Showdown with Sprint, the Sequal

So, everyone here is familiar with my dealings with Sprint back in July. Well, nothing’s really changed, I’ve just been grinning and bearing with it these last several months. That was until a few weeks ago when I heard that Sprint offers discounts to the employees of the company I work for.

I looked up the necessary information, contacted Sprint, and signed up for the corporate rate. During my conversation with the nice rep, I was informed that my billing cycle would move from the middle of the month to the end of the month effective immediately.

So, imagine my disgust when I went to use my phone back on the 22nd, only to find that the service had been cut off.

The gentleman I spoke to on that day told me that despite the change to the billing cycle, I still needed to make a payment of $70 to have the service restored. I made the payment, and was told that another would not be due until February 24th.

About a week ago, I received a text message from Sprint indicating that I needed to make a payment to avoid service interruption. I called Sprint, and was told that the message was sent in error, and that, again, I was good until 2/24.

Well, somebody needs to get their act together, because today I discovered once again that my phone had been shut off at some point in the past 24 hours. Furious, I called in and was told that due to the change in the billing cycle, my account went over the $250 spending limit. First of all, I was unaware that I had a spending limit, and second of all, why didn’t anyone say anything to me about this before?

It was explained to me that this had never been an issue before because my bill had never reached that amount, but due to the bump in the billing cycle, January and February were combined to make the total amount due $278.

Here’s how the rest of the conversation went:

$278???? How does $115 x 2 = $278?

Well, sir, you called London several times this past month.

Yes, but am I not paying $5.00 a month for international calling?

No, sir, that was removed on January 6th.

Why?

At your request.

No, no, no. I had been double billed due to the international calling being on my account twice for some reason. The girl removed the duplicate entry and credited me.

Well, it seems she removed both.

Can I be refunded, as I never asked for it to be completely removed?

Yes, we can take care of that, but we’ll still need a $30 payment today.

Why? Won’t the credit cover that?

No, you also sent picture mail.

Don’t I pay for that?

No.

I see.

I’m truly at my wits’ end with Sprint, but am locked in for another year unless I pay $300. I’m seriously considering it, but when I hear other people complain about their providers, I figure, “Why bother?’

Oh, by the way, the corporate discount won’t kick in until March. No explanation as to why, “It just takes that long.”

Anyway, my phone should be back on in the next couple of hours, but if you find that it hasn’t, please send me an email @

mike AT adventuresofmike DOT net

Thanks