Inagural Edition and a Look at Sprint Cell Phones

My friends kid me for being old school.  When I encounter good or bad service (or product or any interaction in which I am a consumer), I am inclined to write a letter to the company.  No, not an e-mail - a real letter; with my signature, and in a hand-addressed envelope delivered through the good ole US postal system.  I always try to remain balanced.  If I write a letter of complaint to one company, I make a point of writing a letter of thanks or compliment to another.  I developed this habit from watching my mother in action.  In my younger days, she never hesitated to dash off a letter to one company or another.  My favorite personal story is when she wrote to the Kellog company complaining about the little toys they would put in the cereal boxes.  It used to drive her nuts that I would rip open the box and plow my grubby hands into the cereal box fishing for the toys.  And she did not like the principle in general of a company using gimmicks to sell their sugar-laden foods to kids.  She ripped off a letter to the CEO in Battle Creek, MI and a couple of weeks later, we received a small box of toys.  Of course, I was ecstatic but my Mom was angry -- she thought they missed the spirit of her letter.

My letters typically generate good results - an unfavorable experience is often rectified.  I try to be balanced and constructive in my criticism and complaints.  And companies are generally pretty responsive - they like to maintain good will with their consumers, which only seems natural, right?  I am prompted to start this blog though after a recent experience I had with the Sprint cell phone company.  I wrote a letter (and a couple of emails too) but received no satisfaction.  I have subsequently files complaints through the FTC and others and am awaiting resolution on those.

I have a narrow objective here of detailing my complaint against Sprint -- just to see if there is a similar sentiment out there.   And if I am at all successful, perhaps I can generate momentum for a class action lawsuit?  Depending on the response of this post, I have a notion of expanding the blog to detail other consumer experiences I have had (both good and bad) - but first things first.  My story about Sprint:

I have been a Sprint customer since 1997.  Sixteen years as a loyal customer -- starting off with one line and gradually expanding to five as my family has grown.  Always paid my bills on time and for the past few years, those bills have averaged around $230 a month.  The cost per line has jumped dramatically over the past couple of years -- mostly to cover the increased data use of smart phones.  While I certainly understand these increases, it does gall me that Virgin Mobile (a company that uses Sprint space) charges a fraction of what Sprint does for heavy data use plans - but that is another story.  Back to the details,,,,

Sprint recently unilaterally implemented two changes to the terms and conditions of my contract:

 (1) Administrative charges were raised from $1.49 to $1.99 a line.  Under the terms and conditions, I have the right to cancel my service without penalty when there is a material change to my service.  I personally define a $2.50 increase (50 cents * 5 lines) to be a material change.  Conveniently, Sprint has declared this not to be a material change, offering the reason that the contract Ts and Cs stated that the fees could be raised to $1.99.   That’s a pretty neat trick of self-protection!

(2)  In addition to the above change, the terms and conditions were also updated to now state that these fees could be raised to $2.50 in the future.  Again, I called to cancel without early termination fees and I was told “That is not a material change because it has not been implemented yet.”

I am sure you all appreciate my concerns here.  I was denied my rights to cancel without fee in one case because the potential for the implemented change was already stated in the terms; and I was denied my rights in the other instance because the potential change has not been implemented yet.  How convenient of Sprint to allow itself to have it both ways.  What clever gamesmanship – Sprint gave itself carte blanche to increase fees and effectively sealed off any actions from the consumer. Meanwhile, they expect me to continue to live up to the terms and conditions of the contract (that they can unilaterally change)

I addressed my letter to Dan Hesse (Sprint CEO) and was contacted by one of his corporate account executives.  She was a nice enough lady but ultimately fell back to their party line (which essentially was this:  "We understand your concern but we have determined this is not a material change to the contract and we cannot waive your early termination fee.  I am not a lawyer though and cannot discuss this in further detail.")

Despite their finding, I went ahead and canceled my services (all five lines) and transitioned to T-Mobile.  It is hard to describe but I can't tell you what a relief it is to be freed from the shackles of Sprint.  T-Mobile offers a good service at a great price and I am not locked in to a two-year contract - but this is also another story and I recognize I am in a honeymoon phase with T-Mobile and that can also change.

For now, my concern centers on Sprint - they are trampling on consumer rights.  I have paid my early termination fees but am seeking remedy/resolution through a number of governmental consumer advocate groups.  Will let you know if I am successful.  In the meantime, looking for any other folks who share my disgust with Sprint?  Please post in the comments or shoot me an email.