The problem with Sprint and the Palm Pre

* * * * * * * * * * Update * * * * * * * * * *

It is now June 12, 2009. A complaint was filed with the Better Business Bureau regarding the sales practices of Sprint on the issue below, but there has been no response so far from Sprint, not even an automated reply or "we are looking into it." (We were suprised to see over 35,000 complaints filed with the BBB on Sprint!)

A copy of the full complaint was emailed to Sprint as well; the BBB online form is limited to 4000 characters, and I wanted someone at Sprint to see the entire ordeal I had to go through.

Yes, you are right, once again there has been NO response from Sprint.

After looking forward to the Pre since it was announced in January and sitting here now without it has been a letdown. Being long-term customers of Sprint seems to make no difference to them.

The new Apple iPhone 3GS is beginning to look more and more attractive, even though we are less than thrilled with AT&T as the sole carrier. But at least we could undoubtedly have one in hand when those are released.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On May 19, 2009, Sprint issued a Press Release with the information regarding the release date and pricing of the Palm Pre phone http://newsreleases.sprint.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=127149&p=irol-newsArticle_newsroom&ID=1289761&highlight=

This release indicated a release date of June 6 2009 and an initial cost with a new 2-year contract of $299.99, with a $100.00 mail-in rebate, making the total cost of the phone $199.99.

We have been customers of Sprint for well over 5 years, and on our account, we now have a $150.00 “upgrade credit” per phone / line on our account (two phones, two lines of service). Our current (at the time) 2-year contract with Sprint had an expiration date of May 25, 2009, and we were going to renew to a new 2-year contract once we had purchased the new phones.

Anticipating the release of this new phone, I signed on to our online account, then called Sprint, got to their first level of phone support, and was transferred to a “Lisa” in sales. My inquiry was whether or not our upgrade credit was going to be honored on the purchase of these phones, if both lines would receive the credit, and would we still be eligible for the $100.00 mail-in rebate on each handset.

I was told by Lisa at that time that yes, our upgrade credit was going to be able to be applied; and yes, both phones would be eligible for the $100.00 mail-in rebate. I questioned her several times as to whether she was sure this was accurate, and she said yes. In that case, I then told her we would be interested in purchasing the Palm Pre when they were released for sale; she asked if we would be renewing our contract for another two years with that sale, and I told her that yes, we would. She then told me that she could do even better than any deal we could get in a store, and told me to refresh my account page and take a look — she had credited $100.00 to our account “to offset the cost of the phones” and she stated that the rebates are being processed “much faster these days, and usually take a week or two now.” The only charges we would be responsible for would be an $18.00 activation fee per phone, bringing the total cost to $36.00 (plus normal monthly service billing).

Many times I questioned Lisa and asked “what strings are attached to this deal,” “are you SURE that is all we will be charged” and even asked her to repeat it so I could write it down and give the information to my husband, and each and every time time she said NO strings are attached, and yes, that is all we would be charged. “Great!” was my response, at which time she asked if she could place me on her ‘call back list’ that she has for Saturday, June 6, of people she was going to call back to finalize the sale of the two phones and renew our contract. Of course, I told her that would be fine. Now we would just need to wait until Saturday to conclude the transaction.

Yesterday in US Mail, I received a packet from regarding “recent changes to your account.” But I made no changes, and our contract has now expired, there should be no changes. Upon opening, I see that a $50.00 “contract renewal bonus” per line had been added to our account, and our account had been renewed until 2011. NOT what I had agreed to and did not authorize the renewal yet until the purchase of the new phones.

The saga begins.

I called first level support and spoke to “Alissa.” After explaining what had occurred, she told me she had reversed the erroneous “renewal bonus” and had set our contract back to its ‘expired’ status.

Checking online later as changes do not appear immediately, I noticed that nothing, in fact, had been changed on our account. The $100.00 credit was still there, and the contract had the unauthorized extension date to 2011.

Another call to first level support, another round of a 15 minute explanation had me transferred to “Omar” in Cancellations again, repeating the information as he read notes. First of all, he said Lisa had NO authorization to make the arrangements she did. He said our upgrade credit was NOT going to be honored towards the purchase of the new phones, and in fact, he said they (Sprint departments) had no knowledge of what the price was actually going to be on the phone and wouldn’t know until Friday at the earliest. He then said there was no way to order the phones through Lisa and we could only purchase them if we go and stand in line and hopefully be able to purchase one at a Sprint dealer. He also said that Lisa was going to be reported and would lose her job for offering the deal to us on May 19th, so I shouldn’t expect a call back from her on Saturday. He did take care of reversing the credit on our account, and resetting our contract expiration now to June 1, 2009.

After hanging up, and by this time livid over being misled and lied to, we checked online and found the above-mentioned Press Release issued by Sprint with the pricing details. So I decided to call back, knowing the chances were slim of getting back to “Omar” in order to enlighten their department that their own company had issued the information publicly.

Once again, I call back, get through first level support and now have been transferred to “Tara” in cancellations. I have explained this whole saga to her, and although falsely sympathetic, she was now explaining to me how our upgrade credit was useless. We could not use it, it would not be accepted, and we would only get the $100.00 mail-in rebate if we purchased the phones. After re-explaining the offer and our disappointment, she said she would transfer me to her supervisor.

This resulted in being on hold another 10 minutes (this whole ordeal by now has taken over two hours); while on hold, a voicemail system came on, and I was disconnected.

Yet -another- call to first level support, got as far as ‘the next available representative will be with you shortly’ and after 15 minutes, without talking to a human, was disconnected.

And yet another call — this needs to be rectified and taken care of. First level support put me directly through to Cancellations, and I had the pleasure (Not!) of speaking to Daniel.

Daniel listened as I once again went through this whole story, from the beginning, all the problems and disconnects, and his main response to me was more or less that I could not buy a phone from his department and I would have to go to a store, stand in line, blah blah blah. Trying to get our situation through to him was next to impossible. He would not listen to beyond “purchasing a phone”. Finally after 15 minutes of telling him I was not trying to buy the phone from him, and half of this ordeal finally sank in with him, he told me there was no way anyone at Sprint could give the deal Lisa did, he was sorry we were given wrong information, he doesn’t understand where she got the information, and NO, we could not use our upgrade credit. After a half hour of trying to talk sense with Daniel, he transferred me to his supervisor, someone with a slight foreign accent whom I had trouble understanding his name. By this time, the connection between us and their department had degraded and there was feedback on the line which made it difficult to talk to him.

This ’supervisor’ again told me that a week after the Press Release was issued, everyone in Sprint was told they were NOT to make any deals whatsoever on the Palm Pre phones, and if anyone was caught doing so, it would be an immediate firing. So he was sorry he could not do anything for me, even though Lisa had an oral contract with us as of May 19th. He explained he has a wife and daughter at home and could not risk losing his job, and he insinuated that because I brought all of this up, “Lisa” was going to be fired.

It is not our issue with people being fired. Unfortunate, but it happens.

Our issue is that we were told one thing, orally contracted to purchase the new handsets, and were under the false assumption that the arrangements were going to be honored.

Our contract was extended without our permission; we received false information; we were misled into making a purchase; and being customers for over five years we received treatment no better than any guy walking down the street who never heard of Sprint.

We wanted to stay with Sprint. We would be happy to extend our contract another two years. But now, with this recent outright lying to us, and deception, we are not sure we want to be associated anymore. We have anticipated the release of this handset since the announcement in January and now we have absolutely nothing as well and being let down by the company we have loyally supported.

Lisa’s oral agreement should be honored. It is the morally ethical thing to do.