When Ryan purchased a new iPhone 4S from Sprint for his partner’s use, it didn’t work very well. Assuming that the problem was the phone, he brought it back to the store. No, the store employees assured him, it just takes a few weeks for all of the information to “flow” to the new phone when a customer ports a number from another carrier (T-Mobile, in this case.) This is, of course, complete nonsense, but they also claimed to not have another iPhone to exchange it for. So he went home to wait for the information to flow. It didn’t. The two-week return deadline passed, and then Ryan learned that the problem was with the towers, not with his significant other’s number port.

He writes:

I added a line for an iPhone4S less than a month ago for my significant other. This put the phone in a new 2yr contract with the 14day window for returns/exchanges/refunds. My main line phone is due for free upgrade as I am out of contract, but I was not ready to update yet.

We started having problms with the iPhone immediately. I went back to the Sprint store right away and they told us that-

A.) The phone is fine, it can take up to 2-3 weeks for all the T-Mobile info to flow properly back to the new carrier.

B.) They didn’t have any other iPhones in house to do the exchange I wanted, but not to worry about it. I was proactive in coming back and reporting it, so if it didn’t clear up they’d take care of it. But not to worry, it will clear up.

It’s now 3 weeks from purchase. The phone never ‘acclimated’ as promised- (excuse me for not being a techie and trusting the representative of a company I’ve used for almost 10 years- I know expecting to be treated fairly by corporate America will be construed as stupidity by many of the forum trolls). The store tells us to call Sprint and try to make them give us a bill credit.

I called Sprint because obviously I’ve realized the store was full it at this point. On top of it, I’ve just paid the $333.00 bill for Apple care, new line activation, blah blah blah. Over $600 all-in with device and accessories included. Now here’s where it all turns into Sprint playing ‘CYA’

First- The phone rep blames towers she says won’t be fully upgraded until at least September. This means bad to no service for 3 months. I get furious and say that I’m returning everything and switching carriers unless they make this right.

Ryan spoke to other Sprint representatives, who told him that a return or exchange wouldn’t be possible, and that no iPhones are working; it’s all a very big problem, and Apple is trying to cover it up. Okay.

I call the ‘secret’ line on this website (thank you) and get a real person who doesn’t blame aliens and hasn’t appeared on ’16 and pregnant,’ [C]. Nice person, but we did start to get into it again when she wouldn’t budge on the 14 day rule, even though I went back
and was refused an exchange. I wonder if it’s because they make so little on iPhone that they are making a concerted effort to push back on Apple and force people to use the Apple Care rather than step up and be responsible.

[C] lets me know the tickets are all in for somebody to get the engineers to call me to tell me when the towers will work. I’m supposed to call Apple to get them to send me an old refurbished
device to replace the possibly broken one Sprint just sold me. I’m left pondering the existence of a God at this point as I stare off into the customer service void.

I had trusted a company I’ve used for 10 years. I made repeated, good faith efforts to get the problems fixed. They obviously don’t care or they’d simply let us return the device and get something that works. We have added a phone that drops/misses almost all of it’s calls for almost a month now, and have been trying to fix it since day 2. We use cell phones as our primary line with no land lines. If my significant other needs to call 911, etc, there might be no luck. Not to mention, it just plain sucks that they’d be more concerned about how to stick us with a broken device than holding onto me as a customer after the thousands and thousands of dollars I’ve paid them over the years. It’s honestly hurtful to think about. Even after the boiler plate apoliogies.

They keep filing tickets and promising call backs. I don’t need any of that, I need a working cell phone.

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