Cell phone problem - I need your help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter rollazn
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rollazn
I am faced with a big problem. Apparently, this woman from Sprint screwed us over. This is how it went.

Well this lady told my father that we were getting 2 lines for $49.99 (800 minutes) and the cell phones were free. My father believed her and agreed. She told us adding another line would cost an extra $10.00. That was fine – we were getting 3 lines with 3 FREE phones for a total of $59.99.

That however was not the case when the bill came. It was over $700.00 – now that’s crazy. Basically it seems that there was no plan like that. There were also no free phones; they are charging us $80 for each. Now we are stuck in this huge problem.

We called Sprint and they told us that there was nothing for us to do except pay the bill. My father refuses to pay it. Now do you have any suggestion on what to do?
 
Just dont pay and they will stop the service and just never deal with you again not that you would want anything to do with them either. But maybe its different in the USA so better check dont want to get you sued.
 
ExigeExcel
False sales. Sure some small claims court would be happy to deal with it.

But did you sign anything? :nervous:

No my dad did not sign anything. My dad arrange it all over the phone to this lady who happens to be Chinese. I'm not sure if that means anything at all but lol...
 
rollazn
No my dad did not sign anything. My dad arrange it all over the phone to this lady who happens to be Chinese. I'm not sure if that means anything at all but lol...
Actually it could, if it's an international phone centre. It's possible she works on commision, and felt the need to commit fraud in order to get your commision.
 
rollazn
No my dad did not sign anything. My dad arrange it all over the phone to this lady who happens to be Chinese. I'm not sure if that means anything at all but lol...

Thank god... and yes it does. :lol:

Omnis
BBB, my friend. Sue those bastids.

Pretty much, they should never be allowed to do business ever again too.
 
rollazn
We called Sprint and they told us that there was nothing for us to do except pay the bill. My father refuses to pay it. Now do you have any suggestion on what to do?

You're in America, right? Read the small print and notify Sprint that you refuse the charges, because your invoking your right to sue them in small claims court. Of course, this doesn't mean you might not have to pay eventually, but it at least allows you to hear why Sprint is charging you a horrendous rate in front of a judge.

Of course, you'll lose use of the phones while all this occurs, you may have a freeze on your credit for anything else. Oh, and Sprint may have quite an army of attorneys to find out that you didn't return a library book in 3rd grade, and find you in default of payment, charge you late fees, (un)reasonable attorney fees, and flog you sauerkraut when you leave the parking lot.

Of course, maybe you didn't read the fine print that explains you must pay for the 1200 text messages you sent to non-Sprint users. Or maybe you went crazy and sent hundreds of 320x200 pixelated photographs to other users at a download fee. Maybe you roamed out of your area (thought that didn't occur anymore, did you). Maybe you spent too much time downloading stupid ring tones while surfing GTP at an incredible (for 1989) 14.4 Kbps...
 
If you were mis-sold you have the right to refuse payment and go before a judge. You want to get people involved (I don't know whoo that would be in the US) who can checka companies history records for bad practise ect and use that against them (unless it comes up squeaky clean).

I get calls from India regular offereing me anew phone, the funny thing is they still try and selme one after I tell them I run a mobile phone company. But they often tell me I've won a free phone with xx free mins and nothing to pay. I say how much is the rental, they say it's all free, babbly on a bit more and then sneak £15 per month in when they think I'm not listening. It's not good practice and some companies are very cunning at times, the calls from India arn't but they're a good example of how much they willl try to misslead you.
 
We had a problem like that, however we got our phones from one of those carts in the middle of malls that were supplied by Sprint.

What the guy said was wrong, but then again, Sprint told us the same thing. We only solved it by taking the phones back and getting our money back.

Which is why we got Cingular.
BBB is the best way. :)
 
AT&T Wireless got busted for this a while back (before selling to Cingular). The sales people are paid commission and will lie to make the sale hoping that the customer will just let it go, sometimes they are given false or old information by their managers to increase store/office sales.

Thsi is teh Dave Ramsey solution:

Call Sprint again and explain the situation. If the customer service rep says there is nothing they can do then ask for someone who can do something. If they claim that person is busy ask the service rep what his/her name is and then tell them you want to hear from a manager of some form by the end of the day (they should call you) or you will be reporting them once you do get a hold of someone in a management position. The customer sercvice person is not taking a fall for $10 an hour (or whatever they make).

You continue this process until someone helps you or you are talking to the CEO of sprint. If this continues to persist contacting the local media at some point would be helpful too. You'd be amazed how quickly people jump when a news camera shows up.

Also, once the issue is taken care of demand that the entire settlement be finished by contract and that part of the deal is to have the entire transaction removed form your credit history. You'd be amazed how they try and get you for demanding your rights by hurting you down the line.

Oh, and no matter how smoothly things go you need to report this to the BBB. They record all complaints.

And whatever you do, just stopping payments will mean months of harrassing phone calls threatening legal action before they go away and then they will still put it on your credit history so that it follows you for the next seven years.
 
Definitely contact better business. Send (or take) your phones back to where they came from. Hopefully you either haven't paid the bill yet or put it on a credit card. If you put it on a card you can have the credit card company go after them for charging you the wrong amount. If you haven't paid yet then you should refuse to pay, tell them you no longer have the phones and you want your money back (and an apology). If you did pay and didn't use a credit card, then you have to argue with sprint for a refund, that's not going to be as easy.

Try to get ahold of the manager of the person that sold the phones and get her fired.

If the people at sprint refuse to allow you to get a refund, appeal to the next higher level in management. Keep appealing until you get to someone far enough up to realize the problem.

Whatever you do, stop using sprint's services immediately. Don't rack up minutes on these phones and don't take calls on them. The more you use the more they'll be inclined to bill you for.

I've delt with a few "miscommunications" like this and I find that the best thing to do is work out what the bill is going to be ahead of time so that there aren't any surprises when the bill comes in the mail.

Good luck.
 
FoolKiller
And whatever you do, just stopping payments will mean months of harrassing phone calls threatening legal action before they go away and then they will still put it on your credit history so that it follows you for the next seven years.

This is true. So if you do decide to pay the bill, make sure you give them the credit card and then tell the credit card company that the amount they're charging is incorrect.
 
danoff
I've delt with a few "miscommunications" like this and I find that the best thing to do is work out what the bill is going to be ahead of time so that there aren't any surprises when the bill comes in the mail.
And get the sales person's name and ID code or whatever they use to identify themselves from the hundreds of others around the globe so that you can have them pull up the recording because "this call may be recorded for customer satisfaction."
 
I called them - and they claim that the phones were buy one - get one free. They also claimed everything was vaild including the price, plans, and etc... I don't know what to do now. They claim they have no promotion for the plan that we bought (she lied), and we are charged incredible amount of money.

Now the rep that I talk to - says that all charges are valid. This is just so complicated.



ALL DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are going to ship all the phones back and for the few months that we had it we will have 2 months for 45 as said. Plus a regular payment of a regular month.

No cancellation fees either - at least thats what i was told.
 
i dont believe that they wouldnt take care of it if you explained. I got a plan with my gf once (big mistake). we were told we would have free unlimited text messages for the first month. She used over 8500 text messages in that month. Thats right, over 850 dollars in text messages. That effing slut. anyways i called up cingular (AT&T at the time) and told them the buisness. they ended up charging me 5.99 but that was it.
 
SS69
i dont believe that they wouldnt take care of it if you explained. I got a plan with my gf once (big mistake). we were told we would have free unlimited text messages for the first month. She used over 8500 text messages in that month. Thats right, over 850 dollars in text messages. That effing slut. anyways i called up cingular (AT&T at the time) and told them the buisness. they ended up charging me 5.99 but that was it.

Believe it or not but I got it done.

My dad was unbelievably mad - and we talked to the superviser. She told us she would take care of all three phone and credit us back 270 dollars (the cost of all three). Then she said for the first two months - we will get half off (which end up costing 45 dollar for 3 lines - what that girl told us). Then for every other month after that it would cost 70 bucks. And thats the deal.

But my dad still refuse.

Basically we could have this deal...

3 free cellphones (camera phones) ($270 - credit back)
2 months half off (which was what the chinese lady told us we would get but she forgot to tell us - it was only for 2 months) ($45 for 2 months)
Every other months three lines with 800 anytime minute and unlimited night and weekend minutes for $70.

My dad still refused. His pride was on the table.

Then we agreed on this:

Send all three phones back.
We pay for 3 months in all (2 of which only cost $45)
No cancellation fee.

I would have taken the other deal but it's not my word. My dad word is final. He's quite stubborn and when his pride is on the line - it even makes him more stubborn.


3 line
800 minutes
unlimited nights/weekend
NO TEXT MESSAGE (who needs it?)
Got all three cellphone free which cost 80 bucks each
$70

Sounds like a great deal?! Not to my father...
 
Well... I guess the point would be Sprint sucks ass... I wouldn't use them. I don't know how their reception is either.
 
I wouldn't want to do any business with a company that tried to **** me over. Respect your Dad's opinion.
 
Omnis
I wouldn't want to do any business with a company that tried to **** me over. Respect your Dad's opinion.
Although your "account" is miniscule to a big company like Sprint, if you switch to the competition, mabye other will follow suit. We all know what can happen if you tell enough people that you've been ripped off.
 
rollazn
My dad was unbelievably mad - and we talked to the superviser.

*stuff*

But my dad still refuse.

*stuff*

My dad still refused. His pride was on the table.

Then we agreed on this:

Send all three phones back.
We pay for 3 months in all (2 of which only cost $45)
No cancellation fee.
It sounds like your dad said, "Can you hear me now?"

pupik
Although your "account" is miniscule to a big company like Sprint, if you switch to the competition, mabye other will follow suit. We all know what can happen if you tell enough people that you've been ripped off.
Studying the psychology of business behaviour course I learned an equation that says that one complaint can lead to almost 10,000 instances of lost business. An unhappy customer decides not to ever go back and tells an average of five people (even more in this case). Those five people respect their freind and at least four won't go back but they each tell another five people. This continues on for a good while until roughly 10,000 sales are lost. This is actually based on a store/restaurant business model so I don't know how it applies here, but since cell companies will lose a customer to a competitor for at least two years it may have a stronger effect on them to try and make ammends. I also learned this model before blogs and forums were popular, so it may have changed somewhat because it was based on word of mouth only.

On the other side only one out of three good experiences are spread. And in those instances they only tell three people instead of five. It is beneficial for companies to deal with a bad situation as quickly as possible because it will stop the bleeding. This also explains why many businesses bend over backwards to solve a problem but not to keep it from initially happening.
 
I've heard the simplified version of that. Mine was that one angry customer will tell ten people. Ten happy customers will tell one person. :lol:
 
FoolKiller
It sounds like your dad said, "Can you hear me now?"

[Chapelle as lil John] What?[/Chapelle as lil John] :lol: oh god... sorry couldn't help myself. Plus I had to Keep it Real.
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edit:
Actually... no I think HE was trying to "keep it real"!
rofl9co.gif
 
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