Author: Christopher Carfi

Total time wasted so far: 90 minutes driving, 45 waiting = 2 hours, 15 minutes

So, I got a phone as part of the Sprint Ambassador Program (disclosure: Sprint says that they’ll also pay all mobile charges for six months as part of the program) . Went to the Sprint store in Palo Alto to get it activated. Here’s what went down:

• I ask to activate the new phone I just received with the new and exciting reverse cell phone lookup
  features. It’s already activated. Ok, that’s good.

• I ask to have my existing Sprint phone # moved over to the new phone. The folks at the Sprint store can’t do it (as helpful as they were trying to be). They tell me to call the Sprint toll-free number. I call from the new phone. The helpful customer service rep says, “I need to call you back, I can’t do it while you’re on this phone.” Ok, the Sprint guys slide their store phone across the counter to me, I give the CSR the number, and wait for her to call. Five minutes pass; the “new” phone is playing hold music in my ear. She comes back on the original line, sheepish: “I tried calling the store you’re at, got stuck in the voice-response tree, and now I’m on hold.” Strike one.
• The reps at the store also tell me that if I want to transfer the phone #s in my address book from the old phone to the new phone, it’s going to cost me $15. Strike two.
• The helpful CSR says to call back into Sprint corporate from the land line, and tell whomever answers that I need to do an “ESN transfer” and that whomever answers can help. I hang up the new phone, and dial in on the land line. Surlycrankyrep (SCR) answers.
• I explain to SCR that I’m simply trying to move my phone number from my old phone to the new phone. “That’ll be $18 to do an ESN transfer.” Huh? Ok. Fine. Whatever. Go ahead and do it. Ten minutes pass. “The new phone already has an account associated with it.” Ok, so? “So I can’t transfer the number.” Ok, what is the account that’s associated with it? “I don’t know.” I explain that I received the phone as part of the Ambassador program, and I haven’t a clue what ‘account’ it might be associated with. She says to send an email to the address on the letter I received from Sprint, but she’ll also try to check what can be done. Then I go onto hold. And hold. And hold. Ten more minutes pass.

I finally hang up the line (where SCR left me hanging), and go have lunch with the kids, who’ve been waiting patiently down the block while this has transpired. I’ve wasted a good chunk of my Saturday. I don’t have time for this. I should have checked the reviews of the Sprint, on a site like BuyersImpact
(click here), so I could have avoided their bad customer service. The new phone sits mutely mocking me.

Sprint, your move.

[UPDATE 1: 2:28pm]

Received an actual email from an actual Sprint human being (“Rose”) within 30 minutes of the above post. Will be posting more on this as the problems get resolved.

[UPDATE 2: 7:30am, next day]

So, kudos to “Rose” for doing what she said she’d do, and in a timely manner. Points granted there. However, c’mon Sprint. Here’s the option that’s been given:

“Christopher,

There’s not really a way to use your old phone number for only inbound calls. It would probably be best to share the Ambassador phone number with the people you most talk to. You could use the Call Forwarding feature – but in my opinion – it’s quite costly. It’s available on every Sprint plan (which I’m assuming you use Sprint as a carrier) at $.20/per minute. That means that it would charge you for every minute you are on a call that was forwarded from your old phone.

Depending on what manufacturer your old phone is can determine how to get your contacts into the Ambassador phone. Most phones (even if they don’t have Bluetooth) have a way to link your phone to your computer and through software provided by the manufacturer allow you to download the contacts to the computer. Once it is on the computer, you can use the Ambassador phone’s Bluetooth capabilities to upload the contacts to your phone, one at a time. The $15 is an up front service charge if you go to the store and have a sales representative do this for you, but it still depends on what brand your old phone is as certain brands do not have this functionality.

At the end of the six month period, we would be happy to re-activate your phone with your old number and a plan/term agreement of your choice.”

Guess I mothball the phone for six months.

Sprint, where’s the clue? Did anyone think through this? Per John’s point in the comments below, it certainly appears that ::internal:: issues within the Sprint organization have stymied what could have been a really worthwhile promotion. Think about this from the customer’s perspective, would ya? When the options to the customer are either (a) carry two phones and have two numbers or (b) get charged $0.20 a MINUTE to use the “free” phone with your old number, it seems kind of pointless.