I had an account with Sprint PCS for many years. When I signed up, they had a bad network and long customer service hold times, but this was a reasonable trade-off for low prices and relatively good customer service once you got to talk to someone. Over the years, things changed. The network improved, but Sprint introduced a number of obnoxious fees (such as a $3 fee to talk to a customer service representative and an additional $5 fee for the representative to process a bill payment) and policies (such as requiring that your credit card billing address match the account to which your Sprint PCS invoice is sent, even if you supply the credit card billing address). When Verizon Wireless offered employees of my company a better deal than I had through Sprint (more minutes and coverage for less money), I jumped on it. Their service has been a mixed bag (don't believe the hype about them having the "best network in America"), and their technology is not as good as Sprint PCS (plan usage data is delayed 48 hours or longer), but Verizon customer service does answer quickly and seems more responsive than Sprint. They also don't charge extra for wireless data service, which is handy for things like the webcam in my car.
Around the time that I decided to dump Sprint PCS, my friend Voodoo was looking for a cell phone. The plan I had with Sprint was actually really good; it was better than their normal consumer plans but not as good as what Verizon was offering me. I determined that we could just switch the phone number, plan, etc. into his name, and at the end of the billing cycle, we went into the Sprint PCS store to do this. As a side benefit, Voodoo didn't have to sign a contract, since he was taking over my old plan.
Sprint PCS managed to mess up Voodoo's first bill, but got it straightened out eventually and he's been happy ever since. My final bill, on the other hand, was a fiasco. When you sign up for Sprint PCS service, you pay for the remainder of the month that you signed up in, and then pay for the following month in advance. In this manner, you've always paid a month ahead. Because of this, and because I transferred my plan to Voodoo on the first day of the new billing cycle, I figured that there would be no problem. In fact, a Sprint PCS telephone representative confirmed this.
Unfortunately, there was a difference of opinion at Sprint PCS. "You need to pay the last invoice," said the representative in the Sprint PCS store. "The bill is for your current use." So I sent Sprint PCS a check, which arrived 3 days after the payment was supposedly due. The following month, I discovered that the first Sprint PCS representative was right. The invoice showed a credit for the month of service I had prepaid, a credit for the payment I made the prior month, and--to my surprise--a $2.68 late fee.
I knew how this had happened; the previous bill closed, the late fee was assessed, and then the credit for the month of service I'd prepaid wasn't applied until the next billing cycle. Still, this was nonsense; Sprint PCS charged me a late fee for failure to pay a balance that should not have been due in the first place. I called a Sprint PCS representative, who agreed with my reasoning and refunded the late fee. He also took the opportunity to inform me that I would not receive a refund of the credit balance for 90 days, and it could not be refunded to my credit card--only issued as a check.
After 3 months of collecting interest on my money and, probably at substantially more cost than the interest earned, sending me invoices showing a credit balance, Sprint PCS dutifully cut me a refund check. However, astute readers will note the $2.68 discrepancy--exactly the amount of the prior, erroneous late fee, that had been assessed months before.
I called Sprint PCS and politely requested that they send me the balance. "Oh, we refunded the late fee as a service credit. You can't get that back as cash." I pointed out that I didn't have service at the time that the refund was issued as a service credit, so it would have been impossible for me to use it. Besides, I didn't care how the credit was issued, I just wanted my money back."Sorry, those are the rules," said the representative, hurriedly moving on to the next call. "ThankyouforcallingSprintPCS," she dutifully added.
I'm really not sure what to do at this point. The amount in dispute is small, but I really don't owe it to Sprint PCS, and I don't think I should have to pay it. I'm thinking of taking up the matter with the Washington State Attorney General's office. They'll probably do nothing more than send Sprint PCS a nasty letter, but it'd at least cost Sprint more to respond than they owe me. It's absurd that I should have to do this, especially over $2.68, but Sprint PCS, it seems, lives in a world of Enron earnings (does it really take a business quarter to cut a check?) and Arthur Anderson accounting ("It's a credit, it's just a magical vanishing non-monetary credit!"). Where these worlds collide with common sense, at least as evidenced by my case, the customer is cheated. Then again, considering my experience with the now-mothballed Sprint ION, I am not surprised that Sprint PCS also seems to lack common sense.
Incidentally, because of this and Sprint's poor handling of the ION fiasco, I now do no business with Sprint at all. They used to have all of my voice, data and wireless business, billing in total over $200 per month, so I guess it's their loss.
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