Sprint Are Scrooges

You guys, I am writing to you while I am online with a Sprint Agent via chat. More about this in a little bit. I would like to apologize for not updating yesterday. Let me just back it up and take all this craziness from the start.

Yesterday was a day full of finishing Christmas shopping. And by a day full, I totally mean we were only gone a few hours because that's a full day for my body; it's all it can handle. The good news: we finished our Christmas shopping. The bad news: I'm more than a little perturbed at Sprint, whose service and current phone I love. Let me explain.

I have a Blackberry. I would have a love affair with said Blackberry. It is a very happy phone that gives me no problems at all. But then there's that pesky tracking ball that, for whatever reason, keeps sticking. Without the tracking ball, the phone is impossible to use. I had a Sidekick with a tracking ball and loved it, but this one isn't so well behaved. That was okay, though, because any time it stopped working, I just merrily took it into the store and they changed it out for free since it was an admitted design flaw.

Then yesterday happened. I gleefully made my way to the Sprint store, only to be informed that there was a policy change and I now had to pay $35 to get the tracking ball changed. Folks, that's more than I paid for the phone when I signed up for Sprint. Plus, I have to get it changed out every few months, so I'd quickly have spent as much on it as I would have on a new phone. Especially with my upgrade rebate for being a long lasting customer.

I am completely disgusted with this. I could understand if the issue with the phone wasn't a known, long lived design flaw. But the fact that I was told it was free to change out because they admitted it was a design flaw just irks me. I realize I have to get a new phone now, which brings me to my second issue. The phone I wanted, the one that I saw I could get for free just days ago when I was jokingly looking at phones I could get for free, with no intention of getting one and totally out of boredom, they have temporarily stopped selling and won't have any more in for three to six months. They either want to give me a cheap phone, or charge me an arm and a leg for another one, and there's none I really like. I like the one I have. I am just so pissed right now.

I've been extensively going through the phones online to find one that would fit me, and the ones I like have horrible reviews. Or, they're telling me that the phone will only cost me $49.99, which I am willing to pay for, but no more than that because I just don't have it. This would be using my little bit of birthday money. Then I come to find out the cost is really $149.99 with a mail in rebate that I won't get back for six to eight weeks, so suddenly that phone is unaffordable.

Enter chatting to someone online. She is the most helpful unhelpful person ever. I understand her job is to sell me a phone, but when I try to get her to help me find a phone that I can afford, she continually offers phones that I can only afford with the rebate, and can't front the money for. So guys, I don't know what to do. Maybe I shouldn't be pissed, but I never received anything indicating this change in policy, which is a large part of the reason that I am so pissed. Also, if I could have gotten the phone I saw a few days ago, I would be fine, but my phone won't make it the three to six months until they decide to sell them again. And, quite frankly, I find this to be just bad business.

So I really don't know if I'm just being a pain in the ass and this is really my problem, or if they're just being jerks. But I do know that if this lady doesn't keep trying to shove phones on me and talk me out of changing the tracking ball in mine until they start selling the phones again, which I'm considering, although I find it ludicrous to have to pay for it suddenly, I will disconnect with her. I wouldn't even mind paying the $35 to change out the tracking ball if it lasted for a year or so, but it only lasts for a few months, which is just a rip off. I use my cell phone all the time, I don't like getting ripped off either. Am I overreacting, guys? I probably am.

I was going to talk about happier things, but I just can't. I was forced into buying a phone I could afford, a piece of shit phone, just to have a phone that works because they aren't working with me at all. I am just going to stop the blog here since I do not want to complain more.