At the beginning of this month I received my cell phone bill from Sprint. It was nothing unusual; I get them all the time. At least that’s what I thought until I opened it. I was scanning through it when I saw my current balance was $88.73.
“Holy Crap”, I thought “Why is my phone bill so high this month?”
It wasn’t until further investigation that I realized I never received a bill for last month and now I was over due. I didn’t think it was a big deal; I was just going to pay the whole thing when I paid the current bill.
With the bill being due on the 20th of this month I waited until I got paid on Friday morning to send the money in. Because I pay it electronically, five full days in advance should have been plenty of time. Well Sprint being the phone service Nazi that they are called me on Saturday asking me to make a payment over the phone. Surely they had to be joking. I had just made a payment the morning before and their calling me at work trying to get money from me. Without loosing my cool I explained to the guy that I had already paid it, and the money will get to them before my bill is due. He told me that was fine and I brushed it off. I didn’t give it another thought. At least I didn’t until today.
Everyday I call my girlfriend when I get off work to let her know that I’m heading home and to ask her how her day has been. It’s just something I’ve always done and I’m sure that I always will. Today however, when I tried to make that call I was immediately transferred to Sprint. The guy on the other end hardly said hello before he was trying to get me to pay them to restore my service, which had now been cut off.
Annoyed to no end I gritted my teeth and I told them that I made that stupid payment and my bill wasn’t even due until Wednesday. I was hot. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, and I asked to speak to a manager. The guy calmly talked me into waiting until I got home and checked my bank account to make sure the money had gone through, because without some kind of confirmation they couldn’t do anything about it. Although I should have cussed him and his momma up and down until they turned my phone on again, it made sense at the time and I agreed to do just that.
I gave myself a little time to cool off when I got home and I went about my normal evening routine. Then after awhile I sat down and looked at my bank account. My payment posted on Friday. My blood started to boil and my breathing got real deep. It looked like Sprint had my money all weekend and not only did they call me they cut off my phone. I was ready to bust some heads.
I called them right up and I enlightened them that I paid this bill. I explained to them that I had a confirmation number and this money was no longer in my account. I informed them that this is ridiculous and we need to get this worked out. Finally after I finished with all my ranting the guy at the other end explained that I needed to talk to a different department about this and he was going to have to transfer me. Although what he really meant was I don’t want to listen to you because I’m not even in your country and I’m going to put you on hold until the phone hangs up.
Fifteen minutes later I called back and asked nicely for someone to help me. When this lady went through the same spill I had heard for the 3rd time today I asked her if I could just speak to a manager because I just wanted to get this resolved. I heard a couple of beeps and a click and magically I was transferred to somewhere here in the United States.
Although she was the first one who could speak perfect English I can’t remember her name. I didn’t matter anyhow because all I needed to know was that she was a manager and she was going to get this resolved for me right now.
Once again I stated my case and I went into great detail of what was going on. I told her that my bank says that Sprint should have my money. I let her know how stupid their system is that it doesn’t at least give their customer’s until the next billing cycle to make their payments before they cut off their service. I told her I was upset that no one had been able to help me and that I am very disappointed with Sprint right now. She apparently sat there and let my complaints fall on deaf ears. She was not ready to help. It was then that I believe I started to shake. I was so upset with them I wanted to throw my phone across the room and smash it into a million pieces.
I then asked the manager how long I had had my account with Sprint. When she told me I opened it in February of 2000 I almost hit the roof. In a very stern voice through a locked jaw I asked her if she could tell me why after 5 years of service they cut my phone off for being late once. After 60 non late payments, they think I’m some jerk who isn’t going to pay my bill. Did they think after all this time with them that I’m just going to say “You know what; I don’t think I’m going pay for this anymore”? Apparently not only did they think this, but the gratitude I get for being such a loyal customer for such a long time is them not wanting to work with me, even after I explained I had already paid my bill and my money would be there in a matter of hours.
I think it was then that she realized that maybe it might be a good idea to get this fixed. Maybe this guy who’s been on the phone for a freaking hour might not be lying about paying his bill. Maybe as a huge conglomerate of a company they may be being a bit to self righteous about this whole matter. It’s just $44 bucks that only 20 something days late. No one’s life is on the line. No one is going to lose their job over this.
I tell you what; if I didn’t get such a good deal on my cell phone rate I would take my number and go elsewhere. I would happily pay some other service provider for another 5 years so as long as they listened to me when I had a complaint. I would do it even if it meant that the service was not quite as good just out of spite. After today I see that with Sprint I’m not a loyal customer. I’m just $44 bucks a month and some phone number in a computer. They could care less about me recommending them to my friends or mentioning them as a good organization to do business with. They are just some stuck up a-holes who did nothing but piss me off. So as I stand here on my soap box preaching about the evils of Sprint I just want everyone to know that I’m sending a big SCREW YOU out to all those people that run that company.
So in case you need to get a hold of me, my phone is turned on and it works great.
