It's "Retention", not "Retentions"!!!!

And being a former employee of the "Retention" department for another wireless carrier, I can 100% say it is not the place where dreams come true, it's where they go to die, at least for the reps.

I had to go through the retention department quite a few times to try and cancel my service. They noted on my account that I was unhappy with my service and that they would cancel my account without charging me the early termination fee. Long story short -- they still continued to bill me for the fee along with a series of late fee charges regardless of the notations on my account. I ended up having my boyfriend call in and pretend he was me while he demanded that they revoke the charges and cancel my account without the fee as originally stated. Finally someone listened and canceled it without charging me anything. Sprint by far has the worst customer service that I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with. My total calls to the company averaged out to about 50 within a 3 month period of time. I will never do business with them again or refer anyone to them in the future.

I wish that was true, but I talked to that dept twice last year and both time they were more willing to let me walk than to offer any give at all.

ask and you shall receive. Unless you are labeled as one of the customers they would not mind losing.

About a year ago I threatened to drop my 2 lines since I only used one and the other was idling (person I bought it for gave me back the phone) as I wanted to drop it and go over to a single line plan. I did the math to see that paying the cancellation fee would have been better in the long run as I had 13 months left. I was transferred over to Retentions. They offered me 15% off both lines along with unlimited texting which was basically the same cost for one line on their standard plan. I found someone to help me pay for the 2nd line so now I get a good deal from them.

I'm like most people and been frustrated by Sprint when having to call in for Customer Service but as long as I don't talk with them, I've been satisfied. The majority of the time I can just do everything on there website.

I kind of has a sad. I just cancelled with them and managed to get out of an ETF due to the admin fee which went up January 1st. (FYI you have until 30 days AFTER the charge goes into effect to cancel with no penalty). The thing is, I never had a problem with their service in 8 years. What drove me away is their crappy phone selection. I know they are struggling, and I am loving my new iphone, but it's kind of like losing touch with a friend from your hometown who still lives with her parents. Or something.

They didn't really try to lure me back too hard or put up much of a fight at all. I did it via chat and it took about 15 minutes, start to finish. Maybe I got lucky, but it really was indicative of my experience with them in general. I doubt I'll be so lucky with ATT, but I guess we'll see!

Before you do this, heed this warning: Don't be rude, don't have a past due account, and don't say you're God's gift to Sprint.

Too often I get people who don't pay their bill, and their service is suspended. They call up to me and complain like its my fault, and threaten to cancel. They get sent to retentions because there's nothing I can do then.

or, let's say you have TONS of adjustments on your account. You call in every month and there's something wrong with your bill. I've seen people call in and complain about everything and demand adjustments, so much so that they have a LOCK on their account, so you have to speak to a supervisor to get any adjustments done.

if you're a deadbeat jerk who loves to call up and bitch about stuff until you get free stuff, you deserve nothing. There are people with genuine problems who deserve above and beyond, you do not because you abuse the system.

Retentions is getting wise to people doing this, too. just ebcause you call up and threaten to cancel doesn't mean they'll give you the moon. More likely than not, they'll just cancel and you'll be stuck with a 200$ ETF.

I don't work for Sprint/Nextel anymore. I got sick and tired of the shit stated exactly as above. They also have an incredibly high turnover rate because of the abuse you get from customers. It's great to see consumerist endorsing it, too!

I wish I could get Sprint to offer me some goodies. I have 6 phones for my business and cannot get Sprint to let me swap out some phones early and give me the max $150 credit per phone. Another 45 days and all my phones are out of contract and Sprint is gone. I have had them now for over 10 years with NO problems. When they acknowledge that the Motorola Razor batteries are crap and won't help you early, then it is time to go.

@bananaballs aka the urban juror: Trust me, you won't be as lucky with ATT.

its funny...

I JUST canceled my account with Sprint... and I mean like an hour ago...

they offered me a free black berry pearl more minutes or free txt msgs

but I just really wanted to cancel it...

times are rough right now =(

so I couldn't take advantage of those deals...

@The_Legend: Really? Now you are scaring me. Fucking iphone's gonna ruin my life, huh.

Wow. Someone WANTS to reach Sprint's retention department??? It took me a good 45 minutes to cancel my Sprint service because I couldn't get past their retention B.S. But that was a couple of CEOs ago.

Note to Sprint: You retain customers by providing the service as advertised, and by not screwing customers over at every opportunity. Not by becoming a begging leech when the customer is fed up with you.

I had no luck with Verizon's Retention. They were more than happy to cancel my service right then on the phone. We'll see what happens when I try again this March when my plan hits 2 years. We have AT&T now in Vermont, so maybe they'll be willing to deal.

This strategy worked perfectly with Comcast. I called last year and just asked what my bill would be if we dropped cable but kept phone and internet. Within minutes they gave me a much better deal than I could've gotten with satellite.

@Cyco: So did you walk? Part of the game is you have to be honest. If they're screwing up bad enough to threaten to leave, you have to be willing to do it. You're probably flagged as a complaining customer-for-life or a scammer by now. People who threaten to quit and don't ruin it for legitimate users of the system.

@Patrick Henry: "or, let's say you have TONS of adjustments on your account. You call in every month and there's something wrong with your bill. I've seen people call in and complain about everything and demand adjustments, so much so that they have a LOCK on their account, so you have to speak to a supervisor to get any adjustments done."

I have tons of adjustments, but they are always corrections of errors. That's the problem I have with it. I'm not calling in demanding free unlimited texting or anything, I just want my bill to be the same every month (plus any overages or whatever). Send me a bill without an error and I promise not to call to help your rep fix it. Like you said, abusers are making my life difficult. The only reason I complain is because I can do math.

My nightmare is in Black & Yellow......

I used to be an employee and I had this account that was a Friends and family account. When I left Sprint I called in to end all service as an employee per guidelines that HR suggested to switch from employee status to retail consumer. the following month I received a $900 phone bill. When I called in in one could explain to me why the account was so expensive. now mind you I DID bill the $129 Sprint Instincts I bought to the account and that was prior to the applied $100 rebate but per a rep later I discovered the accounts were not setup correctly and eventually got a $500 credit for the mistakes that Sprint made to another set of accounts. In the meantime I have already paid $700 within 30days of receiving that bill right?

After that I was contacted about another friends account that needed my permission to "be released" but they needed my permission and pin so I gave rep the info and said I know that the balance will not carry over is my "Friend" there to pay the balance. It was confirmed he was in store trying to resolve the outstanding balance on this bill.*I never worked with ANY of the phones or plans or services of Sprint I simply did support so I never knew the processes BUT I was educated by the reps as I encountered them along this process.

Anyway I started getting calls from a collection agency several months later in regards to this account. I have confirmed thru Retentions and Customer Service that leaving a balance on an account before doing anything to it is not a Sprint policy and that it was not followed in this instance. Instead this account was switched over and the remaining balance stayed with me.

I now have ACT collections reporting negatively on my credit report and I am being hassled by them on a daily basis and they refuse to cease even after the request was made. I am filing in against them with the Tennessee office where ACT is based. I also filed with the FTC as they [ACT] have violated collection guidelines and statues. ALL of this because when I called RETENTIONS several times and could not talk to anyone who could make a decision and no one would call me back as promised.... Well according to Sprint this is where I should have stopped [the filing with the BBB] as now they "Can't talk to me" about this situation and that "the arbitration rules are now in effect".

So let's see you screw me screw what is left of my credit and now you don't talk to me? Sounds like an incredibly bad relationship I have had... and the whole thing is I have a vested interest in Sprint I own stock and I actually like their technology and I WANT TO BE A SPRINT customer but seriously how can I when I can't get straight answers or all of these mistakes happen that I have NO CONTROL OVER!!!

I feel I am owed something and that is the HTC Diamond Pro for the torture I have encountered with these accounts. All they would have offered is the phone with a $100 credit I have to use my $150 renewal credit and I have to renew a contract plus play another $199 for the phone. That is the same as if I was new and would walk in and open an account up. That is not going to do it.

Seriously Sprint what is going on? And you wonder why your losing customers at the rate you are going? I see why your commercials are in B&W it is either because Sprint can't afford color or it is a nightmare in real life...rather fitting commercials wouldn't you think?

The 1-800-235-1185 number is no longer working.

@Jim: Why do you think I have an iPhone now? I actually get dropped calls, but the phone is bad ass.

I just called and asked to speak to retentions due to a couple different issues. I had never threatened to leave before though I am pretty sure I will leave Sprint when my contract is up. Here is what I noticed this time around: a rep picks up way sooner than used to be the case. I asked to speak to retentions and this time I didn't get the usual roadblocks, they just transferred me. I got a retentions rep pretty fast too. He was fairly willing to do something for me. I probably could have made a bigger deal out of it and tried to get more but really I just wanted a decent solution so I could stay for now. Here's what was the same: the retentions rep couldn't get the transaction completed while I was on the phone. He told me he would email me within half an hour. He didn't email me at all. I called this morning again and had similar fast service. I was surprised to find out they actually had shipped me a new phone. They of course shipped it to the wrong address. Also they charged me more than they said they would. This rep was defensive which obviously doesn't help when I'm thinking about leaving. I was also surprised later on to get a call on my voice mail (and they knew my phone didn't work) from the same rep apologizing for dropping my call and giving me an immediate $5 credit to make up for the extra charge. It doesn't make up for it but at least it's something. Well see if the rest of this process goes smoothly. I'll also have to see how my next year with Sprint goes. If I have issues and they are better maybe I will stay. It depends what phone I want next year, or if I want a new phone at all. It also depends on how worth it they will make it for me to stay too. So they have made some changes but they still have plenty of their old issues (including lying to customers) so they have a long way to go.

I just got a new phone from sprint & my last bill I was not happy with because they said we went over our minutes when my husband had 800 minutes & I did also this was Nextel. We never went over our minutes. also could you tell me if the free talking is from sprint to nextal also thank you

I too have been a customer for about 8+ years. In April 08 I had two blackberry phones added onto my account with out my knowledge, approval or consent. This amount included the cost of the phones, the start up fees, AND actuall calls, texting, and data usage. Here it is in Feb 2009 and the issue is still not resolved. I've been paying my monthly charges, as I was instructed to do by the fraud department, but when they "fixed" the account they only did the original charges, not any of the interest, taxes or late fees incurred at the instruction of the fraud department! Its only about $40, but on principle I keep calling them every month and saying fix it, and I get told we will get this resolved, and next month, nothing new. I did have someone call to make sure that my issue was resolved, and when I said no it isn't, he transferred me to someone that was suppost to help, and the call was dropped. I've got an old family plan that is no longer offered, but I think I should be offered something for them allowing this to happen to my account for the 3rd time in 3 years! and then its still not fixed completely!! I'd leave, but I'm not sure anywhere is any better.