On March 19 I received a Sprint advertisement offering 4 lines of unlimited talk, text, and data for $150 per month.
If no additional costs are associated, this plan would be better than my Everything Data with 1500 minutes plan that I had kept for several years. I state it this way because I know of others that have changed plans but certain “hidden fees” appear on their first bill that cause their overall monthly bill to actually increase from what they had previously been paying. I wanted to avoid this, so I called Sprint’s customer service line. I explained the advertisement I was reading, explained it would result in a $30 monthly savings for me to move to this plan if there were no other fees or qualifications I wasn’t aware of. The agent stated no additional fees were associated with the plan and it would indeed save me money plus provide up to 3 gigabytes of mobile hotspot data that my current plan does not offer. Sign me up!
Here’s where the problems begin. I received messages from Sprint stating each of my 3 lines were now enrolled in the $75 Unlimited Plan. What the heck is that? I called Sprint back. I was assured by the agent that each line would not be charged $75, that was just the name of the plan I had joined. The first line would be charged $75, second line $45, third line $30, and a fourth line could be added for $0. The total would be $150 and average would be $37.50 per line.
- Why advertise it as $37.50 per line if that’s not the way it is billed?
- Why continue to call the multi-line plans $75 Unlimited?
- Why not at least explain this confusing arrangement during the initial conversation with the customer to avoid questions and additional calls to customer service agents?
The new plan took effect on April 1. The next day I remembered I now had the hotspot feature and wanted to ensure I understood how to set it up for use with my iPad on occasion. Not seeing the Personal Hotspot option in the settings of my iPhone, I thought there might be something I had to activate through my carrier. I logged into my Sprint account to try and locate a self-serve activation option and noticed 2 of my 3 lines were being assessed a $25 “device access charge for discontinued devices” fee. My $30 per month savings was now $20 more than my previous billing. Exactly the scenario I was trying to avoid. The charge included an explanation that the fee would apply until I was upgrade eligible again. Glancing over to the phone icon on the left side of the screen, a green circle with an information “i” was clearly visible. Clicking on that, it revealed my line was eligible to upgrade. I am now moving from being annoyed to frustrated.
Once again, I call Sprint’s customer service number. My first call lasted nearly 45 minutes. 8 minutes to actually speak to an agent, 22 minutes to explain the situation and be told regardless what the original agent stated or what my online account shows, the $25 charge applies to both lines and nothing more could be done. I asked to speak with a supervisor and waited for 15 minutes in silence. Unsure if I was still connected, I hung up and called back. This call lasted just over 3 minutes. The 3 minutes it took for an agent to pick up and ended when I was certainly disconnected mid-sentence.
On my third call, I was fortunate to get Miss Elizabeth. What a gem Sprint has in this person. From the start she was pleasant and reassuring that we would get the problem resolved. I repeated the explanation of what the original agent told me, what the website shows, and furthermore how the iPhone attached to that line was not a subsidized phone – I paid full price for my wife’s Rose Gold iPhone 6S at the Apple Store in October 2015.
She understood my argument and promised to come back with a solution. While I was on hold in order for her to communicate with her supervisors, she often came back on the line to assure me I was not disconnected. Seriously, she delivered textbook customer service. I wish I could submit her for some sort of recognition award (I asked, she could not provide an employee number or way to identify her). Ultimately, she returned to the line with a distinctively different tone in her voice. She was disappointed to tell me her supervisors would not honor the promise of the original agent nor would they consider how 1 of the 2 lines has met the criteria for not being charged the additional fee. In the end, we agreed the best coarse of action would be to revert back to my original plan. Miss Elizabeth stated how sorry she was that we could not find a reasonable solution and so much time had been wasted. I thanked her for her efforts and stated that I actually felt more sorry for her. I am a consumer and have the option to begin looking for another wireless carrier despite our 14 year relationship. She must face the fact she works for an employer that is failing its customers while it continues to fall further behind the other carriers.
Brand loyalty is strange. It doesn’t really make sense that one should feel pride when stating they feel closely associated with a brand and somehow have an emotional attachment to its success. But we do. Or at least we did. I suppose that part of our culture is dying off. I have felt proud to say that I continue to buy products from Apple, Starbucks, Harley-Davidson, etc. because I like the quality of their product and their service. For the last 14 years, Sprint was included in that list. I’m not sure if my research on wireless providers will result in a move away from Sprint at this point, but the fact I will be considering it is an indicator that our relationship has changed.