The Consumer Complaints Blog

Sprint “Customer Service” or lack thereof…

As a long time customer of ATT, I was hesitant to switch over to SPRINT. My Wife and all of her Family use Sprint so as a matter of convenience, I switched.

That was the last of the CONVENIENCE where Sprint is concerned.

I am in CUSTOMER SERVICE myself and because of many years of dealing with upset and sometimes downright mean people I have developed a strong sense of PATIENCE and EMPATHY. Besides, it has been my experience that you are more likely to get somewhere with someone when you are nice to them.

I started out nice. It took Sprint about 6 months to drain me completely of my Patience and now I am at the point where I feel a need to let others know just how bad they are.

The lack of Customer support I have been shown is so bad it almost seems like they are TRAINED to be like this.

My wife and I have both had some minor issues with them in the past, but I let them go as I know that “things happen”. This latest issue however made me so uncomfortable that I was willing to negate my contract with them and pay the difference outright.

My Wife was generous enough to buy a PALM PRE for me as a gift last June. Since the 1st week of owning this new phone it has given me problems. Hardware problems and software problems. Each time I have had an issue I took the phone to my local Sprint store (Kearny Mesa/ San Diego) to have it repaired. And every time (5 times in 6 months) I was put through the same time-consuming routine.

They would take the phone and tell me to wait 1 1/2 hour to 2 hours. Their Technician would do what they call a “PATCH” to fix the problem and they would send me on my way.

Almost like clockwork the same issues would re-occur and I would go back to them again and again.

After about the 3rd time this happened I asked if it would be possible to take a DOWNGRADE (as the PRE is their “Top of the line” phone) and keep my regular service plan. It took the sales “Lead” 3 hours to explain the options to me which came down to me taking a lesser phone and paying the same amount for a smaller service plan! That wasn’t going to work for me, I guess I am just High Maintenence that way, so I took my PATCHED phone home again.

That night I spent 3 hours on my Wife’s phone with the TECHNICAL SUPPORT department trying to figure out why all of my music and contact information had disappeared.

Soon enough the problems started again. I took the phone back to the store and demanded a better option. They wanted to look at the phone again so I agreed and let them take it. They then told me it would take the usual 1 1/2 hours to check it out. When I was explaining to the service agent what was happening he told me “I don’t have time to talk to you because I am the host and other customers are waiting!”

Feeling like I had been scolded I sat down quietly off to one side to wait. I was surrounded by 4 others who were there to fix problems with their PREs’! A few minutes later I was told that they would do another PATCH and that was all they could do at the STORE LEVEL. Anything more would require that I call CUSTOMER SERVICE. When I asked if they had a phone I could use for the call, they pointed at the display phones that are tethered to the wall. “They are all live” he said as he turned and walked away.

I picked up one of the phones just to realize that it was tethered by a 2 foot wire on a spring-loaded mechanism that must have been designed to keep people from actually being able to lift the phones. After figuring out how to call CUSTOMER SERVICE on my own (they were apparently to busy to explain to me that I had to dial 2*) I spent over an hour talking to 5 different people and explaining the situation in detail to EACH one of them (holding this UNIVERSAL WEIGHT MACHINE of a mechanism the whole time) just to be told that the policy is that they have to replace the phone 3 times before they will consider giving me a DIFFERENT phone.

6 months and 5 trips to the repair shop had gotten nothing done but PATCH jobs and the phone had never been replaced. So by my math I would have to go back to them at least 15 times before they would THINK ABOUT giving me a different phone!

Dismayed with the call, I went back to speak with the Asst. Manager. I talked to him calmly and efficiently and asked him to put himself in my shoes. He said he understood because he also has a PRE and it has the same problems!… COOL! EMPATHY! or so I thought. His theory was that because people have had bigger problems, mine don’t matter! So what if the phone only works SOMETIMES! it could be worse, RIGHT? I can’t help but wonder how they would feel if I only paid my bill SOMETIMES. Would THAT be a big enough problem to get some attention? Seeing as how my Wife and I have the most expensive phones that they offer and we pay for the most expensive service plan that they offer it seems like someone would take this into account and try to supply some customer service!

I realize that giving me a different phone might just put this MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR company out of business but couldn’t they at least be nice when they tell to COPE with my tiny issues!

I have a really hard time understanding how in this CUSTOMER SERVICE driven culture a company this large can justify treating their customers like our problems are our fault and we just have to learn to deal with it!

LEST THERE BE ANY DOUBT…. SPRINT SUCKS~!

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I posted an ad with Kijiji in November 2009 for a VW Golf I was selling. I received email notification from Kijiji asking me to confirm the ad which I did & later I visited the site and the ad was posted as I submitted it.

The next day while at work my wife forwarded an email from Kijiji concerning “my” ad for a Toyota Celica. I emailed them & advised that this was not my ad. Kijiji provided me with a support ticket number. When I arrived home that evening, there were 3 other confirmation emails for the Toyota Celica followed by 4 emails pulling the ads as I had “violated” Kijiji’s ad policies. Interestingly, one of the pulled ads had the same ad ID number as my original VW Golf ad. I followed up with Kijiji quoting my support ticket number. I received a response telling me that someone had likely fooled me via a fake email into revealing my Kijiji password and used my account to post fake ads. They advised me to re-register and change my password. Strangely, they did not offer to restore my original ad. Stranger still, I never provided my Kijiji password to anyone. When I tried to re-register, I was not able to because the system told me I was already registered. I also could not repost my ad as I was “in violation” of their policies. I have sent several messages to Kijiji advising them of this Catch-22 to no avail. I have been completely ignored. Their service is free and I guess you get what you pay for. Their system would seem to be very insecure and you should be forewarned before you take advantage of their “free” service.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I read about your successes with brutal customer service in the Globe and Mail today. I’ve had trouble getting this resolved and can’t seem to stop Bell from taking money from my account, even though I’m no longer a customer, haven’t been since June, 2009.

Here is a copy of my original report to the Better Business Bureau in October, 2009.

I moved from one house to another on June 21. Prior to this date, I contacted Bell to terminate my phone service effective June 21 and arranged to forward my calls to another number for 3 months at a specific cost.

Despite my repeated calls to Bell (I dealt with at least 6 or 7 customer service representatives in an effort to get this rectified), calls to my old number were never forwarded to my new number and I don’t believe I was charged for this.

At the time I canceled my phone service, I did not cancel my internet, figuring since my internet CAME THROUGH my phone line AND the fact I’d moved from that address, it would seem obvious that the internet was no longer needed.

Incredulously, I learned I needed to make a separate call to cancel my internet service, as I have been billed for internet service to this day. I did, again, make several calls over the past several weeks/months to cancel my internet, to no avail.

In one of my last conversations (Aug. 13) with a Bell rep, I was assured it would be cancelled on Sept. 13, in accordance with their 30-day notification policy.

Recently, however, I received an e-bill and one through the mail, charging me for internet services to up to and including Sept. 19 ?!?

In response, I fired off an email, stating my service was to be cancelled Sept. 13, and that the bill I received should reflect this.

In an email response I was told my account is STILL ACTIVE and they couldn’t find any record of my cancellation request (!?!) and that I need to call a number to get my internet cancelled. So now, it’ll be ANOTHER 30 days from when I call them to cancel my service.

Now, if this isn’t farcical enough, and given the fact I had called Bell repeatedly to forward my calls from my old number, and told them to cancel my internet services ad nauseum, how in the world will ANOTHER call ensure my internet service is cancelled ?

I’m turning to the BBB to rectify this, as I’m unaware of any forms of recourse for my situation. I would like you to intervene on my behalf and get my internet service cancelled and the billing to stop EFFECTIVE the date you are in contact with them, thank you. Calling Bell myself has proven fruitless (see above), although I will call or email them once I’ve finished sending this email to you and get the wheels in motion (I hope) to finally terminate my internet service.

If you cannot help me, I am prepared to take legal action against Bell. This is no idle threat.


Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I would have been sending this this email to you via my normal email address but it is DOWN! WHY because Tucows didn’t renew it automatically, didn’t tell me my domain was about expire or care enough to help me beyond bankers hours.

I have a secondary problem with hostgator.com who hosts my web sites as I gave them plenty of time to switch over the domain web hosting and they said all was in order when in fact it wasn’t. So if you look today my website and email are down. In this day and age when communication is all so easy are large companies not keeping up?

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Consumers need as many forums to share their customer service complaints as
possible and the addition to others such as Ellen Roseman’s at the Star can
only help get the word out about Companies that appear more concerned about
the bottom dollar than ensuring their products last a reasonable time, or
address known defects and issues with consumers interests at heart.

I offer the example of Samsung Canada‘s refusal to support owners
experiencing a KNOWN issue (on/off clicking at power up, created by faulty
capacitors including #CM852 & CM853, and possibly others on the power supply
board) by repairing the defective units.

Initially Samsung denied the existence of the problem or indicated “We have
confirmed with our Quality Control department that the model you own does
not exhibit any widespread issues that may cause concerns.” Denying it
became more difficult when faced with the evidence of numerous internet
reports by owners and when I noted one of their own Samsung repair techs
started a forum discussion on CNET and initiated a 50 customer investigation
in September 2009 to determine why the capacitors are failing in a variety
of Samsung LCD Tv models, often shortly after warranty expiry.
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-13973_102-0.html?threadID=357687
Some owners have been successful in getting Samsung to repair the problem
but in Canada, the Office of the President’s rep Ahmed Yahiouche states “Our
decision will stand,” in response to a request that his superior review the
claim since based on how he handled the claim, it appears he didn’t bother
reading the claim to learn we were out of warranty when we initiated it, yet
he proceeded to request information to consider the claim, and then denied
it ‘due to the expiry of your limited warranty’.

His office has been provided the links to the CNET Samsung Tech’s thread,
where it is acknowledged a widespread problem with Samsung TV’s exists.
Ripoffreports where another owner received a similar cut and paste
response from him months earlier, and other forums discussing the on/off
issue.

Samsung has failed to acknowledge there is an implied product warranty and a
reasonable expectation that their products last more than a few months
beyond the 1 year warranty…or perhaps Samsung does only expect their
product to last just beyond the one year manufacturer warranty and owners
are unreasonable in their expectation?

All imo (in my opinion).

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.