Buyer beware I am writing this in the hopes that no one else will ever have to go through the torment Sprint has put my family under. We signed up under a new contract with Sprint and they stated that our new family plan would only cost us $69.99 per month according to the contract. I was shocked to get a phone bill over $189.00 I knew this could not be right so I looked over the statement and found that Sprint had added multiple charges for ringers that cost $9.99 each. On the statement these charges were called Flycell-Ringers-Acotel Binary. My wife and I never at any time ordered any such ringers. I simply called Sprint customer service 1888-211-4727 and tried to get the matter resoved. After providing details to the "customer care" representative I was put on hold and told to wait while he transferred me to another person that can get this taken care of. I was on hold for over an hour and then I spoke to Sprint Rep#2. She stated that these charges were from a 3rd party company called Premium Services. I stated that we at no time authorized such "Premium Services" and that I wanted these charges to be removed from my account. She said hold on while I transfer you to Technical Support they are the ones that can block your phone from getting these charges in the future. After holding for another 30 minutes I spoke to Technical Support, the lady in that department seemed very helpful and concerned for my situation. She even got the charges removed and told me the matter was now taken care of and it should show up on your future bills.
Next months bill showed up and it was correct just over $82.00 with charges and taxes. I was happy that this matter had been resolved or so I thought. My November bill arrived and this time three new Flycell Ringers Acotel Binary charges appeared on my statement each at $9.99, Sprint even decided to throw in another fraudulent charge called Funmobile Alerts - 96621-text alerts for $5.99. Our cell phones do not even have text message capability! Our November bill was $125.40 over $40.00 extra. Once again I called customer care and was put on hold as they transferred me to 5 different reps. When I asked rep#5 why these charges had reappeared she stated that they were from a 3rd party service and their is nothing she can do about it but she would transfer me to Technical Support. The man in Tech Support said he couldn't remove the charges but he would make sure to block the 3rd party company from adding them again. I told him that I have already spoken to Tech support over a month ago and they were supposed to have already blocked any future occurance of these charges. He put me on hold for a few minutes came back and said I'm sorry sir but we have no record of you ever making a request to block Premium Services. I then stated if these charges are really from a 3rd party company why does Sprint allow them to add things to my phone bill without my consent. He then said their was nothing he could do about it and that Sprint will need us to go ahead and pay the bill in full. I countered "but you just said you were going to have them blocked isn't this Technical Support?". He stated that he could tell I was upset and that he would need me to hold while he goes and gets his supervisor. I was sick of the 2 hour holding game and stated I will be contacting Sprint in writing.
I wrote a formal letter of complaint regarding my November bill and warned Sprint that if these fraudulent charges are not permenantly removed from my account I would contact the Federal Trade Commission and the Texas state Attorney General. My wife and I then deducted the erronious charges ourselves and sent in the amount of $85.44 for the amount we actually did owe telling them to correct the bill and that we will not pay for charges we did not authorize.
Our December bill arrived showing our payed $85.44 for our November bill and included a late fee for not paying on the charges we have disputed for November. Sprint even decided to add more Acotel Flycell ringer fees to our December bill. It seems that Sprint thinks they are immune to the Fair Debt Collection Act which by Federal law prohibits any bill collector from collecting on a disputed amount. They have still to this date not even responded to our letter of dispute. Now we have no other choice but to follow up with a letter to the Attorney Generals Office and the Federal Trade Commission.
Buyer beware Sprint together with Nextel is a crooked greedy fraudulent company that will try to add as many hidden fees and charges to the phone bills of innocent consumers. If anyone else has had to go through this or has any advice on what we can do please email us at [email protected]
Sincerely Hurt and Betrayed Consumer
David
David
Frisco, Texas
U.S.A.
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