What to do when Sprint violates the contract?

[omnicrash]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum so bear with me. I couldn't find a problem like this anywhere, so I'm soliciting for advice on what to do.
I had three sprint phones on my account until yesterday, when my brother wanted to sign on to cingular and port his number over. He was willing to pay the early termination fee, so I said it was fine by me.
He go down there, did his thing and his new phone was working fine with his old number. But when I woke up this morning and tried to use my phone, my service had been suspended so I was on the phone with customer service instead of my intended callee. Apparently what happens is when you drop a line of service, they drop your account spending limit (ASL). In this case from 350 to 200. Now I have my account set up to automatically take the money from my bank account at the end of every month so except for the half a week between when they take that money and the next bill is posted, I have about 130 dollars against my spending limit. When 150 is added to that, I get 280. No problem if my spending limit is 350, except the conveniently lower the spending limit the precise amount that they also charge my account.
Now I've been a Sprint customer for 3 years now and I've made every payment on time and in full every month. I've noticed some decline in the quality of my service lately (particularly with internet and pictures) but I'm not ready to jump ship yet. I still have until December on my existing contract. After I got the customer service people to turn my 2 remaining lines back on, I got to thinking, shouldn't this be a violation of the contract?
Well after much more searching on the sprint website than I think is reasonable, I finally found a copy of the contract and if I read it correctly then this contract should be void for what just happened.
There are two issues. First a small one. The recently increased the cost of 411 from 1.25 to 1.40 which is a change which I believe had a material adverse effect on me to the sum of 15 cents. Not a big deal but the contract states: "If we change a material term of the Agreement and that change has a material adverse effect on you, you may terminate the Agreement without an Early Termination Fee"
Thus that should be enough right there. But I thought, well it really doesn't state the price of 411 in the contract, so maybe that's pushing it. (though it does state it in the plan, so by that standard, the price I pay per month isn't in the contract either).
The bigger issue I think is the second. They decreased my ASL by 150 dollars automatically and it states further in this contract that Sprint "may reduce the ASL at any time with prior notice."
That's fine by me, but they did not give me prior notice. I had no idea they dropped it automatically and that by porting the third line over to cingular, I'm going to automatically get my 2 accounts (paid in full for three years now) suspended for going over an ASL that they changed without telling me. That I think is a material adverse effect too.
Well two customer service reps and two customer service rep supervisors later, I've gotten no where. In fact, from what one of them told me, there are only two acceptable reasons that they cancel a contract early without the early termination fee:
1. Customer moves outside the Sprint PCS network area.
2. Customer dies. (he actually said that)
I asked to talk to the supervisor's supervisor and I await a call from her in "24-48 hours". Anticipating the company line from her (if anyone calls me), I have sent an email to the customer service department, hoping it gets through to someone, I've included the text below (most is repetitive):

Sprint has violated the terms of its service agreement with me. In the agreement it states: "If we change a material term of the Agreement and that change has a material adverse effect on you, you may terminate the Agreement without an Early Termination Fee" and also that Sprint "may reduce the ASL at any time with prior notice."
These are the parts of the agreement which are pertinent. Sprint recently raised its 411 calling fee from $1.25 to $1.40 which had a material adverse affect on me to the sum of $0.15 which is grounds for terminating the agreement without an early termination fee. Also, you decreased my Account Spending Limit (ASL) by $150, precisely the same amount as the early termination fee, thus suspending my two active lines (which I have paid in full every month for 3 years now). There was no prior notice that the spending limit was to be decreased, and though I now know it is determined by how many lines one has on the account, I was not aware of it at the time, nor was I aware that it was to be decreased. Thus my lines were suspended because Sprint lowered my ASL, in violation of the agreement. I have tried calling customer service multiple times, but they are not authorized to nullify a contract unless the customer moves out of the serviced area or dies, so I have no recourse but to send this letter. I ask that I be released from my agreement with Sprint, but I am not unsatisfied with the Sprint service and want to keep my remaining two lines of service on a month-to-month basis, as the agreement clearly states occurs, when the agreement has ended. Please ensure that this letter is given the attention it deserves and is forwarded to people that can help me.

My next logical step is to send a better worded letter to the corporate headquarters. I wish there was a better way though. I very much feel that I am in the right here. It's not that I want to cancel my Sprint service, I actually want to keep it, because I think I'm paying less than I would with Cingular but if I'm out of the contract, at least I can entertain the idea of leaving Sprint and the bigger issue for me at this point is: they violated the contract and they won't own up to it.
They've offered me lots of credits and discounts but what I really want is out of the contract. Does anyone have any helpful advice for me? Or you can tell me that I'm crazy and I'm reading the contract wrong...

[Juno]

It's hard to say what could be considered prior notice. If they told you at the initial sale that your spending limit would be x with 1 line, xx with 2 lines and xxx with 3 lines, then they could say you had prior notice. Most people don't even know what their spending limit is, or how much it is, until they go over it! Your best bet is to calmly request that your spending limit be raised enough to be outside the range of your average bill. This is where your payment history will help you out. The only other thing I can think of is setting it up so you prepay by one month every month. Good luck!

[jtnet]

i dont understand the problem, if you pay your bill every month how are you over the spending limit? and why cancel with sprint because you hit your limit?

[jtnet]

take your bros 150$ that he agreed to pay and throw it on the account and your good? whats the problem?

[TechBoy2881]

Your best bet is to get hold of a sympathetic ear, and request your account spending limit to be increased to a proper level. If your average bill is $185, then your ASL needs to be like $200. If you've had any delinquent payments on your account, you are pretty much screwed. Odds are they'll say no dice, as you don't represent any new revenue to Sprint corporate anymore. You've been active for 3 years, just cancelled a line of service. They've made their money off of you, so unless you get ahold of a CSR that cares about servicing customers, you're going to be looking at paying a month ahead on your account.

[omnicrash]

i dont understand the problem, if you pay your bill every month how are you over the spending limit? and why cancel with sprint because you hit your limit?

First you burn me, then you analyze the problem and ask questions?
Well however that goes, I do pay my bill every month and I'm over the limit because they lowered the spending limit on me to a level that was too low combined with my usual monthly bill (which gets paid at the end of every month) and the 150 cancelation fee.
I am applying the 150 that my brother gives me to the account. And the issue isn't the spending limit at this point. The issue is that they violated the contract and I want out of the contract. I'm not canceling my phone service, but I don't see why I should be locked into a 2 year agreement that only I meet the conditions of and they meet when it's convenient for them.

[TechBoy2881]

And the issue isn't the spending limit at this point. The issue is that they violated the contract and I want out of the contract. I'm not canceling my phone service, but I don't see why I should be locked into a 2 year agreement that only I meet the conditions of and they meet when it's convenient for them.

If you're not cancelling service anyway, what difference does it make if you are under contract? You are fighting a war of morals it seems against a billion dollar company. Its nonsensical to think that just because you may or may not have caught them in a contract loophole--I honestly think you didn't, as more than likely somewhere in the Clear Pay portion of your contract it has some sort of provision letting them do this--that you are entitled to void your contract. This is the price you pay for capitalism. When big corporations take over entire markets--cell phones, grocery stores, video rental--it comes with a price, and shady contracts or not, its better than "Low Bob's Discount Cell Phones". We deal with crappy contracts because we reap the benefits of advanced technologies and ease of use. Lube up, bend over, and move on.

[acole5]

You need to remember the contract includes the Terms and Conditions of service and sprint's various other policies by inclusion. Further, I don't think this could be considered a material breech in any way.

[DJ_Vitamin_J]

well i might have misred but are you wanting to stay or cancel?
if you wanna stay go to the store and talk to somebody about a asl increase. they did it for me and out of 2 years i made 3, 3 day late payment and it took 2 days to get it done but i went from 125 to 200. if you wanna leave...bye, have fun! its your money!...and thats just keepin it real

[lgmayka]

The rise in rates for directory assistance, call forwarding, and casual data is a materially adverse change in the contract, and by rights does trigger the clause permitting cancellation without penalty. However, Sprint has apparently given their employees orders to ignore the clause and levy the termination fee anyway.

Your best bet may be complaints with the FCC, FTC, BBB, and attorneys general.

[omnicrash]

I don't need the spending limit increased anymore, they turned my service back on.
I want out of my contract, but I don't want to cancel my service, because I want the ability to walk away from sprint if I find a better deal elsewhere. I'm currently extremely unhappy with the way they've treated me and I think the quality of the network is not what it used to be either. I seem to get a lot more dropped calls lately and internet and pictures are faulty at best.

[omnicrash]

The rise in rates for directory assistance, call forwarding, and casual data is a materially adverse change in the contract, and by rights does trigger the clause permitting cancellation without penalty. However, Sprint has apparently given their employees orders to ignore the clause and levy the termination fee anyway.

Your best bet may be complaints with the FCC, FTC, BBB, and attorneys general.

Thank you Igmayka, that's the best advice I've heard so far. Thank you for taking this seriously and giving useful advice!

[Dan]

No the comments in this thread are NOT how we treat members on here. They are dealt with by the "mod's" on the site.


Do us a favor and when you see posts like this, please click the red triangle with the ! in it. we will review the posts and take appropriate action! Thanks for being members on SU!

[deeznutz1104]

sounds like your trying to find a petty reason to quit sprint.Notice was giiven to all when the charges were raised for call-forwaring,411 and web overage.as far as the asl when you signed up you most likely were told that u need a deposit and had a spending limit or you wewre approved for x number of lines and x amount of spending limit.if you have a spending limit on sprint most likely you need a deposit with other carriers ,might wanna check that out before you cancel

[Dan]

ANY material change in sprints agreement is an acceptable reason to cancel. Recent ones have been"

Charging all accounts a fee for number portability

raising the costs of casual "vision" service

raising the cost of call forwarding

the increase on directory assistance fees


The problem is that "regular CS" is either un-aware that these reasons are a legal breech of contract, or they are instructed to tell as many people that the contract is enforceable and if they want to leave they have to pay the ETF fee.

The OP's problem is that he doesnt want to leave sprint totally. If he had wanted to leave sprint over the increase in directory assistance on all lines, the ETF would have to be waived. If you want the ETF waived, you have to select a new carrier by the end of your billing month. You can not "get out of contract and stay with sprint" as that would be what every customer did!

Finally, you have to wait till the new fees go into effect. once they are in effect, you have 30 days to void the contract or the new agreement is "accepted" by your continued use of the service.

[Guptaji]

Thank you Igmayka, that's the best advice I've heard so far. Thank you for taking this seriously and giving useful advice!
You two should get a room and take this conversation there. First you whine about nothing for ever and then your friend suggests that you report it to everyone including Bush Jr. Yes, granted he does nothing productive all day, but seriously??

Fellas, get a grip on reality already. This is a non-issue. Put some money in your account if you have it. If you don't have it, get a cheaper plan. If you're looking for an excuse to get out of contract, you should ask for one flat out.

[omnicrash]

You two should get a room and take this conversation there. First you whine about nothing for ever and then your friend suggests that you report it to everyone including Bush Jr. Yes, granted he does nothing productive all day, but seriously??

Fellas, get a grip on reality already. This is a non-issue. Put some money in your account if you have it. If you don't have it, get a cheaper plan. If you're looking for an excuse to get out of contract, you should ask for one flat out.

It's really sad how many people there are here posting to forums when they can't even read. This isn't about money, this is about Sprint honoring their contracts. This isn't an excuse to get out of the contract, it's a valid reason and they won't honor it. That seems to be the main issue is of this "non-issue."

[omnicrash]

ANY material change in sprints agreement is an acceptable reason to cancel. Recent ones have been"

Charging all accounts a fee for number portability

raising the costs of casual "vision" service

raising the cost of call forwarding

the increase on directory assistance fees


The problem is that "regular CS" is either un-aware that these reasons are a legal breech of contract, or they are instructed to tell as many people that the contract is enforceable and if they want to leave they have to pay the ETF fee.

The OP's problem is that he doesnt want to leave sprint totally. If he had wanted to leave sprint over the increase in directory assistance on all lines, the ETF would have to be waived. If you want the ETF waived, you have to select a new carrier by the end of your billing month. You can not "get out of contract and stay with sprint" as that would be what every customer did!

Finally, you have to wait till the new fees go into effect. once they are in effect, you have 30 days to void the contract or the new agreement is "accepted" by your continued use of the service.

Dand411 - I think you're right but it's both: the CS is unaware that it's a legal breech of contract (they don't even have copies of the contract (any contract)) and they are instructed to give the company line.

I think every customer should be able to get out of their contracts with Sprint but keep the service. Why can't Sprint stand on it's quality service and let people choose instead of wrangling them into these 2 year locks to prevent them from going anywhere. Sprint is afraid of true competition (ie, the capitalism that many posters here seem so fond of) so they do whatever they can to prevent a true free market in favor of 2 year monopolies.

I agree with you that any of those changes are valid causes for canceling the agreement, but I disagree that I have to cancel my Sprint service to get out of the agreement as if my 2 year contract ended I would be on a "month-to-month" standing as the contract says and it claims that if I call, that my agreement can be canceled without paying the fees, but says nothing about canceling the actual service to do that. Besides, if I go ahead and port my numbers over to Cingular tomorrow because of their violation of the contract, they'll still charge me and try to collect the fees. If I don't pay, they'll report me to collection agencies and ruin my credit (which is good, not bad, I did not ever have to put down a deposit for my Sprint service). This is a case of the little guy fighting the big corporation and the only way for me to win is for them to admit they are wrong. This would be far too expensive to litigate, so once I've climbed the corporate ladder as far as I can, I can go through the BBB, FTC, FCC, and attornies general but then I'm pretty much out of options (and I have my doubts that those 4 paths will get me anywhere anytime soon).

[VisionSamaritan]

i agree with you that you are able to get out of your agreement. however, bottom line, if you arent canceling service, then you are agreeing to keep the contract. they are allowing you an "out" thru that clause, meaning out of your agreement, meaning out of you obligation to sprint service, meaning out of sprint service. if you are staying with sprint, you are arguing a moot point with them. just trying to save you some time :)

[ILikeSanyo]

First you burn me, then you analyze the problem and ask questions?
Well however that goes, I do pay my bill every month and I'm over the limit because they lowered the spending limit on me to a level that was too low combined with my usual monthly bill (which gets paid at the end of every month) and the 150 cancelation fee.
I am applying the 150 that my brother gives me to the account. And the issue isn't the spending limit at this point. The issue is that they violated the contract and I want out of the contract. I'm not canceling my phone service, but I don't see why I should be locked into a 2 year agreement that only I meet the conditions of and they meet when it's convenient for them.

So basically they violated the contract and you want it cancelled......only they didn't violate it enough for you to go to another carrier.......what they should do is let you out of the contract and cancel the remaining lines....why should they cancel the contract and then turn around and let you keep service when it's convenient for you?

[dukenewt]

Also, with the materially adverse change in the contract, you only have a finite amount of time to request out of your contract. Usually when you pay your first bill after notification of the change, you are agreeing to the change.

Duke

[omnicrash]

i agree with you that you are able to get out of your agreement. however, bottom line, if you arent canceling service, then you are agreeing to keep the contract. they are allowing you an "out" thru that clause, meaning out of your agreement, meaning out of you obligation to sprint service, meaning out of sprint service. if you are staying with sprint, you are arguing a moot point with them. just trying to save you some time :)

No, the contract and the service are two different things. It is not necessary to have a contract in order to have service. I want to keep the service as long as I'm a satisfied customer. The contract prevents me from ending the service when I'm unsatisfied. I want the ability to go to another carrier if I think they can do a better job for the same or less money.
Why is that so hard for so many of you to understand?

[omnicrash]

Also, with the materially adverse change in the contract, you only have a finite amount of time to request out of your contract. Usually when you pay your first bill after notification of the change, you are agreeing to the change.

Duke

Quite right, but I have not paid the most recent bill with the 1.40 411 charge yet so I still have a few weeks to get this settled.

[omnicrash]

So basically they violated the contract and you want it cancelled......only they didn't violate it enough for you to go to another carrier.......what they should do is let you out of the contract and cancel the remaining lines....why should they cancel the contract and then turn around and let you keep service when it's convenient for you?

No, they violated the contract and I want it canceled, but that doesn't mean I should hop right over to Cingular and pay whatever outrageous rate they charge. I want the right to change my service carrier when I decide I can get better service elsewhere. I haven't decided if someone else can give that to me yet, but in the mean time, they won't honor the contract, so why should I have to?
Yes, by God, they should let me keep the service when it's convenient to me, I'm still paying for it every month! The same thing happens when you complete the 2 years, you go on a month to month basis and you have the right to switch carriers at any time without paying early termination fees.

[VisionSamaritan]

No, the contract and the service are two different things. It is not necessary to have a contract in order to have service. I want to keep the service as long as I'm a satisfied customer. The contract prevents me from ending the service when I'm unsatisfied. I want the ability to go to another carrier if I think they can do a better job for the same or less money.
Why is that so hard for so many of you to understand?
actually, no. in your case, since you are currently under contract, your service is directly tied to your contract. if you want out of contract, but not out of service, then you will have to cancel your current pricing plan and get the ETF waived, and get put on a pricing plan which does not require a contract. good luck with that, cuz have you seen what the plans available look like? its not like it used to be, where you could just pay the extra $10 for month to month. the vast majority of the plans (especially good ones, retention, etc) require contract. you being a bit close minded, people here are trying to help you out, but you only want to hear YOUR answer, instead of other answers. your trying to interpret the wording to match the policies you want, instead of the policies that sprint has in place

[ILikeSanyo]

actually, no. in your case, since you are currently under contract, your service is directly tied to your contract. if you want out of contract, but not out of service, then you will have to cancel your current pricing plan and get the ETF waived, and get put on a pricing plan which does not require a contract. good luck with that, cuz have you seen what the plans available look like? its not like it used to be, where you could just pay the extra $10 for month to month. the vast majority of the plans (especially good ones, retention, etc) require contract. you being a bit close minded, people here are trying to help you out, but you only want to hear YOUR answer, instead of other answers. your trying to interpret the wording to match the policies you want, instead of the policies that sprint has in place

Excellent post and right on point !

[omnicrash]

actually, no. in your case, since you are currently under contract, your service is directly tied to your contract. if you want out of contract, but not out of service, then you will have to cancel your current pricing plan and get the ETF waived, and get put on a pricing plan which does not require a contract. good luck with that, cuz have you seen what the plans available look like? its not like it used to be, where you could just pay the extra $10 for month to month. the vast majority of the plans (especially good ones, retention, etc) require contract. you being a bit close minded, people here are trying to help you out, but you only want to hear YOUR answer, instead of other answers. your trying to interpret the wording to match the policies you want, instead of the policies that sprint has in place

I don't see how it could be simpler, I'm quoting the contract that Sprint has with me, which they broke. There really doesn't seem to be much interpretation here, only the ability to read, which you clearly (and sadly) lack.

However you do bring up a question that I had not considered until now, so I want to put it to someone who might actually know:
when you finish your 2 year term, do the prices remain the same now that you're on a default (that is, not specifically negotiated because you never wanted the 2 year agreement) month-to-month agreement with Sprint or do they increase automatically to reflect extra charges for going month-to-month?
Until now, I was under the impression that they remained consistent...

[acole5]

Actually, the correct answer is further up. According to Sprint's Terms and Conditions you can either 1) cancel service and back out or 2) accept their new terms (including the higher price for 411) as part of your contract. If you cancel your contract because you don't want to pay $1.40 for 411, then you must terminate all services with Sprint. You can't hardly terminate a contract because you want to pay less than $1.40 and then continue to pay $1.40. So, you may either terminate all services with Sprint, or you can accept the change and shut up.

[omnicrash]

Actually, the correct answer is further up. According to Sprint's Terms and Conditions you can either 1) cancel service and back out or 2) accept their new terms (including the higher price for 411) as part of your contract. If you cancel your contract because you don't want to pay $1.40 for 411, then you must terminate all services with Sprint. You can't hardly terminate a contract because you want to pay less than $1.40 and then continue to pay $1.40. So, you may either terminate all services with Sprint, or you can accept the change and shut up.

You're wrong.
" If we change a material term of the Agreement and that change has a material adverse effect on you, you may terminate the Agreement without an Early Termination Fee"
The agreement is not the same thing as the service. Why is that so hard to understand?

[Ronkh]

Ok, this thread is going nowhere except for flaming


thread closed!!

[Dan]

Omnicrash:

You have to choose if you want out of the contract or if you agree to the services with the changes. Sprint will NOT let you out of the contract but still let you keep the service. Their used to be an option like that, but it was if you wanted no contract to begin with and no discounted phones.

If you need it explained further with honest answers from someone who looks out for customers and the company and doesnt work for sprint, feel free to drop me a PM.

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