Sprint PCS will nickel and dime you to death.

Sprint PCS will nickel and dime you to death.  Read on to learn about how my “free” phone turned into an $80 expense and a two year contract extension!

The last time I went to a Sprint store with a phone issue, the one on 23^rd and Broadway, I stepped into the Customer Service line and waited about 20 minutes before the unbelievable happened.  The line didn’t move an inch.  There were still 8 or nine people in front of me.  Suddenly, the woman hollered, “The next person I see will be the last person today!”  We complained, said that we had been waiting in line and that they should have shut off the line rather than let us stand there, and finally we were turned away.

Damn you, Sprint PCS.

So, I swore I would only do business with them through Radio Shack where I could get fast service of OK but not great quality.

Then they other day my sprint phone suddenly would only dial out on a roaming service.  So I called Customer Service.  Now the last time I called Sprint Customer Service I received an automated message telling me that I would have to wait a predicted two hours due to the number of calls they had.  When I called their sales number, they told me to try Customer Service between 2 and 4 am for the shortest wait.  I laughed at the person on the other end of the phone.

So I reluctantly dialed, and got a live person on the phone in under 10 minutes this time.  Slightly better Sprint.  The guy on the line tried to fix the phone, tried to reprogram it, and nothing seemed to work.  He told me I would have to go into the store and have someone look at it.  I groaned so loudly he asked what was wrong.  When I told him about my last experience at the store he acted shocked.  I told him I would try again, but that I wasn’t happy.

Well, today I marched over to the same store on 23^rd and found that it had been remodeled.  Gone was the single person doing customer service, replaced by happier, friendlier multitudes of service people.  Within 15 minutes I was actually talking with someone about the problem.

Unfortunately she told me that I would have to see a phone tech and that it would be a minimum of $35 to $55 depending on what they had to do to the phone, and that it might cost more.  I looked at her and said, “But I could get a new phone for free, right?”  She said that she would see if I was eligible for an upgrade, and in fact I was.  Up to $150 off any new phone, as long as I extended my contract two years.  Bleck!  Already the deal wasn’t as good.  Then she said “Oh, and we don’t have any of the free models right now, so the cheapest we can get you one is for $9.99.” WHAT!!!

Already I am spending money.  I pick out a phone.  Ok, so it’s slightly over $30 with tax.  I could have gone with the $9.99 one, but there were no free ones available and I needed a phone.  Then the bombshell drops as the woman is ringing me up.  “Oh yes, there is a $36 activation charge for every phone upgrade.  But you don’t have to pay it today, it will appear on your next statement,” she announced as if this was a good thing.  “How is that helpful,” I asked? To which she had no reply.  So now, we are up to over $66 dollars for my “free” or $150 off phone.

In about 2 minutes, and I am being generous here, my new phone was activated.  So that means that Sprint is charging $1080.00 per hour for phone activation services.  I wish I charged that much for some of my services.  I have a degree, grad school experience, and 13 years of work experience and I don’t charge that much.  Pretty amazing.

And onto the next question.  “With the camera on this phone, can I send photos to other people?”  “Only if you activate your account’s internet service, and that costs extra.”  “NO THANKS!”

Finally, I asked, assuming that I would once again be screwed by Sprint, “Can I get the phone numbers and ring tones transferred to my new phone?”  “Yes, we can transfer the phone numbers, but you will have to call Customer Service to transfer the ring tones.”  “Aren’t you customer service?”  Yes, but we can’t do it, you have to call the Sprint PCS number and they can transfer them and you can download them again.  Let me write you out a ticket for the phone number transfer and you can come back in one hour and pick it up.  Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that there will be a $15 charge to transfer the numbers.” 

“YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!”

So all in all, to get my “free” phone and have the numbers transferred it was going to cost me over $80.  That is ridiculous and highway robbery. 

SPRINT PCS YOU HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN THAT!

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit