I went over to the SprintPCS website the other day, to find that there are a number of rebates that they offer. In the text of at least one of those rebates, you’ll find this wording:
“Customers purchasing a phone without a PCS Free & Clear Plan with Vision will receive a mail-in rebate. See details below.”
From this information, it suggests to me that I can A: Purchase a phone without a service plan and expect to get a rebate and B: Find out more information about that rebate below. It may be true that neither is possible.
Working backwards, we find the information on the mail-in rebate:
Mail-in Rebate: Customers qualify for rebate if account is kept active for 30 consecutive days. In certain markets, PCS Clear PaySM customers qualify for a mail-in rebate if the account is kept active for 60 days after the first invoice date and does not have any unpaid past-due amounts at the end of this period.
That doesn’t help. I want to buy a phone without a service plan, and as informed earlier, I should receive a mail-in rebate. The details of this mail-in rebate specify activation, which means that I am looking in the wrong place. So I write SprintPCS Customer Care, which is always an adventure to itself. Their (repeated) response? That the rebates on the phone are only for new lines of service. I’ve yet to get a response (after four tries) from soneone who will tackle the issue presented in the quote above. So here it is again:
If I can purchase a phone without a plan, why is it that I cannot find out how much of a rebate that I’m able to receive on this phone? It’s in black-and-white on your own web site that I should receive a mail-in rebate if I purchase a phone without a plan. How much is the rebate, how do I go about collecting the rebate, and why is it that none of your support staff have any idea that this wording is even contained within the rebate information?
Why do I want to purchase a phone without a plan? That’s really none of their business, but I want to do it because I already have a plan. The “purchase with a plan” option is only valid on a new line of service, and I just don’t want to do that. I want to purchase without, and when I get the phone, I’ll transfer it to my current plan myself. Why is this such a difficult process?
Comments
10 responses to “Can SprintPCS Read?”
I have had Sprint for 7 years. Although I hate their upgrade policy, it is similar to other service providers. As far as customer service, I just ask for the cancellation department whenever I have a billing issue. I tell them if they don’t give me what I want I will cancel and I could care less about paying them the early termination fee.
Currently I get a 10% discount on my entire bill, 400 extra anytime minutes and another $5.00 credit per month – all from talking to the cancellation department.
Also, when you go buy phones at the store some of the representatives will give you discounts on your plan and more off of the phone if you ask. They may only do this for people that have the big plans, I’m not sure. I just know I have paid Sprint more than $9400 over the years and they don’t want to lose us as customers.
I feel everyone’s pain. I hate sprint and their terrible customer service. I too was at the end of a contract when my cell phone got ran over by a car. I went to the store at 5:54 attempting to apply for a new phone through equipment replacement (that’s another scam in itself) and to get a loaner phone until then. This nasty little girl locked the door in my face saying the store was closed. I was so angry after standing out there and confirming the time several times she still stood there. I was so desperate that I would have purchased a new phone at whatever price but she would not open the door and claimed she was the manager which I knew wasn’t true. So I walked across the street to Verizon, switched my number and got hit with an early termination fee which I didn’t think would happen over (2 days). I paid them my last bill but I did not know how else to fight my early termination fee. I wish I could. So they sent me to a collection agency as well and now i am ready to pay it and they don’t even know which agency they sent it to! What am I supposed to do?
My husband and I decided 2 go with sprint so it would be free 2 talk 2 all my friends since they have sprint and we stay on for hours on end….anyways it is NOT free pc 2 pc….they sometimes charge us for the minutes used 2 a sprint pcs phone…we left cingular which we really had no problems with 2 go 2 sprint 2 save us money…..yeah right it costs us more now than it did just paying the extra minutes used 2 cingular so everyone can add us 2 the dummy list…hexed by sprint
All i can say is if you get sprint you might as well bend over. Ethics are the last thing this company cares about. If you’re a stockholder please consider that Sprint is committed to screwing it’s customers. Might sound bitter but it comes from 2 years of experience. If they tell you something it is probably a lie. And you pay for it. Stay away from them!!!!
I can top all of yours. I got my phone and plan in May of 04 and ontop of all of my cost i had to pay 150 dollars down. Well in december i decided i wanted to add my brother… they told me that it would only cost the price of the phone to add him. So they started getting all my info add A VISION PACK that they phone “needed” and then when the sprint worker gave me the total it was WAY over the 50ish dollars it was supposed to be they said i still had to pay a 150 dollar deposit for that phone. SO i told them that i didn’t want it then. So he said he took it all off my phone. Finally in Aug. after talking to 4 sprint workers and emailing sprint 3 times i finnally got the Vision pack off. It was costing my 15 dollars a month for it. i still have not gotten them to change when my contract ends they still say it ends in Dec instead of may. They have been screwing my out of TONS of money…
Actually, Deeznuts, it is (or was, at any rate) in black and white, and Sprint PCS coudn’t figure it out. I had no problem doing so, as explained above. When trying to follow their black-and-white instructions, I was told that they contents of the black-and-white information were wrong.
Its in black and white if you cant figure out the you need to either get new service or qualify for the rebate (18 months with same phone)then its hopeless.As for mister Blanchard if you had enough common sence to go on the web it lets you know when your contract expires or drive to local store you wouldnt be in this predicament.dont call cust care cause you are right they are morons but at the stores they treat you better.
I can top that. I bought a new cell phone and extended my contract for two years to get a rebate and the deal they promised was that after one year, they would upgrade the phone that I received. Well, one year came and went and they continually put off giving me credit for a new phone (the one I have now is falling apart). Finally, when I called customer service about another problem I was having they told me that I finally qualify for the upgrade. I said, “Fine, here’s the phone I want, send it to me.” They replied, “No, you’ll have to find a SprintPCS store in your area and they’ll be able to work out the rebate for you.” So, I treked to the nearest Sprint store only to find out about the mail-in rebate plan mentioned above.
Very disappointed. Oh well, my contract is up in February. We’ll see how T-Mobile works.
You’re absolutely right, Sprint doesn’t give a damn about the customers they’ve got. They’re only concerned with monopolization. Customer service means nothing to them.
Sprint is trying to cheat me too. I bought a Sprint phone and a one year service plan in 2003. The plan expired last August, but I was unable to fine the exact date. Sprint has a complicated phone menu system, and when you do get a human voice, they are generally from some other country in their house with children screaming in the background. Cheap foreign labor.
I knew the one-year plan had expired or was close to expiration. I had a good deal with T-mobile at that time so I decided to switch to T-mobile. Later, I found out that there was actually four (4) days left on the contrace according to Sprint. I paid them for the full 12 months of service ( I am an infrequent cellphone user, about 8-15 minutes per month) and assumed this would terminate the plan.
Well here comes Big Sprint, your owe us a one-hundred dollar early termination fee. I have repeatedly tried to talk to some representative, but to no avail (except for Ms. Foreign voice who doesn’t understand English to see my problem).
Now, the account has been referred to a collection agency and my credit rating may suffer from all this. I will no longer deal with Big Sprint and I would suggest to all to read the article carefully before dealing with Big Sprint. Cheers
It is complicated because they are probably trying to cheat you. They could care less about existing customers – they only care about their “growth numbers” … morons.