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Minnesota Sues Sprint Nextel

Company 'tricked' consumers by extending their contracts without permission

October 1, 2007 

According to the complaint, Sprint Nextel extended the terms of consumers’ wireless contracts for up to two years without giving adequate disclosure or obtaining the knowing consent of the consumer when consumers made small changes to their wireless phone service.

Some of the changes that resulted in contract extensions included adding extra minutes or decreasing minutes, purchasing or replacing a phone, responding to solicitations for additional products or services, or receiving courtesy discounts.

Often the result of such practices is that the consumer is charged early termination fees of up to $200 when they try to cancel their wireless service.

“When you receive complaints across the board, from firefighters to lawyers, from retirees to construction workers, all of whom feel they were unfairly manipulated by their cell phone company, you have a problem,” Attorney General Lori Swanson said. She was joined at a State Capitol news conference by a number of Minnesota consumers who described their problems with the company.

Sprint Nextel is no stranger to complaints about its business practices. The Better Business Bureau reported that as of July 2007, it has received nationwide over 30,000 complaints against Sprint Nextel in the past 36 months.

ConsumerAffairs.com has about 2,300 active complaints about the company's practices.

Indeed, in the last three years, the cell phone industry has generated the most complaints with the Better Business Bureau than any other industry in America (there are over 3,600 other industries).

Consumers "tricked"

“In a normal transaction, you have two parties coming together and making an agreement about a purchase. For these consumers, there was no real meeting of the minds. Rather, the company has tricked consumers into unknowingly extending their contract simply because they made a basic change to their plan,” Swanson said.

The state’s complaint contends that Sprint Nextel violated Minnesota’s Consumer Fraud Act and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The suit seeks to enjoin the company from further violations of the act. It also seeks civil penalties and restitution for Minnesota consumers injured by the company’s practices.

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