Sprint and I have an understanding. I leave them alone and they leave me alone. As long as I don’t rock the boat, my service is good. There are no billing issues and I take my phone for granted.

Occasionally however I do something silly. A new plan is advertised that looks appealing… so appealing in fact that I decide to switch from a plan that has served me well to this brand new plan. That’s the moment that things go wrong. I rocked the boat. I should have known better but the new service looked so shiny and new that I couldn’t resist.

I should have learned. I should not have changed my plan. I’ll know better next time. I’ll never change anything ever again. I won’t watch the ads and I never will desire a new, updated phone. I won’t even call to ask them to even look at my plan.

One thing was left off my list: Don’t Move.

Oh Sprint, what should I do? I have to move but I don’t want our relationship to change. But it became apparent that it had to. I tried living in my new home with my old phone number. Everybody local to me now had to call long distance to ring my phone, even if I was standing right next to them. The looks I’d get. The peer pressure to conform and be join those around me who all have the same area code.
While being brought up, I was told, “Be your own person”, “Stand out from the crowd”, “Don’t conform, be an individual.”

Yes, I should keep my old area code and make all those around me pay a fortune to call me. Could I actually make new friends this way? Is this the way I’d fit into a new neighborhood? Would I want to give the pizza delivery company a phone number to call that appears to be across the country? Would they still deliver my pizza? Would I starve!?

So I called my friends at Sprint. I knew this would lead to trouble but I had was hoping for the best. They don’t like when I call. They try hard to discourage me. They must have thought they were successful having not heard from me in months. But I was back and I was about to make some major changes.

“I moved to a new state and would like to change my phone number.”

“Sure, no problem.”

“I’ll have all of the same services I had before?”

“Yes, no problem.”

It’s always a problem. Why must they lie?

Here’s the rundown of what was done correctly:

• My “old” plan. This plan is no longer available but they managed to add it back for me. It is cheaper and includes less minutes than the other plans they offer. Had they not been able to give me this plan, it would have cost me $5 a month more.
• My cheap Internet plan. This also is no longer offered. The same plan now costs an additional $5 a month.

Here’s a rundown of what was NOT handled correctly:

• Free Sprint PCS to PCS calling: Not transferred. As a long time customer, I was given lifetime, free PCS to PCS calling. Suddenly I was being charged for this service.Several calls to Sprint straightened this out. Although I’m charged each month for this service, I’m also reimbursed each month for the cost of this service, effectively canceling out the charge. It seems that any future changes to my plan will require me to ensure that this free lifetime feature follows me where ever I go.
• My voicemail: NOT transferred. As it turns out, to change your phone number, Sprint must cancel your account and then re-establish it. Canceling the account immediately deletes all voice mail. I was never asked if I had any important messages stored that I wanted to listen to before it was deleted. Fortunately, I didn’t have anything important however Sprint should have notified me first that my voice mail would be history.
• My phone insurance plan: NOT transferred. The charge is $3 a month and I didn’t even notice that I no longer was being charged until my phone required service. I went to a Sprint store and was asked if I had insurance. I said I did. They said I didn’t.The outcome was good on this one but took about 2 1/2 hours to sort out. Sprint could see that my plan was canceled when I changed my phone number. They said I could have the plan back provided that I paid the fee I would have been charged over the last year. I paid my $36 and I was back on board.I then took a trip to the Sprint store. After waiting 45 minutes, my phone was fixed… or was it? Turns out that while fixing some buttons, they broke another. I sent it back to the tech who fixed it again. This time all the buttons worked but now the mute switch was broke and I could no longer hear any sound when making a call.The tech then said that the phone was not fixable and gave me a “new” (possibly reconditioned) version of the same phone. Good job Sprint and good customer service on this one.

Surprisingly, during my call to Sprint about my insurance, I told them about my relationship with them. I simply stated that “…it never fails. As long as I don’t make any changes, all is well. But the moment any change is made, no matter how small, something always gets screwed up.”

The operator apologized and gave me a $25 credit on my next bill.

Between my new phone and my $25 credit, I’m happy!… until the next time I decide to rock the boat.