In the next installment of "As the 3G Turns," I wrote an e-mail to Dan Hesse,
dan@sprint.com. I've edited some personal things out.
Dear Mr. Hesse,
I have been a Virgin Mobile customer since July 2010, and my VM phone number is ********** (associated account pin **********). I switched from my Blackberry Curve 8530 at $35/month to the new LG Optimus V at $25/month. My plans were to sell the Curve to recoup the cost of the new phone, but those plans have been put on hold for now due to the fact that I cannot use all of the services that I'm paying for with the new Optimus, and may soon return the phone before the return policy expires. I'm writing to you because I cannot seem to get a clear answer from anyone else.
I purchased the new Optimus V on March 18, 2011 from Best Buy. That evening, I activated the phone and successfully (as per the automated VM e-mail) swapped service. I waited and waited for the text message that was supposed to tell me everything was set up properly, but never received it. The next morning, I noticed that I was unable to use the browser or any data-related services or applications. I waited until Monday the 21st to call Virgin Mobile, and as per suggestions from others having the same issues, contacted your Executive Escalations Department at 866-553-9810. That morning, the representative there forwarded my issue to Tech Support, and another employee asked me to remove the battery from the phone for 1-2 hours.
After the 1-2 hours had passed (at 11:00 am CDT 3/21), I still had no data, so once again I called the Executive Escalations number and reached an Antoinette. She explained that whatever was done may have not fully taken, so she asked me to remove the battery once again for 4 hours. I called back again at 3pm that same day when I still had no data, and reached a Melody or Melanie in the Executive Escalations department. She tried to reprovision my services, which did not work, so she escalated my issue to Network Operations, and told me I would hear back in 24-72 hours from then.
As I had been paying attention to the Virgin Mobile Facebook page, I noticed that several people had mentioned a Stephanie on your Tier 3 Tech Support number (877-600-8065) who had been able to help them get their 3G data services back by resetting their entire account. Today (3/24) at 1:15 pm CDT, I first called this Tier 3 number to inquire about whether they had heard back from Network Operations, and found out that they had not, and would e-mail them to figure out what was going on. This person told me that I would hear back within an hour.
At 2:15 pm CDT (3/24), I called the Tier 3 number once again and asked for the Stephanie at that number, in hopes that she would be able to help. However, she was busy at the time, and I reached a Jasmine. She explained that she saw I had contacted Executive Escalations, and that Engineering should have gotten my ticket resolved much faster than by any other method. She reiterated what I have heard all along regarding the 3G outage (no known cause, no date for resolution), and explained that I would not be able to be compensated for loss of service until my support ticket has been resolved.
She also told me that the notes on my account said the provisioning and the resulting support ticket escalation to Network Operations had occurred on Tuesday 3/22 rather than Monday 3/21, even though I know for sure that I called on 3/21. That surprised me, as I feel I was lied to by Melody/Melanie that she would escalate my problem that same day. Jasmine explained that I may have to wait 3-5 days for a response now, which was quite frustrating.
I inquired about compensation once again, and she stated that because so many people were experiencing the same problem, it wouldn't be possible to compensate me without the approval of a supervisor. In hopes that a supervisor might know more about this issue, I asked to speak with one, and was indeed able to. I didn't catch the supervisor's name, but he was a male. He explained to me that there is no known cause or resolution timeline for the issue, but did say he would compensate me $10 for my frustrations (which he did).
I just wanted to write to you in hopes of being able to get a clear sense of what's going on, and when I can expect the services I paid for to be delivered. I have until the middle of next month before I absolutely have to return my phone, and I hope you can give me some sort of assurance that the problem will be fixed by then, and tell me what the current status of the outage and repairs of the issue is. If not, perhaps you could work out a plan reduction if I were to switch back to the Blackberry so that I could only have to pay $25/month. I don't want to leave Virgin Mobile, as I cannot afford any other service with this kind of value.
If you need to reach me by phone, you can call my home phone at ****, or my Virgin Mobile phone at the number listed at the beginning of the letter.
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And, as I was posting this, I received this automated e-mail back:
Thank you for taking the time to write. We'll be looking through all the
ideas and feedback we receive.
This will, of course, take some time. I appreciate your patience until
we can get you a response. A representative from my office will be
contacting you in about a week.
In the meantime, I encourage you to visit
www.sprint.com to learn more
about the significant savings available to individuals and families
through Sprint's Simply Everything and Sprint's Everything Family plans.
Or, through our Ready Now program, make an appointment with a store
representative to learn more about how to use your device.
Once again, from all of us at Sprint, thank you.
Dan Hesse
CEO
Sprint
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Great, so 1 week... At least I'll still be within my return period. Yay...
