A while ago, Tom mentioned that I had a great customer service experience with T-Mobile. Truthfully, the great customer service experience came today. T-Mobile just earned a customer for...well, maybe not for life, but they certainly have earned enough karma to keep me around a while. And at the same time, Sprint has spurned a customer for life.
I blogged back in April about getting a SmartPhone. Well, the honeymoon was short lived - it was a developer beta unit and it was not particularly robust. I dropped it about a month ago and it died. No huge deal, the MPx220 is coming soon. Of course, I need a phone in the meantime. I had signed up for T-Mobile service to power the SmartPhone so I went back to pick up a V300 which would go to my wife when the MPx220 became available. Only trouble was that since I hadn't bought the phone when I activated my account, I was not eligible for an activation discount. I had asked about that when I bought the service, and had been assured it was no big deal. So I call up customer service, and they promise to wave the disconnect fee on the current account if I buy a new phone (with the activation discount). This was right before I went to New Zealand, so I figured I'd take care of it when I got back. In the meantime, I'm using a old borrowed phone and my existing account.
So I've been back a week, but hadn't gotten to taking care of the phone yet. Then last night, someone steals my phone and my wife's phone out of the car. So I call T-Mobile and explain the situation. They cancel the account on the spot, outright - no early termination fee or anything. Pretty cool. Of course, I did tell them I was going to buy not one but two new V300's from Amazon (for the low price of -$100 each after rebate) but still, I thought that was pretty cool. The only bummer of this whole scenario is that I won't be able to get the MPx220 with an activation discount when it comes up.
After talking to T-Mobile, I called Sprint. Now, I've been a Sprint customer for five years. You would think that would warrant a little respect and/or leeway, but apparently not. The "customer service" rep I spoke to was both rude and stupid. He was able to suspend my wife's phone, but when I asked to cancel it he told me there would be an early termination fee. Funny thing is, the term on this "contract" (which I never signed and was unaware of) end's on the 28th of August. You know, next Saturday. As in, six days from today. You would think that you might give a customer of five years who is dealing with a case of theft the benefit of the doubt and wave the early termination fee less than a week before the contract expires anyway. No, apparently I have to call back Saturday to terminate the contract. Fine. I set a reminder on my calendar so I don't forget to rid myself of Sprint for good and forever.