but fine.<\/i><\/li>\n
  6. The Sprint rep handed me their number and I called them right in front of him. The insurance rep I talked to explained that you need add the insurance within 30 days of purchasing the phone<\/b>, and so they had deactivated<\/b> the last sprint rep’s attempt to add it (since it was just over 30 days when I asked for it the second time). This was the first I had heard of the “30 day” rule, and I’ve now owned the phone for 2 and a half months, all the while thinking it was insured. Thanks, jerks.<\/i> I explained my situation and called it “unacceptable.” The rep said he would submit a verification request to determine whether there had been a “human error,”<\/b> and that I should call back in two business days. I asked how he planned to locate a human error when most likely, it was just never entered into the system. He said to call back in two business days. <\/li>\n
  7. I called back as requested. The rep offered to submit a verification request. “That’s already been done,” I informed her. “I’m calling to check on its status.” She explained that the last rep submitted the request incorrectly<\/b>, and she needed to submit it again. I explained my frustration and thanked her for work. She said try calling back in a day–they usually handle these things quickly.<\/b> <\/li>\n
  8. I called back two business days later. No news yet.<\/b> Call back tomorrow.<\/li>\n
  9. I called back five business days later (today). “I’m sorry, we haven’t heard back from Sprint yet.<\/b> Call back in a few days.” I explained the situation once again, emphasizing how absurd this is becoming from my perspective — I’m a good customer who’s just trying to be a good customer, and you’re sending me around in circles. She said to call Sprint customer service and have them help. I explained that they had sent me here in the first place. She said, “If you talk to them, and have them call us with you on the line,<\/b> we can better help you.” I thanked her for her assistance told her I’d be calling again soon.<\/li>\n
  10. So I called Sprint. And explained my situation for what felt like the thousandth time. This rep and I spent a long time just fleshing out the details, with several long bouts of being on hold. All she had record of was the insurance company deactivating my insurance on December 9th. She had no record of the insurance being added at the end of November. She didn’t even have record of the phone being activated in the first place. As a result, she wouldn’t call the insurance company to defend me. She also criticized me for not asking customer service reps to make notes on my account each time I called<\/b>, and said there was nothing she could do for me. I thanked her for doing what she could do, told her that this is a serious customer service issue to me, and asked her to transfer me to someone who had the authority to take care of it. She said the most she could do was transfer me to the T.E.P. department<\/b>–Total Equipment Protection–and that maybe they could do something about it. I figured this was another department within Sprint, and thanked her for moving me forward.<\/li>\n
  11. I waited on hold for a moment, and then heard the all-too-familiar phone menu for incoming calls to the insurance company. Her T.E.P. department was the external insurance company, and she was just sending me through as a normal call<\/b>. What the hell? Did I do something to deserve this karma?<\/i> I gave up on the running-in-circles game and hung up the phone.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Sprint, I would like you to know that Verizon is looking real<\/i> good right now,<\/b> and it might be worth that cancellation fee just to escape this poor service. Seriously. Just give me some insurance. What more do I need to do to remedy your series of errors?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Heads up, this content is 20 years old. Please keep its age in mind while reading.Update: 1\/29\/06The very sweet manager at the local Sprint store defended me to the higher-ups and secured my insurance. Thank you, Duane. And thank you, Sprint. We’ll just put this matter behind us now and get back to the mutually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}