Sprint Nextel Lied, Decieved, Locked me into a plan through deception, holding me ransom for ETF's Kansas City Missouri

On 10/21/08 I decided to retire my Blackberry phone and purchase another. I have been with Sprint for several years and although those years have been a trial with problems with phones to billing issues I have always, after a short battle, been able to prevail. However this time around has been different and the battle continues. On October 21 of this year I went on line to purchase a new phone and decided on the new, "Rant." I also decided to upgrade my plan to one of the new everything plans. After spending sometime on Sprints web sight going through the process of purchasing the phone and not understanding about their rebate process I started a chat session with an online customer service person, this chat session I have saved on my computer. After a period of time and some explanations about how things work and a few glitches on their web sight I was able to order the phone. At this time I was told to get the phone first and then if I decided to upgrade my plan to do so after I had the new phone so that's what I did.

I received the phone in a few days and went to my local Sprint store to have it activated and to upgrade my plan, I went with an everything family messaging plan which included 1500 minutes, unlimited text messaging, unlimited picture mail, and unlimited video mail. All went well until I tried to use the picture mail on my new phone and found that it wouldn't work. Over the next few days I had several emails and chats to fix the problem with the picture mail but no one could figure it out. On Oct. 25th I called Sprint and was on the phone with a woman whose name was Jessica. After around 10 hours on the phone in which I should mention here, was with several different phones since the batteries kept going dead, Jessica finally handed me over to here supervisor to get the problem handled. The supervisor's name was Larry. Larry came on the phone most apologetic about the problem and had concluded that the problem was in the new Rant and also may be in their system since the phone was so new. Larry told me that to fix the problem he would send me a brand new phone, not just any phone, but any phone I desired. He said he's systems were going to be going down soon and made a couple of suggestions. He said that he thought I'd be happy with an HTC diamond and that I should look at that phone and then added that HTC was introducing a new Diamond Pro in just a couple of weeks. He said that if I wanted the HTC Diamond that he would send it to me just to get me up and running and that in a few weeks he would even send me the Diamond Pro if I wanted it. He added that in the best interest of keeping the customer happy since I was a good customer that he would be happy to do what ever was needed to make me happy. He again repeated that his system was going to go down so he told me to go to my local Sprint store the next day and look at the different phones and decide on which one I wanted and that he would call me at 3 pm my time the next day, which was Sunday. I believe that he was two hours ahead of my time. I decided to take him up on the HTC diamond and the Diamond Pro. Sunday 3 pm came and no call from Larry, Monday came and no call from Larry and the Rant phone began to have other problems too. So I believe around the 31st I again called customer service and spoke with a woman whose name was Shay. I should mention here that I sent several emails during this time trying to get someone, anyone to solve the picture mail problem and also to find Larry but no one, conveniently knew anything. After about an hour Shay handed me over to her supervisor whose name was Scott Stewart, he told me he was in Oklahoma city and that he was gonna take care of me. Understand now that I have a broken phone, am paying for my new plan, and now have all kinds of data charges and phone charges on my bill due to Sprint trying to solve the problem with picture mail, all of which I was assured would be taken care of or removed from my bill. Scott Stewart told me that he didn't know who Larry was but there was no way he would give me a diamond or a diamond pro in exchange for my Rant or inconvenience and at first was going to send me another Rant, however I refused to accept another broken phone after I was convinced that the New Rant wouldn't work on their system at that time. So after a long conversation again he gave me back to Shay who told me that they'd give me an Instinct and handed me back over to Scott. When I mentioned the Instinct it was like he knew nothing about giving me such a phone and said, "Who told you that we'd give you an Instinct," I said Shay, he said wait a minute and I could hear him talking in the back ground and then he came back and said he'd send me an instinct. That's where another deceptive story starts. I questioned the fact that the Instinct I was told wouldn't work on my everything messaging plan and that I wasn't going to upgrade because of the phone. He assured me that the phone would work and that he could make it work. So I said send it. After several days and more chat's and emails trying to find out where my Instinct was I finally received it in the mail. Now I was also suppose to receive a return kit so I could send back the Rant there was not such an item with the phone. So I went down to my local Sprint store and had the Rant deactivated and the Instinct activated which seemed to work fine on my messaging plan except when I got home and tried picture mail it still didn't work. So back to email's I went. During this next few days I had a customer service rep tell me that maybe I should try the everything data plan and that maybe because my plan didn't include data that this might be the problem. When I told them that I didn't want the extra cost of the data plan they said that to just try it and see if it would solve the picture mail problem and that I could always go back to my old plan within 30 days. Well by Nov. 6th I'd had enough. I was on a plan that cost me $56 dollars more a month and the problem with picture mail still existed. So on 11/6/2008 I sent an email to Dan@sprint.com explaining all that had happened including the fact that I should have received a different phone, naming names and pretty much the same story that I've told thus far.
That fired a response from someone named Jason someplace, as was explained to me, with a group of special people in a room way back in the back of Sprint Headquarters. He guaranteed me results. All charges would be taken care of that were on my bill, they would solve the picture mail problem and he'd personally track down Larry and Scott Stewart and solve the issue over the broken promises. So I thought wow its all gonna get taken care of and he said within 3 to 5 days. Great, NOT. Three to five days went and gone and still no results. Finally I contacted Sprint a woman by the name of Lauryn came on board to help me. With in a couple of days Jason called me and told me that they figured out the problem with my picture mail that they had to reboot my entire account and woohoo it worked. However the charges were still on my bill and mounting fast. I asked him about the other issues and he said they were getting taken care of. Well surprise surprise I've never spoken to Jason since. This is about two weeks now into the more expensive plan and so I decided to go back to my old plan, the messaging plan, but to my surprise I'm told I can't because the Instinct won't work on anything but the data plan. I argued and contacted Lauryn who was working on getting the charges not only for the cost of the Rant, but the Instinct, and other charges rendered trying to figure out the problem. I have over 100 pages of emails and other sessions that I have acquired over this period trying to solve my problems with Sprint. It is now December 24th as I write this and so far I've been on the data plan for over 30 days, I have been told many times that they can't move me back. The charges on my bill were finally taken off after many heated conversations with Lauryn, finally finding that all the mistakes were on their end, go figure. But the problem with the Instinct and me going back have not been solved. I am paying over $150 dollars a month now for a plan I don't need and don't want. I have been told that they will not get me another phone that will work on the messaging plan without a substantial cost to me even if I send them back the instinct because as they say I've had the instinct over thirty days and that even tho I tried to go back to the old plan two weeks in to it that doesn't matter. I have three emails into Lauryn now that have not been answered. I was to receive a call from her on this past Monday Dec. 22nd I sent another email asking her to contact me and she hasn't as of yet. In the emails I ask that they get me another phone so I could return to the messaging plan and that because of all the problems I have had that they also put a statement on my account that I will not be charged any ETF's (early termination fee's). I felt that after all of this I was entitled the liberty of changing carriers if I so pleased to do so. As far I have not heard a thing from Lauryn and am getting pretty frustrated. All I want is out now but I don't want to nor should I have to pay any ETF's. I am among six or seven families right now who have either had it with Sprint and changed to AT&T or haven't because of the ETF'S keeping them locked into a plan with a company whose customer service is bad and whose phone service is not the greatest. Let me say that I've worked long and hard to resolve this problem and now feel that Sprint does not take anyone else's time as meaning anything and that this issue could have been so easily taken care. I applaud those that have fought Sprint or for that matter any cell phone company and won. I have talked amongst others about a class action suite against Sprint because of ETF's and, some have paid them just to get out, but would still be willing to come on board. So what do I do? Hire an attorney I don't know I just no that right now I'm locked in a plan I don't want and even if I could live with it I still don't want it through Sprint. I want to change to AT&T but can't because of the ETF's and no response from Sprint. Anyone got any idea's? where do I go to from here?

Abishai2
Moscow, Idaho
U.S.A.

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