In an Aug. 23 column, I wistfully told of my pending upgrade from Sprint Spectrum to Sprint PCS. At that time, I hoped all would go well.
All has not gone well. I might be in the minority-Sprint PCS’ Larry McDonnell said the feedback from the transition has been overwhelmingly positive.
Here’s what happened to me:
First of all, I requested an extra charger. (Remember the phone that took a swim in the sea? After I replaced it, I found it very convenient to have a charger at home and a charger at the office.) When my box came, an additional charger was not included. As of early last week, I had yet to receive an extra charger.
When I first called Sprint PCS to inquire about the extra charger, I explained the problem to the customer advocate, as Sprint calls them. She said it was easy to get the additional charger and even offered to help me start the transition to Sprint PCS.
This confused me because I started the conversation by saying that my phone was still in the box, uncharged, in case I needed to send it back. I knew from the enclosed material that the phone needed to be fully charged before beginning the transition. When the customer advocate finally understood this, she said she could not help me and that I would have to call back once my phone was charged. She also told me it would take up to 24 hours for the transition to be complete.
I decided to wait until Friday to try the upgrade process again. In the meantime, I charged my phone.
On Friday afternoon, I called Sprint PCS and again explained the situation. The person helping me said I would have to call Sprint Spectrum. I balked and said I wanted to talk to a manager. Instead, she switched me to Sprint Spectrum and I had to endure yet another wait. I had come to expect long hold times.
I felt a little sorry for the Sprint Spectrum customer advocate who got my call, but with a soothing voice, she proceeded with the transition. She indicated my Sprint PCS service/phone could be working in two hours or it could take up to 24 hours.
On Saturday morning, I checked my mobile phone and it appeared to be working. I called my home landline phone, and it worked. Off I went about my day, not realizing that while I could make calls, I could not receive calls. This became apparent when I didn’t get a call I needed. It went to my voice mail, but I didn’t receive notification. The reason: While I could make calls on my Sprint PCS phone, I could only receive calls on my Sprint Spectrum phone.
Another call to customer care … This time (on Sunday), after Sprint PCS again said it couldn’t help me, the customer advocate transferred me to Sprint Spectrum (again) and I waited on hold for more than 90 minutes before my patience ran out. It was Monday before I called again. Luckily, I got through without much difficulty or waiting.
Finally, everything was transferred, but my voice mail was not set up. McDonnell apologized for all of my problems, assuring me once I use the system I will like it much better. I hope so.
