im back....... sprint :(

[shawnprince1989]

So, after getting my debt 100% paid, i decided to go to sprint to try to rebuild my credit. My sales representative did an absolute **bleep** job explaining to me what i was signing for. He lied to me about a down payment on a phone, and he mumbled the whole time so we couldnt  hear him. My buddy was with me. The best part of all is he screwed up my name. My name is shawn prince, he put michael (my middle name) prince; however, i dont think this is really an issue for them to knock off the debt and fix it. After seeing how my sales rep screwed me my first month. Monthly bill of 250 bucks; i said **bleep** that, tried to return my phone and they declined. I declined to pay the bill, now tell me howthe hell it got up to 1k? They claim its the cost of the phone, the bill, and cancellation fees. Completely bull**bleep** if you ask me.

So, what are my options; if any? I honestly dont want to be stuck with it since the sales rep screwed me.

[Anonymous]

Wish I could help you, but I've no experience dealing with these a-holes.

This is one reason why I simply will NOT do business with the 'big' cell phone providers - verizon, tmobile, sprint, at&t.

I go buy a $20 'throwaway' cell phone at Fred Meyers, and pay as I go. Costs me about 25 bucks every three months or so. Not gonna play their games and risk getting caught up in their meat grinder just so I can have a fancy "smart" phone.

[RobertEG]

Bring action against them in small claims court if you feel that they lied in establishing a contract with you.

[shawnprince1989]

he lied about a downpayment...... he said the cost of the phone was $250 if i remember right, so i paid $250 and then after i signed all my paperwork; he went over my "contract" with me and said i'll pay off the rest of the phone each bill cycle for a grad total of $699 i think. he said there is nothing that he could do because i already signed my paperwork....

the guy mumbled the whole time where i couldn't understand him..... i kept saying what?? then he just said; "sign here, stating that youre on a no contract plan, etc..." nothing about a phone being $700.

so there is nothing i can do about the name "michael prince" on the debt instead of "shawn prince"?

[gdale6]

Youre not going to get anywhere challenging the name, lots of people use their middle names instead of their first names. I recommend you send them an ITS (intent to sue) letter if you wish to pursue their shortcomings in their dealings with you.

[cartwrna]

The $1000 is the first bill of $250+ETF+$449 which was what was still owned on the phone.

[cartwrna]

I take that back now that I read your last statement which said no contract so there shouldn't be an ETF. The bill and remainder of phone would be $699. The remainder I'm assuming is more monthly plan charges. When you decided not to pay the bill im assuming you didn't have the line cancelled. They usually let the phone go for about 2 months before they will suspend the line themselves so you keep accruing monthly charges until then. I've dealt with sprint. Got a CO from them removed. The CO was from 2012. A lot of back and forth with GW letters and finally it disappeared.

[Anonymous]

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@shawnprince1989 wrote:

he lied about a downpayment...... he said the cost of the phone was $250 if i remember right, so i paid $250 and then after i signed all my paperwork; he went over my "contract" with me and said i'll pay off the rest of the phone each bill cycle for a grad total of $699 i think. he said there is nothing that he could do because i already signed my paperwork....

the guy mumbled the whole time where i couldn't understand him..... i kept saying what?? then he just said; "sign here, stating that youre on a no contract plan, etc..." nothing about a phone being $700.

so there is nothing i can do about the name "michael prince" on the debt instead of "shawn prince"?

---

I'm sorry to be the one to say this but assuming you had credit issues before, since you said you're rebuilding... why not take more precautions? I ***** my credit when I was younger (10 years ago) and learned to go over EVERYTHING in great detail. Don't trust ANYONE.

While I do understand some people can get "caught up in the moment" and fall for these kinds of things, If he was mumbling, why didn't you simply ask him to speak up? Or request another sales rep?

This is a cold world, and it's all about money.. sorry if this sounds harsh but nothing to really sugar coat here. You signed a contract you didn't fully understand and put your faith into a sales rep who gets commision and makes a living off of selling you a phone. Yes, unethical of him but he has to put food on the table.. do you think hes thinking about you? Not saying there isn't genuine people in this world but that's definitely hard to come by nowadays.

I doubt you have a case.. I would have advised you to make payment arrangements before your credit took the hit.

And by the way, no one else seemed to have mentioned this but I don't believe Cell phones help "build your credit" they could ruin it though if left unpaid. Someone please correct me if i'm wrong.

Good luck

[cartwrna]

Cell phones don't report monthly to the credit bureaus, until your past due that is :-P I've never seen a wireless provider help credit.

[Anonymous]

Sadly, cellular and cable companies, utilities and the like only care about your credit as an assessment of risk, they do not report to any of the big 3 and it wont show up in any way until they move the account to collections. Sprint, VZ, etc are much pickier about the credit check now because of the way they structure equipment lease plans but they provide no positive boost to any of your scores.

This is ultimately what you are trying to avoid- once it goes to collections, the damage has been done. You are arm-wrestling an 800lb gorilla im afraid and will have little-to-no recourse against them. Sad fact is, even if the sales person misled you or didn't do his job properly, you signed the dotted line. When you did that you almost certainly agreed to: 

- A 2 year contract term with Sprint. This can only be cancelled if you pay a fee.. typically pro-rated based on how long is left on your deal 

- A 1 or 2 year equipment lease plan. This is very popular with most carriers now as they can easily sell it (you get a top-of-the-line phone) and they aren't required to eat the cost of the $600+ handset to get you locked into a contract. You're essentially financing the phone from them for $20-$30 additional per-month. If cancelled before the equipment is paid off, you're paying another cancellation fee for the equipment, plus a use/restock fee and whatever the gap is from depreciation (even if barely used). 

Also consider whatever setup and activation fees, normal service bill and applicable taxes are being applied. If You had a new iPhone or equivelent on this deal and cancelled, it would easily run $1000 or more to get it all squared away. Sadly, I see this all too often in my line of work. I regularly have to deal with all 4 of the big providers and I know too well how they structure their services in such a way that they maximize profits on every stream of revenue. 

Now, I'm gonna provide some advice that isn't going to be popular, but its the very best thing I can think of to do in your situation. Stop fighting with Sprint... Play nice and let them know you want to get this resolved as quickly as possible, but you have limited means to do so. Work out a monthly payment arrangement with them, make on-time payments until its paid off in full. Do whatever you have to do to keep the account from hitting collections. I think this is the only move you have left, from the details you provided.