Cellphones, Nextel/sprint And Why They Suck

[Fierce Critter]

So, as mentioned in another thread, I finally gave in and decided it was time to switch from landline to cell service.

Since Jon already has Nextel service from work, it really didn't make any sense to go with anything else. The least expensive option was to go with Nextel, because for $39.99 a month, we get 450 anytime minutes including long distance, free weekends and nights after 7:00, and free walkie-talkie, so I can talk to Jon and it never deducts from my plan. It was basically a no-brainer.

But what I went through to get this fucking thing active was enough to make me once again convinced cell phones, cell phone companies & the whole fucking business of business in general SUCKS A BIG HARD HAIRY ONE.

The full story. Unabridged.

I get online probably a week ago Saturday and peruse the plan options on Nextel's website. I click on the "live sales help" button and talk to a really nice operator named Chanel. Chanel answers all my questions, and they are myriad and many. I tell her that I am only looking to have questions answered for now, and that I won't be contacting Nextel to go through with the whole deal until the following Thursday.

Among other things, I tell her I probably won't be buying a phone because I already have one, and she confirms that would be fine. She tells me that I'll probably have to call their customer care number to arrange service due to the fact that I'll be using a checking account instead of a credit card. She gives me a coupon code I can use to get a $50 credit on my first bill, and also tells me activation will be free.

She then instructs me to contact her directly when I'm ready to establish service, even though she had said I'd more than likely have to do things by phone.

I thank her, and sign off.

So Thursday comes. And I go to my parents' house to have a phone available to me in case I need one. I sign onto the 'net and, as instructed, ask the sales rep "Jose" to connect me with Chanel. I give Chanel a brief reminder of why I'm asking for her, and that I'm ready to go through the application process. She's cordial and businesslike - until she gets to the part where she asks me what phone I want to buy.

I tell her that I won't be buying a phone, since I already have one. Her response is a question mark, and then "so what do you want from me?" basically. Befuddled, I tell her I want to establish service. And she tells me that I should call customer care. Still confused by this turn, I say alrighty, but ask if the coupon code she gave me is going to be applicable on a phone call. She then tells me that that deal was only good if I bought a phone. So I respond, "so then there are no promos available to me at all?" Her response is not only that there's nothing available to me, but that she "knows" she told me the deal was only good with a phone purchase.

This is where I'm really starting to disbelieve how rude a person can be over a fucking internet connection. And I remind her that I have a transcript of our conversation, and that she doesn't "know" any such thing because she never did, and I have the transcript to prove it.

She then tells me I have to call customer care, and I forget exactly what else transpired, but once again she lays some bullshit on me that I tell her I can disprove by referring to the transcript of our previous conversation. Her response? "Nope. Call customer Care" and then she disconnects me!!!!

I GOT FUCKING HUNG-UP ON OVER THE FUCKING INTERNET!!!

I can't believe this. So the next thing I do is call the customer care number Chanel had given me.

And this is the message I get: We're sorry, but the number you have called is no longer in service. If you are calling to establish Nextel service, dial..." So not only has Chanel been a rude bitch to me, she's given me incorrect information on how to follow-up on my needs.

So I call the number the message gives me. And knowing how this might get complicated and I might need to complain about Chanel and that clear communication is going to be necessary, I hang up when the first rep who answers my call has a very, very thick accent. I call back, and the next person I get has no noticeable accent, so I tell "Melissa" that I am calling to establish new service.

Things start off o.k. I hear a bit of an accent in Melissa's voice, but it's not so bad that I think clear communication is going to be hampered.

WRONG.

It becomes obvious that Melissa is south of the border at a call center in Mexico. I'm hearing applause and rapid Spanish being spoken loudly in the background, which alone is making communication somewhat difficult. But what's really starting to become obvious is that every three numbers I'm providing Melissa or every three letters of something I'm spelling for her, she's going to repeat back to me or say "uh-huh". Which basically is making her speak OVER me as I'm proceeding with the next letters/numbers, and I have to keep starting over as she's repeating back incorrect numbers/letters or "uh-huhing" over and missing things I'm saying. And then there's the cadence thing.

You know how in the U.S. at least, we say phone numbers and social security numbers in standard syllabic groups? As in phone numbers are "da da da - pause, da da da, pause, da da, pause, da da" and social security numbers are "da da da, pause, da da, pause, da da da da"? Well, Melissa doesn't do that. So she's not getting that when I give her such information, she should expect me to pause after certain sets of numbers, and once again, she's speaking over or repeating back numbers when I'm not yet pausing.

This is getting REALLY frustrating. Not to mention when she's repeating numbers and things back to me, her pronunciation of some things are confusing. At one point, I had to ask her of "chee" meant "three". And her response was a pronunciation of "Three" that sounds something like, "trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreee".

Sigh.

Anyway, I decide I've gone far enough with this that I am NOT going to hang up and hope the next person I get has even less of a communication problem than I'm dealing with now. And things are going along, and it reaches the point where she has to put me on a 3-way conference call with a department that is going to do a credit check on me to determine if I have to pay a deposit. And so she does, and the guy on the other end has NO accent, and his response when she tries to say what she needs? Dead silence for a few beats, then, "Huh?" or "Excuse me?" and she repeats herself. And once again, he has no clue what in the world she is trying to request of him - even HE can't understand her. Then he kinda works it out in his head and figures out what this is about, and does what he needs to run the credit check, and we're all done with him and then I'm once again alone with Melissa.

So Melissa gets through the rest of the application process. And then comes the part of the conversation when she says, "what phone do you want to buy." and I hesitate a couple beats. And then I remind her that I was told to call her because I don't need to buy a phone, I already have one. And she says, "Oh, o.k. then you need to talk to Customer Care, hold on and I'll transfer you." And I hurriedly say, "but wait - I thought I WAS talking to customer care!" and her response? "Uh-huh - o.k. - thank you very much, please hold while I transfer you to customer care."

OMFG KILL ME NOW!!!!!

Because the next thing I hear upon being transferred is, "We're sorry, but the number you have called is no longer in service. If you are calling to establish Nextel service, dial..."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot fucking believe this. My next move is to hang up the phone, and start laughing hysterically and uncontrollably.

I've got fucking debilitating SEVERE DEPRESSION. Do you know how hard it is for me to fucking ANSWER THE PHONE much less spend this kind of time and energy trying to handle all this kind of bullshit??? I about lost it right there. There were many times in all this that, had it just not really been the smartest move to go with Nextel, I would have asked for a manager and told them that due to all this crap, they lost me as a potential customer.

So, after cooling down and talking to my mother, I get back on the computer. And I go to Nextel's corporate website, and I look up ANY phone number that is NOT an 800 number and IS a U.S. based part of the company. This ends up being their corporate headquarters in Virginia. I call, get an operator, and tell her I need to talk to whichever department can help me establish service after MAJOR failings from their customer service phone lines. This ends up being some other customer relations department.

I talk to Martha. And tell her exactly what I just told ya'll up there. And I tell Martha, "look. I can deal with call centers located in Mexico, India, whatever, so long as the person I'm talking to can actually COMMUNICATE with me. But at this point, if you're going to transfer me, you had BETTER find me someone with someone who speaks English as their FIRST language." And Martha puts me on hold, and while I'm on hold...

...the battery on my parents' cordless phone dies. More hysterical laughter.

So I get my dad's cellphone, and call Martha back. And Martha once again transfers me. And I get Antonio, who DEFINITELY had a faint trace of accent. But overall, Antonio is great. Antonio got the job done.

So after appx. two-and-a-half hours, I'm told that within 24 hours, my cellphone will get a text message with instructions to follow to complete the order.

And that message never comes.

So this morning, I call one of about six 800 numbers I've got and ask what's up with that. They tell me to call ANOTHER 800 number, and follow the instructions. And I do. And my phone still doesn't activate, after giving it an hour or so. So once again, I call an 800 number. And this person transfers me to another number, and has me hold on the line while he goes through all the prompts, and punches in the correct responses for me, and then I get a human being who is the first person who tells me that I have to reset my phone. And she walks me through it step by step, and by the time I get off the phone with her...

... my phone, finally, is in service.

HALLELUJIAH. AMEN. SMACZNE. MAZEL TOV.

I now have Nextel/Sprint service. WOO FUCKING HOO.

I need a drink.

[creatureofthenyte]

When I signed up with Cingular, I went to one of their mall store locations and signed up. my phone was activated before I left. I'm sorry to hear that you went thru such crap. I hope that phone proves worth it. Nextel sucks, and I wasnt just tryin to diss them or be funny, my co-workers and some friends have told me this and now they have proven their suckiness to you. Good Luck

[Brenda Starrr]

Oh man....

One of the very reasons I left Nextel: Extreme stupidity and ignorance. I can't believe you survived that!

[Anathema]

we have a GREAT plan with sprint which was so easy to get. the only issues we have is they send the bill to the wrong address even though we have given them the correct one every single month. then there is the customer sevice nimber for if you have issues with your service or bill. oh hell no! i always end up with some foriegn person who barely speaks english and only ends up making me mad and i never do get the help i've called for! why? i found out at the sprint store...they have out-source their customer service lines to other countries!!! so make a note if you ever need help from sprint...call the actual sprint store number in the phonebook!

[Crazed Vampyress]

i used to have cingular and i had several issues with them i had to call and have someone from customer service assist me with and what i found out is that no two agents will tell you the same thing nor will the same agent tell you the same thing on the same day. It got so ridiculous i had a friend on three-way one of the times i was having a serious issue with my service. when the agent picked up and said hello followed by 'this call may be recorded or monitored for quality assurance' i repeated back to her "well just so you know this call IS being recorded AND monitored on my end for quality assurance because every time i call for help i am told something different and then told that last thing i was told was never said" the agent laughed at this and said thats fine. i asked her first for her name and whatever identification number or whatever i would need if i wanted to refer to the fact that she was, indeed, who i spoke with. with all that established i hashed out my problem which of course i was told would be fixed by doing a certain thing in a certain way and waiting a certain amount of time. and of course this was not fixed, so when i called back a week later and asked for the same agent i began to explain my problem to her and she began to tell me something completely different than what she told me before. at this time i reminded her of who i was and that i had her recorded voice telling me what was supposed to have been fixed. i played a portion of the recording back for her, to which she got very upset and told me i couldnt record her. at this point i played the part of the recording where i told her i was recording her and she said 'fine' i insisted on my problem being fixed, but she was very un-helpful so i asked for a supervisor and hten went thru the whole song and dance again -heres my problem- heres howyou fix it- thats not what i was told- yes it is- no its not heres the recording- you cant record us- heres her agreeing to get recorded- and finally i got my issue addressed along with a free two-month credit to my account, i think so that i wouldnt tell too many people how stupid they were.

I havent had cingular in a couple years, i dropped them as soon as my contract ran out.

I feel your pain. good luck with your service from here on out.

[Marblez]

Unfortunately, this is a direct result of thwe Merge with Sprint. I used to work for Nextel, at the headquarters in Southfield. They had ON-SITE real live american customer service.

Now, they merge with Sprint - and even the 411 is farmed out to an out of country call center and many of the options once available are a thing of the past.

[Rayne]

I had Sprint for 7-ish years.

I had problems where I had to call them frequently, sometimes I'd have to hang up and call again -- praying for someone who spoke English ... but my problems always got resolved ... and after that, had rarely a complaint. Their service itself was excellent.

[JaneDead]

i always had problems with sprint. not major or anything but enough that i am glad i don't have sprint anymore.

sorry you went through that critter - just reading that made me want to do a hysterical crazy laugh for you.

[Der Nister]

I have T-moblie and they seem to be better than other companies I've had cell service with.

Just my 2 cents.