Comin' an' Goin'
As I've mentioned before, our family cellular service is no longer with Sprint PCS, a.k.a. Sprint with Nextel, because they do not provide coverage in the Washington D.C. Metrorail tunnels. (Seems frustratingly silly now, since I'm on the bench and no longer riding Metro on a daily basis.)
Verizon is a company that I do business with grudgingly. Their reputation is far from clean. Within this geographic area their actions are approaching monopoly abuse. We seem to have extremely few options for local telephone service, and no one else is offering an internet connection at 15Mbps in a reachable, if unreasonable (by Asian standards, for example) price range. We switched to Verizon Wireless (a separate, but increasingly affiliated company) because of the data-service coverage in D.C., giving me (at that time) the ability to stay more or less connected during my two-hour morning and evening commutes.
Unfortunately, even though we have been customers for more than five years, Sprint believes they have us under contract. The contract on Vicki's account was renewed when we got a replacement phone in June '05, when her original Sprint phone died. And the contract on my account was renewed when I changed the calling plan at about the same time.
Ergo, Sprint/Nextel will be picking our pocket to the tune of $300 dollars just before Thanksgiving Day.
I spent the better portion of an hour on the phone with several Sprint "customer service" reps. Heather and Dierdre and all the others whose names I didn't catch were very pleasant to talk with, very helpful in explaining exactly why I'm getting stiffed such a significant figure. But not one of them, nor their supervisors, were even capable of canceling or refunding those charges on our final bill. Or so they repeatedly explained to me.
As if their monthly charges hadn't been high enough all along.
Until today, I had entertained thoughts of going back to Sprint PCS when our Verizon contract expires, if the coverage situation or my need for it has changed (as it has already). Until today I had spoken very highly of Sprint PCS and our appreciation for and satisfaction with their service.
After the conversations today, I can no longer recommend them to my friends and family. People, be warned: just like the other big phone companies, they will take your money before, during and after you are finished doing business with them.
Sprint, I am not likely to be coming back to you.
Verizon is a company that I do business with grudgingly. Their reputation is far from clean. Within this geographic area their actions are approaching monopoly abuse. We seem to have extremely few options for local telephone service, and no one else is offering an internet connection at 15Mbps in a reachable, if unreasonable (by Asian standards, for example) price range. We switched to Verizon Wireless (a separate, but increasingly affiliated company) because of the data-service coverage in D.C., giving me (at that time) the ability to stay more or less connected during my two-hour morning and evening commutes.
Unfortunately, even though we have been customers for more than five years, Sprint believes they have us under contract. The contract on Vicki's account was renewed when we got a replacement phone in June '05, when her original Sprint phone died. And the contract on my account was renewed when I changed the calling plan at about the same time.
Ergo, Sprint/Nextel will be picking our pocket to the tune of $300 dollars just before Thanksgiving Day.
I spent the better portion of an hour on the phone with several Sprint "customer service" reps. Heather and Dierdre and all the others whose names I didn't catch were very pleasant to talk with, very helpful in explaining exactly why I'm getting stiffed such a significant figure. But not one of them, nor their supervisors, were even capable of canceling or refunding those charges on our final bill. Or so they repeatedly explained to me.
As if their monthly charges hadn't been high enough all along.
Until today, I had entertained thoughts of going back to Sprint PCS when our Verizon contract expires, if the coverage situation or my need for it has changed (as it has already). Until today I had spoken very highly of Sprint PCS and our appreciation for and satisfaction with their service.
After the conversations today, I can no longer recommend them to my friends and family. People, be warned: just like the other big phone companies, they will take your money before, during and after you are finished doing business with them.
Sprint, I am not likely to be coming back to you.
posted by Daniel | 6:54 PM
1 Comments:
Danny,
I had a similar situation with both Sprint and Verizon; I'm now with Cingular. Lesser of the evils it seems. I feel your pain.
jf
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