Sprint to the finish

Today, I felt like writing more of a remember the time I... type of story. Today's story is about Sprint. A few years back, Erin's family decided to get sprint phones. She was not available when the phones were being selected, and the person at the store said that it would be OK to bring the phone back within two weeks and exchange it for store credit towards whichever phone the user wanted. So, Erin's mom wanted to get the phones turned on, and she dropped off Erin's phone at school later that night. So, Erin decided to try it out, see if she liked this one or not. After a couple of days, she decided that she would rather have a flip phone, so, on the weekend, we took a little trip to the local Sprint store, and that is when the story changes.

We arrive at the store, and we explain the story to the person at the counter. She comes back and says that a manager would need to help, so she goes and finds a manager. We explain the story to the manager. She takes a look at the phone and says, "We can't take that back because there are finger prints on the phone, and a small scratch". We explained that the lady told us originally that the phone could be used, and then brought back. The scratch, may I add, may have already been there. It was so small, and so shallow, it could have been created just putting in the battery. This wasn't happening with this lady though. No way. So... we argued with her for a good 15 minutes. She brought out another manager, and they all decided that they could not take the phone back.

We went to the car, because at that time, Erin was not buying a new phone from those people. She called the customer support line while we were in the car, and told them what had happened. The lady on the phone said, "Oh sure, we will take the phone back and you can just order it this way". That easy. No questions. Mentioned the small scratch, she said no big deal. Then we discussed what happened at the store, and she told us that should not have happened, and that if we wanted to file a complaint we could. She would just need to know the name of the manager we spoke to, etc. So, I walked back into the store, up to the lady who looked less than enthused, and I asked her for her business card. I told her that the Sprint in the sky will fix the problem, and that we needed her card so that I could file a complaint against her. She said, I will go get you one. Then I left...

Within a month at the most, that store was gone. No lie. Funny to think that maybe I helped, but I imagine I was in a long line of people with that same problem. But, the moral is, don't take no without a little fight. Always ask for the next level up. You are paying them for their service and people like cell phone companies just want you to stay signed up.