Sprint PCS Cell Phone Services

Oakland, CASome cell phone companies allegedly try to extend contracts or enforce new ones without the customer's knowledge. An angry customer posted a letter to Foodconsumer.org, detailing his troubles with Sprint PCS cell phone service. The reader notes that he recently received a letter from the cell phone carrier informing him that he has a new contract with Sprint beginning June 16, 2007 and ending June 16, 2009.

This new contract, which the writer claims was never agreed to, is $35 for 300 any-time minutes and unlimited nights and weekends. It also comes with an early termination fee of $200.00. The customer says he has never agreed to a new contract with Sprint. "I have been using Sprint PCS for three or more years," he writes. "And the initial contract has expired a long time ago and I do not intend to have any contract to get myself trapped."

The customer says he reached a customer service representative who claimed to remove the contract and promised to send a confirmation email. However, the customer says he has never received the email.

Other customers have noted that their contracts were extended after they made changes to their existing plans. For example, some customers have made changes to their plans, by adding minutes or choosing a new plan, only to learn that by agreeing to the changes they were actually agreeing to a new two-year contract. The new contract also has an early termination fee.

There are some ways to get out of a contract without paying an early termination fee. In fact, a number of customers have recently learned that their cell phone company, Sprint, was canceling their contracts. Why? Because the company felt those people called the customer support line too often. As a result the customers' accounts were set to zero, the contract will be canceled as of the end of July, and the customers were not charged an early termination fee.

According to a senior vice president at IAG Research, as quoted at CNET News, it costs cell phone companies between $2 and $3 for every minute a customer spends on the phone with a customer service representative. If customers spend too long on the phone, or phone too many times, the carrier will not make a profit on the customer, incentive to cancel the contract.

So far, Sprint is the only cell phone company with a policy of canceling contracts if a customer phones customer service too often. The company is reportedly disconnecting around 1,200 people for being too high maintenance. Other companies have policies against excessive roaming and will either limit roaming privileges or cancel contracts if customers roam too frequently.