Sprint #4 Highway Robbery
From Complaints.Com Website consumer:
My wife and I live in Virginia and have Sprint for Long Distance and International calls. From December 27th 2004 to January 15th 2005 we were on vacation in England. As we had a Sprint Fonecard it made sense to use it. Not knowing the UK number to dial to access the Sprint Service, I phoned the USA Sprint number given on the reverse of the calling card to obtain this number. Having been given the number to ring for access in the UK I inquired about the cost of calls. I was told the cost was 45 cents per minute.
On our return to the USA I found that a hold of over $700 had been applied to my credit card by Sprint. A call to Sprint Customer Service was fruitless. After being passed from department to department with everyone passing the buck I was eventually told no charge had been made, that my account showed no money owing, and the last payment to be $96. Sprint would not accept that I was looking at my credit card accounbt on-line which clearly showed a payment to them in excess of $700 - No one could explain the charges and constsntly denied that they even existed. In accordance with Sprints own Terms & Conditions I made a formal Dispute to their Customer Service Person. No one at Sprint even had knowlege of the complaint process or their own T&C. A letter of complaint was sent the following day to the address given in the T&C. it was sent by Certified Mail with Signature Confirmation and arrived and was signed for by Sprint 2 days later.
Five days after the first payment was taken a further $856 was taken from my credit card. A further call to Sprint again failed to reveal any information and again I was passed from department to department. I was accused by sprint of lying and trying to extort money from them. Eventually I spoke with a representative who told me the charges were for the use of my fonecard in the UK and that my bill was $856, yet over $1500 had been taken by them from my credit card. The rate I had been charged was $2.97 per minute with a $4.50 service charge per call. Sprint again accused me of fabrication and denied they had ever told me of a 45 cent charge, in fact they told me they didn't have a 45 cent rate. I requested that a note be made on file that I was formerly disputing the charges in line with their own Terms and Conditions. Once more the rep did not know anything about a complaint procedure or of the T&C. I was finally told my complaint would be passed to the Research Department and that I would receive a telephone call from them within 14 days. Guess what? NO PHONE CALL !!
The initial sum of $700+ was taken before my billing cycle was even complete for that particular period, and the $856 was taken when the bill was eventually prepared. The $700+ finally fell back into my account as Sprint only made the final collection of the $856 but the money was 'held' by Sprint for 14 days making it inaccessible to me for that period.
At the quoted rate I should have paid around $108 for the calls and not $856 as finally billed by Sprint. Furthermore, my account was set up for paper bills to be paid once ai had received them. Previously I had payments automatically taken from my credit card but this had been changed months earlier. Therefore Sprint illegally took money from me from the credit card I had previously had on file. This money was taken without authorisation. Put simply, Theft !!
To date no response, reply or action has been taken by Sprint regarding my complaint, they do not stand by their own Terms and Conditions, unless I suppose it is in their favor to do so. When the customer has a legitimate complaint they choose to ignore their own policies.
Sprint have no interest in their customers other than to take as much money from them as possible. Their customer service representitives are rude, and unknowlegable, and totally unwilling to help or deal with any problems contrary to their wild claims about their excellent customer service. They accused me of lying, I suggest it is the other way around.
Sprint have 7 days left to respond to me from the 60 day period they state in their T&C for the handling of complaints and disputes. After that it looks like I will have no option but to take them on in court.
Jonathan W
Belle Haven, VA
Sprint
Customer Service
My wife and I live in Virginia and have Sprint for Long Distance and International calls. From December 27th 2004 to January 15th 2005 we were on vacation in England. As we had a Sprint Fonecard it made sense to use it. Not knowing the UK number to dial to access the Sprint Service, I phoned the USA Sprint number given on the reverse of the calling card to obtain this number. Having been given the number to ring for access in the UK I inquired about the cost of calls. I was told the cost was 45 cents per minute.
On our return to the USA I found that a hold of over $700 had been applied to my credit card by Sprint. A call to Sprint Customer Service was fruitless. After being passed from department to department with everyone passing the buck I was eventually told no charge had been made, that my account showed no money owing, and the last payment to be $96. Sprint would not accept that I was looking at my credit card accounbt on-line which clearly showed a payment to them in excess of $700 - No one could explain the charges and constsntly denied that they even existed. In accordance with Sprints own Terms & Conditions I made a formal Dispute to their Customer Service Person. No one at Sprint even had knowlege of the complaint process or their own T&C. A letter of complaint was sent the following day to the address given in the T&C. it was sent by Certified Mail with Signature Confirmation and arrived and was signed for by Sprint 2 days later.
Five days after the first payment was taken a further $856 was taken from my credit card. A further call to Sprint again failed to reveal any information and again I was passed from department to department. I was accused by sprint of lying and trying to extort money from them. Eventually I spoke with a representative who told me the charges were for the use of my fonecard in the UK and that my bill was $856, yet over $1500 had been taken by them from my credit card. The rate I had been charged was $2.97 per minute with a $4.50 service charge per call. Sprint again accused me of fabrication and denied they had ever told me of a 45 cent charge, in fact they told me they didn't have a 45 cent rate. I requested that a note be made on file that I was formerly disputing the charges in line with their own Terms and Conditions. Once more the rep did not know anything about a complaint procedure or of the T&C. I was finally told my complaint would be passed to the Research Department and that I would receive a telephone call from them within 14 days. Guess what? NO PHONE CALL !!
The initial sum of $700+ was taken before my billing cycle was even complete for that particular period, and the $856 was taken when the bill was eventually prepared. The $700+ finally fell back into my account as Sprint only made the final collection of the $856 but the money was 'held' by Sprint for 14 days making it inaccessible to me for that period.
At the quoted rate I should have paid around $108 for the calls and not $856 as finally billed by Sprint. Furthermore, my account was set up for paper bills to be paid once ai had received them. Previously I had payments automatically taken from my credit card but this had been changed months earlier. Therefore Sprint illegally took money from me from the credit card I had previously had on file. This money was taken without authorisation. Put simply, Theft !!
To date no response, reply or action has been taken by Sprint regarding my complaint, they do not stand by their own Terms and Conditions, unless I suppose it is in their favor to do so. When the customer has a legitimate complaint they choose to ignore their own policies.
Sprint have no interest in their customers other than to take as much money from them as possible. Their customer service representitives are rude, and unknowlegable, and totally unwilling to help or deal with any problems contrary to their wild claims about their excellent customer service. They accused me of lying, I suggest it is the other way around.
Sprint have 7 days left to respond to me from the 60 day period they state in their T&C for the handling of complaints and disputes. After that it looks like I will have no option but to take them on in court.
Jonathan W
Belle Haven, VA
Sprint
Customer Service
posted by John Q Public at 6:36 PM
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