Sprint Holding me and MY 650 Hostage!!!!

[dochlywd]

Hi,

Sorry my first post has to go down in this negative manner, here goes!!!

Long story short: Purchased my own 650 and used it with the phone number I have had for many years. Two years ago my brother gets a business account with up to ten phones so he says to transfer over and get on his plan since he has room and it's a bulk price. So, I transfer MY phone and MY number over....everything is great. A few months ago, some guys that used to work for him transferred their numbers to another provider (before they left the company and they knew his password!) and he got socked with a lot of early termination fees. His attitude now is that he didn't give the O.K. for them to take the company's numbers with them so he's not going to pay. The account is now suspended and they won't release my number. I argued with everyone possible that I don't have any control of this and they could run my credit (780+), my wife has been a customer for many years(never late) and see that I am a quality customer. Instead of just letting my number sit there and not collecting any money on it, they could pull it out and start collecting a monthly fee on it again. They refused!!! Fine. After I cooled down for a couple of days, I went into the store and was just going to suck it up and get a new number. After going through the process with my 650 in hand, the idiot asks me if I wanted to purchase another PDA style phone. I told him no, my 650 is good enough. He then says that I can't even use MY phone... that I purchased.....and I own with another number!!!!!! As long as the account, that I have no legal right to or any control over, is suspended then MY phone is useless.

How can this be?????

Any thoughts? I have spoke to as many people possible and begged and pleaded with no luck. This is absolutley unbelievable that they would think I would spend another dime with them after holding me hostage like this!!!

Can this phone be used with another carrier in any way? Part of me wants to take my 650 in there, set it on the counter, remove a hammer from my pocket, just bash the sh!* out of it, and then simply walk out without ever saying a word!!!


Thanks for any help you may be able to give me!!!!!

Doc

[brandon]

might not be feasible, but switch to another network. you'll have to buy a new treo, but i've got a gsm 650 i'll let you buy from me. welcome to the forum!

[dochlywd]

Thanks! How do you like AT&T? I found out tonight that my wife's contract is up real soon along with my mom and dad, and my sister's family. All are willing to change from Sprint as well. They think it's absolutely insane that they can hold the phone that I own hostage. If I didn't pay my gas card bill, would the gas company not allow me to use my car that burned the fuel? If I didn't pay my cable bill, would the cable company fix it so I couldn't view my T.V. that the cable service was used on?

The thing that frustrates me the most about this is that I don't even have any control over this Sprint bill. So, they not only want me to pay what's owed on my phone, but what's owed on all the other lines as well.

And should they REALLY be discussing my brother's financial balances with me? Isn't that none of my business and kind of crossing the line just to try to get the billed paid by me?

I mean, this is soooooooo crazy to me!!!

Doc

[brandon]

i'll simplify - switch. at&t has never been unkind to me and i've been with 'em for about 4 years now. i may be the only customer at&t has never screwed, but there it is. and maybe tell sprint what's up and tell 'em to #&$% off while you're at it. that's what i'd do, anyway.

[forgot]

lol

I'm with ATT as well, and haven't had any problems. If your thinking about making a switch, they really are worth looking into.

[eclair]

dochlywd, sorry about all the hassle. But on a brighter note, welcome to treonauts. At least we can empathize with you.

[skoenig]

I can empathize doc. Your situation is reminiscent of typical ebay ESN problems where unwitting buyers end up with Sprint/Verizon phones that have marked ESNs and can't be hooked up. Your phone can be used on Verizon's network.

There's no easy solution and I can see it from Sprints point of view too... they're owed a bunch of money from an account thats gone bad. They're not going to do anything with any of the handsets or numbers on that account until they get paid out.

Unfortunately your brother probably has a legal battle with his ex-employees who illegally accessed his account and made changes after discovering his password. Sprint won't be interested in any of that sadly.

There's several options you have:

- Wait. Sometimes you can extract ESN/Handsets from accounts after a period of time or after it's sent to collection. As you say, it's your phone and Sprint never paid a subsidy on it (they may have on the other handsets). You can keep your phone and number.

- Switch to a sensible modern and GSM (sim-based) carrier like t-mobile or AT&T. The power is with you, then, to unlock your handset and take it elsewhere whenever you like if you feel the need - oh, it'll also work in the other 75% of the planet and you can simply buy a local cheap calling sim when you go travelling. You'll need to get a new phone and number

- Switch to Verizon. They're supposed to confer with each other on handsets but it's possible to switch even if the ESN is bad if they don't do the check (this is assuming the Sprint account is suspended). Unfortunately you'll have to go through the sign up process before you can add your handset. You can keep your phone but not your number.

- Lastly, get permission and passwords from people in your family willing to switch to another carrier or have them add you as someone who can manage their account (varies), call the cancellations line or customer retention, explain the situation without being threatening and give them an opportunity to fix it, if that doesn't work proceed to cancel their services at the end of the billing cycle (very important). Then immediately get everybody to sign up elsewhere and get their numbers transfered. You must do the number transfer before your billing cycle ends or you'll loose their numbers. You'll need to get a new phone and number but you might feel the sweet elation of revenge.

Notes
- If you do end up getting a new number, sign up to Grand Central.
- Not that you want to spend more money but the Centro is $99.

Hope this helps...

~ Steph

[LotusLord]

Originally Posted by forgot

lol

I'm with ATT as well, and haven't had any problems. If your thinking about making a switch, they really are worth looking into.

Same here, never had an issue (at least with my cell service)

[jfa02]

dochlywd, sorry to hear of your hassles with sprint. I have been with cingularly att for over 7 years only problem I had with them was added my daughter onto my plan and they tried to take all my rollover minutes over 7000+ I wrote them a letter on my office stationery told them that if they wanted to camncel my minutes by outting language in the fine print of the terms of service that I would start a nationwide campaign to find other people they had done this to and file a class action lawsuit and take them to the cleaners. They gave me back about 75 % of my minutes and I was happy.

[skoenig]

Nice! I like things like that. Only 75% come on... where's the class action? lol

I think there should be a way to donate left over minutes to charity and get a tax break...

Still if California can sieze funds in untouched bank accounts then I guess AT&T can take back some unused minutes rubbish as it may seem - you've paid for them after all.

~ Steph