"Sprint sent me a final notice saying that account was 'delinquent' and it was going to a collection agency," says Nancy, "but I had paid my last balance.
"I called Sprint and was told it was for my long distance calls and 'incidentals'. What were they talking about? I had charged all of my long distance calls to my calling card and had no idea about incidentals.
I asked them to find out what number and where I supposedly called that rang up a total of $300. Turns out it was a call to the Dominican Republic for eight minutes and all the rest of the charges were for mobile content. I had called once on my phone but at that time I was with Bell South (which merged with Sprint) and had paid the bill. But they told me that I needed to get a report from the calling card company to prove that I hadn't authorized these charges.'Isn't this part of your company?' I asked the Sprint customer service rep. Apparently they don't talk to each other. So I hung up and called the 800 number on the back of the calling card. I must have been on hold for more than an hour, then got bounced back and forth to wrong departments until I finally spoke with a human. I explained what happened and they said I had to get a court order because 'I am not the only one who uses calling cards and mobile content—there are thousands of people who call,' someone at Sprint told me.
As you can imagine, by this time I was seething. Each calling card has a scratch-off on the back of the card; an ID number that you must use for each call. So why couldn't they retrieve my account by this number? I called back again. No, I still need a court order and it would cost about $150. I hung up again with a parting comment: forget it.
A few days later, after simmering down, I called Sprint again and this time spoke to a supervisor. I explained that I hadn't authorized any content, nor had I made long distance calls on my cell phone. He agreed to remove the $300 charge."
But it ain't over til it's over! Nancy got her cellular phone statement a few months later that totaled $80. She had signed a contract that locked in at $50 per month, no more, no less. The next month's bill totaled $100 and the third was a whopping $200. Back on the phone to Sprint…
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Interestingly, they first sent my account to a collection agency for $300, then in February it was reduced to $250 and now the collection agency informs me that I owe a balance of $113. I figure that Sprint knows this is wrong – why else would it decrease?
Next up, I called the Better Business Bureau (they couldn't do anything) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). They told me to send all my documents and information. The FCC acknowledged receipt of them and said they would investigate—that was two month ago.
Meantime, I heard about a class action lawsuit against these wireless carriers, including Sprint, and I saw your web page. My next step is to seek legal help."