OK so here's the story. Around 2000, 2001 I canceled my Sprint account and went to Nextel because the customer service at Sprint was horrible. A while later, I added a phone for my wife, she previously had Verizon. My wife's friends all use text messaging. For over a year, I was in contact with Nextel because her text messaging was not working. They tried everything they could to get it to work, even had us bring it down to a service center where they blamed the problem on the phone. They gave us a new phone, and still it didn't work. In the beginning it would work rarely, and then it just would not work at all. Only with messages to me.

My wife canceled her phone and went back to Verizon. They have been charging me for an early termination fee, which I don't believe I should have to pay because we gave them over a year to fix this problem. They were not providing the services paid for!!

Ever since Nextel merged with Sprint, their customer service is terrible. I have spent hours on the phone with them trying to fix the problem with the text messaging, and about 2 hours trying to get somebody to take this charge off my account. I'm ready to start a class action suit against them, as I'm sure I'm not the only one who has canceled service because it was poor or non-existent.

 

One office visit with a lawyer and you'll have paid more than the early termination fee.

Sprint killed Nextel, ATT will kill everything that was good about cingular.

Cell phones simply aren't guaranteed to work, anywhere. There are hundreds of disclaimers on your contract, monthly bill, in notices sent out when changes are made to accounts, etc.

I understand your frustration being a long time Nextel customer myself, but I'm here to tell you it's the way it works and you're basically F*cked like the rest of us.

Sorry, I really am. My only suggestion is to work on customer care, if you're really lucky you can get out of the fee. I pulled it off when leaving Cingular with a combination of sweet and a-hole.

 

My father in law is one of the best trial lawyers in the area. Actually, he was rated by trial and jury magazine as number 2 in the nation and number 1 in New England I believe. The lawyer part is no problem. Besides, with a class action suit an amount is negotiated into the decision to pay for the attorneys. Or they take part of the settlement.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: maddog56

Sprint killed Nextel, ATT will kill everything that was good about cingular.</end quote></div>

Nextel killed themself. Horrible reception everywhere. Lame equipment. Outdated technology (IDEN). Refusal to install new antennas/repeaters.

 

I disagree that iDen (TDMA) is all that outdated with CDMA still out there (Verizon). And if you want to say that the "direct connect" feature is out of date I'd ask you to look at the ****-poor attempts made by the other major carriers to develop PTT technology, even after Nextel's patent expired they still can't do it. EVDO is great though and I admit there's nothing on the nextel side for broadband wireless access.

Might have bad reception where you are but I've had good luck with them in most places. Cellular service is typically best measured on a customer by customer basis since there are so many variables involved. As for "Lame equipment" if you're talking about the tech being behind the curve I agree, but the equipment itself is of a quality and caliber not found in the vast majority of CDMA and GSM phones.

And the reason Nextel didn't spend tens of millions on more antennas and repeaters was because Sprint had made the commitment to buy nearly two years before the buyout/merger was officially put in place. Sprint's plan has always been to eliminate the cellular aspect of Nextel and keep the PTT network in correlation with the Sprint voice network. Dual mode phones are out now and before the end of the decade the carryover will be complete. Phones not using the Sprint voice line will soon thereafter cease to be supported.

 

If you are under contract, the majority of contracts are for 2yrs (you have to ask for the 1yr that NONE of them advertise); you are basically stuck and have to abide by their disclaimers etc...pay the termination fee and get out...not to mention theres a binding ARBITRATION clause popping up in ALL sectors in ALL industries now. Corporations love arbitration. It keeps then less accountable, out of court, and arbitration almost always favors them. When you sign a contract agreeing to this, you give up your constituional right to sue. (yes, it unfortunately is legal for them to do this) AND when the new agreement rules come in the mail- be sure and read them, they arent wasting postage for anything..on one hand, they want you to know you now have an arbitatration clause (if it wasnt there already)and on the other hand, they know most people WONT read it b/c they figure "oh i reviewed / singed this already"....not noticing that it was updated and nestiled in there....all in the name of 'serving you," the customer paying them, more. Its a crock of crap.

THAT is what needs to be stopped. Arbitration.

 

I had a problem like that also and they did the same thing to me. I filled out a complaint with the Better Buisness Buro and they dropped the charges. This may work for you it's worth a shot.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: dennisred69

I had a problem like that also and they did the same thing to me. I filled out a complaint with the Better Buisness Buro and they dropped the charges. This may work for you it's worth a shot.</end quote></div>

That is worth a try. I would also file a complaint with your State Attorney General's Office for fraud. Since your Sprint/Nexthell bill comes via the US Postal Service you can also file a complaint with them for mail fraud. If you can turn up the heat in this direction they will most likely back off or offer to settle at a lower amount. The key is to make attractive for them to do so monetarily.

When it come time to close your account overpay it by around 25 to 50 cents. Sprint/Nexthell will have to track the overpay and send you a refund check. Ignore the refund for almost a year. Each month they will have to send you a new check at their expense, track the account at their expense and devote labor at dealing with this problem at their expense. This really starts to add up after a 4 or 5 months. It is a cute little revenge trick called "Death by a thousand cuts".

 

I had Sprint before the Nextel/Sprint merge and couldnt wait till that happend. I had friends with Nextel who loved it. As with you Sprints customer service sucked. I loved my plan and coverage area but anytime I had to talk to CS it was 2 - 4 hours later and usually with the problem still existing. After the merge I had terrible billing experiences and yes the same CS problems. I bought every phone I ever owned at full price (1st year 75 off 2nd yr 150 off new phone) They never told me that everytime you activate a new pphone you acvtivate a new service agreement (an automatic 1 or 2 year dependuing on original agreement) I went through 7 phones, between me and my wife, and 3 warranties in the 4 1/2 years that I was with them. After the constant CS and billing problems I had enough, I terminated with Sprint/Nextel and went with Verizon. I have had no problems with Verizon other than a few broken conversations, but as far as CS and billing I am very happy.

 

Get used to it....all corporate customer service sucks. When you finally talk to somone with a heartbeat they don't speak the same language and can't actually help anyway. On topic, lets be honest here.....is it really that necessary for your wife to be in 24/7 contact with you?