My contact with Sprint is for 2 years and the cell service plan I have is the “Sprint Everything Plan”. This plan includes “unlimited” calls (both local and long distance), e-mails, text messaging, and data are included in this plan. There are no limits on the plan as this plan includes unlimited services for everything. The plan cost me $123.11 a month, which includes government fees and taxes, total equipment protection plan, and Sprints surcharge of a .99 cent Administrative Charge in which was not disclosed to me at the time I signed up that I would also have to pay as well.

The Sprint Everything plan cost $99.99
Total equipment protection is $7.00, which covers service/repair and insurance for loss of the phone.
Government taxes are about $8.00 and some odd cents

Anyhow, I bought the phone and established service in August of 2009; I was forced to sign up for a two year contact with an early termination fee based on the having the phone service for anything less than 2 years. I received the phone by mail, right away I had problems. The cell phone that Sprint sent by mail, was the wrong color, so I contacted Sprint and had it changed out for the right colored phone I wanted. Also, when I originally signed up, I had asked the Sprint representative if I could have an old number ported over to this new phone. Sprint said no problem, but when I went to activate the phone with the ported number they stated that they could not do it on this phone. I finally ended up with a new number that I selected after going about 20 to 30 phone numbers in Sprint’s database.

Finally, I thought everything is good to go and I would no longer need to deal with any other issues. I made my payments early every month by using my cell phone to contact Sprint by dialing *3 and then using my credit card to pay the bill. No problems right, wrong!

Today on Monday, January 11, 2010 I received a letter delivered by U.S. Mail Postal Service from Sprint stating that on January 10, 2010 that Sprint would now be changing the terms of my account and if I did not enroll in automatic payments by January 10, 2010 I would be getting charged another $4.99 per month on top of my bill because I had not signed up for automatic bill payments. The letter is dated December 21, 2009. I find this hard to believe that Sprint sent this letter out on December 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th or even as late as January 7, 2010. Most mail will reach my home within 3 to 7 days, even if it comes from the East coast.

Now, I have never been late on any of my payments and have always paid at least 10 days or more earlier than the payment due date. Also, I get this letter in the mail today which is January 11, 2010 and it has a compliance date of January 10, 2010. So, I decided to call Sprint’s Customer Care number listed on the letter to dispute this and to let them know that they are under a contract with me and cannot just change the pricing terms of the contract on a whim.

I first spoke with someone, who did not provide me his name. He stated that he could not help me and transferred me to another representative. I asked for the next representative name as she did not provide it and speaking with her, she stated her name was Amy. I asked for her last name but she would not provide this information. I then asked for ID # and she provides ID #NF840760. I then explained that I received this letter in the mail and that there company now wants to change the terms of their contact with me. I explained that I have never been late on my payments for the service and I wanted to know why they are trying to change the terms of my contract. I explained that I had a due date and wanted to be able to make payments like I always have and did not want to have my credit card or bank information stored charged at their convenience. She put me on hold for a couple of minutes and then came back a stating that there was nothing that she could do about this. I stated that this was a breach of contract and that I am not going to pay this fee nor was I going to furnish my bank information to be stored and have automatic payments taken out of my accounts whenever they felt like it. Amy again put me on hold, she came back and stated that yes, it was a breach of contract and I could cancel my service with Sprint without any early termination fees. I said that this was not acceptable either as I had paid for a proprietary cell, accessories, and software that could not be used with another phone and/or provider. I stated that I wanted my money back for the phone, accessories, and software I had bought. Amy again put me on hold again while she contacted her supervisor.

Amy’s supervisor then picked up the phone and stated his name as being Chazz. I then asked Chazz what his last name was. He stated that he did not want to provide this information, so I asked for his ID #. Chazz, the Supervisor provided me with an ID # of YW148409. I again explained to Supervisor Chazz that I have never been late on payments and I was unwilling to provide any bank or credit card information to his company to start charging automatic payments from any of my accounts. I then stated that I am not going to pay any additional fees for not choosing to do automatic billing as this is not what was agreed to in the original contract.

Supervisor Chazz stated that he could cancel my service agreement without any early termination fee and that I could port the phone number to another carrier. I stated that I wanted my money back I paid for the cell phone, accessories and software I had bought for the phone as the phone is not transferable to another cell phone carrier. Supervisor Chazz stated that he could not refund the money for the phone, accessories, and software. Supervisor Chazz then asked if I wanted the phone turn off right now. I told him to not touch anything or disconnect the service until I contacted the news and an attorney about this matter.

So, this is where I am at. My contract is being breached and I believe that this may be a case of mail fraud as well.

Yep, it’s a racket, especially since text messages sometimes get bogged down in the “tubes” for minutes or hours, something that doesn’t happen with voice calls (it goes through or it doesn’t). That said, the alternative is battery-hogging, data-plan-required IM.