Home Improvement Tool and Toy Reviews

I just moved into my new house about a month ago and my Sprint Cell phone got terrible service inside the house but was OK (not great) outside the house. My contract was up at the end of the year so I tried to hold out but I was missing calls and text messages so I got fed up and went and got Cingular phones for everyone. Cingular phones work great inside my house.

I called up Sprint yesterday to cancel and was told that I was going to be charged $150 per phone (2 phones = $300) to disconnect and 1 month of service (about $125) since they bill in advance. I explained to the CSR that the phone didn’t work in my house and that I did not understand how they expected me to pay for something that did not work. The rep explained that they did not guarantee service inside houses and that he had to charge disconnect fee.

I asked to speak to a supervisor because I realized that he may not have the authority to waive the fees. He put me on hold and after a bit came back and said that there was not a supervisor there. I began to ask him some other questions and he said something to the fact that “his supervisor said” and my ears perked up. I immediately called him on the fact that he lied to me. He denied it and I told him to transfer me to the super. He said “hold on” and hung up on me. I was pissed .

I called back and before the rep that answered got 2 words out I demanded his name and Sprint ID. This caught him off guard but he complied. He was in tech support so he transfered me to the cancellation department. I got that persons name and id and broke the previous events down to him in detail. I finished by telling him that if I did not get satisfaction from him that me next step was to send a complaint letter to the Sprint Corporate Office, the Better Business Bureau, and the Attorney State General.

The rep paused for a moment and said that he would see what he could do. He came back a minute later and said that he would waive one of the $150 disconnect fees. I told him how appreciative I was but what about charging my for an entire month of service that I was not going to use? He explained to me that it was their policy to do so because the bill a month in advance.

This was the turning point of the call.

I said to him that I understand their policy and that they most likely have it in place to discourage people from canceling early - but - if they decide to stick it to me they need to realize the cost of doing that. I told him that yes, they would get my $150 dollars for canceling my service, but what they would not get is my service as a customer ever again or the service of anybody I know because if anybody asked I would tell them not to go with Sprint. I told him that he need to make a business decision and decide whether they want $150 now but lose potentially thousands of dollars in the future.

I followed up my little speech telling him that I would be fine with paying the month if he could get rid of the other $150 cancellation fee. He put me on hold for a few minutes and then came back to tell me that the other $150 was canceled .

With that I have to say that I am surprised that Sprint was willing to take it on the chin for the customer. Will I ever use Sprint again? You betcha. Should you? IMO - yes, they are a stand up company that makes things right even when it is not their fault.

Lets hope Cingular is as good as Sprint in Customer Service.

Technorati : Cell Phones, Cingular, Sprint, Sprint PCS

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Misc . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.