Will's blog

I talked to Sprint Customer Service and got a really great customer service representative who read through my file, listened to what I was saying, and then actually spent the time to work through solving my issue. He hooked me up with a 2 year contract that met my needs and met Sprint's minimum requirements for the rebate.

Anyhow, so then I went down to the Sprint PCS in Harvard Sq and sat around listening to one gal who swore more than a bar full of sailors yell at one of the Sprint PCS guys because she didn't realize that if she's checking her voicemail, gets an incoming call and switches lines (without hanging up on voicemail) she gets billed double minutes (one set for one line and one set for the other line). Finally the guy puts his hands in the air and asks her really politely to stop swearing at him. Then I discovered that the unsupervised 3-year-old running around the store was hers. Interestingly she said she was a student getting a masters degree in psychology.

Then I listened to this other lady who must have a lot of other issues sit there and verify point by point over and over again the things she can and cannot do according to her contract... But she never actually read the contract nor did she actually listen to what her Sprint PCS guy was saying. I'm not really sure what she got out of the exchange. And she kept saying things like, "Ok. When I have a problem, I'm going to tell them that Joe at the Harvard Square Sprint PCS store said it works like this..." But that's not what Joe said at all so then he'd correct her and the whole thing would start over again. Joe isn't his real name.

Anyhow, after waiting 30 or 45 minutes, one of the Sprint PCS folks helped me out. I bought a Nokia 6225, signed the 2-year agreement, and chatted with a Sprint PCS lady who hadn't eaten since that morning when she got called in early because a bunch of the other Sprint PCS folks had called in sick or dead or something like that.

To summarize:

• I'm still with Sprint PCS, got a phone I like, and their Sprint PCS Customer Service was really helpful and solved my problem.
• The Sprint PCS people are _people_ and all the Sprint PCS customers I bumped into that day are self-righteous jerks who seem to honestly believe they're entitled to everything.
• People aren't reading their contracts... or any of the paperwork involved for that matter.
• The folks in the Burlington, MA Sprint PCS store ignored me and then were useless, but the folks in the Harvard Square Sprint PCS store were friendly and helpful (and swamped).

I spent most of the time sitting there waiting trying to figure out to fix these sorts of developer/user relation/communication issues for PyBlosxom while minimizing the crappy experiences and maximizing the good ones.

Anyhow, thanks to everyone who suggested solutions to my plight.