Sprint REFUSES to let me cancel unless I agree to ETF

BethCh · EVDO Newbie Joined: 05 Aug 2008 Posts: 5

I am so angry, that I can hardly type this. I just got off the phone with Sprint customer service, where I explained that I would like to cancel because of the material change made to my account. My latest bill, received last week, contained the change from unlimited to 5GB.

The first person I talked to, Matthew, refused to even let me speak. He just continued to talk over me as he explained that no one had been charged or terminated, so there was no change to the contract. I finally broke through to ask to speak to his supervisor.

The supervisor, Jim, told me that they had checked with their lawyers and if they did not terminate or charge anyone, there was no material change to the contract, and so he would not cancel my account unless I agreed to the ETF.

He refused to let me speak to anyone else, going so far as to say that I would not be allowed to just keep escalating this, as if I were some petulant child having a tantrum. I just kept insisting, and he finally agreed to have his manager call me.

So this is how they are now attempting to retain customers who wish to leave - unless you specifically agree to the ETF, they are just refusing to process a cancellation.

Now what?

SockMan! · EVDO Newbie Joined: 07 Mar 2008 Posts: 9

Sounds like you might have got a bad representative. I had absolutely no trouble canceling my plan without ETF about a month and a half ago (which was a pleasant surprise since I figured my experience would've been similar to yours). It sounded like I got an Indian (or similar) call center, but at least the guy didn't give me any hassle. In fact, it seemed like he was expecting people to call and terminate due the change in TOS.

I'm not sure what you can do in this case. Perhaps call again and hope you get ahold of someone else who actually knows about the change?

BethCh · EVDO Newbie Joined: 05 Aug 2008 Posts: 5

Oh, they know about the change. That's not the issue. They are maintaining that it is not a "materially adverse" change unless they cancel or charge someone for going over 5GB. This is diabolically insidious for several reasons.

(1) It is apparent that, by the time anyone is charged or cancelled, the 30-day window to cancel without ETF will have expired. (2) If I agree to the ETF to get my account cancelled, I will have lost my rights to object to the ETF later, as I agreed to it. And (3) Having hung up with no resolution, I must now write, which does not meet the requirement that I call to cancel.

MasterMason · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 19

ebiz

BethCh · EVDO Newbie Joined: 05 Aug 2008 Posts: 5

Thanks, ebiz, I have done that. I received a reply that someone from their secialty accounts would contact me within 72 hours. Three more days of the 30 day window will be eaten up.

I am also filing a complaint with the Massachusetts Attorney General today.

leicabug · Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 9:06 am Post subject:

You can also try e-chat. I cancelled mine through e-chat. You will be transferred one time to retentions during e-chat.

jfulmer · EVDO Junkie Joined: 30 Jun 2007 Posts: 155

It actually wouldn't surprise me if Sprint starts doing something like this as policy. They have to report on # of customers gained/lost to their shareholders, and one of the reasons they've taken some recent stock price hits is that they've been losing cell customers. I can imagine that they are losing a significant number of their PC data customers (they had to have more than a few), which is probably tanking their subscriber numbers a bit.

It could be isolated, but I had a few problems canceling last week, and the fact that I wanted the ETF waived seemed to confuse the rep I talked to, although they had the 'this only affect %1 of our users' line memorized.

I imagine that Sprint really wants to stop the bleeding if they can.

ebiz · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 1:59 pm Post subject:

dan1101 · EVDO User Joined: 17 May 2007 Posts: 67

Yep I canceled easily 3 or 4 weeks ago. It sounds like maybe they're losing a lot of EVDO customers and their phone reps have been instructed to not let them go easily now.

Well, I told my rep why I was canceling, the guy said it might affect him too. Hopefully if the Sprint bean-counters realize WHY people are cancelling, they may value $60 a month customers over bandwidth.

Sally · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 111

Hey Beth....

I'm curious... so would you mind filling in a few details to your story?

What market are you in?
Do you have a business or consumer account?
When did you open your account?
Did you get noticed of the change in your May or June bills?

I'm not trying to beat a dead horse... but I'm curious to figure out who is getting noticed and which accounts are being changed... and which accounts are not.

Also... when you say that your bill changed... what exactly is it saying and where (in the bill) that is different from before?

BethCh · EVDO Newbie Joined: 05 Aug 2008 Posts: 5

Finally, today, after five more emails and a complaint filed with the Massachusetts Attorney General, I received a response from Sprint eCare canceling my account at the end of this billing cycle with no ETF.

I only had to threaten to email them every single day, ask for arbitration four times and file that complaint.

Strangely, I received an email today asking for contact information to discuss the matter. Ten minutes later, before I could respond to the email saying that I wanted the discussion to remain in writing, I got another email from the same person canceling, and giving me a confirmation number. Not sure what happened during that 10 minutes.

Sally, my account was a consumer account, opened in September 2007, and the notice of change was in the July 25 bill, which I received somewhere around August 1. The notice of the change was in the usual place, Page 2 - "Sprint News & Notices." On Page 5 under "Details, details . . ." the plan is now described as, "$59.99 Connection Card Data Plan" with the "Unlimited Megabytes of Data" part of the description that all previous bills contained, removed.

Alex · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:53 pm Post subject:

BethCh, Sally describes her data use as being well over 5GB monthly.

How about you?

ebiz · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:31 pm Post subject:

Way to go, Beth!

There was no question that Sprint would lose, if you persisted. The T&Cs are clear. So long as customers have an email paper trail, are within the window of cancellation and don't quit, they will prevail.

The cost in man hours for Sprint to pursue arbitration for a single account is expensive, even when Sprint is right. In your situation, and most of the other ETF issues related to the new 5 Gb limit, Sprint has been wrong anyway, as it is not in compliance with its own T&Cs... and it knows it. Therefore, it would lose through arbitration, regardless.

Sorry to see you go.
_________________
Vista64 & EX720

BethCh · EVDO Newbie Joined: 05 Aug 2008 Posts: 5

Alex, I never calculated until maybe June when this all started. Using SurplusMeter for a couple of weeks indicated that I would have been well over 5GB, as I was using this as my primary access. Back to cable and an iPhone for travel.

Ebiz, thanks for your help and support. You're an inspiring cheerleader!

Smile