T-Mobile or Sprint - What's Your Choice?

In order to get to what this supervisor Pam #1724157 did or stated I have to give background information. I will be as concise as possible. On May 3, 2007 the CEO of the small television station I work for told me my job was being eliminated. They would try to keep me through the end of the month. So on May 7th I called T-Mobile to set up payment arrangements since I suddenly could not afford to spend pay my bill. The agent offered me a chance to pay $10 of my bill that day then asked if I could pay the remaining bill on June 9, 2007. I told her I could and she set up the payment arraignment.

On May 29, 2007 I received a bill from T-Mobile stating $96.88 would be automatically taken from my checking account. Knowing the money to cover this bill was not available in that account I quickly checked online and there was the amount pending, so I called T-Mobile. This was the second issue I had to take up with the company after four months of service. The first problem I tried to call and have fixed but saw the hoops I had to jump through for the $20 charge and decided to let it go. This time I did not want to let it go, so when I called and spoke to Jake he was very cordial and apologized for the error and in fact, fixed the $20 charge on the account upon my mentioning of it. He proceeded to tell me to call back when bank fees were charged on my account so that I may obtain a fax number to send the proof of what their error caused me, for anything to be done to fix it. I was grateful spoke to his supervisor and told her he was very cordial and helpful.

The next day I printed my bank account information and called for the fax number. Unfortunately, I had to explain what happened twice. The first agent would not transfer me to the correct department without reason so I explained to her. She, Angela, told me the error was not their fault looking at their policy of how a payment plan should work. I told her I understood now how it works but that does not change the fact that the first woman made an error on my account. She transferred me to her supervisor who looked at the account and told me the original agent set up the payment arraignment then deleted it out to put another one in. He apologized and told me he could not help be because I needed to talk to a person in Financial Care. He told me to let them know about the canceled and re-entered arraignment as further proof that there was a problem.

With Financial Care, I had to AGAIN tell an agent what went wrong. This time Desire also explained their policy and I again told a new agent I understood NOW how their policy works but that does not make up for the fact that the agent who caused the problem, never explained how the payment arrangement worked and simply offered me a payment on the 7th of $10 then on June 9th $96.88. I told her all I needed was to speak to a supervisor or get the fax number Jake told me to call back for. She gave me the number and name of a supervisor that would be reviewing my cellular account and bank account information. She also told me this supervisor would call me back that day or the next. I asked for the name and way to contact this person in the event that they did not return my call. She did not want to give it to me at first then finally after explaining I've been told I would get a call back from T-Mobile in the past about a problem and I did not get the call and did not know how to follow up with the person. So she told me Bee #24504 would call me back. (Funny how these companies are required to get your first name, last name and social security number but they can not give out a simple last name of themselves or supervisors- why not give me a code number too rather than throw my personal information around...)

Four days later, I did not receive a call back from Bee or T-mobile for that matter. So I called AGAIN and AGAIN explained in customer care why I needed to speak to Financial Care, and AGAIN explained to an agent in that department why I was calling and that I needed a follow up on my account. This agent, Phyllis told me the error was not T-mobile's fault and there was nothing they would do about it. So I asked for a supervisor. She transferred me to Pam #1724157. Pam proceeded to treat me like I was ludicrous for calling back and as though this story I had to explain to seven T-mobile agents was untrue. She said I see where you have called in numerous times and was told numerous times that this was not T-Mobile's error and there is nothing we can do for you to fix it. I told her I did not appreciate her inferring that I was lying and asked if they recorded their calls since the only thing we have to go on is notes in the system I asked her about notes from Jake and the Supervisor in Customer Care who both told me they saw where an error had occurred. I asked her if there was a note in the system that said I was TOLD to call back. I also asked her why an agent would tell me that Bee would call me back in a certain time frame and I not receive the call. She simply said she was not on the phone when the conversations were held and she could not speculate as to what was said. I asked her what is their policy when a person is told to fax bank statements in as proof of a problem.

Is it normal to notate on an account a supervisor would review an account and that the supervisor not follow up with a call? She told me their policy was to put a note on the account and that Bee had not done that. She also told me it is possible that Bee was on vacation when I spoke to Desire. I asked her, is it normal that any person working under a supervisor would not know when that supervisor was and would be out of the office on vacation? If not then why did Desire tell me the supervisor would call me on Monday if she knew the supervisor was on vacation? Desire told me she would simply send Bee an email to call me when he/she return's on Monday and there was nothing she could do for me. I asked her to please email Bee and tell them I need a call back and that I would call if I did not receive a call.

Even still, I have had more positive experiences with T-Mobile than with my previous cell phone provider. After six years of horrible service with Sprint, I finally decided to cancel my account. The last straw was an agent changing my cell phone number with out my permission or knowledge. It took over a week to get it back. Even in me moving on to a new cell phone provider Sprint did some foolish things.

With Sprint my last bill was a little over $64. I was not sure if I should pay it immediately or pay it when the account was closed out. Either which way it went I knew I would get another bill, since the contract ended January 23 and I would be paying monthly, until I re-signed or canceled. I contacted the new provider and allowed them to cancel the account so that I could keep my cell phone number. When I received my last bill in the mail from Sprint it was for $174. I called to inquire why the bill was so high since I owed $64 for January and would only need to pay for Jan 23-Feburary 17th. I had not used the phone since February 10th so I did not understand where the outrageous fees came from.

I made several calls and could not get an agent since I was not a customer. Every number I called was for customers who were current or wanted to open an account. The people I spoke to would ask for a phone number on the account and could not pull the information up since I was no longer a customer, or so this is what they told me. They kept transferring me and giving me wrong numbers to call. One number was to a Spanish call center and the number the agent there gave me was another number that ended up being right back where I started- with an agent who could not pull my account up. I kept asking for their billing department but nothing worked. Finally I called a number where an agent could help me.

Initially I asked for an itemized copy of my last bill so that I could review it. Since I only had access to my itemized bill online before I canceled the service I knew I no longer had that access to an itemized bill. Also the last bill was simply a charge with no explanations for the charge. The agent told me she would charge me to have a bill sent to me. I asked her why and she explained all customers who had access to their bill would be charged to have another bill mailed to them. I told her I did not have access and I was no longer a customer. After going around and around she offered to have a supervisor call me back. I never received that call, so I called back. This time I asked the agent to explain to me what happened with my last bill and why I can't receive an itemized bill in the mail without being charged. This person passed me over to a supervisor who told me since I was no longer with Sprint I could not be charged for an itemized bill to be sent to me. At this time the bill had gone up $10 so I asked what that $10 charge was for. She told me late fees. She also told me Sprint charged me .40 per minute from January 23 through February 17th instead of offering prorated as they do when you change your account in the middle of the month. The .40 per minute ended up being a $104 charge and that is why my bill was originally $178 and now it was $184.

The last time I received a bill from Sprint it was for $184 in March. Their outrageous charging has made it quite impossible to pay the bill off with another service's bill. This can't be legal (instead of charging a prorated amount on my closed account they charged me .40 per minute) can it?