Everything is gone..well, not everything. Just the hard drive partition that had all of my music, pictures and other media.
Its been another slow day, not that I can say I’ve really been here most of the day. The morning was kinda hectic, for reasons undisclosable.
I got a bill from a bill collector representing Sprint telling me that I owe 230.61 dollars to them. Imagine my reaction. When we military folks go out of country, we don’t need a cell phone. In fact, we aren’t allowed to have a cell phone due to the frequencies they broadcast on. Every cell phone provider has a military suspension policy, some are really good, and allow you to terminate the contract for free if you choose, or just keep the contract suspended until you return. Sprints’ Military suspension plan is decent, but because its Sprint, something always goes wrong.
I left for Iraq in February, the 7th to be exact. I called Sprint on the 6th and had them put me on the military suspension plan, something I did a year earlier with no problems. Now, because I had already recieved service in February, I did as expected, get billed for the month. My plan was to pay the bill online when my statement hit. The bill was 64.17, no big deal. The problem is, I find I can’t get into my online account to pay it. I email their E-Care team(what a joke). They reply that my account is locked out due to a past due balance of 64.17 and the account has been suspended.
I tell him that the money I owe is not past due but for the month of February and my account is suspended not because of a past due balance, but because I put it on a Military Suspension. These words never fully sink in to any of the 10 people’s heads that I got emails from.
The next email I recieved stated that because I put it on a military suspension that the online account has been suspended. I didn’t like this answer because I was in my online account all the time last year to make sure they weren’t charging me anything, with no problems. I dealt with it though and asked if there was any other method to pay my bill other than the online pay. He said the only option for me was to send my family money to take it to the Sprint Store and pay it there. Good enough for me, so I call the Sprint Store down in Port Richey, who tells me that I can’t have them pay it there because I purhcased my plan in North Carolina(where I am stationed) and that is in a different service district. Great! No way to pay the damn thing.
I wasn’t too worried because while on military suspension, Sprint is not allowed to charge late fees, tax, or take action against my account. Riiiiiight!
The next news I get, other than more crap from the E-care team, is a letter from a creditor stating that I owe 230.61 dollars to Sprint.
They awoke a sleeping beast with this one. I called and got the run-around(maybe I wasn’t patient enough) for about an hour cumulatively while being on hold for a cumulative 30 minutes. So an hour and a half and I am no where close to fixing the problem, but I have found the source. One of Sprint’s very skilled billing specialists (intended sarcasm) informed me that my account was accumulating just over five dollars a month of tax for the payment I never was able to pay. So, like any company who cares about their loyal patrons, they charged me 170 dollars (roughly) for early contract termination…yippee! I told him it was outrageous and that I was not going to pay that because I was on the military suspension plan to prevent action against my account while I was out here.
He was going to give me a number to call and I told him that I was going to call base legal, he said he would put a note on my account that the charge be removed and my contract reenstated, but he could’nt do anything to help me, I would have to talk to customer service (for the fourth time..not happening). I just politely told him to have a nice day and I will handle it with legal.
I never did call legal, turns out, the next time I called, I got a billing agent that had actually been there for more than a week, and she looked over my account and agreed that I shouldn’t be charged anything but the original 64.17 dollars. She thanked me for being patient as she put me on hold while she explained the situation (Sprint? Customer SERVICE??) to a collections person. She was just about to transfer me and I got…disconnected?? CRAP!
I called back and asked for Collections, and I got someone who immediately brought the situation to his manager, who had already heard the situation (there it is again, keep it up, Sprint!) and had already put the account up for review..phew!
Now, they said to call back within a week to see if it had been removed so, I will wait patiently and see if anything comes my way. I have to keep my fingers crossed, because with Sprint its always hit or miss.
Its been another slow day, not that I can say I’ve really been here most of the day. The morning was kinda hectic, for reasons undisclosable.
I got a bill from a bill collector representing Sprint telling me that I owe 230.61 dollars to them. Imagine my reaction. When we military folks go out of country, we don’t need a cell phone. In fact, we aren’t allowed to have a cell phone due to the frequencies they broadcast on. Every cell phone provider has a military suspension policy, some are really good, and allow you to terminate the contract for free if you choose, or just keep the contract suspended until you return. Sprints’ Military suspension plan is decent, but because its Sprint, something always goes wrong.
I left for Iraq in February, the 7th to be exact. I called Sprint on the 6th and had them put me on the military suspension plan, something I did a year earlier with no problems. Now, because I had already recieved service in February, I did as expected, get billed for the month. My plan was to pay the bill online when my statement hit. The bill was 64.17, no big deal. The problem is, I find I can’t get into my online account to pay it. I email their E-Care team(what a joke). They reply that my account is locked out due to a past due balance of 64.17 and the account has been suspended.
I tell him that the money I owe is not past due but for the month of February and my account is suspended not because of a past due balance, but because I put it on a Military Suspension. These words never fully sink in to any of the 10 people’s heads that I got emails from.
The next email I recieved stated that because I put it on a military suspension that the online account has been suspended. I didn’t like this answer because I was in my online account all the time last year to make sure they weren’t charging me anything, with no problems. I dealt with it though and asked if there was any other method to pay my bill other than the online pay. He said the only option for me was to send my family money to take it to the Sprint Store and pay it there. Good enough for me, so I call the Sprint Store down in Port Richey, who tells me that I can’t have them pay it there because I purhcased my plan in North Carolina(where I am stationed) and that is in a different service district. Great! No way to pay the damn thing.
I wasn’t too worried because while on military suspension, Sprint is not allowed to charge late fees, tax, or take action against my account. Riiiiiight!
The next news I get, other than more crap from the E-care team, is a letter from a creditor stating that I owe 230.61 dollars to Sprint.
They awoke a sleeping beast with this one. I called and got the run-around(maybe I wasn’t patient enough) for about an hour cumulatively while being on hold for a cumulative 30 minutes. So an hour and a half and I am no where close to fixing the problem, but I have found the source. One of Sprint’s very skilled billing specialists (intended sarcasm) informed me that my account was accumulating just over five dollars a month of tax for the payment I never was able to pay. So, like any company who cares about their loyal patrons, they charged me 170 dollars (roughly) for early contract termination…yippee! I told him it was outrageous and that I was not going to pay that because I was on the military suspension plan to prevent action against my account while I was out here.
He was going to give me a number to call and I told him that I was going to call base legal, he said he would put a note on my account that the charge be removed and my contract reenstated, but he could’nt do anything to help me, I would have to talk to customer service (for the fourth time..not happening). I just politely told him to have a nice day and I will handle it with legal.
I never did call legal, turns out, the next time I called, I got a billing agent that had actually been there for more than a week, and she looked over my account and agreed that I shouldn’t be charged anything but the original 64.17 dollars. She thanked me for being patient as she put me on hold while she explained the situation (Sprint? Customer SERVICE??) to a collections person. She was just about to transfer me and I got…disconnected?? CRAP!
I called back and asked for Collections, and I got someone who immediately brought the situation to his manager, who had already heard the situation (there it is again, keep it up, Sprint!) and had already put the account up for review..phew!
Now, they said to call back within a week to see if it had been removed so, I will wait patiently and see if anything comes my way. I have to keep my fingers crossed, because with Sprint its always hit or miss.
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2 Comments
We recently got a new phonenumber which was supposed to be
unlisted and unpublished. In the next few days we received 4 calls from
people trying to sell us water softening equipment. They all said they had
bought a list from a source who bought lists of newly assigned number
from Bell South. Then I received a call from a TV reporter who wanted to
do an interview. After each one I called Bell South and on the first 4
occasions I was told it was impossible that anyone could get anyones
unlisted or unpublshed number from Bell South! The 5th time I called I got
someone with all her brain cells intact and she immediately found the
problem. Somehow we had 2 listings on the old phone number, one with
Charles and Phyllis and the other with Phyllis and Charles, and the new
number was placed on both of them but only on one of them did they
note that it was unlisted and unpublished. So now I get my $29.00 fee
for the new number refunded. The same type of thing happened when I
was having a computer problem and was dealing with Brite House. After
about 8 calls I got someone whose first language was not Urdu and we
could communicate, and the problem was quickly solved.
Same thing with Microsoft! I can\’t talk to anyone but an American because of security reasons, and you would think that every now and again I would get pushed to an American operator, well..that hasn\’t happened yet. I think Microsoft is secretly an Indian country that outsources in America…