[Epic 4G General] dwallersv:
Gang, happy new owner of a VZW Galaxy Nexus, as of thursday. It rocks.

But that's not what this thread's about. Because the plan all along was to keep the Epic account with Sprint, with another year on contract, and give the phone to my daughter. Just need to change the telephone number.

That's when the idiocy started, and my almost-nightmare. Almost because in my old age (49), I have lost all tolerance and patience for being put through gyrations, hoops, circuitous call trees, etc., to remedy something that a child can see is obviously wrong. When the three stooges show starts with a business like this, I tell them politely that I don't have patience or interest to help them figure out how to do their job, explain things over and over to 30 different people, and waste a whole bunch of precious life seconds on their problem. Goodbye, I'm taking my business to a competitor.

Here's what happened:

Short version:

"ported" my numbers in the wrong order. Sprint contract canceled, charged $90 early termination fee. Wouldn't rectify the situation, period.

Long Version:

Went to Verizon first to get my new phone. Had my number pulled over from Sprint and applied to the new GN. Happy camper. then...

ME: Call up Sprint to have my daughter's number, no longer under contract at VZW, ported over to my sprint account for the Epic.

SPRINT: No, can't do that. You terminated the contract when you ported the original number away.

ME: But I don't want to terminate the contract! I just want to change the phone number!

SPRINT: Well, customer, F*ck you, that's too bad. Tell you what: We'll restore your contract and waive the termination fee if you port your number back.

ME: Am I speaking with an intelligent human being, or a modern version of the old ELIZA artificial intelligence program? Obviously, that will cause me the same problems over at Verizon (although I suspect they would handle this much better).

SPRINT: Bite me, Customer, that's the only thing we can do. (translation: That's the only thing we're willing to do).

ME: (and now this is virtually verbatim, without my colorful embellishments): "Let me get this straight: I want to keep giving you my business. I don't want to terminate the contract. We're talking about $1000 of revenue in the next year. If you will not restore my contract, port in my daughters number from Verizon, and remove that 90 fee, I will never darken Sprint's doors again, recommend vigorously against you as a carrier for all friends and family, and report the precise facts of this customer 'satisfaction' experience everywhere I frequent on the internet. You are willing to choose all of that to keep a friggin' $90??!?!?!???!?"

SPRINT: F*ck you! (returning to colorful embellishment)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

It went on for another 15 minutes or so, I talked to a supervisor, no dice, hung up and called back to get a different rep to see if that might make a difference, and they were nicer, but the effective message was still F*CK YOU, powerless customer.

Well, I'm not powerless. I'll give them their $90. They lose about $910 over the rest of the contract for this idiocy, and any change of renewal and further business.

All because I didn't follow some bureaucratic nonsense about the order numbers should be ported, or something. I must be punished!

I'm an engineer. I know this is not some gnarly technical limitation. I know they can do this, it just may take some gymnastics in the CRM application, maybe an auth code from someone with the authority to "break the rules", etc.

IDIOTS! That's how you encourage people not to do business with you. Operate in a manner that places your rules above the customer's interests, even when breaking them is a WIN-WIN.

Well, gonna get a Shift for my daughter that really wants Android with a kbd. In the end, even with the $90 early termination fee, I'm going to save hundreds over the next year, as it's only an additional $40/mo to add another smartphone to the VZW Family Talk plan we already have, instead of another $100/mo from Sprint. I never really bothered to work through the numbers until Sprint made me mad enough to think the whole thing through.

Anyway, it's been great here, gang. I've learned so much, benefited from a ton, and contributed a little. You're a super group of people. I look forward to seeing some of you around the GN forums... It's an awesome device, and ICS is da bomb. Facial Recognition to unlock the phone... my phone knows me! For a techie geek, that's one of the coolest features in ICS!