Complaint Review: Sprint PCS Nationwide

Having trouble with ATT bad coverage in Chicago North and people
constantly calling with wrong number - we bought a Sprint Smartphone - and after looking it over - one more for my wife.

We were promised a 100 $ rebate when buying 2 phones - but they were notable to honor it - but this is not the main issue here.

First we found out that no Sprint dealer in Chicago were able to activate the phone.

We were told it could be activated over the internet - but no such luck.

The website is not maintained properly.

After hours waiting on hold told to go to a Sprint store - but after visiting 2 stores finding out that the stores cannot activate a phone.

We had to drive across Chicago for a certain Sprint office - that had lines of complaining customers standing in front of employees with no mandate to do anything.

You would be placed in another line of customers waiting to get into a phone booth where you could talk to a real Sprint person over the phone.

We spent close to our whole day off to do what we could have done at home over the phone with a credit card.

Hence warning no. 1: Your money is wasted buying a phone from Sprint - the time you spend to activate a Sprint phone is totally out of proportion compared to the purchase. If you are a professional - you will be very annoyed.

Next - we find out the phones are issued identical ID's - and treated as one account - even though they did not honor the rebate for buying 2 phones.

This was too smart, Sprint. Especially when we with no succes tried so many times to get access through the promised online account management - it simply doesn't function.

People still get the wrong caller ID when we call.
Hence warning no. 2: Sprint purposely denies you your promised rebates - but delivers a rebated product.

Next - after coming back from Europe, the phones are dead. A gargled unrecogniseable message on the voice mail camouflaged as a sales message (No Sprint name on caller ID) leaves us clueless until we dial the phones through a Sprint system that tells us we've been billed 100$ for not paying in time.

The voicemail warning was sent 12 hours prior to
disconnecting - and a sms message on the phone sent too. But when the phone is outside Sprint range - you will know nothing.
(After complaining the fee was reduced to 5$ - but the phones are still dead)

Hence warning no. 3: Sprint will make money on you by playing games - and you can only loose.

Up until then approx. every 3rd call we make to each other will be lost (we are a couple and talk to each other several times a day - and will find out) - and the voice mail steps in. So the other person has to call his voicemail and so on.

But the funny thing is that we have a landline next to us that has to be open - and when calling the landline to check
why the Cellular is not answered we find the Sprint phone is not
responding - but works fine when you call out.

So this leaves us suspecting that Sprint has calculated how much extra revenue can be made by forcing people to call and use voicemail for every 3rd call.

Even worse - a voicemail message can spend as much as 5 hours getting to you.

My wife is a Doctor - I am running a business. This makes the phones useless for us.

Warning no. 4: Sprint will force you to use your phone more than other providers - and will do it even though you miss important calls. Very unethical.

This is a picture of a corporation so focused on revenue that they have forgotten why they are in business. And it is a pity - because their coverage is good here in Chicago. But their deliberate break of the promises to make them different from
their competitors - draws a very clear picture of a company getting ready for a merger - puffed up with locked in dissatisfied customers that will leave at the first chance offered.

It has been seen before.

Oh - by the way - we pay over 21 dollars extra pr month in funny little surcharges and fees not related to the minutes used and not announced when you buy the plan.

Dear Sprint - you could have avoided this exposure and kept us as
customers - but you choose notto. We gave you chances enough to correct what first looked like mistakes - but now look like systematically bilking your customers....

The Casey's
Chicago, Illinois

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