Help Me Sprint

Hello Sprint,

Never have I been apart of a customer service issue which was so poorly executed. I have spoken with literally tens of people; spend hours on the phone with customer support, and all I have found is that the Sprint rabbit hole of customer service gets exponentially deeper.

The entire issue all goes back to late September, when the Samsung A660 phone I owned began to malfunction (the screen was distorted and featured a black horizontal line across the screen). The phone number on this phone was 541-912-****. Like any customer, I took my phone into The Sprint Store because the phone was still under the factory warranty. The two Sprint employees at that store had told me that the phone I owned was no longer under warranty because the faceplate of the phone had been modified at one time by the authorized Sprint dealer in the Valley River Center Mall. The Sprint employees then began to attempt to sell me a replacement phone, one which was a return, yet still cost around $100.00. I instructed them that I was under the impression that my phone contract with Sprint was going to expire in December and that I would sign an additional two year contract with Sprint if it meant getting a rebate on a replacement phone. They told me that there was no offers available to existing customers who wished to extend their service plans. I left the Sprint store with no changes made.

Between the time of my first visit to The Eugene Sprint Store and my next encounter with Sprint customer service, my phone had completely died. I called Customer Care to see what options I had. The customer service representative informed me of an option which would allow me to keep Sprint as a provider and also receive a replacement phone. His suggestion was to open an additional line of service with Sprint, sign a 2 year contract to receive the rebate on a new phone, then put the old “phone� on vacation until that plan expired. I told him I would like to keep the same number (which I have had for years, and transferred to Sprint from AT&T), he told me that was not a problem and that I could call back in one month from the time my new service started and have Sprint switch over the number. He said that he would have all necessary preparations made for that to happen. Needless to say, he did not follow through with his promise to me.
So I thought I had everything solved. I was completely wrong. The new Samsung A840 phone I received in the mail about 5 days after extending my contract worked for about one week, until it’s ability to recharged ended and the phone was essentially worthless. I took my phone in on a Saturday afternoon to the Sprint Store, but they told me I had to wait until Tuesday to come back in because the technician who knew how to test phones and issue replacements did not work until then. Even though that was a while to wait, I accepted and returned the following Tuesday. The next time that I was in the store, I told them about my newly broken phone, and they told me I would have to come back in another 24 hours as they put a “support ticket� on the phone. I told them waiting an additional 24 hours was unreasonable and they should have done that on Saturday when I came in the first time. My phone should have had priority, and this made matters even worse. I received a replacement phone 24 hours after that point.

With everything that had happened, I was still a happy Sprint customer, because the phone service is great and I knew that I was getting back my old phone number. I should have known with everything that had happened that getting my old phone number to my new phone would not be as easy as promised. When I called on December 5^th, I attempted to explain to the representative what I was looking to have done. I simply wanted the phone number that was on vacation (541-912-****) to be put on my new phone (which had the phone number of 541-543-****). The representative did not understand what I was asking and could not find any notes as to what had happened a month earlier. I asked to speak with a supervisor, he told me no, then I asked him again and he released the phone call. Now, I have worked in call centers before, and I have NEVER released a call on someone. I can not even begin to describe how rude that is. When I called back Customer Care, I immediately requested to speak with a supervisor on duty. After waiting for about 15 minutes, I was connected with Debbie, and she seemed very helpful. She said what needed to happen was to let the 541-912-**** number go so that it could replace the 541-543-3658 number on my new A840 phone. She then said I would need to go back into the Sprint Store so that they could arrange for that to happen. She also said that she would need to assign the number being released to my account and that she would do that automatically and that everything would be set for me to have my new phone and old number when I went back into Sprint 8 hours later.

Now we get to today, when I went back to the Sprint store. Low and behold, something else went wrong. Turns out everything I have ever been told is incorrect, including what I was told on the 5^th. It was evident that the supervisor that I thought had saved me had really screwed me. Because she released the phone number, Customer Care could do nothing. I was put on hold for over 40 minutes and the best thing they could tell me was that they had no control over the matter because I had let the number expire. So now it was my issue, instead of a mess up on Sprint Supervisors and Customer Cares’ behalf. I left being told to call on the 15^th, as there was a chance the number could be recovered.
That is why I am writing this message, because a chance the number could be recovered is not good enough. I have had that phone number (541-912-****) for multiple years, as the number was transferred to Sprint from AT&T/Cingular. I use that phone number for everything, including my business. I have instructed some of my best clients that my number would return to number after one number. Unlike Sprint, I keep my word to my customers. Sprint needs to fix this immediately, I’m sick of explaining it to every person I speak with. Send a copy of this letter to every person involved from here on out, because I am done talking about it, it needs to be fixed by Sprint – not me.

I expect to be wholly compensated for this entire ordeal. I expect an upgraded phone, because the NEW A840 phone is even worse call wise than the old A660 model. I’m not talking a one level upgrade; I want my phone to be made of god damn gold after this. I expect nothing less than a top of the line piece of equipment from Sprint.

Then, I would like to be compensated for the last two months of service that I have received through Sprint. Between my phone not working and spending HOURS with your customer service people, I deserve nothing less.

Finally, I would like EVERY person involved with my phone up to this point educated on how to deal with situations such as this so that this does not happen again. Sprint is my favorite mobile phone company, it provides excellent mobile service, and it’s a damn shame it can’t support its customers correctly.

To track my case and how it is resolved, I have started Help Me Sprint, which can be found at HelpMeSprint.WordPress.com
I look forward to speaking with the person who will solve this soon.

Warm Regards,

Michael McNeeley