Sprint. Hilary’s boyfriend wanted one phone. You signed him up for, like, a bazillon and took all of his money, plus an extra $400 from his bank account.
Dear Sprint,
After reading the incredible horror stories on Consumerist, I wouldn’t have touched your service with a ten-foot pole. But recently my boyfriend and I were shopping around for new cell phones and plans, and he told me about Sprint’s $30/mo SERO plan. I was so tempted that I decided to give it a chance and went into the Sprint store, where I fell in love with the Palm Centro. I decided I’d let my current contract run out before I got the plan, while my boyfriend went ahead and immediately ordered the plan online with a Motorola Q.
His online order consisting of ONE phone and ONE plan somehow turned into an order for TWO phones and TWO plans. But that’s just the beginning of it. That doubled order then went through twice, making my boyfriend’s bank account overdrawn by $400+. Finally, to add insult to injury, Sprint attempted a third order, the charges for which were thankfully refused by his bank.
Unfortunately, my now-poor boyfriend did all of this on a Friday. The next day, when he realized what had happened, he called Sprint for help. But apparently their ordering department grinds to a halt on weekends, and no one who could help him with a pending order was available. The only CSRs available were ones who handled existing accounts, not new ones.
Sprint’s SERO plan is less than half the price of a comparable Verizon plan, but I guess you really do get what you pay for.
Die in a fire, Sprint. Die in a fire.
Hilary R.
We passed along the number for the Sprint Consumerist Hotline: (703-433-4401). Hilary said she’d give it a shot. Will her boyfriend cancel? Or will Sprint talk him into staying? The suspense is killing us.
What would you do? We’d cancel and use the tips contained here to shop around.
Hilary, who would like to clarify that she didn’t send the above letter to Sprint (it was just a rant she sent to us), has an UPDATE:
He has called the Consumerist Sprint Hotline (Thanks Theresa!) and they were very helpful. Apparently the triple-charging was a “balance inquiry” but I still don’t understand why charging him three times for a total of $1500 was necessary. They say that the charges will disappear within a few days. However, his order has already shipped so he will still be receiving two phones, but they are sending him a prepaid box to send one back in. The people at the Consumerist hotline said that there are in fact CSRs who can handle pending orders on weekends, but apparently no one else at Sprint knew that.
My boyfriend’s plan now is to see how they handle this, and if it gets resolved he’s going to ask them to waive any early termination fees should he decide to cancel later on because they further fuck up his service.
Thanks again for the help.
Regards,
Hilary
(Photo:northernplateguy)
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@mac-phisto: I know that one person does not a trend make, but I’ve actually never had major problems with sprint over the last 6 or so years. I’m not saying that it’s the consumer’s fault (it probably isn’t), but I don’t think they are the bunch of incompetent boobs they appear to be when someone is trying to generate blog post hits.
@notallcompaniesareevil: Advice on how to deal with companies and knowing how to fix errors as fast and painlessly as possible does improve your life.
That’s not even including the Personal Finance posts.
@mac-phisto: I am one of those “one or two”, I know the joy of Sprint billing errors. My wife quit letting me see the bills so I wouldn’t have a heart attack, but last time I did, they were 4 for 32 in sending a correct bill.
For sure, your scenario is accurate, but there’s more than one way to bilk a sucker.
At one time, the only way to get the SERO plan was to order it online. The SERO orders originally went through a third party vendor called Wirefly. This became a problem for me, because the agreement stated if you had a problem with your phone, it was to be mailed back to a fulfillment center, and they woudl send you a new one. I took my Q into the local sprint store, not telling the tech I had ordered it online. He swapped it out for a new Q that would supposedly work better. No luck. I returned to the store again, and told them I wanted to switch the the Palm. This person noticed I ordered online and said he could not accept the phone, it had to be mailed back. I told the rep the original phone had been swapped in the store already, so I no longer had it. After hours of arguing over the techs mistake, I was given the Palm phone but told I no longer had a 30 day exchange window as this was considered a courtesy. Other than the faulty Q, I have had no problems with the Palm Treo.
@Rectilinear Propagation: “Advice on how to deal with companies and knowing how to fix errors as fast and painlessly as possible does improve your life.”
Too often, though, the posts are one-sided complaints from people who think they’ve been jilted, or they are cellphone shots of sale signs inside a store that were, for one reason or another, incorrect and funny. And the number of times when I think to myself (often confirmed in the comments) that the consumer is to blame, really makes be question the overall attitude of the site. Is it one of truth and assistance, or is it one of vengeance and ridicule?
As I’ve always said, I think the consumerist has high ideals but could not do a better job of messing up the execution.
According to Consumer Reports Sprint is one of the worst companies. My current job and my last job both had deals for Sprint phones which I declined and stuck with Verizon.