Anyone bored enough to read my lengthy letter to Nextel, here it is.
Here is a summary of my problems with my experience with Nextel.
1. Equipment malfunction in less then 30 days.
2. Nextel refusing to replace said equipment.
3. Given false information concerning the rebate owed to us on the purchase of the phones
4. No issue resolved with the first line of contact with Nextel.
5. All calls placed to Nextel last over 30 minutes.
6. Uninformed, rude, representatives who provide conflicting information.
7. Unhelpful, rude representatives in the Nextel stores.
8. Being transferred from dept to dept with no information passed to the next representative.
9. Never received the (2) 25.00 rebates offered to us with the purchase of the phones.
I am writing to let you know how simply awful it is for one of your customers to deal with you. My husband and I have had Nextel since June. We ordered our phones and selected our plans online. The phones were shipped and received two days later. My husband and I were extremely impressed with our experience with Nextel at that point. Unfortunately for us, it would be our last positive experience with Nextel. After my husband and I placed our orders online, a Nextel representative via phone contacted us via phone. The representative advised me that my husband would be eligible for up to 5 lines of service, and the account would have a 250.00-spending limit per phone. My husband and I agreed to establish two lines of service under the terms set forth by Nextel. Upon receiving our phones, we activated and began using them. Our initial problem with Nextel began when we started to inquire about the rebate form for the two phones purchased. The representative stated that the phone rebate forms were enclosed in the box in which the phones were shipped. I informed her that there were no rebate forms enclosed. She and I debated this issue for a few minutes, I was at a loss as to why she couldn't simply mail out two rebate forms to me. She put me on hold, presumably to research the issue, and upon her return to the line, she stated that she was mistaken, and since our order was placed online, we would have to visit the website to print out the rebate forms. She couldn't effectively answer why she couldn't mail rebate forms out to us, she simply kept insisting that I would need to download the forms from the website. I did exactly that, and mailed the forms to the specified address and to date still haven't received them. Our second problem began the weekend of July 4th; I drove from Chicago, Illinois to New Orleans, Louisiana. During my trip, I was without signal 80-85% of my trip. I was forced to use other people's mobile phones, and the phone in the hotel. Besides being extremely inconvenient, it was also extremely disturbing to realize my cellular service seemed to be non-existent outside of the Chicago area. My concern was what if I had done my traveling alone, should a problem have arisen, I would have been without any way to contact help. Upon reaching Louisiana, I attempted to contact customer care several times, my signal was so weak, and it was usually to no avail. I decided at that time to simply enjoy my trip and deal with my service upon returning home. I had the impression that Nextel was a bit more superior in terms of its service and policies. Nextel had the stigma of being an extremely professional, and business oriented company. I assumed that I would have no problem in resolving my issue with Nextel because of these.By the time I arrived home, the screen on the phone was freezing and I was periodically unable to make or receive calls. I called Nextel upon arriving home and was utterly stunned at your company's response. I explained how I almost never had signal while on the road, and the signal I did have was weak. The representative at that time informed me that my only option was to drive about 15 miles to a Nextel service center, and have the phone serviced. She then retracted that option because I didn't have the coverage that would allow that. I informed her that I had selected phone protection when I placed the online order; she then stated that the protection that I'd ordered only covered loss or theft, and not potential damage to the phone. She then offered to add protection to my account, which would allow me to take the phone into a service center for repair. I agreed to the addition of the coverage and got the physical address of the service center, I had several issues with this course of action for such a new piece of equipment, however, I decided to go ahead and take the phone in for service. At that point I inquired about loaner phones should my phone need more than a few hours to be repaired. The representative advised me that she could not assure me that I would receive a loaner phone as she had no idea whether or not the service center would have one to lend. It was then that I began demanding further satisfaction. My phone was less then a month old at this point, and I shouldn't have to be inconvenienced. It would seem as though since the phone and service were so young, Nextel should have automatically agreed to replace the phone. It was at this point where the representative and I entered into a heated disagreement, in which I demanded to speak to a supervisor. After about 20 minutes I was finally transferred to a male supervisor who simply picked up the line, and stated that it wasn't Nextel's policy to replace phones over 15 days old.By this time I had been going back and forth with Nextel for over 45 minutes. I repeatedly stated the facts at hand and asked the supervisor if that was just ok to him, for me to have experienced the things I had while dealing with Nextel. Only then, did he agree to transfer me to telesales to see if they would possibly exchange the phone. Upon being transferred to telesales, I had to explain the entire situation all over again to a representative in that department, and then demand repeatedly to speak to a supervisor. Upon speaking to a supervisor, I again had to launch into a long discussion about why I felt the phone should be exchanged. Eventually, the supervisor agreed to replace my phone, the only problem with this solution was that I would have to pay for another phone and receive credit in the amount of the value of the phone I was returning on our Nextel bill. Although, I was at least semi please Nextel was attempting to meet me halfway, I did not see why the phone swap couldn't be done like an exchange. I was more than willing to send Nextel the phone, and wait to receive a replacement phone. According to the supervisor, this couldn't be done. I opted to simply keep the same phone.
In August I lost my phone. I called to have a replacement phone sent, only to be told that I didn't have replacement coverage for lost or stolen phones. This was perplexing to me, because according to my recollection, when I had an issue with possible phone damage, I only had lost/stolen phone replacement, and now that I had a lost phone, I only had damaged phone replacement. It is my position that the representative I had spoken with a month earlier, who'd offered to add the damage phone replacement protection did so in lieu of the lost/stolen phone replacement protection. I wanted both forms of phone protection; it is my position that she replaced the lost/stolen phone coverage with the damaged phone coverage. I was outraged, however, because the cost to get a new phone was similar to the cost of getting a replacement phone under the protection plan I chose not to make a huge fuss over it. Shortly after that, Nextel suspended service on our account due to a 469.00 bill, again, I was perplexed as according to Nextel, my husband and I had a combined 500.00 account spending limit. We each made several calls to Nextel to figure out why our account was suspended 31.00 short of the maximum spending limit for his account. Each representative had a different reason for the suspension of service. The reasons varied and ranged from the account supposedly needing to be paid a month in advance each month, to the account only having a 250.00 spending limit period, and not 250.00 per phone. None of the reasons made any sense to my husband or me. My husband then began attempting to make payments through the automated system. The only option he was ever given was to pay the entire bill in full, at that time he did not want to pay the entire amount due, he was only interested in paying the past due amount, which at that time was about 250.00. Each time he opted not to pay the full amount, he was either disconnected, or transferred to a customer service representative who would only transfer him back to the automated system. Had it not been us going through it, it would have almost been comical. After a few weeks, my husband decided to try the automated payment system again, and this time was in fact able to make partial payment on the bill. A week or so later, he paid the remainder of the bill and service was reconnected.
Starting in late September I began attempting to replace my lost phone. I made the horrendous mistake of stopping in several Nextel authorized representative stores. The people working in those stores were amazingly comical. One store owner even tried to sell me a broken Nextel phone for 50.00, he advised me to then take the broken phone into a service center for repair and according to him, I come out better. Another storeowner tried to sell me a phone he used as a loaner phone for the same price at which he would sell a new phone. I contacted Nextel and asked very specific questions concerning how to replace my phone. I asked based on the length of time remaining in my contract, and also the model of my phone, what were my options on replacing the phone. I was advised by Nextel's customer care to have my husband add me as an authorized user, and go to a Nextel owned store and purchase a new phone at the two-year contract price. The only issue was, the nearest Nextel owned store was about 35 minutes away. I was offered the option of ordering a new phone through telesales, however, the price was completely different than it would have been had I gone in person to the Nextel owned store. On October 6th (yesterday) I went to a Nextel owned Kiosk in a mall, and attempted to purchase a phone. I had an alternative method of payment as well as photo identification. The salesgirl stated she could not sell me a phone because since the Nextel Sprint merger, it was no longer policy to allow authorized account members to purchase phones or equipment. She stated that she could call in and see if it could be done, but the answer is usually no. I told her that I had driven 35 minutes to complete this transaction and had photo id, and an alternative method of payment. I also asked would them calling my husband on his Nextel phone suffice as authorization for me to purchase the phone. She stated no, she could not call my husband, and the only thing she could do was speak to her manager. Her manager was on the phone at that time. After waiting about 5 minutes for him to finish his call, he simply walked to the counter and stated it couldn't be done. He did not attempt in any way to accommodate me. Neither him nor the sales person attempted to call in to see if it could be done. I was beyond infuriated at that point. I used my other cell phone to call Nextel's customer care myself in hopes of resolving the issue. I reached a rude stand offish representative who stated that Customer Care had no control over store policy, and there was nothing she could do, she even went so far as to state she didn't understand why my husband couldn't accompany me to complete the purchase. I terminated the call, and called back in order to speak with someone who was not quite as rude and standoffish. I reached a representative who was nice, yet simply clueless. He simply didn't understand what I was trying to explain to him, for some reason he was under the impression that I had already replaced the phone and was simply attempting to activate equipment in a Nextel store. My cell phone lost the call, and I had to make yet another call into Nextel. This time I reached a more competent representative who provided a somewhat plausible explanation; he stated that perhaps the telesales department could assist in getting the store to sell me the equipment. I agreed to be transferred to that department where I had to once again explain the situation. The telesales representative proceeded to attempt to sell me a phone via phone. I was once again infuriated, how is it possible that I can call and order a phone and have it shipped anywhere, yet I was unable to purchase a phone with valid photo ID in person. This policy simply makes zero sense. The telesales representative was overly aggressive in attempt in selling me the phone, dropping the initial price from over 96.00 down to 54.00 for the same phone. After my refusal of her lowest offer, she then passed the buck back to the customer care department stating that they would have to deal with the store manager and assist me in my problem, as sales could only sell me a phone.By this time, I had wasted over 20 minutes talking to her. I was transferred back to customer care where I had to once again explain my situation and request a supervisor. I was placed on hold for almost 20 minutes; finally a supervisor came on the line and stated that there was nothing he could do. I simply blew my top. It had been over two hours since I'd initially started attempting to resolve this issue. I repeatedly asked this supervisor for his name, he stated his name was Ahmad. He refused to give me a last name or any other identifying information. I also repeatedly asked him to contact the store and attempt to clarify exactly what the situation was. The Nextel store was stating it was a customer care policy, and customer care was stating it was a store policy. It was buck passing at its finest. I then repeatedly asked him was it Nextel's position that an apology was all I was owed. That a concession couldn't be made to allow me to purchase the phone, since he could see from his computer than I had been calling and speaking with Nextel representatives for almost two hours. He was literally silent. He would not speak for 3 or 4 seconds at a time and simply apologize once again. My husband was also placing calls into Nextel's customer care department and being told a completely different story then I was being told. My husband and I had to inform the Nextel representative's of the new policy concerning purchasing equipment in a store. The representatives were reassuring both of us of the validity of conflicting information from their department and the store. At that point, I requested a corporate or customer satisfaction number; instead I was transferred to tech support. A nice woman in tech support supplied me with the number to your office in Virginia, unfortunately by the time I was able to call; the office had closed for the day. Today, I called the Virginia office and spoke to a woman, who sounded simply as she was reading a script. She made cardboard apologies and admitted there would be no follow up to my complaint. She stated that my complaint would simply be used to improve customer care. I am simply sick to death of Nextel/Sprint. This is one of the worst companies I have had the displeasure of doing business with. I dread placing calls into the customer service department, as it is always a time consuming, frustrating experience. My problems are NEVER resolved with the first line of contact. I must always ask for a higher up, even then, a resolution is a 50/50 shot. Unfortunately, my husband and I are now stuck with your company for two years. I refuse to give Nextel/Sprint any additional monies to terminate my contract. The way my husband and I have been treated is simply inexcusable. Each and every contact we have with Nextel leaves us angry and unsatisfied. My requests never involved me receiving more than I was owed; I never called and demanded free phones or service. I've never once asked for credit to be applied to my bill, I only asked to be treated with respect, my concerns to be taken seriously, and my problems resolved.
0 comments