I bought my new Sprint PCS phone for $179.00 last April, and I signed up for the Sprint PCS Advantage Agreement which required me to be on a 1 year contract for $49.95 per month for 500 minutes peak+500 minutes off-peak time period .  In return Sprint Customer Service Rep. informed me that I would be getting a $100 Credit on my 2nd invoice but “first incoming minute” would not be FREE any more”.  I accepted this offer since it sounded like a good deal.  This is also clearly stated the same way on the Sprint brochure that explains the plans and the Sprint Advantage Agreement.

After not getting any $100 credit even on the 3rd invoice I decided to call Sprint.  I was told by Sprint customer representative that there was a mistake and apologized but $100 credit would only be given to me by 10 installments of $10 every month.  I waited three more months and I still did not get even a penny credit on my 5th invoice.

Following are the unbelievable and unfortunate chain of events that I had to go through to get my $100 Advantage Agreement service credit.
1.  I called the Sprint Customer Service and explained the whole situation to him.   He seemed clueless about what I was talking about and finally connected me to “Rebates” department which I knew had nothing to do with this $100 service agreement credit.
2.  I got connected to the Rebate department representative asked me what the problem was and I had to explain the whole situation to her also.  She also seemed clueless and told me her computer did not indicate receiving any rebate document on my name.   I kept telling her this $100 Service credit had nothing to do with the rebates.   Then she told me to call back the Sprint Customer Service department.  She could not connect me back because “rebate department” was “separate entity” than the Sprint Customer Service.
3.  I called back Sprint Customer Service and asked the representative if I could talk to his supervisor.  He insisted that the “supervisor was not available” and asked me what the problem was.  I had to explain the whole situation to him.  He then told me this was related to the “Advantage Agreement” service department.  He then connected me to that department.
4.  I got connected to the “Advantage Agreement” service department and the representative asked me what the problem was and I had to explain the whole situtaion to her also.   She seemed like she was trying to help me.  She told me she just credited $50.00 for the previous 5 months’ installments that was not credited to me and she would try to correct the other half ($50) of the credit that was due to me and she would give me a call.  I asked her if she could send me a FAX that would explain her statements and she told me “it was not their policy”.
5.  I checked my account on the net, indeed $50 was credited.  I waited few more days for Janice to call me back to explain to me about my other half of the credit that was due to me.
6.  A week later I called the PCS Advantage Agreement department and asked to talk to the same representative as before.  Of course! She was not available.  The customer service representative asked me what the problem was.  I had to explain the whole situation to him as well.
6.1.  (This part is hilarious but yet unspeakable and appalling):  This last service representative above told me he knew what the problem was.  He told me I had to sign up for a new service such as “PCS Wireless Web” so that I would get my $50 credit by the installments of $10 for 5 months.  I asked him why.  His answer was “Sir if you want a credit from us you had to sign up for something so that we would give credit back”.  This did not make sense to me and I was confused.   He informed me this new service of “Wireless WEB” would not cost me anything.  I said OK.
6.2.  I then checked my account on the WEB looking for a $10 credit.  But actually my account showed a new $10/month cost adder for the “Wireless WEB”.   Even if Sprint gave me $10 credit back, with this new charge of $10/month for Wireless WEB, I would not actually gain anything.  I was so angry and furious.
7.  I called back the PCS Advantage Agreement department and I had to explain the whole situation again.  This representative was very RUDE and I asked him if I could talk to his supervisor.  He told me “the supervisor was not available” and then he actually “HUNG UP” on me.
8.  I called back the PCS Advantage Agreement department on 10/27/00 and I had to explain the whole situation again to a different representative.  She sounded like she wanted to help.  She checked the prevoius notes on my account and found out that the representative who had hung up on me actually wrote on the notes of my account that “customer hung up.”  She then told me she gave my other $50 credit on my account but she “had to reset” every thing on my account.
9.  I checked my account on the WEB SITE and all my credit totaling of $100 was given to me.  But I am afraid to call back to see if my one year contract was RESET as well which I had to be with Sprint another year instead of 4 more months.
10.  I called back Sprint 12/6/2000 and asked about when my contract would be over.   The answer was 10/27/2001. YES IN FACT SPRINT RENEWED MY CONTRACT WITHOUT MY CONSENT ONE MORE YEAR on 10/27/00 when they gave me the 100 credit I was after.  The representative told me they had to do that in order to give me that $100.00.  At that time I knew I was not going to go anywhere with Sprint to straighten all this mess.   I SIMPLY ASKED HER TO CANCEL MY SERVICE RIGHT AWAY.

NO BODY deserves to go through what I went through.  At one point I thought I was going to lose my mind.  I WILL NEVER EVER BE A SPRINT CUSTOMER AGAIN.  Some thing HAS TO BE DONE TO STOP SPRINT FROM USING “NEAR FRAUDULENT” PRACTICES LIKE THIS.

Raif Caglar, JCCAGLAR@HOTMAIL.COM