I went into the "Premier" Sprint Store recently. Why was it Premier? The store is 1 mile away from Sprint HQ in Leawood, Kansas. According to sources, this store has the best "CSAT" ratings (CSAT is SprintSpeak for Customer Satisfaction). Heaven help us!
I had a problem with my Treo 650 rebooted after being bluetoothed to my Garmin Nuvi 680 GPS-it would happen every fifth or sixth time. Garmin support said the Bluetooth was flaky on this model and I should have Sprint replace it because of a class action and/or my equipment protection program I had been a customer since 1996 I thought they wanted to keep my business. I ran the numbers in my quicken and I've spent over $20,000 with Sprint.
In the store the CSR said they'd take a look and be back in 15 minutes. The interesting thing I have CallRec that records phone calls and voicenotes. Either by accident or by divine intervention, as he took the phone, he initiated the memo recording function
When I came back, I was told they had to "flag" the phone for water damage. I take impeccable care of the phone so I was shocked. It has wrap around case, a screen protection and a caddy both for my car and office. I was told corrosion was causing the Bluetooth problem.
I asked to see the damage and they reluctantly let me see the phone after about 10 minutes. I thought that was strange! They showed me the "sticky substance". However, I wasn't allowed to touch it. What they show as a "sticky substance" was actually solder residue (probably because the phone was refurbished). They told me since the phone was now flagged they are not required to service it. This wasn't even on the main circuit board but on the edginga typical place for residue and has zero effect on the electronics.
I was peeved and took my emergency phone from the car and immediately called Sprint Exec Relations in plain site of this tech. I handed the tech my emergency phone and about 10 minutes later the both phones were handed back to me and I was told to make a insurance claimmy phone was corroded due to deliberate or accidental damage and they are not required to test the phone.
I then called with my "flagged" cell phone, and call rec reported an error that the memory was full. Sure enough I had a tape of the whole interaction!!! On the recording, they say 'Let's call this corrosion and move on". I then call exec relations back with this new information.
The shock: the exec relations person indicated that the store manager "declined" exec relations suggestions that I be given a new phone and the flag removed. Exec relations seemed to agree with me that they shouldn't have flagged the phone and replaced under warranty. My only option would be to go through the $50 claim on the equipment insurance even though the tech clearly lied. Even worse, exec relations confirmed that there is some magic water sensor inside the phone had NOT been tripped. The tech lied, the manager is backing them up and I must move on.
Icing on the cake: Assurion wouldn't replace it under equipment insurance&because the phone and all functions were working&they wouldn't replace the phone. They don't replace phones unless there is a problem! Talk about a rock and a hard place. However I played the recordings from Sprint and the Assurion guy was sympathetic and marked it as water damage so I could replace it. This happens all the time he indicated.
The cherry on top. The Treo 755p they replaced it with crashes more often with my GPS. Garmin blamed Sprint, Sprint blamed me and it was Garmin all along!
When Exec Relations won't intervene when you prove the store lied, you know there is something wrong! Also FWIW, "Corrosion" is SprintSpeak for "upgrade to a new phone as your plan is close to expire." Apparently claiming water damage when there is not is a widespread problem at Sprint and used to get sales numbers up. I suspect lots of confirmation in the comments.
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