Getting Screwed By Sprint Customer Service

[zhackwyatt]

I pay over 130 dollars a month in my sprint bill. I get 2000 minutes with a 2 phones on the plan. I used to get the PCS Vision Pictures pack for free. It was part of the deal with my plan. In March I got a new phone, one with EVDO capability. The guy in the Sprint Store said I had to add 6 dollars to the montly bill as it had EVDO and I had to pay for it. I don't get EVDO in the area where I live. I didn't have time to argue with him so I figured I can just call Sprint up and they will fix it for me.

They said that was dumb and took it off.

I no longer get free Internet. I started getting charged for the internet and text messages. All those things were free to me, not anymore.

I called up the Sprint people several times since March about this. Most recently they told me that my old plan was no longer available and that my new phone is different and the old plans would not work with it. I have to pay 15 bucks (or whatever it is) for free Internet and Text Messages.

So I want to get this straight, I bought a new phone from Sprint and now they want to give me less services for more money. That doesn't seem to be a good incentive for buying a new phone. I have paid them over 3000 dollars since I have been a customer. Always paid my bill on time, etc. It might not be a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but it is to a college student like me.

So does anyone have any suggestions? Am I wrong? Am I getting screwed? How should I go about resolving this?

Thanks a bunch.

[Maja]

You went from regular Vision, which a lot of people were grandfathered in as a $0 charge, to Power Vision, or EVDO. The issue is, regardless of whether you get EVDO in your area, the service is still EVDO, thus the change in your bill. You have the option of 1) paying the money for internet and texting, 2) paying the money for a text plan and not using internet, or 3) not using either of them and paying nothing. Basically you are now paying for what you are using, whereas before it sounds like you were getting Vision for free. Suck, I know, but unless you can convince them to throw something in for free, you are now paying for everything.

Look on the bright side, you'd pay for it no matter what carrier you had, so now you just have to try to see what kind of deal they can cut you. I'm sure you can probably work something out with them to make it worth your while.

[ppgt94]

Seems like a crappy situation to me. I'm assuming when you bought the new phone they made you sign up for a new 2-year agreement for the rebates, right? I don't know how long ago you did this but you're probably past the 30 days or whatever to cancel w/out ETF. This is probably a rough time to ask for free services since they basically know you're going nowhere since you don't wnat to be forking over another $400 for ETF.

I pray they don't do this to me once I try to activated my used Treo off ebay. :fingers: I have 3 lines with 2000 shared F&C for $100. I also was lucky enough to strick a deal for PCS2PCS, Vision, 7pm N&W, and 500 Txt for free on all three lines as well.

Good luck. Just keep calling and/or emailing and explaining your situation in a polite manner.

[Maja]

Vision

If it is a Treo 700, I do believe you are going to have issues here. I might be wrong, but you can search, or ask others, to validate. From my understanding, the Vision code will automatically flag when you activate a Power Vision phone, thus requiring them to change the service to Power Vision.

Not 100% on this, so you might do a search.

[ppgt94]

If it is a Treo 700, I do believe you are going to have issues here. I might be wrong, but you can search, or ask others, to validate. From my understanding, the Vision code will automatically flag when you activate a Power Vision phone, thus requiring them to change the service to Power Vision.

Not 100% on this, so you might do a search.

It's a Treo 650. From what I've read they can't even use EVDO/PV.

[Maja]

It's a Treo 650. From what I've read they can't even use EVDO/PV.

You are correct. You shouldn't have any worries then, as it is a Vision only phone.

[mem_reddog]

Call retentions and see what kind of deal you can get with the new plan you are on. You should at least be able to get free txt messaging.

[Hte2w8]

I have 6 lines sharing 2500 mins too. Lines 2 and 3 are free, and 4-6 are $10. I upgraded all 6 lines to PV phones and got free PV with unl pic and video mail on all lines, 500 free texts on 3 lines and unl text for $8 on two lines and $2.50 on the last line...plus nites at 6pm free on all lines. I went through retentions and they were wonderful to work with. It can be done, they are reasonable if you are reasonable.

[MsRandall]

This has been asked alot of times I say go to this thread and it willtell you all you need to know

http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98746&highlight=evdo+retention

Thread closed!