Sprint tries to rip Ramit off? Oh my

Posted at 9:35 on Tuesday October 25, 2005 | Filed Under Stories about customer service

The cellular phone companies have some of the worst customer service of any company. In fact, in a recent survey, 2 of the 3 worst-rated companies for customer service were cellphone companies. Recently, I got another chance to go head-to-head with Sprint PCS, which surely has the worst of all in my experience. If you want to skip to the point of this story, here it is: Keep records of your phone calls with companies, especially cellphone companies.

Because I moved to a new place with weird reception, I had to switch my phone coverage from Sprint to Cingular, so I transferred my phone number away using number portability. I didn't cancel my account at Sprint because I wanted to see how good Cingular was, and reserve the option to go back to Sprint if I needed to.

Well, Cingular worked out great, so I called Sprint last week and asked them to cancel my account. They told me it had already been canceled last month (apparently it's automatically canceled when you transfer your number away). I said great! I don't have to pay the extra month of service I didn't use. They agreed and we started wrapping it up.

But then they told me my account had a $160.00 charge. For what, I asked? Wait for it...

"An early cancellation fee."

Yeah, right. I knew I didn't have a contract, and I had negotiated out of an early cancellation fee a long time ago. Cellphone companies make a lot of money from trying these shady moves, hoping customers will get frustrated, give up, and just pay.

Unfortunately for them, since Sprint started trying to rip me off 3 years ago, I keep records of every call I have with them. The customer-service rep was very polite, but insisted she couldn't do anything to erase the charge, even after she read my entire account history.

Really? I've heard this tune before, so I pulled out these notes I had taken last year and politely read them aloud to her:

"10/12/04
Spoke to Joseph (x211XX).

I switched from a $35/month plan: 350 mins + 180 bonus recurring minutes...

to a $60 plan: 800 mins + I keep the recurring 180 minutes. Also keep 8pm evening time. Noted that I am in the middle of my billing cycle, so I will be charged for the 2 weeks I've used so far, and my new billing cycle ($60/month) will begin tomorrow, on the 13th. No contract, no cancellation fee."

As soon as I read these notes out loud, I witnessed a miraculous change in her ability to waive the fee. Within 2 minutes, my account was cleared and I was off the phone. Amazing!!!!! Thank you madam!!!

I'm tired of companies taking advantage of people who get too worn down to fight back. Keep records and watch all their BS evaporate next time they try to hustle you.

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Comments (29)

1.: Good for you!

Sprint used to be my cell phone company. I noticed that they had very friendly customer service.

It's just that I had to keep calling customer service so much!!

Posted by Josh Zerin at October 25, 2005 10:26 AM

2.: Great post. Man, those people are scammers.

Posted by Ginsberg at October 25, 2005 10:52 AM

3.: Arrrggghh. I hate cellular phone companies, credit card companies, and insurance companies.

At what point did we move from being customers, to victims that can be preyed on with very little ability to fight back?
Hazzard

">http://www.everybodylovesyourmoney.com

Posted by Hazzard at October 25, 2005 11:06 AM

4.: Cell phone companies definitely are the worst.

I have two stories :

1) My friend switched from Cingular to Verizon because the reception was better. She made sure her 2 year contract ended with Cingular before using the number portability. Verizon did tell us that Cingular would automatically be cancelled and they do the dirty work. One month later, Cingular sent a ~$150 bill for early cancellation. But we called Cingular and they immediately said , “Oops”. And they said ignore the bill. I bet they do this to everyone, and I bet some folks do pay not knowing.

2) I’ve had a huge problem with Verizon Wireless that finally got resolved this month – They had coded my in-network and nights/weekend calls as peak…so every call was considered peak. I spoke with numerous customer service agents, and spent a few hours trying to resolve a bill. It wasn’t even the money…more the principle (although they did overbill me by $90). Long story short, like Ramit : I kept notes of every call I made to customer service, and I kept notes of when one representative would contradict the other. I had to download my bill into Microsoft Excel and sort my calls and color code it to prove to them that something was wrong with their computer system. Then I had to hand count every call’s minutes and fax them the sheet. So even though they admitted they screwed up, I was still pissed of. I sent a letter to their regional representative, and they called me with a personal apology. I didn’t want this specific problem to happen again to others. Still, they don’t care. I’m only 1 of 47.4 million customers. That’s the problem. These companies know they have the upper hand, and they know we want cell phone service.

Posted by Will at October 25, 2005 11:25 AM

5.: I always keep meticulous records of my phone conversations with any company. I have run into a problem where my notes are more detailed than what the CSR entered and so it becomes a lot of "he said, she said" heresay. I think I should record phone call conversations...

Posted by jim at October 25, 2005 02:08 PM

6.: Good job in dealing with the company.

Posted by Flexo at October 25, 2005 05:02 PM

7.: Sprint's the worst for the spurious fees. When I had them, I was recovering from dismal credit and they asked for a whopping $125 deposit just to give me service. Later I canceled the service and switched to T-Mobile, and was assured that I'd be refunded my deposit. Those bastards continued to bill me for monthly service (without sending me a paper bill) until they had used up my deposit! It was no use arguing with them either -- wish I'd kept better records.

T-Mobile, on the other hand, has been a dream. One time they didn't process my change of auto-billing credit card quickly enough and I got hit with an overlimit fee on my credit card. They credited me for this fee even though it was the bank's, not theirs. For that, I'll be a loyal T-Mo customer for a while.

Posted by Jerry Kindall at October 26, 2005 01:14 AM

8.: What a timely post. I'm just about to quit Sprint (also for bad reception). For prevention's sake, I decided to get written confirmation saying that I'm not under contract and I won't get billed any crazy fees.

Posted by LC at October 26, 2005 01:26 PM

9.: You are a god among men. I'm the worst at recording info, this is like setting the bar at cloud level for me.
But excellent advice.

Posted by Elizabeth at October 26, 2005 06:50 PM

10.: Ramit,

I am not shy about giving advice, all of it worth exactly what one pays for it, and this sort of thing always has me telling people to keep some sort of bound notebook by their phone. I use my Franklin/Covey planner for notes during phone calls, and have had to refer back to them on more than one occasion. My youngest sister just has a cheapo spiral notebook by the phone, but it has paid off for her as well.

Keep up the great work. I enjoy your site!

Posted by Ric at October 28, 2005 07:50 AM

11.: I share your disgust for cell phone companies, and the way in which they treat their customers. I recently had another bad experience with Verizon, in which they repeatedly informed me "we understand but" which means that they dont understand. With such fierce competition for customers it is amazing and sad that companies focus so much on camera phones and useless features, and not on customer service.

Posted by David at November 3, 2005 05:07 AM

12.: As an attorney, I usually resort to formal letters addressed to in-house legal counsel at a company, with a CC to both the sales representative involved and the CEO of the company. Miraculously, whatever dispute I'm having with the company is resolved to my satisfaction within a few days.

It's very helpful being able to threaten legal action and have the law license to back it up.

Posted by Jay Gatsby at January 6, 2006 07:00 AM

13.: I actually work for T-Mobile and I can say without a doubt T-Mobile has the best network and absolutly the best customer service. T-Mobile's coverage area granted is not up there with Cingular or Verizon yet, but when you are in network you will not experience a dropped call or so network failure like cingular has after free nights start when their cell sites get bogged down. If you take a look on the website T-Mobile's service has blown up in the last year, and honestly it's not far off from Cingular or Verizon.

I can tell you this also, just in general for cellular companies, when you call customer care and you are not getting something that you want, simply say thank you and hang up and call back. Chances are you are just dealing with someone who is having a bad day or something. I call customer care probably 15 times a day or more sometimes and sometimes I get someone who isn't willing to help (rare, but sometimes) even when I work for the dang company. I just hang up and call back and talk to someone else and problem is usually solved.

Posted by Deron at January 6, 2006 08:57 PM

14.: We stopped dealing with Sprint because paying the bill in person cost $5. Yes, if you want to drive down to their office and GIVE THEM MONEY, that costs $5. How about I just don't pay you at all, Sprint?

Posted by Emily at January 10, 2006 11:19 AM

15.: Probably a dumb question, but how in the world did you negotiate out of a 2 year cell phone contract. Amazing!

Or do these companies take advantage of the masses -realizing we don't know any better? And if you want the phone, you have to do the time?

Thanks!
Alex

Posted by Alex at January 18, 2006 08:20 AM

16.: I have a Rule of 3s when calling customer service/tech support.

The first two calls are meant to fend you off. Call back that third time and you'll get someone helpful. Works almost everywhere.

Posted by Carl at February 15, 2006 05:29 PM

17.: I have had horrible experiences with sprint sprinkled with a few kind souls. My latest issue is having to call a customer service person because the local shops can not deal with 'old plans'. translation.. like mine that save me a ton of money over the new ones. I too record my calls and could not figure out why my bill kept going over limits.
I was using on line billing and did not get a hard copy in the mail (52 pages) monthly. When I requested 6 months of back bills delivered (300plus pages).I was able to identify that our sprint to sprint calls on one of my 5 lines was not free. Of course I also noted that calling sprint to sprint voice mail is a charge item. Back to my origninal issue. I have had no less than 3 almost 55 minute calls with customer service from my home phone (speakerphone so I could do other things while I waited on hold )only to be hung up on or disconnected. who has time to wait that long. So we continue with our old plan for now. The tactic they use if your phone needs replacement is to begin the one year agreement again withe new 'free' phone. Another rip off. They also have tried to get me to turn in my dinoasaur spc 4700 sanyo phone because it has booster receiver of some sort that allows me to get GREAT reception when other sprint phones don't. AND it still works beautifully after 5 years. translation.. I do not need a new flimsy phone each time the seasons change. I feel better for gettng this off my chest. Good luck to all you cell users out there that have to us a phone for service. HA

Posted by Andrea at February 17, 2006 11:03 PM

18.: Sprint PCS is the WORST!!! I ended up taking them to the Better Business Bureau because after I moved from FL to TN. They continued to charge me FL tax for over 8 months and was also charging me TN tax.
I ended up getting a credit for that after dealing with hours on the phone with useless "customer service" representatives. I had one tell me I should have notified them sooner of this charge and that it was pretty much my fault that I hadn't noticed it on my bill. EXCUSE ME??!?! This was supposed to be a "supervisor", but I know for a fact from a former rep that they will often transfer the call to one of their friends who will act as a "supervisor" to get you off the phone.

I'm fighting them now because they are trying to charge me 3 early cancellation fees on 2 lines. I can maybe see 2 fees but 3? I am fighting this all the way considering I get conflicting stories from representatives as to when the contracts were up for these phones.
Some say they were still in effect to they expired last year. One rep stated that I had no contract on either phone with Sprint. The fight will continue and I will return to the BBB to resolve this if necessary.

Posted by zanna at February 27, 2006 09:08 PM

19.: I am unable to get regional contacts to complain about service. I am in Virginia. Can anyone help me?

Posted by Kathy Applebee at February 28, 2006 04:19 AM

20.: It's somewhat comforting to know that I am not alone in my
problems with Sprint PCS! I av-erage 1-2 hours at least every
other month (sometimes every
month) on the phone trying to
resolve some screw-up on their
part. They undoubtedly have the
most incompetent customer ser-
vice reps of any company I have
ever dealt with! If you ask five
different reps the same ques-
tion, you will get five totally diff-
erent answers, and none of them
have the authority to do anything
to correct their own mistakes.
We would have changed to an-
other company a long time ago,
but my husband's employer re-
imburses him for the charges
and it's the "company of choice".

Posted by Angela at March 14, 2006 02:46 PM

21.: I had the same thing happen. I called March 5th and asked when my contract was up and when I could switch providers. They told me "It's up on X, but during the last month we don't charge an early termination fee, so you can cancel on or after Y". I canceled on Y and got a $160 charge from them. I called and sat on the phone with someone for ages and finally got them to say they are giving me a refund. We'll see in a month if the refund happens or not.

Posted by doobie at April 24, 2006 11:23 AM

22.: Well quite frankly you are a moron. No shit it cancells your contract. Do you honestly think sprint is going to allow you to take THERE number and port it over to another company so you can test it out. Seriously you are the type of customer that the rep gets off the phone and makes fun of for days!

Posted by HAHA at June 24, 2006 11:08 AM

23.: @HAHA
you must be a sprint cs rep. (btw, look up the difference between THERE and THEIR - great stuff).

Posted by rodo at September 9, 2006 08:46 AM

24.: I had a "lovely" experience with Un-American Express. I had cancelled a card, thinking I would not be using it again, but later I re-activated the account. I had been only 30 days. I received a letter that it had been over 90 days, and the account could not be re-activated. I called them, explained their error, and was told that my account would be reactivated and a new card sent (I had cut the other one). I received the new card, and a month later I discovered that it was not the same account. Now I had two accounts, and $400 on the new account already. I asked them to correctly reactivate the old account, transfer the balance from one Blue card to the other, and close the newer account, which only had a $700 limit. They said that there was no way to transfer the balance! No one from the first person up through the manager could do this. I thought "if this money was incorrectly charged to my account, but should have been on someone else's account, they certainly would have a way to do it", and told them this. Bottom line: they never did the transfer, I had to do it "my way". That was, imo, very poor customer service and now I use a different card entirely, not American Express.

Posted by Ted B. at October 4, 2006 09:28 AM

25.: The cellular phone infrastructure in the US sucks. Due to their capitalistic system, they started having cell phones here in the US a long time ago starting with an analog infrastructure. Now that technology has advanced, they are trying to migrate into a digital infrastructure, however the cost of switching from analog to digital is to large for the companies to handdle. So who pays for that price? Us the customers. In europe they never had an analog infrastructure and they went straight into digital. The phones, the receptions and the plans are amazing. I mean here you have to pay extra for everything, where as in Europe everything is included in your plan (3way calling, texting, internet, email etc.) I have Sprint and they suck big time. We recently moved to a new apartment in Boston and I have absolutely NO reception on my phone. I literally have to leave my apartment, walk 2 blocks just so I can get 2 reception bars on my phone. When I called Sprint to complain their answer was "Since we don't guarantee reception inside buildings, there is not much we can do for you". Now why don't the sales reps tell you that when you go to a Sprint store to purchase a phone and a plan? Bad for business right? But it is mentioned in the plan contract. Yes that paperweight thing that no one reads? SPRINT SUCKS AND SO DO ALL THE CELLULAR COMPANIES IN THE US. Unfortunately they have us all by the balls, cause we live in times where everyone needs a cell phone and they need us the customers to pay for their infrastructure switch from analog to digital. By the way if they tell you that everything is digital it's a LIE. Nothing is 100% digital yet in the US!!!

Posted by Nikos at November 10, 2006 06:03 AM

26.: My goodness! I thought I was the only person that thought Sprint PCS' customer service is a joke. I can't tell you how many times my husband and I have both called to discuss the same situation just to see if we'd get the same response. The scary part is that you can hang up the phone, call back, get a new rep, ask him/her to review your notes from the last call, and they can't pull up anything. However, as soon as you tell them you spoke with so-and-so they miraculously find it! I'd like to know who the training director is for the customer service team. They're getting paid way too much money for their results!

Posted by Tracey Crockett at November 10, 2006 03:15 PM

27.: All fees are stated in the bill. Contracts are renewed automatically when changing a plan. your note taking ability had nothing to do with your fees being waived. As most companies are equal opportunity employers and do not require an iq test upon hiring, no one can fire for stupidity in this free country. therefore many companies hire stupid people and are then stuck with them. The world is full of stupid people, you cannot blame a company for you not knowing the right questions to ask. Buying a car for the first time, do you know what to ask? but are all car dealerships rip off? are all salesmen/women rip offs? it's just unfortunate that you cannot learn and move on. so bitter to make a web page? Every company seems to rip off someone sooner or later, but then again, if the world were full of smart people, we would all know how to avoid being ripped off wouldn't we?

Posted by Soll Fri at November 25, 2006 02:55 PM

28.: I had a terrible experience with sprint the customer rep told me my contract had expired and that it was there was no cancellation fee. when I changed providers they charged me a cancellation fee. What should I do? any advise? HAs any one else had this experience?

Posted by doll at November 30, 2006 07:43 PM

29.: Sprint will not replace defective phones no matter what they tell you!

Posted by Nicholai Madias at January 12, 2007 11:38 AM

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