Here’s a sad story from reader Kristin:
I signed a contract with Sprint in 2004, things were going great. My husband and I decided to move in January 2007 and needed a phone service that reached our area…Sprint did not. Now, pay close attention to the dates…..
I called Sprint in January of 2007 and told them that I would like to cancel my contract with them. They explained to me that my contract which I opened in 2004 was up to expire in three months, three months being March of 2007. I said fine, I will continue to pay the monthly bills until such time but DO NOT want to renew the contract because I had already secured another cell phone carrier, Verizon. They said, well can we offer you a free phone to keep you around? I said NO, just please DO NOT renew my contract. So three months go by and I sit down one day to pay my bills and what do you know…..there’s a phone bill from Sprint. I started to make phone calls, but…every single time I entered in my account number to speak with a customer representative, DISCONNECTED. So I thought, let me try to write some emails…they can’t hang up on emails…but they definitely IGNORED THEM! Now, let me explain that I work with an organization that closely monitors my credit report and cannot take the chance of ANYTHING being reported to a collections agency so month after month I paid a bill for a phone that I no longer used…HELL I couldn’t even find the damn phone.
So fast forward to February of 2008, I FINALLY got to speak with a customer service representative that had a ton of attitude. I explained to her that I have been trying to have this phone disconnected for over a year. She said well, I can disconnect the phone for you but it will cost $200 since your contract doesn’t expire until 2009. I said no mam, that is incorrect, my contract should have expired in March of 2007. She said, No, it’s 2009. I asked to speak with a supervisor, she said “HOLD” and nobody ever came back to the line.
So today APRIL 10, 2008 I get a bill for $268.00. I call the Finance Department at Sprint. I ask why would I pay $268 for a disconnection fee if my contract ended in March of 2007. She stated that I would have had to of signed or verbally gave approval in 2006 to renew the contract but they don’t keep records going back that far……EXCUSE ME??? What do you mean you don’t keep records going back only 2 years??? I said, NO, I NEVER signed or gave a verbal approval of anything, infact, I tried to cancel this phone over a year ago and got the run around. She said well sorry mam, but you will either have to pay this or we will send it to collections. Again, SPRINT is not worth my job, so today APRIL 10, 2008 15 MONTHS LATER I am out a grand total of $988.00 for a phone that I HAVEN’T USED!!!
Needless to say, I will NEVER use Sprint again and after speaking to family and friends about this situation who all use SPRINT…they will NOT be renewing their contracts and a couple will be calling to cancel. DON’T MESS WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS…cause in the end you will be the one losing! BASTARDS.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Oh my gosh, Kristin that is horrible! First we’d like to suggest that you call the Sprint Consumerist Hotline: (703-433-4401). We’re not sure how much luck you’re going to have negotiating with them, but we’d take the opportunity ask for them to send you copies of all your phone records as well as a copy of something that says you authorized the contract extension. I know you said that they told you they don’t keep records but that’s a bunch of baloney. Take notes during this conversation, or record it.
Next, you may want to try to launch an eecb (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) on Sprint. You might want to remind them how angry the Minnesota Attorney General is about the 30,000 complaints she’s received about Sprint extending contracts without customer consent. Sprint has a new commercial that invites you to email the CEO at dan@sprint.com. We suspect you’ll get a canned response, but we’d love to be wrong about that.
Finally, if that doesn’t work, why not file a lawsuit in small claims court? Bring all the evidence you can get from Sprint that shows you never used the phone. If you’re lucky, they won’t even show up and you’ll get a default judgment.
Does anyone else have any advice for Kristin?
(Photo:Maulleigh)
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Yeah, wow. This is not a good story. They told the CSR to cancel them in 3 months, and then they kept paying the bill long after they wanted to cancel.
Stupid, sorry.
Agreed… I call bullshit, or at least, shame on you. Seriously? A few disconnects so you just give up and pay the bill and then decide to complain a year later? Bad consumer.
Why does everyone always blame others for their own issues? Sprint is a great company, with a strict moral code. The OP is the person in the wrong here.
@EricaKane: That is not true at all, I have done that with Sprint 3 times.
Else they try to continue / renew your contract at the end of the period.
In fact My fathers old phone I just called on Monday to tell them NOT to renew it in June.
And had them read it back to me in the notes.
I also asked for and got the persons name and extension.
Sometime in the next month, I will call and verify. If found incorrect I will contact the Supervisor and complain and get free months of service.
I do blame the consumer.
If you had NO PROBLEM paying for it though you were not using it, don’t blame them.
What job that checks credit history does NOT have a way to file a letter stating the facts in this case so that if anything does show up, you are covered. In fact you could then use this as proof to screw Sprint over and get MORE than you deserve back.
I had a very similar problem with Vonage. They wouldn’t let me cancel. CSR’s lied to me, Hung up on me, etc. When I finally really got to talk to someone they said I couldn’t cancel till the day after the end of my 1yr contract. However that means I have to pay for an extra month after its over and its their ‘policy’ not to do prorations. Worst of all is they only accept payment by automatic electronic draft so you can’t just stop paying them.
Collecting on a judgement is easier than you might think.
Normally you’ll want to domesticate it to whereever their business is located. Then you move the court to allow you to execute on the bank accounts of the company.
Personally, the next time I have to go as far as getting a judgment, I’m going to ask the court to let me take posession of the furniture in the CEO’s office.
@thejoker2099: lots of companies are monitoring their employees’ credit these days (an ex-employer of mine did, which I never consented to, and only found out about after the fact). More and more companies are asking applicants to submit to credit checks these days, making it a condition of employment and a way of “knowing” who they’re hiring. A recruiting company exec I spoke with once said, “It’s only a ‘soft hit’ on your credit report”. Does anyone know if this is legal?
@Dabby: hmmm–same for the many people who write “should of”, instead of “should have”…too much blogging/commenting makes one’s grammar soften?
Ah, yes. Just more reinforcement of why I jumped the Sprint Ship as soon as my contract expired. Cruddy service, substandard phones, non-existent customer service…. And they can’t figure out why they are hemorrhaging customers at an alarming rate.
Does anyone else have any advice for Kristin? – Yeah. Stop being a slave to Equifax. Seriously, this is ridiculous. Why didn’t you tell Sprint to fuck off, then explain to whatever organization you work with that you don’t owe the money, you never owed the money, and that they need to ignore whatever Sprint says about your credit report? And if that organization refuses, seriously, find some place else to work.
I’ve said it time and time again in these forums, refuse to be slaves to the credit agencies, people. If you pay cash for everything – and you really should, you know – you don’t need a credit report. I mean, you just paid a thousand dollar extortion fee because you’re too caught up with the credit reporting agency. Free yourself, stop using credit and stop dealing with people who worship at the grail of the holy FICO and you can forget all of this credit score nonsense.
If some company tried to screw me over, they’d never get a dime out of me. Print whatever you want on my credit report, I don’t give a shit, it doesn’t affect me because I don’t borrow money. If some company won’t take my cash because they don’t like what’s on (or rather, isn’t on) my credit report, I’ll find someone else who will. If my insurance company raises my rates over my credit score, I’ll cancel my policies and switch to an insurer who has a brain and realizes that paying cash for everything does not make me more of a risk, but rather, just the opposite.
All this from someone who always pays his bills and has never been late on anything, ever. I am not and never have been a deadbeat and I always pay what I legitimately owe. I just refuse to play these stupid games and you should, too.
Why is Sprint called “the big, yellow mess”? Customers and employees are treated badly. They need to fire bad employees from top to bottom.
Why is Sprint called “the big, yellow mess”? Bad customer service. They need to fire bad employees from top to bottom.
Sprint is horrible – Someone took out a cell in my name, which I called Sprint and cleared up. They told me that I wasn’t responsible, and that it wouldn’t hurt my credit.
Six months later, I hear from a collection agency – Sprint sold “my debt” to the collection company, and washed their hands of it.
Fortunately, my state Attorney General cleared that up real quick, but as far as I’m concerned, Sprint is one of the worst companies out there. I wouldn’t use a Sprint Phone if my worst enemy was paying for it.
i blame the victim.
know your rights and read the fine print. you’re an uninformed douche and deserve everything that came to you. how do you give up calling after getting disconnected a few times when you know your credit is important to you? also, you need to get different customer service numbers.
i have been a Sprint customer for 5 years and i have not have any horror stories with them. sure, i’ve been hung up on…but I don’t go blaming Sprint for their CSR’s actions. Other CSR’s are more than helpful and go above and beyond to make me and other customers happy.
I can answer the “we have no records” issue. Sprint is constantly converting their accounts to their new systems. They have some “legacy” accounts over, but most accounts from that time period are in another system that only a few people have access to.
Kristen,
I work for Sprint (please don’t attack me) I would like to see what I can do to help you. Sprint is trying very hard to turn things around. The way we do this starts with our customers.
I would like to talk with you more about this and help you get this resolved. And I CAN do this for you if you will give me the chance.
My personal email address is ustacenwash@hotmail.com Let’s see what we can get done for you!
~Sprinter1
Comment on Sprint Forces You To Pay $988.00 For A Phone You Never Used Kristen,
You should contact your Public Utilities Commission in your state. They’re
the ones that allow Sprint and other utility companies to operate in your
state. I had a problem with Sprint a few years ago. The problem I had was
that I was being billed for calls that were supposed to be free because they
were made during the free nights and weekends time block. I called my
state’s Public Utilities Commission and filed my complaint over the phone.
Later that same day, I received a phone call from Sprint informing me that
they received a call from the Public Utilities Commission. Sprint also told
me that there was no need to get the Public Utilities Commission involved
and all I had to do was call their customer service number to have my bill
corrected. Yeah right, everyone knows Sprint’s customer service is a joke.
Sprint was a bit pissed that I filed a report with the Public Utilities
Commission. Sprint corrected my bill and gave me a couple months of free
service. You should find the contact information for your state’s Public
Utilities Commission (PUC) on the back of the first page of your Sprint
bill.
@laserjobs: Nice thought, but in order to file a lawsuit against a corporation, small claims or otherwise, you have to find out who their ‘registered agent’ is in your state and serve them… I mean don’t let that stop you, Sprint Sucks, just don’t waste your time by getting your lawsuit sent back to be served properly…