In December I changed the service I had with SprintPCS. I was unhappy with the quality of service and my bills were so high. I changed to a plan more suitable for me, but I only did that until I got around to getting a new cell phone service provider altogether.
I switched to Nextel in August and called Sprint to cancel my account. I was not told on the day I changed plans with Sprint that I would be locked into another year and that there would be a $150 fee if I canceled before the year was up. I KNOW I wasn't told because I never would have agreed to a new plan with them because I was so unhappy with the service.
My phone was degrading and not working and of course they expect you to buy a phone for full price. The text messaging feature kept not working and I needed to call Sprint to have my browser reset, and half the time their server didn't respond anyway. I never got a signal as often or in as many places as others, and my calls were often cut off.
Anyway, I also was not told when I canceled that I was going to have to pay that fee. Obviously, I would have waited a few months until my agreement was up. I also went through a most annoying time trying to cancel the service. I had to call 3 times to get in touch with the person I needed to speak to, not to mention many, many minutes of being on hold and listening to the most annoying on hold music ever. They don't care about you when you're calling to cancel.
Then, I get a "customer solutions specialist" and explain the whole long reason why I want to cancel because she asked me to explain. She didn't tell me anything about the fee. She did say, OK, then she told me I needed to talk to someone else and she put me back in a queue listening to that music for over 5 minutes.By the time the next person got on the line and asked me why I wanted to cancel, I was irate. I just said that I didn't want to explain it all over again, I just wanted to cancel. She told me that she was going to write in the notes that I didn't want to explain and that my service would be canceled 15 days from then (of course they want you to pay for another whole billing cycle).
Now they expect me to pay $150 for cancelling. I called and complained to another "customer solutions specialist" and she said she wouldn't waive the fee because I am under contract with them for one year because of changing my type of plan. So, I asked to speak with a supervisor. I was put on hold for quite a while, and then the supervisor, who could not prove that I was informed about the new year obligation, told me she was sorry but that I was under contract and she would not waive the fee. No matter what I explained she refused.
I think it's ridiculous that I should have to adhere to a contract I was not notified of from a company who provided inferior service, which is why I left them in the first place. And I am insulted by the disregard I was shown by "customer solutions." I initially signed up with Sprint in Dec. Of 2000 and one would think that having been with them for 3 1/2 years would be enough to escape a cancellation fee (a very hefty one!), but apparently not. Once you're gone they don't care about you, they just want their money.
I told her I was going to go to the BBB (which I have) and she said she would "write it in the notes." Like that's doing me a favor. Oh, you still have to pay the money, but I'll write it down here for no one to see that you're unhappy about it. Gee, thanks, what customer service!
There is no such thing as customer service anymore. Whenever I'm treated with respect and care by a company representative, it's noteworthy and surprising. How sad is that? Big corporations know that you're just a little consumer and they don't care about you. They know they'll wear you down until you pay because it's so hard to get anything out of them, or from outside agencies. And it's only $150, which isn't worth putting out a lot of time and money and effort and they know that too. But $150 is a LOT of money to me right now. And I never would have canceled only 3 months before my contract was up if I had known. But they don't care. And if I don't pay, my account becomes late and that hurts ME not them. UGH!!!
There is no redress for the small consumer against a huge corporation! They only care about you when they're trying to hook you in! I also mentioned that I am going to tell everyone I know not to use SprintPCS and that I'm a high school teacher and I'm going to tell all my students not to use it, and she was decidedly unimpressed. Won't make a dent in Sprint's profits right? Well, at least it's going in the notes. Yeah. Great.
Jennifer
Rhode Island
U.S.A.
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