Posts about Sprint

—>If you've been holding out on a phone upgrade or carrier switch until the Palm Pre comes to Verizon, you may need to give up the dream. The carrier has "reportedly ditched plans to offer the Palm Pre early next year," says PC World. Apparently poor sales of the device at Sprint, combined with Verizon's interest in upcoming Blackberry devices, killed any enthusiasm the carrier once had. Update: The no-Pre rumor may be false, according to these two analysts.  More Â»

—>It's no secret that AT&T's cell network sucks (and, yes, that is the scientific term for the state of the company's infrastructure). Fortunately, AT&T has come up with a solution to dead zones and overtaxed circuits: The AT&T 3G MicroCell, a router-like device that will let you experience the magic of using your mobile phone in your very own home! Of course, magic doesn't come free — or cheap. AT&T is testing the MicroCell now, and is charging subscribers $150 for the box, plus $20 a month for the magic of, you know, using your own freaking phone in your own damn home.  More Â»

—>The FCC today proposed new rules to protect and preserve "net neutrality," the idea that ISPs must treat all users the same and not prejudice against different types of customers. In a speech, Chairman Julius Genachowski supported adopting the "Four Freedoms" first articulated by the FCC in 2004 (PDF) not just as principles but as formal rules, and adding two more: "non-discrimination" and "transparency." The big networks are, naturally, incensed.  More Â»

—>If you're a Sprint customer using the company's Everything Data Plan, you can now call any mobile phone on any network without using up any of your plan minutes. Good news? If you're on the carrier's $70 a month plan, which has 450 included minutes along with unlimited data service, it could be — if you don't roam into areas where there's no Sprint coverage (where the meter will start running) and if you have a lot of regular contacts on other cell networks.   More Â»

—>Earlier today, Sprint made news by effectively cutting the price of a Palm Pre to $99 for new Sprint customers, after a $100 credit. Now Sprint is saying it was a publishing error and not a valid offer.  More Â»

—>Fearing his identity would be stolen, Mike put out a fraud alert on his credit report to insure he'd be contacted whenever new credit applications went out under his name. The move paid off because someone snagged his social security number and tried to open accounts with AT&T and Sprint.  More Â»

—>David Pogue's continuing crusade against useless voicemail instructions knocked loose an excellent suggestion for anyone willing to re-record their voicemail greeting. Too often the standard voicemail greeting is: "Hi, you've reached so-and-so. Leave a message, and I'll get back to you." Why not make it more useful, something like: "Hi, you've reached so-and-so. Please press star (or whichever command applies to your carrier) to leave a message."  More Â»

—>Here's the secret codes for skipping long-ass cellphone voicemail intros that cellphone companies don't want you to know about: Just remember "one star pound."  More Â»

—>Sprint Nextel announced this morning that they will purchase Virgin Mobile USA. The company, which specializes in prepaid mobile phone service, started as a joint venture between Sprint and Virgin, and Sprint owns 13% of their stock. Virgin Mobile USA phones already use the Sprint network.  More Â»

—>Verizon announced it will limit handset exclusivity deals to 6 months, a bow to pleas by small wireless carriers, and in advance of possible Department of Justice action on its inquiries on the one-carrier deals for the iPhone, Pre and LG Voyager. In its announcement, Verizon noted 24 rural carriers had asked it to limit these anti-competitive deals. Yes, apparently there are that many small carriers still left.  More Â»

—>Man's Blackberry chokes. Man calls Sprint. Sprint says hold. Man gets transferred to porn ad.  More Â»

—>On Saturday, Kevin lost his iPhone in a bar in Chicago, and by lost we mean someone grabbed it within seconds of him leaving the bar, but no one had seen a thing when he ran back in to ask about it. Since he had the Find My iPhone service activated on it, and his friend had a Sprint 3G dongle on his laptop, they decided to see whether they could track it down. AT&T and Sprint: working together to fight crime!  More Â»

—>Update: Some of our readers who are Sprint customers say they don't think the screenshots are legit. We asked Sprint for an opinion, and they responded, "We had noticed the post on sprintusers.com earlier today and are tracking down the answer. I'll get back to you asap." We'll post further updates when they arrive.  More Â»

—>Apple fans around the country are foaming at the mouths over the jacked-up pricing AT&T has announced for the upgraded iPhone. AT&T apparently can't afford to subsidize the phones for existing customers, because if you currently have an iPhone and more than 6 months left on your contract, you'll have to pay $417-$517 for the newer model (that includes an $18 "upgrade" fee).  More Â»

—>If you're managing cellphones for a family or your parents, or let's say hypothetically you have a boyfriend who says he reads Consumerist but really he doesn't or else he would have known better, you'll probably run into stupid subscription and content fees from time to time. You know how people are when it comes to fake "free" offers.  More Â»

—>Update: Lloyd, a Sprint "Customer Experience" Manager, wrote in to let us know that the bill below is indeed legitimate:
  More Â»

—>Say you got a problem with your cellphone company and you want it solved, pronto. You've already called regular customer service and they're either unable or unwilling to help you, or you're just sick of waiting on hold. You've got things to do! That's where executive customer service comes in handy. Just about every big company has a pack of these people who can basically walk on water within the company and get any problem solved. The key is reaching them. Naturally, you won't find them in an overseas call center at the end of the 1-800 number. Rather, they're attached to the corporate headquarters executive offices. Don't worry, we did the hard part for you. Here's up-to-date phone numbers for the executive customer service departments for Sprint, Verizon, T-mobile, and AT&T:  More Â»

—>A bailed out bank? Or a struggling wireless company? Who offends you more?  More Â»

—>One of our readers can't get Sprint to stop calling him. He's happy with the service, and they just want to make sure he's happy. Repeatedly. To the point that they're starting to get on his nerves.  More Â»

—> Which phone giant will taste your fury? Did FiOS burn down your house? Did Sprint's wandering CEO step on your toes?  More Â»

—>Tonya emailed us a video clip of a cute little piggy with a robot voice complaining about being trapped on hold. We appreciated the rant, but were even more fascinated with the technology that allowed her friend to turn a long, written diatribe into an instant cartoon. You know who needs this? Dan Hesse, shunned pitchman and CEO for Sprint! You'll never have to stop making commercials now. Also, we've decided to make you British.   More Â»

—>Dan Hesse will no longer be appearing in artsy black and white Sprint commercials, wandering around the city of New York, trying to find his company's lost credibility. I think his feet hurt. [WSJ]  More Â»

—>Dan Hesse should be ashamed. Ripping off a consumer reporter and then lying to the FCC about it? Bad idea. Here's what Sprint did to The Red Tape Chronicles reporter Bob Sullivan...  More Â»

I think I figured out why Sprint CEO is always walking around New York, looking in diners, and taking taxis. He's looking for his lost customers. The black and white is because he's sad.  More Â»

—>Wondering why Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has time to wander around NYC telling people about Sprint products? Well, it's apparently come to that. Sprint has lost another 1.1 million customers.  More Â»

—>Reader B. probably shouldn't have used her credit to help her less-than-creditworthy brother get a cellphone, but this story has a happy ending thanks to some helpful customer service from Sprint.   More Â»

T-Mobile came in first in a J.D. Power and Associates study of cellphone customer care performance, with 755 out of a possible 1,000 points. Actually, though, all the carriers came in above the 700 point range except for Sprint, which was in the 600s. [RCR Wireless]  More Â»

—>Having trouble redeeming rebates for your Sprint phone? Keep getting denied for seemingly no good reason? Try calling the Sprint rebate line at 800-477-4127. Reader Emily wrote, "I have tried on several different occasions to get rebates on my phone. Seems as though you have to call the Sprint Rebate line and have them resubmit the rebate for you. I have had to do 4 separate rebates this way." (Photo: hyku)  More Â»

—>Sprint is closing a call center we posted ex-employee accounts about that alleged on-the-scene drug use, sex, and theft of customer credit card numbers, among other infractions.   More Â»

Sprint will cut a total of 8,000 jobs by March 31st, says CEO Dan Hesse, who enjoys being filmed in black and white as he takes long walks toward cameras. Sprint is also suspending its 401(k) match program, tuition reimbursement program, and is freezing salaries. [CNNMoney]  More Â»

—>We got an email today from a Sprint representative addressing the confusion over just what "unlimited" means in their unlimited messaging package. If you recall, Erica says Sprint told her she would still be billed per message when sending pics or video, which runs contrary to the offer she signed up for. Now Sprint has officially responded that unlimited means no additional charges, and they're investigating the matter. Below is their statement.  More Â»

—>Sprint offers an "Everything Messaging Family" package that promises "unlimited nationwide, text, picture and video messaging to anyone on any network." The catch? Unlimited seems to mean "you have the capability to send messages, but you'll still have to pay for each message you send." Erica has called in twice to clear up the mistake, but the CSRs are telling her it's not a mistake. Oh. Well then, is it a lie?  More Â»

—>A proposed settlement has been reached in the class action lawsuit against Sprint over early termination fees (ETF). It seems to basically apply to anyone who has had a time-based contact with Sprint that had an etf clause it i.e. most Sprint wireless customers. You get $90 if you were charged an ETF and can provide proof, and $35 if you didn't cancel a contract for fear of getting charged an ETF. You can file at www.sprintetfsettlement.com, and get a more in-depth and explainer of the terms over at Top Class Actions.  More Â»

—>Retentions, the place where you threaten to cancel because service sucks and they throw goodies and freebies and discounts at you to get you stick around, the place where dreams come true. Here's two numbers to directly reach Sprint's Retentions Department: 800-235-1185, 888-211-4727. (Photo: SlapAyoda)  More Â»

—>Wanna know why your call to customer service went so poorly? Maybe because it was routed to an outsourced call center run by Teleperformance USA where, according to an insider, customer service goes to die...  More Â»

—>Reader Kenneth says he escaped Sprint without paying an ETF because of our post "Escape Sprint ETF-Free Over Administrative Fee Increase." He sent us the transcript of his chat with Sprint so you can see how he did it.  More Â»

—>Sprint has asked some of its employees to consider voluntarily resigning by December 3rd in exchange for a compensation package. Says a spokesperson, "No one is being forced to do anything. There are no forced reductions. There are no layoffs in store. It's a matter of employees having the option to exercise discretion. No targets have been announced." IntoMobile says retail store employees and managers are not being included in the offer. Update: We've received a little more info from an anonymous tipster about the downsizing, and what it might mean for customers of Sprint.  More Â»

—>Here's how Stephanie saved $230 on her cable and phone bills after following the tips in "3 Ways To Lower Your Out Of Control Cable, Internet And Phone Bills"  More Â»

—>Want to break your Sprint cellphone contract without paying an early termination fee? On January 1, 2009, Sprint will increase the Administrative fee to $.99 per line. Because this is what is known as a "materially adverse change of contract," and because of the basic contractual principle that you can't change someone's contract without their explicit permission (not the tacit, "opt-out" kind), you can use it to argue that the fee renders your contract void and you can end service without a termination fee. You do have to be willing to argue without giving up with a number of different Sprint employees first, like Matt did...  More Â»

—>Inside, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses for over 100 different companies to inject your customer service complaints into their corporate executive offices, and get it well on the way to success.  More Â»

The attorney who won a verdict against Sprint in California has filed a $1.2 billion class action lawsuit, claiming that early termination fees are not legal. [Information Week]  More Â»

—>More details have emerged about Sprint's new decreasing-monthly ETF, thanks to a page from the Sprint customer service manual that fell into NeoWin's hands. Basically the ETF on a 2-year contract is $200 after the first 30 days and until month 20, then it starts decreasing by $10 at month 19, until it gets to month 5 where it holds at $50. However, they say it's their policy to waive it if there's less than 30 days left. Once again, the decreasing-ETF will only apply to new contracts signed after November 2, 2008. Full scan of the internal document, inside...  More Â»

—>Sprint is expected to soon start making the early termination fee (ETF) decline every month, possibly as early as November 2nd. Previously, whether you canceled service 1 day into or one day before the end of your service contract, you would get a $200 fee. That fee is supposed to reimburse the company for the cost of providing you a cellphone at reduced cost. The change is expected to be only good for new subscribers and is not retroactive, so, sorry Charlie if you were hoping to go get an iPhone.  More Â»

—>The national wireless carriers have responded to the Senate's request for information on why its text-messaging fees have doubled over the past three years. Their collective response: they haven't gotten more expensive, they've gotten cheaper—and your public suspicion of our business practices has led to lots of class action lawsuits!   More Â»

—>Just found an extra deal for today from Sprint: Get a new Sprint phone line and get a free airline companion ticket, up to a $500 value. Get two tickets, up to a $1,000 value, with activation of a BlackBerry on a BlackBerry Plan or a Simply Everything Plan.  More Â»

—>Verizon, which has no problem helping the government spy on its customers, suddenly turned stupid in June when a police department asked them for help finding the body of a woman who had been abducted on camera. Despite pleas from the woman's parents, the police, and the FBI, it was four days before a technician was sent out to the appropriate cell tower. When that technician gave the police the location info, they found Kelsey Smith's body within 45 minutes. Verizon won't respond to requests for an explanation of why they couldn't help sooner.  More Â»

—>People! Always wipe your cell phone before you sell it, give it away, or trade it in. Do not assume or expect that someone else will do this for you! This was just one of the mistakes that led to Rachel Swanson being called by strangers several weeks after she thought she donated her old phone to charity. But the store that handled the donation, and the company responsible for actually processing the donated phones, screwed up their parts, too. Here's how it was supposed to have work, and what you should always do before donating your phone to any organization.  More Â»

—>Chelsea wants to know why she keeps receiving these cryptic text messages from 9099. The messages alternate between telling her new phantom services have been added to her account, and sending her an account PIN and security answer. We thought it was someone trying to gain access to her account, but the PIN and security answer aren't hers, and the services never show up on her bill.  More Â»

The similar price increases, coming at similar times, Kohl said, "is hardly consistent with the vigorous price competition we hope to see in a competitive marketplace."  More Â»

—>Sprint signed David up for a two-year contract without permission after he transferred his service between a Motorola RAZR 2 and a Sanyo 8400. David owned both phones when he made the transfer last month, long after his contract had expired. Sprint recently decided to send him a letter, charmingly called "keeping you in the know," which showed that he was the proud new owner of a surprise contract extension.  More Â»

—>By all accounts, Sprint has hit an iceberg and is leaking customers like the Titanic, but new CEO Dan Hesse says that they lost some of those customers on purpose because they were just crappy customers. As strange as this sounds, it does match up with what we've been hearing from (former) Sprint customers.   More Â»

—>"Jurgis" writes,  More Â»

—> A California Superior Court judge has ruled that cellphone early termination fees are ILLEGAL and that Sprint must pay $18.2 M as part of a class action lawsuit. Of course, the decision could be appealed, but in the meantime.... (drum roll, please) the judge ordered Sprint to stop trying to collect the fees from customers in California who were refusing to pay them!   More Â»

—>Adam had a question on his bill—either about the $9.68 adjustment in his favor, or the $102,861.30 they say he still owes, we're not sure—so he decided to take advantage of their online chat. He writes, "Conveniently, they have a link that says 'Questions about your bill?' When you click it, it brings you to a live agent. This is a picture of our session."  More Â»

—>"Go outside, or to hilltop to make calls from your cell phone. Sprint does not guarantee call quality in buildings or homes," a Sprint customer service rep told reader Nathan shortly before he canceled service. Sprint had told a long series of lies with various reasons and solutions that never materialized for why Nathan and his family couldn't get any reception in their home. After wrangling for many months, Nathan told them to stuff it.  More Â»

—>A California judge has issued a tentative ruling against Sprint regarding early termination fees. Although Sprint has two weeks to respond before the judge issues a final ruling, if the ruling stands then Sprint will have to pay $73 million in refunds to former customers. That Verizon settlement for $21 million earlier this month must be looking pretty sweet to Sprint's investors right about now.   More Â»

—>As the second coming of the Jesusphone 3G draws near, we wanted to remind customers of other wireless carriers that there are ways to escape your existing cellphone contract free of early termination fees, and trade your piddling Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile bills for hundreds of pages of gloriously itemized AT&T charges. Or just switch carriers.  More Â»

The Senate passed the FISA bill today, which effectively puts an end to any chance of legal repercussions for telcos who helped the government spy on citizens. Senator Obama voted for it, Senator McCain didn't vote, and Senator Clinton, for what it's worth, voted against it. Find out how your senator voted here. [TechCrunch]  More Â»

—>Sprint disconnected Bill's service for "exceeding his account spending limit," even though his account had a -$50 balance and he was signed up for Sprint's Simply Everything unlimited plan. Sprint quickly reactivated Bill's phone after he pointed this out, but warned that his service "will probably shut back off in a couple of days."  More Â»

—>With the debut of that new super iPhone thing only a few short days away, now is the time to threaten your current cellphone company. What's that? You have no intention of switching cellphone companies for the iPhone? Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon's retention reps don't know that. Do they?  More Â»

—>Here at the Consumerist we get a lot of emails requesting more "happy stories." While we wait for some to happen, here are 13 headlines we would love to write. They are in no particular order.  More Â»

—>Chelsea noticed several mistaken charges on her Sprint bill for internet access, along with a late fee even though she was enrolled in automatic bill pay. Sprint quickly reversed the erroneous fees and suggested that she block access to the internet. Chelsea replied that this would be perfectly acceptable, so long as it was a free service. In response, Sprint signed her up for a $15 per month data plan.  More Â»

As the new FISA bill—the one that grants retroactive immunity to wiretapping telcos—moves closer to a final vote in the Senate (and a threatened filibuster), Ars Technica looks at the money. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint donated double the amount to House Democrats who supported the bill than to those who opposed it. [Ars Technica]  More Â»

—>The results of the Harris Interactive survey that tracks the reputations of the 60 most visible companies in America has been released and here they are: Google is tops and Halliburton is not. Not shocking, but there are some interesting findings. Honda is the only car company to make the top 10, and Comcast, Sprint and Northwest Airlines are the least well-regarded in their respective industries.   More Â»

—>If you've ever received cell phone spam, you know how infuriating it can be—especially if you pay by the message. David Pogue of the New York Times recently got hit with a spate of junk text messages on his Verizon plan, and he figured out how to block most of them. If you're with AT&T or Verizon you can block any messages sent through the Internet, as well as change your text message address to an alias to thwart number-guessing spammers. Sprint will let you block specific addresses. T-Mobile lets you block email messages and set up filters based on specific phrases. Login info below.  More Â»

Sprint doesn't charge Uncle Sam an early termination fee if he decides to get out of his cellphone contract early. Why? USAToday reports:  More Â»

—>We get a lot of questions and complaints about the cellphone shopping process, so we thought we'd put together a list of 5 things consumers say to cellphone sales reps that they really should just keep to themselves. Enjoy.  More Â»

Some people think the BBB doesn't work. They do, but only if the company cares about keeping a clean record. See when you look up a company in the BBB database it shows you how many complaints have been filed against the company, how many were answered, how many did the consumer report as being satisfactorily resolved, etc. So if you have a valid complaint, file it with the BBB, and the company cares about its BBB record, you have a decent chance of getting a solution. You might not believe it, but it turns out Sprint is one of those companies. Here's Kevin's story of how the BBB got his erroneous text message charges refunded and let him leave contract early without early termination fee...  More Â»

This is Round 46 in our Worst Company in America contest, Blue Cross Blue Shield vs Sprint!  More Â»

—>Sprint thanked Ryan for his tour with the Navy by charging him $0.75 per minute for airtime, resulting in a $500 bill. When Ryan complained, Sprint's customer service representatives called him irresponsible, and gently explained that they couldn't care less about his problem.  More Â»

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—>A leaked internal Sprint memo says that the company will be placing limits on the previously unlimited EV-DO mobile broadband data service. If you go over 5GB per month total or 300MB/month while off-network roaming you will be subject to extra fees. Two Sprint employees writing on Sprint user forums vouched for the leak's authenticity. Now Sprint will no longer be the only carrier to offer actually unlimited 3G service. Somehow I don't see CEO Dan Hesse bragging about this move while strolling through black and white cobblestone streets.  More Â»

—>Companies spend a lot of money on marketing, but ultimately, a brand is what people think it is. Meet Brandtags.net — a site where you can tag brands with one word or phrase that best represents how you feel when you see their logo. It seems that Dell has its work cut out for it—some of the top tags people are using for that brand include:   More Â»

—>Sprint is hemorrhaging both money and customers as it searches for a way to stop the financial bleeding. The company lost $505 million in the first quarter alone, and watched helplessly as over a million of its customers defected to other wireless carriers.   More Â»

—>Reader Richard says he came home this summer to angry parents "because of our sprint bill with the family share plan was insanely high." Of course, it turned out to be the same typo we'd written about before, but we really enjoyed the polite but firm manner in which Sprint asked Richard's parents for $39,952... "today."  More Â»

—>Jessie opened his Sprint bill and nearly had a heart attack. Staring back at him was in big bold letters: COLLECTION AGENCY ALERT. After recovering, Jessie looked at his bill and nearly had a second heart attack. It said the amount due was $32,669.00. Huh? Had his cellphone been hacked? Used as a call-home payphone for a neighborhood of Tajikistan émigrés? Used by NASA as a Space Station communications channel? Take a guess and then see the answer inside...  More Â»

—>Interesting, completely unverified, tidbit from an anonymous Sprint employee: "We're no longer allowed to quote the customer in our notes [on the account] because if they're subpoenaed by a judge then they'll be evidence proving they're telling the truth regarding their situation." Any Sprint insiders care to comment?  More Â»

—>This is Round 28 in our Worst Company in America contest, Sprint vs Hewlett Packard. Vote which sucks more, inside...  More Â»

—>While Jeff Cannizzaro was off fighting in Iraq, he was also fighting Sprint. Jeff suspended his phone while overseas, but left some money in the account. While he was away, Sprint kept deducting small amounts from his balance. His wife kept calling and writing emails, trying everything they could think of to get Sprint to stop deducting the money. Nothing worked.   More Â»

—>Two more instances of Sprint's insecure online system:  More Â»

—>Reader Pam asked Jessica if she could port her landline to her mobile account, prompting the Sprint CSR to respond: "No, are you nucking futz?" Pam wasn't expecting an abusive chat when she visited Sprint's website to research a potential contract extension, but Jessica unexpectedly appeared with advice that wasn't just rude, but also wrong.  More Â»

—>Here's a sad story from reader Kristin:  More Â»

—>In the comments on our post exposing a flaw in Sprint's online account security that would let a stranger completely take control of your cellphone account, a former Sprint rep says it's even weaker than what we thought. How? Reader Dragonfire81 says that every question about cars has three luxury models and one typical car, making it pretty easy to guess. "None of the above" for "which properties have you owned" was correct 99% of the time. And worst of all, you only need to answer two of the questions correctly to gain access to an account. "I was shocked at the number of times I was able to access an account by simply guessing the answers," he writes. "Fortunately I am an ethical person, but if I wasn't I could've done a LOT of damage very easily." Here's his comment in full:  More Â»

—>We found you can hijack a Sprint user's account as long as you know their cellphone number, just a smidge about them, and have half a brain. Once inside, you have total access to their account. You could change their billing address, order a whole bunch of cellphones sent to a drop location, and leave the victim paying the bill. There's also the stalker's wet dream: add GPS tracking to their cellphone and secretly watch their every movement from any computer. Reader Jim told Sprint about this 2 months ago but they ignored him, so I tested it out and am publishing the results in the hope of getting Sprint to fix this exploit. I'll show you we cracked into a Sprint account and just how much damage I could have done, inside...  More Â»

—>Allison and her husband wanted to reduce the amount of minutes they're signed up for on their Sprint-Nextel cellphone plan. While that was a hassle in of itself and Allison ended up getting a phone with another company, the fun really begins once ""Insert SIM" started flashing on her husband's phone (which is on the Nextel network, which uses SIM cards). Sprint seemed convinced that the SIM card had been reported as lost or stolen and couldn't be activated. This was very bad as it was her husband's business line. What followed were a series of 45+ minute call time waits, disconnected customer service calls, fruitless visits to the store, conflicting and confusing information given by different customer service reps and tech support personnel. During the fracas, her husband lost one customer who hadn't been able to reach him during the outage. Over 100 days into the reign of new Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and shennanigans like the following story are still happening. Oh Danny-boy, are one of the "nukes" you have planned for revamping Sprint aimed at customer service?  More Â»

—>Someone hacked this couple's Sprint account, and bought four new phones on it, leaving these 12-year customers to pay over $2,500. Every time they called Sprint, the fraud department said not to worry and that the charges would be off the bill next month, but the disconnect notices kept arriving until Sprint shut off their phone. Only after a local consumer reporter got involved was the problem solved. When asked why it took so long, Sprint said, "it takes a while to complete a thorough investigation." If you're a legacy Nextel customer now with Sprint, you may want to ask about getting a PIN set up on your account. The account seemed to have been targeted (the fraud department said probably by someone inside Sprint) because it was an old Nextel account that didn't have a PIN.  More Â»

—> —> A man who worked on the front line of Sprint's customer service department sent us some dirt on what goes on over there, including officially designated fake supervisors, obnoxious personal notes left in your account from your last call, and credit quotas of about $2.50 per call. "I was once punished by a Supervisor and written up because I was giving too many courtesy credits. Apparently Sprint doesn't feel that being transferred 7 times and then hung up on is worth $10 in return."  More Â»

—>BG's Sprint plan lets him talk for 1,000,499 minutes per month and only costs $50. How did he find this stupefyingly amazing plan? Hit the jump for his story.  More Â»

—>Michael wrote in to let us know that in spite of Sprint's customer service shortcomings, the company is happy to give a discount to those customers who have remained with the beleaguered wireless provider. Here is the email exchange Michael had with Sprint...  More Â»

He writes:

I've been a Sprint customer for around ten years, and in early February decided to upgrade to a new HTC Mogul smartphone under Sprint's "New For You" rebate program which gives existing customers the same price on new phones that new customers get, as long as the existing customers agree to extend their contracts. To get a $100 rebate, I agreed to extend for two years—not really a problem, as I have no plans to leave Sprint. I received the phone and mailed in the rebate form.  More Â»

—> Allen Harkleroad of GMP Services writes, "A warning to all Sprint corporate customers that have dedicated access (T1's, etc.) if you are out of contract Sprint may be gouging you and claiming outrageously high local loop charges as the cause."   More Â»

—> In a letter to Sprint, AT&T Mobility, and T-Mobile, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has asked the companies whether or not they're going to start pro-rating their Early Termination Fee policies as promised, reports RCR Wireless. "Sens. Klobuchar and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) are co-sponsors of a sweeping wireless consumer protection bill" that carriers are against. In her letter, Klobuchar writes, "It is time for the wireless companies to adhere to the assurances they made to the American consumer and start pro-rating these fees." In response, Sprint said by the end of Q2 2008, T-Mobile said the first half of 2008, and AT&T Mobility said nothing at all. (Verizon already pro-rates their ETF.)  More Â»

—>Here are working email addresses for the Sprint board of directors. Should the special phone line Sprint set up for Consumerist readers (703-433-4401) somehow fail to work out or someday cease working, these represent yet a higher level to which you could escalate a long-standing complaint. We hear you can also use these addresses to submit hostile takeover bids.  More Â»

Rumors on the Internets: T-Mobile may be consider buying Sprint in order to keep the company from lowering its prices and triggering a price war, says Merrill Lynch. "In such a price war scenario, we think T-Mobile would face the most pressure, and Deutsche Telekom would see the increased urgency to drive market repair," the firm's analysts said.   More Â»

—>Sprint has announced a fourth quarter loss of $29.5 billion, says the Chicago Tribune. Most of the loss is due to a one-time $29.5 billion writedown of its purchase of Nextel. The wireless carrier says it expects 1.2 million additional customers to leave this quarter, citing dropped calls and poor customer service as their reason for seeking less frustrating pastures.

Chief Executive Dan Hesse, who took over in December, said business is worse than he expected and is deteriorating.  More Â»

—>Starting tomorrow, Sprint will offer an unlimited everything plan for $100. That's unlimited unlimited voice, data, text, e-mail, Web-surfing, TV, music, GPS navigation, Direct Connect and Group Connect. The move comes after all the other carriers announced unlimited voice plans for $100, which itself was a reaction to Sprint's limited deployment of an unlimited plan for $100. What comes next? We're guessing family plan deals that are better than simply $200 for two lines, $300 for three lines, etc, and perhaps even price drops.  More Â»

—>The author of the BuisnessWeek article "Sprint's Wake-Up Call", Spencer Ante, has posted his entire interview with Sprint's new CEO, Dan "At Least I'm Not Gary Forsee" Hesse.  More Â»

—>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.   More Â»

—>BusinessWeek has a truly excellent article about the customer service meltdown that lead to Sprint's current notorious reputation for poor customer service. The article sums up what we've been reporting over the past year: After the Sprint/Nextel merger, "customer service" was essentially destroyed as a concept at the new company. The CSRs were rigidly timed and judged only on how short their calls were and how many contract extensions they were able to bring in. Even bathroom breaks were monitored, one ex-Sprint CSR told BusinessWeek.  More Â»

—> Last December, Theodore Karantsalis received a letter from Sprint, where he was a customer, telling him that someone who banks with Wells-Fargo—where he's not a customer—was presented with his invoice and personal data when they logged into their Wells-Fargo Checkfree account. The customer contacted Sprint, and Sprint contacted Karantsalis. Karantsalis decided that he'd deal with the issue on his own instead of bringing a lawyer into it or throwing his hands up in frustration, so he took both companies to small claims court.  More Â»

—>Just like it hinted, Sprint has rolled out an unlimited minute plan. For $119 per month, you get unlimited voice, texting, web, email and picture mail. However, it's only available in the test markets of San Francisco Bay Area, Upper Central California, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Tampa. We actually got a tip about this four days ago on February 14th (it got lost in the email shuffle), so it looks like Sprint did in fact beat Verizon to the unlimited cellphone game and then forced Verizon to react to their offer, which, considering Sprint's bottom-dog status right now, is a major coup for new CEO Dan Hesse. It remains to be seen whether these plans will actually be unlimited or if we will see the same secret caps that Comcast put on their "unlimited" broadband plans.  More Â»

—>Starting February 19th, Verizon will begin offering a supposedly unlimited cellphone minute plan for a flat $99 per month. It's only really a deal, though, if you use more than 1000 minutes per month. More important than the actual value is that a brand-name cellphone carrier is offering a flat-rate unlimited minute plan. Notably, Verizon's move came on the heels of Sprint's new CEO suggesting last week that Sprint might be headed in that direction. I predict a flurry of plan-matching by the other carriers. The breakdown of the various new Verizon unlimited plans, inside.  More Â»

—>The days of hoarding over your cellphone minutes like Ebenezer Scrooge over pieces of coal could be over if Sprint follows through with a plan to offer a flat-rate, unlimited voice call plan. It's but one "nuke" in the new CEO's brain arsenal of tricks designed to disrupt the industry and regain market share for the beleaguered cellphone service. "If we can't be different, we can't win," says CEO Dan Hesse.   More Â»

—>JD writes:

My device was stolen in Mexico. I reported it. The Sprint rep. suspended the WRONG line. My bill comes a few weeks ago: $6,000+. My Sprint bill was $6,000 this month and two calls to Fraud Prevention/2 tickets/and my bill is almost due (with no response or adjustment, was was promised within 2 business days, twice). I don't know what to do at this point...

—> Sprint appears to be blocking MMS picture messages on certain phones, specifically high-end ones like the HTC Touch. Although the phones are fully capable of sending and receiving such messages, Sprint sells them with the required features disabled, and each time a third-party developer comes up with a software solution that solves the problem, Sprint swoops in and "fixes" it so that it no longer works.  More Â»

—>Sprint got hit with a class-action lawsuit for illegally extending customer's contracts. Like most cellphone providers, up until recently they would put you in a new two-year contract if you added minutes, got a new phone, got refunds, or wore a blue shirt on Tuesday.   More Â»

—>Tmobile is yet again as number one in customer care., according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Wireless Customer Care Rating. Tmobile scored 105, Verizon comes just behind at 101, Alltell and AT&T tie at 99, and Sprint puts in a poor showing at 83. The survey measures quality of interaction with customer service reps, automated response systems, in-store visits, and online chats. Tmobile consistently ranks high on the survey due to a company culture dedicated to solving problems on the first call. As for the other providers? The subheading on the rating agency's press release says it all, "When Customer Care Issues Are Handled by an Automated Response System Wireless Provider Performance Drops Dramatically"  More Â»

—>Sprint has been charging a TortDeform blogger's family $6 a month in local Texas taxes for the past three and half years, but the problem is the family hasn't lived in the Lone Star State for three and half years. In addition, Sprint has also been charging local Nevada taxes where they now live. When the family asked for a refund, Sprint said they would refund only the last three months, because of "policy." The blogger's dad is an attorney, and plans on taking the issue to court. Oops, looks like Sprint picked the wrong partner to tango with.  More Â»

S&P thinks Sprint will continue to hemorrhage customers in 2008. "Because management faces significant challenges in improving operations, we do not expect a reversal of these negative operating trends in 2008," S&P said in a statement. [BusinessWeek]  More Â»

In the first cost-cutting move by new Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, 4,000 jobs were cut. Its stock subsequently sunk 26% to a new 52-week low of $8.56. Wall Street is overreacting, we have this feeling in our heart of hearts that Hesse can turn things around. [Reuters]  More Â»

Sprint is laying off several thousand employees, says the Wall Street Journal. Yeah, you know, if there's one word that always springs to mind when we think of Sprint it's "overstaffed." [WSJ]  More Â»

—>The other day reader Dave wrote us because he'd noticed a bunch of strange debits from Sprint on his bank account. Since he uses Sprint, he thought it was a billing error, albeit a serious one, because Sprint had debited $1,717.49 in the past two weeks. Dave hadn't been able to find anyone at Sprint to help him reverse the charges and wrote to us for advice. Yikes!  More Â»

—>Here's where you can go to opt-out from annoying text message ads sent to you by Sprint. Yes, it's legit, you get to that page from the opt-out link on this Sprint page. However, they may have trouble saying goodbye. Scott, our tipster, writes, "After I sent my phone number through this page, I received 5 text messages from Sprint, telling me that I won't receive any more text messages from Sprint..."  More Â»

—>Reader Stephen writes in to let us know that he somehow got signed up for a scammy "Joke of the Day" service that charged $9.99 to his Sprint account.  More Â»

—>Sprint has told Jon that he owes over $2,500 in broken phones that he says he returned but they don't seem to have a record of. His tale is long and twisted, and seems to be the first reported failure of the Sprint executive customer service line we've received. In fact, his account sounds so messed up that probably the best thing to do is shut it down and switch providers. Just another drop in the churn bucket. Jon writes:  More Â»

—>Sprint wants Tracey Stewart to keep paying her dead father's cellphone bill. Sprint is not completely heartless: they offered to cut his monthly rate to $10 until the contract expires in September.  More Â»

—>Krystl and Sprint tell us that the cellphone provider has seen the error of its ways and decided that Krystl no longer owes them over fourteen thousand dollars:"They dropped all the charges and had told me that the person who had initially signed me up for sprint was supposed to put me on the new EVDO technology system at which they didn't."  More Â»

—>Reader Rob tells us that the CSRs manning the Sprint Consumerist Hotline get the same runaround you do when they try to talk to other departments of their own company.  More Â»

I recently read this story.  More Â»

—>A Consumerist reader reports his success with escaping Sprint without paying an early termination fee by calling the Sprint Consumerist Executive Help Line (703-433-4401), who were the only people who didn't give him a line of bull when he called. He argued that the new fees Sprints was imposing were a material change of contract (see "Sprint Mails Customers A "Get Out Of Sprint Free" Card") and thus voided his agreement so he could now switch carriers and port his number without penalty.   More Â»

Sprint to pay $52.2M in back taxes to several towns in Missouri. [CNNMoney]  More Â»

—>Sprint has a new CEO, and, you know, it's a tough job being "the new guy" and being charged with turning around a poorly performing company. So we thought we'd give Dan Hesse a hand and tell him what's wrong with their phone-based customer service, seen as being one of their major weaknesses. We asked our readers for their thoughts and they had lots of neat ideas why Sprint customer service sucks. Some of them even have worked on the call center side of Sprint; their insights are especially revealing/frightening...  More Â»

—>Sprint customer service reps can only fix 53% of of customer problems on the first call, according to an internal company document viewed by the WSJ. In contrast, T-Mobile has a 71% first-call fix rate, despite Sprint having nearly triple the amount of CSRs. That is really bad. Why is Sprint's customer service so bad? Do they just hire incompetent people? Are they too focused on metrics, where the most important thing is that they spend the least amount of time on a call as possible? Are the reps underpaid? What, oh, what, is at the root of this customer service conundrum?  More Â»

—>Sprint named Dan Hesse as its new CEO, replacing Gary Forsee who was effectively fired in October. Dan used to be the CEO of Embarq, which was formerly Sprint's local telephone division. 1997-200 he was the CEO of AT&T wireless for 3 years and worked there for a total of 23 years. He left that job to join a Seattle tech startup,Terabeam, which made free-space optical transceivers for Internet access in city downtowns. So the dude is has got some chops. Will his combination of experience and innovation be just what Sprint needs to staunch its subscriber base hemorrhaging? According to this Bloomberg article, Hesse helped slow profit bleeding at Embarq by closing call centers and creating service packages. In Sprint's case, however, he needs to open more call centers. We shall see.  More Â»

Sprint cuts a deal to make surfing MySpace via your phone easier. Oh joy. [Reuters]  More Â»

Mention coupon code MORE4U on your next Sprint phone purchase and get $25 off.  More Â»

—>Awhile back, Sprint got tired of us posting the contact information for everyone in the company, and instead set up a number that went directly to the executive customer service queue. Lately we've been getting quite a few positive stories about the hotline, as well as one negative experience.   More Â»

Sprint Hotline Success Story: "I was excited when I read about the Sprint SERO plan and how it was open to everyone on consumerist.com. The only problem was that I already had Sprint, but I was out of contract. I signed up for a new phone and plan on the SERO website. They ended up adding a new line of service and billing me 449.00 for the phone. I returned the phone, got another phone and things snowballed from there. I have spent HOURS trying to get my bill adjusted. I have been in total SPRINT HELL for the past 3 months. At one point, my 50.00 monthly plan turned into 1100.00 (with multiple phones, late fees etc.) I spent 2 hours on the phone and went through 2 supervisors before my bill was corrected, or so I thought. Two weeks later a 300.00 charge was put on my bill I was told that one of the phones I had returned they had issued a credit for had not been received, even though I had in fact returned the handset! WHAT?! Needless to say my phone service was cut off when I did not pay the 300.00+ bill. Then I saw the posting for the sprint hotline. After 30 mins on the phone with a very pleasant agent, my bill now reflects a credit balance of 16.00!! Thanks Consumerist!" The Sprint Consumerist Hotline: (703-433-4401)  More Â»

—>Verizon's next generation of devices will run on the GSM network that will be used by AT&T and T-Mobile, meaning that in a few years, customers with unlocked phones will be able to move between the three providers without purchasing new equipment. Verizon currently uses a CDMA network along with Sprint, but last week announced that it would use the GSM-protocol LTE (Long Term Evolution) for their fourth-generation data services. Note, Verizon's LTE phones will not be backwards-compatible with the current GSM networks run by AT&T and T-Mobile. Both are expected to support LTE. And don't expect to see the new phones anytime soon...  More Â»

—>I was going insane the last two days. I had signed a renew contract for two years with Sprint in exchange for my first born a new Centro for each of the two lines on my acct. Lo and behold, the Centros arrive and I go to activate one while at work. Activation goes fine and the girl is more than helpful even though she has to do a couple of hoop jumps to get the phone working. I didn't have time to activate the second one and decided to wait til that night at home. After being transferred to seven representatives, I asked for a supervisor and got Ben in the North Carolina call center who said he had found the problem and had submitted a ticket to get it taken care of and he would call back in three hours after the ticket was completed. You guessed it, no call back.   More Â»

No thanks, we're sucking just fine on our own: struggling Sprint rejected a $5 billion investment offer from South Korea's SK Telecom Co Ltd that would have also installed former chairman Tim Donahue as CEO. [Reuters]  More Â»

—>Dialing 911 sets off a loud alarm on newer Verizon phones, potentially putting customers in danger. Imagine dashing under your bed at the sound of an intruder breaking through the front door, only to wonder if you should call 911 from your cellphone because it would reveal your location. A Texas woman was forced to make a similar decision when she discovered that the security chain guarding her vacant property was missing.

She grabbed her new Casio G'zOne phone from Verizon Wireless, which to her horror made an audible alarm when she called 911.  More Â»

—>In August, my husband and I wanted to change phone carriers from Sprint to Helio. We first looked at the Sprint website to see if our contracts were up. It appeared that my contract was up in January 07 and my husbands was expired by July 07. We called Sprint to make sure. The person we talked to said there was some 1-year renewal that was given to us with a $50 rebate in 2006. We didn't remember doing this. The man we spoke to said he would get rid of the rebate and add it on to our last bill and not charge us the $150. Great! We thought.   More Â»

—>Sprint decided yesterday that the water was fine at the "prorated ETF/ no contract extensions for rate plan changes" pool party and has jumped right in. You can change your rate plan starting Monday, but will have to wait until sometime next year for the prorated ETFs.  More Â»

Sprint Nextel's third quarter earnings are, uh, down 77%. Sprint lost 397,000 customers this quarter, according to MarketWatch. [MartketWatch]  More Â»

—>Red Tape Chronicles has followed up on the Developmentally disabled 18-year old Amanda Clark who ran up $10,000 in premium text messages whom we told you about last week. The text messages were part of teenage text chat services advertised in the back of her teen mags. "Hook a hottie," they said. Sprint agreed to cut the bill in half but won't budge further. The UK-based text message company says that since she texted "Y" in response to the message, 'Y' to: '74447' to start. 14+ textconnectusa.com Help?1-866-662-7132. Send STOP to end.100c per msg rcvd + std msg fees," the girl should have been completely informed as to the service's cost and the family is plumb out of luck. In all, 642 messages were received.  More Â»

—>Customer satisfaction with buying cellphones at stores fell this year, reports J.D. Power and Associates in the recently released 2007 Wireless Retail Sales Satisfaction StudySM-Volume 2.  More Â»

—> Sprint will relinquish unlock codes to departing customers in good standing as part of proposed class action settlement.The class was formed last year by California consumers who argued that the locked phones bound them to Sprint by making it more expensive to switch carriers. Sprint claimed that releasing the codes was unnecessary since the service contract clearly informed consumers that phones would only work on Sprint's network.  More Â»

—>Here's the current text-message rate plans for the different cellphone providers. Most providers also offer unlimited text message plans: AT&T: $19.99 a month, Sprint: $20 a month, T-Mobile: $14.99 a month, Verizon: Unlimited messaging isn't optional feature, but it is part of the America's Choice Select Plan.  More Â»

—>Vonage has settled a patent infringement lawsuit with Sprint, agreeing to pay $80 million. Vonage has also struck a deal with Sprint to license their technology, a move that helped boost Vonage's stock, according to the NYT.  More Â»

Sprint's CEO Gary Forsee has resigned. [Marketwatch]  More Â»

Sprint wants to replace CEO Gary Forsee by December. [NYT]  More Â»

—>According to Google, Sprint is the suckiest cellphone company. When you query "____ sucks," filling in the name of different providers, Sprint returns the most results. Here's how all the providers stacked up:  More Â»

—>According to Google, Verizon is the coolest cellphone company. When you query "____ is cool," filling in the name of different providers, Verizon is tits. Here's how many results were returned for each company:  More Â»

—>Disney, like ESPN before it, has had enough of the "hypercompetative" cellphone market and is bowing out.  More Â»

—>Cellphone text message spam is still rare, but annoying, especially as each one usually costs you. If you're experiencing a deluge, often the only way to fight it is to turn off text messaging entirely, but which providers let you?  More Â»

—>An intern over at The Stranger (we love The Stranger) has been picketing a Sprint store for a reader who wrote in complaining that he had not received his $30 rebate.  More Â»

—>"We took pride in shredding all information of the customers and being as mindful as possible to their security. Something that always blew my mind was that right on the computer screen, available for anyone to see (depending on the store layout), was the customer's social security number, date of birth, license number and more. Incredible! I never understood that. My store had two registers in the front and two in the back. A customer could stand behind us at the front register and get a full peak at everything we were doing. Where is the protection?"  More Â»

—>If anyone is looking for a cheap way to escape their Sprint cellphone contract, you can use their raising of the pay-as-you-go text message rates from 15 cents to 20 cents as an excuse. Here's the step by step procedure to follow...  More Â»

—>Russ writes and reminds us how pounding irrefutable legal truth into a customer service rep's ear is the key to escaping your cellphone contract without early termination fee...  More Â»

—>The New York State Consumer Protection Board suggest that Sprint pay $200, the amount it would have charged customers to end their contracts, to the 1000 customers it dumped for calling customer service too much. Mindy Brockstein, the board's chairperson, told the AP:

"These former Sprint customers will have to purchase new phones and incur other expenses and inconveniences if they want to continue receiving wireless service," Bockstein said. "Sprint Nextel should do more to improve the quality of its customer service and this is a good place to start."

—>Sprint announced Monday it was canceling the accounts of around 1,000 people who called customer service too much. At first blush, it might sound like a pretty jerk thing to do, have bad service and then punish people who complain, but we spoke with one of our most reliable Sprint insiders, who had a different side to the story: the terminated customers were scamming Sprint, calling in again and again, just to get free service credits.  More Â»

—>Sprint canceled the service of 200 Army men and women who had just come back from Iraq. For roaming too much. Because Sprint hadn't installed a tower close enough to their base. A little ol' backwoods place called West Point.  More Â»

"Our records indicate that over the past year, we have received frequent calls from you regarding your billing or other general account information. While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs..."

I have called them alot over the past year, but those calls were to have them fix their errors. I've always been polite to their employees (whether it be over the phone or in a Sprint store). I've never missed a payment and have always paid my bill early. I've never asked them for discounts or freebies.  More Â»

—>Sprint's new ad campaign has dropped the "Nextel" name and will be focusing on a new slogan "Sprint Ahead."   More Â»

—>A new 19 cent Sprint roaming rate increase means customers can cancel contract without early termination fee, as long as they meet these conditions:  More Â»

—>Back in February, we posted a series of conversations we had with a very knowledgeable Sprint insider (he still has his job, by the way). Here's a limited collector's edition box set of our eight chats.  More Â»

—>Here's a roundup of all the contract clauses regarding "materially adverse changes" for all the major cellphone carriers. When they starting charging new fees or raise the price of a service, you can use this section to argue that you need to be let out of contract without early termination fee....  More Â»

—>The Chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin, has issued a stern rebuke to the telecoms that blocked their subscribers from accessing free Iowa-based conference call providers. Quoth the Chairman:

We actually contacted the companies that were listed in the press [reports] and said our rules prohibit you from blocking consumers' access to any of the service providers... One had stopped blocking, but we heard complaints the next week that they were restricting access, sort of narrowing the pipe. We called them back and said, no, no, you can't artificially degrade [service] either.

—>The life of a Consumerist editor can be a roller coaster ride of emotion. One minute you're laughing at Delta airlines uglyass new planes, the next you're reading a letter from a minister who says Sprint made his wife cry.   More Â»

—>My Money Blog details his experience with jumping in on the SERO (Sprint Employee Referral Offer) plan, which can you a good deal on a new cellphone and plan. Overall, it sounds positive and he got hooked up with free data transfer.   More Â»

—>If you're shopping for a Sprint phone and or plan, you might find this six documents useful handed to us by one of their recently fired customer service reps.   More Â»

—>Inside, a list of 80 different Sprint company phone numbers by department.   More Â»

—>A former call center worker told us how to get to, and deal with, Sprint retentions department so they will fix billing errors, or waive fees.  More Â»

The inability of students and others at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., to make cell phone calls during the April 16 shooting tragedy added to the chaos surrounding the events of the day, students and others have reported in media interviews.

—>Noah took to heart our relentless pounding about how useful and easy it is to get executive customer service. Putting our advice to good use, he got some serious traction on his longstanding Sprint service problems by booting his issue to the top of the totem pole. Here's his success story:  More Â»

I downloaded a single ring tone for my new phone, and paid $2.50 for it.  More Â»

—>Cingular blocked access to free conference call providers; Sprint and Qwest found Cingular's chutzpah inspiring, and followed suit. At issue is a charge Iowa-based companies pass along to national carriers.

The 712 area code used by these services allow the local carriers to charge a number of subsidies to those carrying the incoming calls due to the location of the tiny, rural exchange. These fees are split between the local exchange and the "free" conference call company, which allows them to make a pretty penny. The fees for these calls made into 712 are higher than those charged by other exchanges, and AT&T/Cingular has in fact filed a lawsuit against these Iowa-based telcos for what Cingular claims are violation of a number of laws and FCC decisions.

—>Over the past week, it's been quite a learning experience here at The Consumerist. Former and current reps from all of the major wireless companies have written in, sharing their tips and tricks and confessing their sins. It's been a fascinating look inside the daily life of a sales rep, but what have we learned?   More Â»

—>Sprint gave Seth a terrible plan when he tried to activate an old phone onto his account. Seth had enjoyed a $105 per month retention plan that provided unlimited text messaging and 2,000 minutes. In November, Seth noticed several charges for text messages. He called Sprint and spoke with Kiyana, who made several changes and gave Seth her direct number in case there were any additional problems.

In December, my bill came in at $450. I called Kiyana's direct line, which was actually a number for a sheet metal company or something similar.

I called Sprint and spoke to Jason, he offered a 28 day credit to keep my service from being cancelled. I wanted an investigation - something wasn't right. I scanned the bill while on hold and noticed something: nights and weekends weren't mentioned at all. Jason, there's no way Sprint would charge me for nights and weekends, right? No, sir. Sprint doesn't offer a plan that charges for nights and weekends, but it looks like that's what's been happening. That's why I was 1500 minutes over each month — because they were charging me for free minutes. When Kiyana changed my plan around back in November, she left off nights and weekends completely — and nobody had noticed until now.

—>Sprint has held $31.49 of Bronwen's money hostage since January, after taking two weeks to ship a phone that never received service. Though we haven't run a telecom, perhaps Sprint should provide a working phone before messing up the bill. Pillage before you burn, right? Bronwen signed up for service on January 5th and received a bill, but no phone, on January 13th. The bill included a service charge through February.

I called, spoke to "Neil", and complained that I hadn't received the phone yet, so requested that the monthly service charge be suspended until I actually receive and activate the phone; and requested that the activation fee be removed because it should have been waived because I signed up online. Neil assured me that the phone would be sent out immediately, overnight, and the bill would be adjusted.

—>BuzzAboutWireless is Sprint's new customer feedback site. The venture features a moderated blog and an open message board forum, along with howtos and reviews.  More Â»

—>Sprint has joined the ranks of cell phone providers whose former (and current) sales reps are beating down the Consumerist's door, eager to tell all. Let us move without delay to the confessions of a former Sprint sales rep:  More Â»

Oddly framed vase of roses aside, we're basically with it, ethics, it's not how you win or lose, etc, until the very end.   More Â»

—>Sprint is trying out two new unlimited bundle plans that one industry analyst is calling, "a grenade," with the power to disrupt both wireless and landline carriers.  More Â»

In the message, Judy advises customers to call Sprint's main line at 877-812-1223 and wait their turn for incompetent service just like anybody else.  More Â»

—>Sprint changed Carolyn's plan and renewed her contract without her consent. A nine-year customer with four lines, Carolyn's problems began when her December invoice showed roaming charges on a plan that allowed for free roaming. She soon discovered that in November, Sprint had moved her to a newer, more expensive plan, without her consent.  More Â»

—>We're guilty of spreading disinformation; Sprint's $3, seven-minute rule is the average customer service reps shoot for, over time. It's not per call, as we've been trumpeting (out our ass, it seems) in our headlines. Kevin writes:  More Â»

—>If you're looking to escape your one or two year-old contract in favor of Sprint, Planned Parenthood has a plan for you.

"Planned Parenthood Wireless is a new choice for your cell phone service. By signing up for this service, you will help preserve reproductive rights, and ensure access to comprehensive family planning and medically accurate sex education for women and families around the world. You'll do something you do every day - talk on your cell phone - and you'll be helping Planned Parenthood as 10% of all monthly charges goes to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, at no extra cost to you."

—>Remember how we said Sprint's customer service sucks because they only let reps adjust bills by up to $3 per call? Well, that wasn't no hooey-talk.  More Â»

—>For Sprint, life with Gary might be bad, but who knows how much worse it could be without him? That's the rationale keeping the shareholders from replacing the CEO, asserts an internal Sprint source.  More Â»

—>Sprint employee bonuses this year were reduced to nearly zero, while executive pay remained untouched, according to an inside source. The demoralizing effect of this pay cut undoubtedly contributes to the cellphone company's substandard customer service.  More Â»

Sprint will cancel the accounts of CDMA customers who "excessively" use roaming, starting March 15, 2007, according to a company document provided by an internal Sprint source.  More Â»

—>Sprint has such shitty customer service because they don't give customer service reps enough leeway to disburse billing adjustments, nor do they provide enough support, asserts our inside source.  More Â»

—>The more money you make Sprint, the more likely they are to you adjustments on your bill when you ask for them, regardless of whether the adjustment is due to a Sprint error. In the computer, your "value indicator" is represented on a scale of one dollar sign to five dollar signs, with five being the highest. Our Sprint corporate mole tells more.  More Â»

—>The Texas Attorney General today filed suit against Sprint over their false and misleading billing practices.   More Â»

—>We asked our leak what Sprint thought when The Consumerist posted back in October about how customers could escape their cellphone contract without penalty, based on the raise in text-message rates.  More Â»

—>Sprint/Nextel employees caught commenting or contributing to online venues, blogs, or consumer report-venues would be researched, identified, and documented via Corporate Security team and fired, announced Sprint senior council Len Kennedy via intracompany email Monday.  More Â»

—>According to intel we received from a well-placed source inside Sprint/Nextel, every article we write that has Sprint's name on it gets put on the desk of Gary Forsee, CEO of Sprint. Our source, whom we'll refer to as "Philip" so as not to endanger his job says,  More Â»

If the peons of Sprint Customer Service give you static, try this contact info and bump your issue up to the Executive Customer Service department.  More Â»

—>Sprint notified customers that unless you opt-out, Sprint reserves the right to share your private calling data with third party marketers. Sprint hires these companies to market other Sprint services to you.  More Â»

A Sprint PR rep contacted us regarding our post, "Sprint Refuses To Cancel Dead Brother's Cellphone" and it seems they want to help.  More Â»

Cellular phone carriers like Verizon, Sprint and Cingular, now the new AT&T, are beginning to test and roll out advertising on mobile phone screens, and by next year, cellphone advertising is likely to be more common.  More Â»

—>Image courtesy Uni and her Ukulele.  More Â»

Sprint refuses to cancel the cellphone service of a reader's dead brother. The most they'll "bend" for reader M is to "put the account on vacation," at $5.95 a month.   More Â»

—>Reader Jason contacted us to share tips on how one can successfully resolve customer service issues by writing intelligent well-crafted emails to Gary Forsee, the CEO of Sprint. And, indeed, Jason's emails are a cut above the usual seething buckets of bile that come squirting into our inbox.   More Â»

Potentially opening the door to penalty-free cellphone contract cancellations, Sprint customers received the following in their December invoice:  More Â»

—>A reader tip suggests you can get a better deal on a cellphone by being an immigrant.  More Â»

—>Now that your phone is your own, you can unlock it. Depending on the type of phone it is, unlocking can be as simple as getting a code from your phone company, or as difficult as "drilling into a shield over the main circuit board to tap into the right contacts and kicking the phone into a special diagnostic mode to get at the unlocking code." Uh, yeah. Thankfully there are smart people at PC Magazine who can give us the lowdown on the formerly shady practice of unlocking a cell phone.Yay!  More Â»

Consumer Reports has released the results of their cell phone customer service survey. Sprint and Cingular were among the lower-rated performers, while Verizon came out near the top of all cities surveyed. Apparently in Cleveland, Pheonix and Tampa there is a company called Alltel that people are very fond of as well.  More Â»

UPDATE: A digg commenter claiming he used to work for Sprint says this is from a training video teaching employees how to behave.  More Â»

—>If your cellphone contract is ending, you can haggle the next one into a much better deal. Here's how:  More Â»

Sprint's retention process has gotten almost as bad as AOL's.  More Â»

This sounds like a nifty HowTo on getting Sprint to give you a few extra bucks off your cellphone bill.  More Â»

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—>Looks like there's yet another charge Sprint lets its retail stores charge you that is totally unnecessary.  More Â»

If you're a current Sprint customer, watch out when you buy a new phone in a retail store. The store may try to trick you into signing up for a new contract, and Sprint, Inc, says it's totally cool.  More Â»

Uh oh. Another obstacle to hurtle over in trying to cancel your Sprint Account for hiking text message rates before their October 31st deadline. Reader Drew wrote us in, informing us that his cancellation was shot down:  More Â»

—>An important caveat for those trying to cancel their Sprint service over the recent rate hike: If you're on a text message plan, where you get say 1000 message for $10 or 300 messages for $5, this trick may not work for you, at least not at first blush.  More Â»

Here's two extra phone numbers that may help you if you're trying to cancel Sprint.  More Â»

—>Sprint's retention department is trying its darnedest to prevent customers from jumping out a window of opportunity that would let them cancel service without penalty.   More Â»

Image redacted.  More Â»

—>So you may have noticed posts stopped around 12:30 today. That's because after taking our blog union mandated lunch break, we noticed a gorgeous day out the window. So we took our bike and did a buncha laps around Prospect Park. When we exited Grand Army Plaza, we found about 50 cop cars lined up, ready to perform some kind of neat coordinated operation.   More Â»

—>You wouldn't think that making a cellphone call in your own bedroom would get charged as 'roaming,' but that's exactly what happened to Andrew W. One side of his room is bathed in Sprint coverage. If he shifts to the other side of the bed, all of a sudden he's roaming, and getting charged for it.   More Â»

—>We just called Sprint to check on our coverage for this weekend's trip into the Poconos and experienced something bizarre.  More Â»

—>Everyone in America can call Chris's Sprint voicemail for free, except for Chris. He gets charged for it, and in fact, doing so made him go over his airtime minutes.  More Â»

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—>Call it the "silent prank caller."  More Â»

—>After getting blogo-lambasted for a gaping security hole that allowed anyone to call up and snag your name and home address by punching in your Sprint cellphone number into an automated system, Sprint has closed that selfsame privacy aperture.  More Â»

—>Sprint is taking the lead for crappy customer verification after Boing Boing spilled that their new international call identity verification service will spill the name and address of the owner of a particular phone number just by typing that number into a robot-manned 1-800 number.  More Â»

—>Yay! Free money. Clampants got a card in the mail yesterday from the "Benny/Lundberg Settlement" against Sprint, reading:  More Â»

—>And that stands for privacy.  More Â»

—>Consumer Affairs has an article up called "Florida Opens Cramming Probe." They've got that the order jumbled up. Let me give you the advice my father gave me: "Son, first you probe, then you cram."  More Â»

—>We must be a tabloid, we're getting our stories from Sploid:  More Â»

—>Stalkers and overzealous parents, rejoice! Sprint has a new service "Family Locator Service" that allows you to track on an online map where a registered cellphone travels.  More Â»

Here's how long it's taking to reach a human at various mobile phone carrier customer service lines today.  More Â»

—>The utter pathetic ineptitude of Sprint's customer service is legion. But Steve's letter really butters the biscuit for its pristine irony and Mobius strip double-non-think.   More Â»

—>We call the ponderous attention of our female readers to the new Plastic Assets credit card, and — in the fashion of our flagrant Sprint "ambassador" shilling — fully endorse it.  More Â»

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.  More Â»

Ladies and Gentlemen, your Tier 1 champions! Some no-brainers, squeakers and absolute pummeling.  More Â»

—>We were going to pieces but our whore money/payola/free Sprint phone finally arrived.   More Â»

—>Sprint just approached us to be "Ambassadors." Basically, Sprint gives us a free Power Vision Phone and service for six months in return for our "candid feedback."   More Â»

Paul H writes (our intro for us):

Having some persistent problems with a PCS modem, I sent an email to Sprint customer service via the form on their website. I didn't expect that the people answering the general questions would be able to help me, but I wasn't in the mood for discussing my problems with someone in India, nor could I find any real technical support on Sprint's website.  More Â»

—>Update: Good lord, it's our first dupe. We're going to leave it up here for posterity's sake, but our apologies. Got our email inboxes crossed.  More Â»

Fun with number portability! You read Robert N's and offer any advice, if you can. Our take? Sounds like he needs to escalate the issue with Earthlink. We don't see how they can refuse to turn off his service if we requests it.

I have a story I would like to share regarding local number portability, and would like to solicit advice regarding an apparent black-hole for customer service:  More Â»

A complaint about a bad customer service experience with Sprint from Adam H. (which we will reproduced after the jump) got us to thinking: Do customer service employees who work in the 'billing' offices of phone companies like Sprint have more authority to fix payment issues than the person at your local carrier-owned phone retail store? We have a inclination that one needs to call into the service centers to get any sort of billing resolution, but wouldn't it make sense for at least the managers at the retail operations to have the authority to fix errors, as well? Perhaps it is a trust issue—makes it too easy to tweak bills for friends when you can work with them face-to-face.  More Â»

—>It looks like the relative ad-free environment of your cell phone is about to be populated with advertisments, reports The Times. Verizon and Sprint are said to be testing "short" video ads on their services in March.  More Â»

Joe M. writes:

Sprint Canada provides the toll-free service for the company I work for and has been for as long as I can remember. As a value-added service, they provide flexible call routing features which they call "Time of Day" and "Day of Year", which allow us to vary the terminating number depending on the date and time. We use this to roll the toll-free number over to a cell-phone that alternates between our service staff, and it is handy for holidays.  More Â»

A Republican state senator in Georgia has filed a bill that aims to prohibit cell phone service providers from forcing customers to restart their contracts just to move to a new rate plan. The pandering doublespeak from the cellular service providers in this article is sickening.

Kristin Wallace, spokeswoman for Sprint Nextel. "In principle, Sprint Nextel believes the competitive wireless marketplace is serving its consumers well and that regulation of wireless service would be harmful to innovation and costly for consumers."

Caran Smith, a spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless, said ... "By limiting a carrier's contract options, the state in effect is limiting a consumer's flexibility to move to rate plans and take advantage of services that meet their wireless needs."

Make no mistake: We think that Sprint refusing to help freaked out parents locate their carjacked baby is awful. Whether Sprint's policy states that customers need to pay a $25 fee to subpoena the information or not, an exception should probably have been made. (Sprint has stated that emergency procedure was not followed.)  More Â»

We have an unfortunate/fortunate lack of credit cards, so we are not able to take advantage of the protection services afford customers from credit card providers. Ramit "I Will Teach You to Be Rich" Sethi had been struggling with Sprint for quite some time, and despite reaching a supposed resolution, he was still charged a fee for his early cancellation—despite the fact he did not have a contract.  More Â»

Oz writes:

I have a business account with Sprint and every now and again, damage my equiptment - which results in a call to Lockline, there handset insurance contractor.  More Â»

The internet is all around you, flying invisible through the air, clawing silently at your eyes. Oh, and your wallet. New '3G' cellular data services from Verizon, Sprint, and Cingular are top notch, technology-wise—seriously, we love the ability to have highish speed internet wherever we can get a cell phone signal—but the pricing is a bit out of hand. Wireless nerd Glenn Fleishman takes all three to task specifically for their used of the term 'unlimited.'  More Â»