Champagne Living likes to give you the 411 on living the good life (for less), living rich, or just about anything that can make YOUR life easier, more luxurious and save you money. More often than not is IS the experience rather than the product itself that makes us feel so GOOD.
As you know, I was recently away in New England for my son’s college graduation and to spend time with family and friends. It was great fun seeing everyone as well as spending time with Wendy from Sweetie’s Sweeps, Cheryl – The Daily Blonde, Sharon, Jane and Audrey – from Mom Generations and more.
One of the things that I did before going away, just so I could keep up online was to switch my Internet connection from the cable company to an air card. I usually research these types of changes VERY well – but I knew that we were driving (well, Mr. S was driving) and I wanted to be able to update Champagne Living from the car. I went with Sprint as it has been my mobile company for the past three years.
The service was GREAT. I was able to update while on the road, in hotels and even on the train on the way home. Of course, I did it periodically – as I was on vacation and didn’t want to spend loads of time online. But, it served it’s purpose, had a GREAT connection and speed and I THOUGHT that this would be a permanent change for me.
That was – until I received my bill. Ay, ay, ay. What was supposed to be a bill slightly larger than my “usual” Internet (by about $10 – for the convenience) was actually almost what I was paying for a YEAR of internet before! I FLIPPED!!!!
My first call was to customer service. Now, I had a preconceived notion that cell phone companies give you the “run around” when handling problems like this. My mom always taught us that you can “catch more bees with honey” so being nice and courteous yourself usually helps diffuse a situation. I guess the CSR’s mom taught her that too. She not only erased all of my overages, but she spent LOADS of time with the tech department trying to find out HOW and WHY these overages occurred. I hadn’t asked – she just did it for me. I hope that I get a survey to complete from Sprint, because they need to know JUST HOW HELPFUL she is.
Thinking that the problem was totally solved, I went about my usual online time at home. There is a way to track your usage. With the overages erased – I started using the air card again. Three days into the month I was already DOWN 2 GB. YIKES – visions of a $1,000 Internet bill popped into my head.
Once again I called Sprint – this time I went directly to the Tech Dept. to see what I COULD DO to control my usage. After chatting with the technical department for about 20 minutes, we came to the realization that for heavy usage like this – an air card was NOT THE RIGHT OPTION. I was over my 30 day trial, so I assumed that I’d be paying a $200 early termination fee for the service (it is essentially cell phone service, so the ETR is the same).
The tech forwarded me to the termination department (that didn’t sound good) and the NICEST guy asked what he could do for me. I began to explain ONCE again about my bill, usage, etc. (it sounded like “Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie the way I went on & on). I hadn’t even FINISHED my rant, when he cut me off with “You’re all set.” WHAT? “You’re all set.” He told me that he’d canceled ALL OF MY FEES, no early termination, no overages, NOTHING. I OWED ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! He even told me that I could take the air card BACK to the Sprint Store and get my money back if I wanted to.
So, what’s the point of all of this? Sprint’s SUPERB customer service has created a VERY loyal customer all because of the way that they handled a situation that was really MY FAULT (because I hadn’t done my homework prior to setting up the service).
I you have ANY such experiences with companies – I’d love to hear them. Just add them to the comments, so that all of Champagne Living’s readers can experience the good life as well.
We all like saving money (by the way – I have found Sprint to have some of the lowest costing plans with the MOST goodies), but even more – we like being treated well.
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates.
Kelly says
How nice of them. Other companies could take note.
Tamara B. says
Enjoy the good life at Champagne Living!
MEJLL says
I'm glad you received such great customer service. I've been with Sprint for over 5 years now. I have had to call them occasionally for issues but the average rating I would give them is a 3 out of 5 stars.