Complaint Review: Sprint PCS Wireless - Atlanta Nationwide

I opened my Sprint Wireless account in October 04. I put down my deposit ($125.00 due to lack of credit experience) and bought my phone, and my service began. I chose the "Fair (hah) and Flexible" plan ($35.00 USD/ per month). Two months later, in December, I found out that I was eligible for a 20% discount through my company.

So, like anyone else, I went for it. I had to go to the Sprint Store and furnish my employee ID card, and then I would be okay. Things were great for the first month after this, my bill was only $28.00 + tax!!! I though I had found the best deal EVER! But of course, they had to screw it up.

As it turns out, they ACCIDENTALLY created a duplicate account for me when I switched to the new billing cycle (apparently you have to switch to your company's billing cycle to recieve the discount.) So, I was paying my bill for MY phone, but this duplicate account was accruing bills @ $35.00 + tax a month, for 3 months. Along with that came late fees and all of those lovely little money makers for Sprint.

So, on March 16th, my phone service was cancelled (they sent me a text message telling me this was due to non payment). I absolutely flipped out, my cell phone is how I transact 99% of my business (I had clients faxing me, saying that my phone wasn't working--at this point, it's costing ME money).

So I call up Sprint, and after a 20 minutes of transfering, I landed in the Business Services Department. According to them, I owed $101.50 in late bills. account (because my personal account was IMMACULATE). 45 LONG MINUTES after that, the admitted the error was not my fault. They then said that they didn't have the authority to turn my service back on (as the computer controls it--like everything else these days).

This incredibly annoying rep then told me "The only way your phone is going to be turned on is for you to pay the bill". So... after extorting $140.00 out of me ($101.50 + I decided to pay next month's bill along with it), my service was restored.)

AT THAT POINT IN TIME I WAS TOLD THAT I HAD A ****CREDIT BALANCE**** OF $101.50

So I wake up this morning (March 25, 2005) and low and behold, my cell phone does not work. Another fun little text message pops up, telling me to "Pay the bill, you deadbeat loser".

After the same ordeal as before, I am now told that I now owe $375.00!!!!!! (I actually find this humourous, as my SPENDING LIMIT IS $125.00--the amount of my initial deposit) After talking to rep after rep, then supervisor after supervisor, they ADMITTED FAULT AGAIN, and apologized. The supervisor said that she would need some time to work on the problem, and she would call me back within 20 minutes later.

Later on, 4 hours later, I get the call back. She tells me not to worry, the duplicate account has been closed and my service restored, and I now have a credit balance of $4.53.

My question is this... HOW IN THE HELL DOES A CREDIT BALANCE OF $101.50 TURN INTO $4.53???????? Robbery my friend; simple robbery. I was then informed that for complex problems such as this one, the customer is BILLED for CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!1

Moral of today's lesson: Don't use SprintPCS. They will turn you upside down and shake until your pocket money falls into their greedy little hands.

PS--I would be MORE than willing to speak to someone and SPRINT to try and rectify this situation.

Josh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.