
Angela of Floyds Knobs, IN on April 15, 2009
I was a customer of Nextel for approximately 8-9 years. The last five years I had four lines; myself and my three daughters.It was not unusually for my bill to run $500.00 to $700.00 per month. I constantly had problems with drop calls or bad reception the last three years. I have (3) issues I was discussing with Nextel/Sprint before actually dropping their service. (1) Problem in October of 2007 I had been making calls about being billed for overage on my minutes and I was mad because I could never get a clear call out from my home or the call was being dropped three or four times. When I called Nextel/Sprint they said they would do a "dropped called report".
And then let me know if I could get these overages cancelled from my bill. Fine. Even though I had asked in September for the same thing and I had not gotten any credits. (2) Problem, I had been paying GPS fees for over a year on one line, I had only tried to use it once when I first purchased the service just to see how it worked. From the time that I first added the service to the night I actually needed the service, Nextel had changed to Sprint. On October 31, 2007 it was a rainy night and my daughter was late getting home and I was worried. I live out in the country and the roads are very narrow and very hilly. We have tons of deers that run out in the road. I was afraid she had hit a deer and couldn't get service or that she was hurt.
When I tried to use the GPS service on the internet, the service was not available to me. I called the 1-800 number and spoke with a rep. She told me it was because of my computer. I told her I could get the internet just fine, but it said on my sprint's account I didn't pay for this service. She argued with me about the service. She said it clearly said I was charged for the service, but that it was my computer. Again I argued that it didn't have anything to do with my computer. After fifteen to twenty minutes she hung up on me. I called back this time and got a man. We went thru the whole story again. He bascially said he agreed I paid for the service but it wasn't added to my internet access account and because it was late there was notthing he could do. The computer techs would be in in the morning. Needless to say, my daughter had car problems, and couldn't get any service on her phone.
I called the next morning and spoke to someone who was going to research my claim, and get back with me. I said I wanted to cancell that feature and be refunded the last nine months for something I was charged for but was not set up to have. Again I was told I would have someone get back to me. Nothing. Next months bill came; including overage charges and the GPS service charge. I called and Sprint rep was going to get me a credit for the disputed charges. In January my phone stopped working properly. I went into the local Nextel/Sprint retail store and asked about why my screened had gone dead again. I had Nextel replace the phone twice in eight months for the exact same thing. I was told that they had discontinued that phone because they were having so much problems for exactly the same thing that had happened to my phone. And they couldn't fix it because I didn't pay an extra $8.00 per phone, per month to had that service.
Now I did pay $5.00 in insurance but that is how they got the phone fixed the first two times so now I couldn't file another claim. so bascially I could buy a new phone or extend my contract for two more years and get a discount on a new one. Crazy! My phone charge was about $140.00 per month when I didn't have extra charges. But unless I purchasede a new phone I didn't have use at all for that monthly charge. The girl that tried to help me at the store felt bad and apologized but after thirty minutes she couldn't do anything unless I paid $60.00 for a new top half of the phone. This phone is what I use for work. I have to have it working.
So I paid it and tried to take it up with Nextel/Sprint main office only to be told sorry about your luck. I cancelled all of my phones. Now this was in January 2008. My next bill was like $1,800.00.
When I called about it, they said because I cancelled my account I am not entitled to any credits that I was promised from droppped calls or GPS service I didn't have access to. Plus $200.00 per phone I dropped because I was still in contract and then I had to pay one month upfront when this account was opened. I have proof of payment on my invoices. But they said they couldn't find that on my records because that account was so old. I found it. Now they turned me over to a collection agency and say I owe them like $2600.00. What?!?!
It's crazy, but how can I fight it?