Awhile back, we reported on Sprint’s regulatory fee increase, and how it is a material change that enables you to cancel service, sans termination fee. Well, Sprint read how we’ve been battling AT&T to get them to fess up and acknowledge their bad behavior.
And, Sprint did something unique in the wireless industry. Instead of making cancelling service an impossible task, Sprint called us up and wanted to work with PhoneNews.com to ensure no headaches this time when cancelling.
Effective today, you can call up customer service and schedule service cancellation. Be sure to follow the following steps, outlined by Sprint:
1) You must call in after January 1 (as in, starting today). Ask to be transferred to the cancellation department.
2) When you reach the cancellation department, note the $.40 regulatory fee increase that took effect at the start of January. Explain that this is a material change, and you would like to terminate service without the early termination fee.
3) If you are porting your number out to another carrier, alert the representative of this. They will note your account to be closed out properly after porting.
4) Be sure to only port your number after calling customer service, and explaining the process above. If you cancel service or port your number to another provider before following steps one through three, you will be charged the early termination fee.
5) You have until January 31st to schedule disconnect of service. You may complete your billing cycle, but any requests to cancel your contract after the 31st will be denied.
If you’ve tried that a couple of times, and haven’t found success… Simply contact us at PhoneNews.com. We’ll get you in touch with a team of ombudsmen at Sprint that will make sure your account is closed properly.
Update (1/6): Latest update on the situation…
We’d like to take a moment to thank Sprint for this industry-leading spirit of cooperation.
@ Don and F1
No I don’t think Sprint is a For Profit company, they are. This is not a forum of “well Sprint bought Nextel for 3.5 Billion.” That’s not the point here. Make a VALID argument towards my comment or move on to the “Why did Sprint Buy Nextel” forum. My point is if you want a cheap “Smart Phone” you’re going to have to have a contract. From an investor standpoint allowing your customers to wonder around with a subsidized phone and no contract leaves a bad taste. You cannot count on that customer’s income therefore you can’t forecast what you think you will make then in turn your stock price is worth less. (Once again not an argument on profitability) It’s better to let that customer walk away then to have them on your books.
Would you depend on someone that you sold a car too and let make payments but could run off whenever and not pay their bill? I wouldnt…
@F1
and its not passion and pride. Its disgust for people that take advantage of someone or something. Listen to the comments on this board…it oozes with with people taking advantage of a loophole to get more for less while making someone pay more. They are not asking you to pay $10 more a month its $9.60 for 23 months. Maybe this extra money might employ more american workers? Or even get you cheaper subsidized phones.
Dont like the contract? Pay Full Price. No contract required!!
Hmmmm. If the guy was going to take the car anyway, I’d rather he make payments monthly. Something is most certainly better than nothing, wouldn’t you agree? Oh, do remember that that particular car runs on Sprint branded gas only so they could always turn the pump off when the monthly payments stop..
I don’t really see the logic in any sense of letting a paying customer walk when all you have to do is say “OK” and they stay. So they leave in 2-3 months, big deal, they were gone anyway the minute the contract was broken.
Dear RG
A couple of points:
1.”You cannot count on that customer’s income therefore you can’t forecast what you think you will make then in turn your stock price is worth less. (Once again not an argument on profitability)”
First of all you can not count on anything in life to be certainty.
Second, today SPRINT is sadly at best a $3 stock vs the $30-40 stock value of AT&T & VZW, why do you think that is?
” It’s better to let that customer walk away then to have them on your books.”
I guess that would be a good reason for it!
2.”Would you depend on someone that you sold a car too and let make payments but could run off whenever and not pay their bill? I wouldnt…”
Millions of people do just that everyday in the Automotive Industry, it is called a secured debt, based on ones credit history.
3.”They are not asking you to pay $10 more a month its $9.60 for 23 months. Maybe this extra money might employ more american workers? Or even get you cheaper subsidized phones.”
Are you aware how much SPRINT CEO D. Hesse made in 2009?
He made $14 million in 2008!
While 1000’s of american SPRINT employees were let go!
4.”Dont like the contract? Pay Full Price. No contract required!!”
Did you read my post above?
F1 on January 6th, 2010, 1:28 pm
…. and was even recomended by the SPRINT Corp Tec at the store to purchase a HERO at full price and activated on my current plan, only to be told about 45 minutes later that he was told it would not work, he even said my “Ideas were too big, I need to think smaller, you want a Jaguar in a CIVICâ€!
In the U.S. thankfully people are free to express their frustration, if someone breaches a contract, there has to be consequences, this is how we keep law and order, otherwise the companies would take advantage and we would have anarchy, look what happened because of “Madoff” and the failure of government agencies to follow up on peoples complains and inquiries.
As C.P. likes to say “people talk with your valets”!
It is not about the $.01, it is about the principle of breaching a contract, all they had do to was to continue sticking their current “administrative charges” to the remaining customers,… but let us get some more…, you see greed knows no boarders or limitations.
Hope this helped shed some light on some of our frustrations with SPRINT!
Thank You
I see my decision to wait for CES to decide has been brought up several times.
I am a SERO customer. It is a good plan and I am very hesitant to give it up. I am using a refurbed phone and I would like to upgrade. What is wrong with that? If I upgrade now, I will be getting either the Hero or Moment. Both good phones. If Sprint has a Snapdragon based android phone, or perhaps the LG Prada 3 coming out in the next few months, then why shouldn’t I wait, keep my cheap ass SERO and upgrade when my contract expires in five months?
We have a month to do this. I chose to make an educated decision because I will be locked into a phone for 2 years once I do. I got locked into the old Touch. It was a good phone for its time but it was nearing the end of its run and was pretty much obsolete when I got it. I do not want to make a similar mistake. I already was in touch with Sprint and they told me to just port out and dispute the ETF based on the new reg fee. That was last month. I did not yet and who knows, I may not. It is a hassle if I want to continue with Sprint and still keep my number that I have had for about 8 years.
Sincerely,
The “I’m going to wait to see what happens at CES before making a decision.†guy.
This page has been quite an education for me and I appreciate all the input everyone has had and shared.
I called Sprint today to cancel a client’s 3 business lines, but was denied by the lead supervisor because, “Sprint Business customers have a different set of Terms and Conditions. In the Business Terms & Conditions, there is no clause stating that a customer may terminate service without incurring ETFs due to materially adverse changes to contract.” Sure enough, she’s right. Here’s the Business T&C PDF: http://www.sprint.com/business/resources/ratesandterms/Standard_Terms_and_Conditions_for_Communications_Services.pdf
Unlike the personal terms, section 13.2 of the business terms says nothing about the 30 day cancellation due to material changes to contract.
Section 13.2 – Customer Right to Terminate
A. Material Failure. Customer may terminate a Product or Service without early termination liability upon Sprint’s receipt of Customer’s written notice to terminate after the cure period if:
(1) Sprint materially fails to provide the Product or Service,
(2) Customer provides Sprint with written notice of the failure and a reasonable opportunity to cure within 30 days from receipt of notice,
(3) Sprint fails to cure the material failure within the 30-day cure period, and
(4) Customer provides Sprint with written notice of Sprint’s failure to cure and Customer’s election to terminate the affected Product or Service.
Sprint’s material failure does not include a failure caused by Customer or a Force Majeure Event.
B. Termination for Convenience. Customer may terminate the Agreement during the Term by providing 30 days’ written notice to Sprint. In the case of such Termination for Convenience, Customer may be liable for early termination fees as set forth in the Agreement.
I’d love to get my client out of contract, but I’ve hit a wall. Suggestions anyone?
Thanks 🙂
@Paul:
If they can change a contract at will, then it’s not a contract.
Perhaps someone here with more legal expertise can lend you some advice.
Sounds like more bull from Sprint’s retentions dept.
Paul, you can note to retentions that a material change to the cost of service is a “failure to deliver product” at the agreed-upon price.
@Christopher – thank you for your suggestion. I’ll give it a try.
Called Sprint,
Cancelled no questions asked, Service rep just wanted to know if I could give him all 5’s on the survey I would be sent on his job performance. He made the account cancelation notes while I was on the phone and said call back after I port my number. Appears they are ready and willing to help.
Just finished with Adam at acct services, 10 minutes total. Canceled contract siting material change, no ETF. I have 30 days to call back and re-sign up with Sprint at $15/month discount or port my number to another carrier.
Called Sprint on Jan 9th to cancel without ETF from the Verizon store. Courteous and respectful, tried to get me back since I have been a customer for 10 years. I stuck to the story line of the material change to the contract and he complied with no hassle. Numbers were ported within an hour later.
Ironically, this has been among my best Sprint customer service interactions.
The reason for changing? My mobile wife has had a lot of connectivity issues with Sprint, and she experienced an outage for 1.5 hrs in a major shopping mall where she was conducting a meeting and that was the last straw for her. She did not care what discount I was able to get from Sprint.
I just got off the phone with a very nice representative and cancelled with no problems. A++ customer service. I like sprint but i have two accounts already and this one was unnecessary and expensive anyways.
I called earlier this month to cancel my contract and was able to do so. At that time, rep said there would be no ETF. Ported my number out a few days ago and called back today to verify that account was closed with no ETF. To my surprise, they showed an ETF on my acct.
So I had to speak with their cancellation dept again to ensure no ETF on my final bill. Rep issued a ticket number to get this resolved so hopefully all is OK now.
So for all those who cancelled, might want to call back for verification after your number is ported!!
Sprint is just like any other carrier, there will always be people complaining and bitching about any little fee just to get them out of something. I have the Hero through sprint and I love it. Who cares if I have to pay 40 cents more. We have over 50 phones and their business plans are the most cost effective. They run off CDMA towers so you will roam with Alltel and other CDMA carriers without any additional charges (besides your mobile to mobile not kicking in. But like I said there will always be people looking to complain anywhere ya go. Ive worked with several differnt carriers and this one is the best yet.
I called yesterday and didn’t have too much of a hassle to cancel my service without the ETF. Of course, they tried to keep me, offered me a discount that would be way more then the $.20 increase, but I wanted to cancel anyway. I get very very poor service up in the mountains of Vermont where I live. I will port my number before the end of my billing cycle which the CSR told me was 2/9/10. She said I have already paid for service thru then, so I should receive no other bills from them unless I go over minutes or something. I hope this is all true, as after reading all the posts here, I am nervous that I will be in for a fight with them after I port with another carrier. With all this attrition Sprint is having, it doesn’t seem like the $.20 was worth it??
HELP!!! I have a family plan with sprint and my parents had re-new their contract two years ago in Februray08 and added me on june08. Their contract ends next month in February we all are going to leave to t-mobile. But sprint is making me stay until june10 to finish my 2 year contract. I want to leave with my parents next month in February. can i use this $.40 increase thing to cancel my contract without paying my etf if so how?
HELP!!! I have a family plan with sprint and my parents had re-new their contract two years ago in Februray08 and added me on june08. Their contract ends next month in February we all are going to leave to t-mobile. But sprint is making me stay until june10 to finish my 2 year contract. I want to leave with my parents next month in February. can i use this $.40 increase thing to cancel my contract without paying my etf if so how?
HELP!!! I have a family plan with sprint and my parents had re-new their contract two years ago in Februray08 and added me on june08. Their contract ends next month in February we all are going to leave to t-mobile. But sprint is making me stay until june10 to finish my 2 year contract. I want to leave with my parents next month in February. can i use this $.40 increase thing to cancel my contract without paying my etf if so how?
Last night I called Sprint- even though I haven’t received my bill with the $.20 increase yet. I just wanted to make sure that they made note of it in my account before the 30th- because I thought that was when this option was up.
I spoke with 2 people. One girl said that I should do it before the 19th- which is when my cycle is up. She said to just call them and I would be out without the ETF. That seemed too easy. I called back and spoke to someone else who said it seemed fishy..he transferred me to the cancellation department and a man named Josh told me that if I didn’t have it on my bill to wait to do anything…basically a paper trail. But he told me that Sprint wasn’t raising the price without telling people- that it was stated on the bill. I asked why or how, if people are being informed, can they get out of it w/out the ETF? He didn’t know what to tell me… wierd. Then he said that the increase might not even be on my bill- that it doesn’t affect everyone.. because I haven’t received my bill yet could he go in and change something so I won’t get the increase?
Here’s the real question- should I wait to get my bill before I port and change carriers?
Can you only cancel one line from a multi-line plan? or is is going to cancel the whole account.
Help!!! Can you only cancel one line from a multi-line plan? or is is going to cancel the whole account.
All or nothing. It is one account, with multiple lines of service. Kind of like you cannot be a little bit pregnant.
o i am willing to do this but i am afraid they will sent me a etf fee for each line in the mail even after they told me i was waved
hey i just go off the phone with sprint and i got the rep to put our multi lines(family plan) on a month to month so i am able to leave any time and i told him to port my numbers and its all done. Have a good reason and they got no reason to say no GOOD LUCK
I just got off the phone with sprint…I have multi lines on my plan and wanted to cancel one, at first I was given the runaround but eventually I was placed on hold while the rep. spoke with her supervisor. I was told she would be canceling my account and waiving my ETF at the end of my next billing cycle. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I never believe anything until I see it!!
Good luck to all:)
Oh, BTW…Sprint is going to cancel just one line, not all 3.
I have the same situation as Rita and Johnson but was told I am subject to the etf to cancel one line in my 5 person family contract. I want out of my contract but have the others stay the same. Do I need to be more persistent or talk to a certain dept.? any help would be appreciated.
As noted in my previous post, Business Account Services wouldn’t budge. Today I tried Chat, but still no luck. I then called into Personal Account Services, and after going back and forth for 45 minutes, the supervisor finally released my client from his 3 lines without ETF!
If you have a Business account, don’t call Business Account Services. The Business Terms and Conditions don’t allow for termination due to “materially adverse changes to contract.” Call Personal Account Services instead, and hope they don’t read the Business T&C 🙂
I called just a while ago, spent about a hour on the phone with an agent Andy & a supervisor Donna/LV773060 (hold time is more than the talk time, so there aren’t much bullets flying around, and I didn’t call out names).
Long story short, I bought up the fact on regulatory charge changes, so I want to terminate my contract. Andy said that’s not possible. I quote the contracts. he puts me on hold….. then comes back, say Yes, I can get out w/o the ETF, BUT the only way to do that, is to cancel my Sprint contract w/ them. I had read everywhere said that’s NOT necessary, so asked to speak with a supervisor.
on hold….. pickup, ask me to hold…..
on hold…. pickup again… hold again…………..
(do that 2 more times)
finally a lady named Donna/LV773060, she said the samething as Andy did. at that point, I am too piss to talk, feeling they are bullying me. so I said, sure, let’s continue with the process.
I waited for 15 minutes, checked my status on the phone at Sprint.com, I still showing May 2011 expirenation date, unlike someone said that’ll change in few minutes. So I think those 2 fellows screwed me somewhere, somehow that I had to call Sprint again… @#$%)^&*()*
the funny thing is, I actually like my Sprint contract, been w/ Sprint since 1995. All I want is out of the current contract, and maybe hook me up with a smartphone (HTC Hero maybe?), within Sprint. But now, I am going to T-Mobile or just a pre-paid plan.
thanks alot, great service you lusy Sprint CS. Too make matter worse, they stated that SPRINT (as a whole), is not allowed, AND WILL NEVER do such a thing, that lot customer off the contract w/o ETF, and let them go month-by-month…. I guess about 2000x post I read so far, all branch of liars??? can someone back me up on this?
oh, yeah, I fill out the contact us at PhoneNews.com thing here, I love to see how this is going…
not a happy camper…..
[…] ETF fee. The thing is thats its only valid for your Sprint bill in January. Read up about it here. Someone even created a no-ETF script for you to use with customer service on SlickDeals.net. […]
Well I called and was prepared for a battle as I had plans to cancel only one line. She knew exactly what I was talking about and quickly made notes on the account. Since I will be porting the number to a different carrier I informed her of this and she advised me to port number first and then call back so the fee can be waived. Since I wanted a 2nd person to confirm this she got her supervisor and he verified this also. The end result will be the way to know if this was done properly or not. I still distrust Sprint on this but I will give them the benefit of the doubt that they will do it right.
I checked the status on line, found out I still had the Contract on May 2011, so went to chat w/ an online agent. turns out the cancellation request never process, and the noted said I cancel the request at the end of the conversation.
this Sprint support is really messy up, based on all type of different treatments ppl getting… this noway of running a business.
2 thumbs down!
I had called on 1.3.10 and the agent informed me that I would not be charged the ETF so long as I did actually get the notice on my bill. I read her the notice that I had received on my bill and she stated that she notated my account to be closed out properly after the port. The call seemed to go smoothly, I reconfirmed with her several times that I would not be charged the ETF and she agreed. Fast forward to today, I am porting my number out today and I called Sprint again just to confirm my account was notated properly. Well, it was not. The agent from today read the notes and the previous agent with whom I had spoken with on 1.3.10 wrote that she, “educated customer that a $130 ETF would be applied to account.” I informed the new rep that this was completely false…new rep said she would properly note the account this time. We will see how it pans out.
called 3 times and was told i couldnt cancel because i am on a disounted plan from where my wifes work they said it doesnt effect me
I called once and it went smoothly.
I couldn’t get my number ported to T-Mobile so I called Sprint back to go ahead and close the account ASAP
Ends up the person offer’s me $20 off my bill each month if I stayed on… I didn’t have problems with Sprint to begin with, I just wanted the NexusOne…
So I’m still with Sprint just paying $240 less a year than I was before. 🙂
I just called Sprint. It went smooth, and I was very impressed with their kindness. I actually felt bad to cancel my contact.
Wow took less than 3 minutes to get to the cancellation department and then about 5 minutes after i explained the fee thing for them to cancel my account. Very proud of Sprint for making htis an easy process…I agree with joon, I also feel kinda bad for cancelling my contract but that 20 cents extra a month was just killing me…
I called tonight and was able to successfully end my contract with Sprint. I will say that I also called back 45 minutes later verify that it had been set to terminate and that the ETF had been waived. I was glad I did because it would seem like all the notes were not with my account. So unless you are absolutely sure that all is taken care of, call back and make sure. As I understand, There will be no confirmation # for this so ask for an “Interaction Number” instead. This is the number assoc. with the notes the Rep will put on your acct. Good Luck to all.
Hi!! I would like to know if any one of you know if this also applies to nextel??? they were trying to tell me it’s not!
Hello! I have been a member of Helio, who got bought out by Virgin Mobile, who got bought out by Sprint. As of right now I’m a virgin customer I believe although they’re owned by Sprint. Any idea if this could be applicable? Thanks!
@carol yes this applies to nextel I had two Nextel lines and two Sprint lines on the same plan and account.
Called and it took less than 10 minutes. Just chose the option “Cancel Account” and got a rep in just a minute or two. Told them that I was cancelling because of the change in fees being charges to my account. They did ask the question many of the posters above mentioned “What’s the REAL reason you’re cancelling. $0.20 per line can’t be it”. I told them that I preferred to call the $0.20 per line “The straw that broke the relationship and the contract”. I’ve been a Sprint customer for 10 years. Had enough of the 2-year contracts being added any time I made any change while all I got for this was little to no support for a long time customer and having to sit back and watch new account signups get anything they need. My phone was out of contract and month-to-month, but the wife’s phone had a year on it after she had to replace a non-functioning phone. I figure I’ll switch companies every two years now unless I find one that has decent service. I agree Sprint has cheap plans, but I think you get what you pay for. I wouldn’t buy a parachute from WalMart, and I’ll be happy to pay a little more for service and peice of mind.
I just called right now and the lady was like “is this the real reason to cancel?” and then she said that if I was porting out my number then I would have to call back on feb 24 (that is when my billing cycle ends) to have the termination fee waived! i doubted this because maybe i won’t be able to cancel without the etf.
or is she right?
This actually works!!!! Called last week and was told to wait until the charges showed up on my bill. Called back tonight after my bill arrived and told them the only reason I wanted to end my contract was b/c of the $.40 charge (actually it’s the crappy service but I didn’t want to risk telling them that and them saying that wasn’t good reason to get out of contract). The lady asked me if I wanted to port my #’s over. I did. She told me my contract ended today and I could port my #’s over @ any time or continue to pay month to month. I confirmed I could port my #’s on both lines w/o ETF and that was it. Checked online later and it had already showed that my contract ended today. It took less than 10 minutes.
Done, easy as pie, whole process took 5 minutes. My rep didn’t even bother trying to get me to stay. Number is waiting to be ported tomorrow. Thanks for the great info!
For those of you that are satisfied with the Sprint service you have. Sprint will take $20 off your plan a month for 2 years to keep you as a customer.
so i call sprint today to terminate my service and there was no bumps in the road now just have to port my # see whats next keep y’all posted
On another forum, someone claimed that his $20-for-24-months credit (which he got a couple of months ago in exchange for renewing his contract) mysteriously disappeared from his latest bill, and Sprint refused to put it back on. I am afraid that the same thing will happen to all of us, next month or 2 or 3 months from now. Sprint will simply get “amnesia,” drop our monthly credit, and thumb its nose at us.
Unfortunately, I did not get any written documentation of the promised $20/24 credit. Did anyone else?
I have had sprint for the last five years or so. I have or rather had two lines of service through them. In September of last year, I decided to call them to see if I could change my plan to cheaper plan — the first rep said no problem we can do that, but then ran in to a problem. She said she would call me back within five minutes, an hour later, I called back. The second time, the representative changed my plan and told me to call back in a few days to confirm the changes had been made. I call back a week later and was told, my plan had not been changed, only because I had instintcs on both lines of service and the plan I originally had to begin with was the cheapest I could be on.
So, at that point, I am livid. I was lied to twice, no one ever called me back to let me know that I could not have the plan that was quoted to me. I asked to speak with a supervisor, one was not available — they escalated my situation to executive services. They called me back within 24 hours and I was told I had been let out of my contract early, basically telling me I could go wherever I wanted to because of this entire situation.
A few days later, my birthday rolls around. I decided to leave Sprint. Both my boyfriend and I decide to go to AT&T and get Iphones. Months later, around the beginning of January — in the mail I get a notice from Sprint saying I am months beyond on paying my bill and to please pay as soon as possible. Another screw up, big surprise. The amount comes to $249, which I assuming is an ETF and maybe some monthly charges.
What I want to know is, what is the best course of action to take? Please help!
@ Barre
Do you still have your contact information at the “Executive Office”?
If so, I would strongly recommend contacting that individual immediately.
That should bring about the fastest resolution, other wise the more lenghty solution is through contacting the FCC, feel free to let me know, if you are in need of any further assistance.
Thank You