Is Sprint PCS Incompetent in Handling Billing Errors and Customer Service?

[Moonbear]

It doesn't matter who the provider is, I have worked for several of the largest and it's the same at every company, trust me. Sprint's consumer PCS customer service is notoriously bad, but so is Cingular's & Verizon's, it's just luck if you don't have a bad experience.

I've only once had a problem with Verizon's customer service, but that was due to confusion about my wanting text messaging blocked, and they blocked outgoing text messaging (apparently that's the popular option that parents call about to keep their kids from sending messages), but I needed incoming messages blocked due to text message spam! It took several calls, but the billing department was never a problem, they always promptly reversed the charges for the incoming messages with just a brief explanation from me about them being spam. The problem was with the technical support people who couldn't seem to press the right button on their computer to block the messages completely. On the fourth call, it was done right, and that person even explained how I could do it myself online (I've never found their website easy to navigate, and it was even more difficult back when I was on dial-up, so never found that on my own)...that made it easier to turn it back on at conferences when I couldn't hear anything on the phone over the noise of the crowd, but could read text messages, and then turn it off when I got home again.

Anyway, since then, I've never had a problem with them. They're the local provider for landline services here too, and the only challenge is getting through the menu to get to a live person, but if you can actually get a live person, then they can handle everything quite quickly and easily. I'm never simple when it comes to calling plans...I was sure I'd run into problems when I signed up for a calling plan on my landline that seemed to include everything for cheaper than my long-distance bill alone at my previous address...and I get unlimited long-distance calling for that flat rate...BUT, I didn't want call-waiting; I don't like when other people use it, and even if I ignored it, it still gives that annoying beep when someone's trying to call, and with voicemail, anyone else trying to call while I'm on the line can leave a message that I'll get as soon as I'm off the line, so I just wanted them to leave out that feature. No problem. I really, honestly, expected it to be a problem...I was sure I'd get my first bill and see that I wasn't really getting the package plan because I dropped a feature, or to start getting call-waiting beeps while on the line, or just to have some sort of problem, because I've just come to expect problems when I ask for something customized.