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This is my Sprint PCS horror story. Every bit of it is true. To date
no one at Sprint has given me any indication that they see a problem
with the way I was served.
I recommend that you avoid doing business with Sprint PCS. In particular, if you are in the Omaha area, I recommend you stay away from the Sprint PCS store at 114th and Center in Omaha, Nebraska, where most of this nonsense took place. |
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| August 6, 2001 | I get a pair of Sprint PCS phones, one for me and one for my lovely wife. At last we will be able to communicate with each other while we're commuting. | |
| August 18, 2001 | My phone starts roaming all the time, even within the Sprint PCS service area. | |
| August 20, 2001 | I take the phone into the Sprint PCS store. It is tested and found OK, except that it needs a new Preferred Roaming List (they say), which is loaded onto the phone. | Technical mistakes could be forgiven... |
| August 21, 2001 | Now the phone gets a "Network Busy" error all the time. I call Sprint PCS Customer "Care." They leave me on hold for 22 minutes, and then tell me "It's a capacity issue." I am told there will be a two-day adjustment for the time I couldn't use my phone, which is fair enough. | ...but not rude customer service. |
| August 22-23, 2001 | Network still busy all the time. I begin to doubt their story. | |
| August 24, 2001 | I make a second trip to the Sprint PCS store to have the phone looked at. This time it's clear the phone is broken, and a warranty replacement is ordered. Which they can't get to me sooner than a week. Worse, I have to come in to the store to pick it up. "We could ship it to you, but it would take even longer." | Obviously they don't see my problems as important. |
| August 25, 2001 | I call Customer Care to demand a credit. I'm told that I have to wait for the monthly charges to be billed. I say, "But the monthly charges are billed in advance." I am put on hold and left there until I hang up perhaps 15 minutes later. | The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. |
| August 31, 2001 | Where is that replacement phone? I call the store. There are three choices: hit 1 to listen to store hours, hit 2 to get put through to Customer Care, hit 3 to talk to someone in Sales. There is no option to talk to a person. So I choose Customer Care. Five times I call them, and I get busy signals all afternoon. This I expect from a teenage girl, not a major corporation. | No planning for customers' needs |
| September 4, 2001 |
I call Customer Care again. This time I get through. They
tell me they don't know anything about my replacement phone,
and tell me I have to call the store. I explain they aren't
answering the phone at the store, which a Customer Care
supervisor denies. (As it turns out, she was right: if I
had chosen Sales for my non-Sales problem, I might have gotten
someone at the store.)
At least Teresa, employee number 44262, says she'll credit my bill. |
It's as if they want to hide from the customers! |
| September 5, 2001 | Still no call. Again I drive to the Sprint PCS store, and this time my replacement is in. Why didn't I get the promised call? They don't know. They don't seem to think it's a big problem. When the replacement phone is activated, there's voice mail waiting: they called my cell phone to tell me the replacement for my broken cell phone was ready. | Nobody at Sprint PCS seems to give a damn whether the customer is satisfied. |
| September 20, 2001 | There's no credit on my bill. I make four attempts to call Customer Care, but they're busy. | |
| September 21, 2001 | Finally, I'm talking to a human being after a mere 10 minutes on hold. But Tammi, who refused to give me her employee number or last name, says there's no record of my being offered a credit. So I have to explain it all again. She says that she has to justify the credit. I explain why I have a credit coming. She says again that she has to justify the credit. I explain in different words, at slightly higher volume. She says again that she has to justify the credit. I demand to talk to her supervisor. Never did get to talk to that supervisor, either, though I asked for him or her about half a dozen times. Eventually Tammi issued the credit, perhaps on her supervisor's instructions, or perhaps to avoid her supervisor hearing from me. | Are they deliberately trying to stonewall customers who demand a refund? |
| September 2002 | Say, where's my rebate? Sprint PCS sold me a phone with the promise of a rebate that didn't arrive. Turns out I have to file a claim form that wasn't supplied with the phone, or mentioned at the time of sale. If you don't file the claim form, you have to fax your receipt to Sprint even though they have a record of your purchase. Then you have to wait 14 weeks. | Hoping I'll give up, I guess. |
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