Moving: More About My Phone

Life was good. It was May 18^th, and I had enjoyed several days of waking up with a phone. I was able to phone anyone I wanted! After 15 days with no phone, the dial tone was a comforting sound. I would pick up my receiver just to hear that noise, and remind myself that the phone ordeal was over.

Or was it….

At 2:38pm I received a call at work. It was Sprint. Apparently there was someone trying to get into my building to install a new port.

“Excuse me? I do not want anyone to install a port. Why is someone at my building? I canceled my phone order because you people could not figure out how to complete a phone order.”

Can you guess how furious I was?

The woman on the phone put me on hold while she looked at my file. I waited patiently, wondering what the heck was wrong with this company. When she returned, she assured me that I had no cancellations on my account, and that I should get home ASAP to let the technician in the building. (Or what, I would have to wait for my phone? Or maybe Sprint hired goons would track me down and break my port. Either way, I was not intimidated). The Sprint woman offered the 24^th of May as an alternate day for the Port Guy to come back.

Did she not HEAR ME when I said I didn’t want her stinking phone?

I told the woman again that I already had a phone, and did not want or need another one. I also told her a few things about running a business, highlighting the fact that one should install phones when the customer requests them, and not install phones when the customer cancels the order. I thought this was pretty basic logic, but the gang at Sprint obviously needed some coaching.

The woman apologized, and said that she would cancel the order and send the technician home. She was also going to make a note on my account warning all other customer service people not to bother me ever again.

You know, now that I think about it, I would really like a copy of those notes they put on my account. I bet there are 457 pages, and lots of “what a total witch this woman is” and “Geez, she expects too much!!!” comments scattered throughout the document.

That night I half expected to find a lonely Sprint technician standing outside my building. I wish there was someone waiting, I would have given him or her a piece of my mind!

I forgot about the incident on the 18^th, and focused on battling the TTC, pigeons and the fear that shot through my body every time I heard the sound of sirens in the apartment building parking lot (this happens quite often, I must say). I had almost forgotten about Sprint, when I received a call on the 24^th.

“Hello Ms. Gough. This is Tina from Sprint Canada. There is a technician waiting outside your building to install a new port, and hook up your phone. Could you please come and let him in, as this is the second time someone was sent to your residence. The technicians are on a tight schedule, and if you do not arrange for them to have access to the port room in advance, we can not complete your order. We have already squeezed you in today, as you failed to be home on the 18^th, and our policy is to only do this once. If you cannot allow the technician access today, you will go back on the waiting list. The next date will not be until June”, Tina said in a snippy little voice. (And what the heck is a ‘port room’?)

I started to laugh.

“Ms. Gough?” Tina from Sprint Canada sounded surprised.

I asked her if she read the notes associated with my account. She said that she had not. I told her to read them, and get back to me if there was a problem. She said that was against Sprint Canada’s policy. I told her to shove the policy. I asked her if the “Sprint Canada Policy” had a section on messing customers around - if it discussed the timely instillation of phones. Tina said she would call me back.

An hour later Tina called back, apologizing. She had spoken to her manager, and between the two of them they were going to correct all of the junk that was connected to my account. I did not ask what “junk” was connected to my name, but I figured they had no idea either. Tina assured me that I would never hear from Sprint again.

A few weeks later I received a bill from Sprint. At this point I was curious as to how the company screwed up again. I tore open the envelope, and was shocked to see that I owed Sprint $247.18. I looked over the bill, and shook my head.

I had been charged for:

1. My Waterloo phone line, which had not been disconnected. The new tenants were using the phone and making all kinds of long distance calls.

2. The original Sprint phone number (local line)

3. The long distance package for the original Sprint number

4. Three ‘mystery’ phone numbers

5. These ‘mystery numbers’ long distance packages.

I phoned up Sprint (the number was committed to memory), and talked to some manager of a manger who said he corrected the problem. He said he was ashamed to be part of a company that could let all of this happen. I hung up the phone content that I was finished with Sprint.

In July I received another bill from Sprint. This one was for close to 200 dollars, and I had several new phone numbers assigned to me. After getting the manager of a manger I talked to before on the phone, I asked what the heck was going on. Bob told me he had no idea. He put me on hold.

He apparently checked with a few people at Sprint, and no one knew what was going on, or how to fix it. This was their solution:

Redirect every single Sprint bill from now until I die back to Sprint Canada, and they would just pay it.

So, as there was nothing I could do and nothing Sprint could do, I will always be a Sprint customer. Every month some new phone numbers will be assigned to me, and Sprint will just pay my bill. I think this is my worst nightmare - being a lifetime customer of a company who continually screws up.

Is it just me, or does that sound totally asinine?

If anyone from Sprint reads this, please tell me WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING?

***side note***

Bell has been doing very well, except for sending me bills for $175.18, which they told me not to pay – they would pay any amount above my regular fees. I guess this is common practice for phone companies. Seems pretty dumb to me.

***end side note***