Sprint Cell Phone Service Consumer Reviews

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- I have never experienced such incompetence before as I have with Sprint. I have been trying to get an old phone unlocked for international use for over a month now. The phone in question has already been completely paid off (so I fully own it) and it should not be such an issue to unlock it. The first time I called was back in December, when I was still in the states.

I requested an INTERNATIONAL unlock as I was going to CANADA. I repeated this many times, and thought that there would not be an issue and I would be able to get the phone unlocked within 72 hours, as this is what the service representative notified me of. Instead, I received an email 72 hours later saying they could not unlock my phone but gave me an MSL code instead. Upon looking up what an MSL code was, it is for DOMESTIC unlocking. So after waiting 72 hours, the representative did not even complete the request I asked for and did something completely different and wrong. By this time, I was already heading to Canada.

Fast forward a couple of days, after settling in Canada, I decided to use the instant online chat to talk to someone about getting the phone unlocked. They notified me that they could not unlock the phone unless it was activated on a line for 24 hours... while also being in the states. As you can imagine I was extremely angry and frustrated because if the original customer service agent had properly submitted my ticket, I would have been in the states to keep the phone active.

As stated earlier, I was already in Canada at this point so this was not possible. I asked the agent to leave notes about my case in the file as I would need to figure something out and call back. After another few days I called Sprint again to see what was possible for the unlock, and there were no notes left in my case file about the online chat.

The customer service representative notified me that a new ticket had been created for an international unlock, and that it would take 5-7 business days. I asked them to expedite the service, as this call was made on January 22 and it had been nearly a month since I had been trying to get the phone unlocked. After waiting 4 days, I received an email notification on the morning of January 25 stating the phone would be unlocked in 48 hours.

As this was a Thursday, I called again on Friday to check if the 48 hours included weekends, to which the representative said yes. I was expecting the phone to be unlocked by Saturday morning based on this answer. Saturday rolled around and my phone was still not unlocked. I called again and asked for a supervisor, who notified me that the 48 hours actually doesn't include weekends. He asked me to try the SIM card again anyways and that he would call me back in 2 hours time.

More than 3 hours passed with no call so I had to call them again. They couldn't help me and said they would email the manager and see if they could do a manual override and would call me back in 24 hrs. Again, more than 24 hrs passed and no callback. I try calling again, more angry than ever because I have been lied to several times now and have had 2 supervisors blow me off and not call me back like they said they would. I talk to another representative and they say that the phone will definitely be unlocked by Monday morning, as it will be 48 hours then since I received the email.

Monday morning rolls around, the phone is still not unlocked so I call again. After having to speak with 2 reps, 2 supervisors and a manager they notify me that the wrong ticket was submitted and they have to start the process all over again and it will be another 24-72 hours. I ask if they can just call their backend office to get this very simple and quick process completed, and they say that they only communicate by email. The manager says he will submit an escalated ticket (which still takes 24-72 hours) but will call me back after 24 hrs after hopefully receiving a response about the request. More than 24 hrs pass by and I have, yet again, not received a callback.

I need this phone for work and I have wasted so much time trying to get it to work. I needed this phone specifically for work and cannot buy a new one right now as they are so expensive. This whole experience has wasted my time and money. Comparatively to other carriers in both Canada and the US, I have never had such a frustrating and negative experience as I have had with Sprint.

They don't offer any kind of reparations for the mistakes that they made (a mistake which was made several times, wasting over a month of my time). I am actually in disbelief at how incompetent the support staff is at Sprint. This is an extremely simple process that they have dragged on. I would never recommend Sprint to anyone and I would give them zero stars if possible. My phone is still locked as I write this, and I am trying to talk to another representative again.

Day 1, Purchased 4 iPhone 7 Plus on the 4 lines @ 22.50 per line plan. Also added a phone I owned for a 5th line Free. Couple Days later, checked bill online and signed up for Auto Pay and ebill. Couple Days later, checked online, one of the discounts for buy 1 get 1 free on the iPhone still missing. Autopay & ebill discounts missing, chatted with online support, they told me I had to go back into the store (Solon, Ohio on SOM Center Road. Next Day, went into store. They escalated the issue and said it should be resolved for my next billing period.

1st billing cycle and I overpaid the following: $5.00 per line for 4 lines (20.00), $ 7.99 Limited spend (waived with autopay & ebill), $1.86 Limited spend (waived with autopay & ebill), $ 22.92 missing discount for buy one get one free for iPhone 7. TOTAL 52.77 plus tax

2nd bill cycle hits, $5.00 per line discount has been added but they did not reimburse for the 1st billing cycle overpayment. Still incorrect. $ 7.99 Limited spend (waived with autopay & ebill), $1.86 Limited spend (waived with autopay & ebill), $ 22.92 missing discount for buy one get one free for iPhone 7. TOTAL OVERPAID TO DATE 22. 85.54 plus tax.

Went into store again. Waited 30 minutes. My turn finally. They called and then showed me on the screen where the discounts and overpayment credit were processed and would appear on my December bill. December bill appears on my account. Still missing $ 7.99 Limited spend (waived with autopay & ebill), $1.86 Limited spend (waived with autopay & ebill), $ 22.92 missing discount for buy one get one free for iPhone 7.

Tweeted Sprint. Responded to their request for a secure chat. Sat on secure chat for 10 min before first response. I typed my reply and sat for another 10 min waiting for second response. I typed my reply and sat for 45 min waiting for a reply... meanwhile I am getting a reply on Twitter about the agent who is assisting me but the agent is not assisting me.

NEXT called store. They will submit a case and escalate and I cannot expect to get a response for at least 3 days. I have been patient and nice and waiting for months to have this resolved. There is really no reason that I need to be nice anymore. Being nice has caused me to overpay over 85 dollars and that is not going to go well over 100 on the 12th when they hit my card again. Sprint has awful customer service and they are not a company who stands by their service or contract with you.

If you're an international traveler, I wanted to pass along an horrid experience I've had with Sprint that forces me to cancel my years-long relationship with Sprint. The bottom line of a long note below is that my advice is to avoid/abandon Sprint if you need reliable service and support in foreign countries.

Here's a long explanation, long so you realize the magnitude of the problem. It began this summer when my international roaming (GSM) Sprint sim chip failed to work (in both Spain and France). I immediately contacted Sprint's international number, but I never got a straight answer, despite being put on hold for long enough that I ultimately racked up more than $100 in international roaming (on a separate European sim GSM chip I've got).

Worse than that, some of my calls clearly were being connected to an out-sourced service that had no idea what I was talking about. More than one did not even understand the difference between GSM (the cell-phone system used in Europe and most of the world) and CDMA (used by a few U.S. companies like Sprint and Verizon).

Years ago, Sprint sent me GSM sim chips for the phones my wife and I use out of the country to make sure we could get our cell phone calls when traveling abroad. I'm a reporter, so must have 24/7 phone access. For years, they worked perfectly -- late as March of this year in Germany. It was in Spain and France when Sprint's sim chips would not connect with networks for roaming.

I never got a meaningful response to my calls to Sprint from Europe, despite time-consuming transfers to a number of various Sprint persons (some, I sensed, where simply out-sourced phone service operations). It was so bad that one idiot said he/she would text message my Sprint number with information (despite my informing the person my cell number was unworkable in Europe). Eventually, after more than $100 in international calls to Sprint on my EU phone, I gave up.

When I got back to the U.S., I called our local Sprint store to see if I could order new GSM sim cards since Sprint now sells phones that support both GSM and CDMA. Yes, the store representative told me after checking our Spring account, but I needed to contact "customer support" for the cards. So, I called customer support. That led to 2.5 hours on the phone being passed around a bunch of clueless Sprint employees before being told no, I can't get them.

The initial customer support person said, "Yes, it would be no problem." But, after nearly an hour on the phone entering various information, he told me that he had prepared my request, but I had to talk with the international service desk. Part of the delay was answering a bunch of idiotic questions, including "why did I want a GSM sim?" Duh, maybe to be able to get calls when I'm outside Sprint's US CDMA network.

The first person on the international service desk seemed to have no idea what I was requesting and tied up my time asking the same questions I was asked from the first Sprint person. Eventually I got to a person who asked for my phone's IMEI number. When I heard her answer to my question as to why, I knew I was dealing with another clueless Sprint person. Her answer was to see if my device was on the list of devices that would support a GSM chip. Wrong!

The IMEI number does not identify a type of phone, as she said. Instead, it's a unique number to identify a particular mobile device transmitter. There are millions of IMEI numbers covering every cell phone manufactured -- and, in fact, a dual-sim, like my international phone, two IMEI numbers for each SIM slot. So, after yet another delay on hold, she got back to tell me my IMEI number didn't match any number in their database. And she proceeded, again, to push me to buy a new cell from Sprint.

I suspect that what's happening is that Sprint will NOT allow a sim chip in any phone that's not registered with Sprint (similar to the old dark days of locked phones). Unfortunately, the person with whom I was talking could not comprehend my question as to how I could get this particular Samsung phone in Sprint's DB of accepted phones.

After more than two hours, I eventually gave up on Sprint. Given some of the precarious situations in which I've encountered in foreign countries, I need a phone service and company service representatives far more reliable than what I encountered with Sprint.

FAIRFIELD, CALIFORNIA -- I was on my boyfriend's contract as a second phone. We had smartphones, but preferred just a basic talk plan, for which we were still paying around $90.00 a month for 2 phones that never went anywhere near the use allotment. We requested that text, and data be blocked so we did not get extra charges, repeatedly, to no avail. At some point my son sent me a picture of his new dog. I told him I would not be able to open the picture as we blocked data. Somehow, no idea, that picture got opened... So they say... And they charged me $70.00. I called and asked how I could open something that was supposed to be blocked. They refused to remove that charge.

They always would say we were a month behind, and we had to keep taking in the proof that they were paid... And on time. Their error, but never any apology from them for wasting our time. We split up, but we stayed together on the contract, taking turns paying the bill. As soon as the contract ran out he told me he was going with someone else. He would shut off his phone, and leave mine on if I wished to remain, and pay the bill. My mistake, I should have ran for the hills. In January I told them I wanted to switch to a talk/text/data plan for my phone that would have cost $45.00 a month. I was currently paying $29.99 for a talk only plan.

I am not really a data user, or even a text person, but I had a smartphone, and it seemed like a waste not to be able to use it. I did not even try to use either of those things until 3 months down the road, when I called because it would not let me text and found out that they had not set me up for text or data. They said that they would fix the problem, and after hours on the phone arguing with them that I should not have paid for services that were not even available to me, they finally gave me a credit for the previous 3 months. I should have tried to use the text or data right then, but I did not try again until the beginning of June. You guessed it they still did not work.

I called and she said that the text not working was my fault because I could enable that online, but why would I know that? They said they fixed it when I called last. They did really get the text working, but not the data... Although again they said they did. Funny, it kept telling me data was not enabled. Another 2 hours on the phone over this, and I was offered a paltry $10.00 credit. When I said "What about the 3 months that I could not use the plan I was paying for?" The woman I was talking to said I had already received a 3-month credit.

Well DUH. Lady that was for January through March, what about April through June? She puts me on hold while she talks to her supervisor... She was supposed to let me talk to the supervisor. Comes back all perky and says I can offer you a $10.00 credit off your next bill, isn't that good? I hung up. Went and bought an unlocked phone, activated it with Straight Talk Wireless through Walmart, and Sprint can kiss my **.

Oh, even though I shut off the phone on the SPRINT plan mid-month, and was not under a contract, they informed me I would still owe for the entire month. Robber barons until the end! Then they had the nerve to send me an e-mail saying "WE MISS YOU. What can we do to win you back?" I am betting that they really do not want to know what I think they should do.

BRENTWOOD, CALIFORNIA -- Background: I live in the San Francisco Bay Area otherwise known as the high-tech capital of the world. If I have problems here, you can expect you will have problems where you are. I also travel and experience the same issues.

I am one of those customers that was lured to Sprint with the promise of better pricing and service and I couldn't have made a bigger mistake. I am now being held HOSTAGE by Sprint in a phone lease agreement (not a service agreement which is important to understand) with the 5 phone I have (all having the same service issues) which will cost over a $1,500 to get out of. I have tried to work with Sprint to troubleshoot the issues and the bottom line is their network is sub-par at best and isn't capable of delivering the service and coverage you can expect with other major players.

No contracts: before you enter into a “non-contractual” agreement with Sprint, understand what that means. Most cell providers are starting to go away from a monthly contract for their service and move to a phone lease or purchase. Interesting thing is it releases them of liability to provide you a suitable network and hold you 100% on the hook on a lease of a phone.

Sure, you can leave Sprint at anytime and be off the hook for service fees but you still owe them your complete lease amount even though you give them back the phones. I wouldn't mind just buying the phone and taking them to another respectable carrier, but you can't because the technology in the phone is not compatible.

Service coverage: to be blunt, it SUCKS! Be prepared to deal with it taking up to 30 seconds to connect to a number once it is dialed. Be prepared to have long delays in text messages being sent or received especially if you have an image attached. Be prepared for slow or non-existent internet coverage especially if you are in any building without WiFi. From time to time you can expect dropped calls especially if you travel.

Customer Service: be prepared to hear “sorry” multiple times when you call to complain. You can also expect to hear things like:

• "Sprint has good coverage in most area, we are currently upgrading our towers and expect service to improve soon."
• "I can send someone out to your local tower to see if there is an issue (useless when the problem is everywhere)."
• "We are doing our best. Unfortunately we live in the world of here and now and we expect things immediately. With cell service, we should expect this and it is possible for things to take 2 minutes to 20 minutes."
• "You should go to another carrier and see if they will buy you out of our phone lease."
• My favorite: "We can send you a booster to improve the signal at your house."

Interesting fact is I got a cell phone to use at other places than my house. Not really an acceptable solution when the booster is not portable. Not to mention if this is a recommended solution, you obviously know there is an issue with you network coverage. I can go on and on but if this isn't enough for you to understand then I guess a first-hand experience is the only way you will see.

I called to cancel my account. I got hung up on the first time with a rude representative named Gilmore telling me to pay what's left on my account first, he had a horrible attitude. He hung up on me after I asked please hold. I then call back and explain my situation and get transferred over to the cancellation dept to a representative named Raymond. The conversation started smooth then quickly escalated after he pressured me to stay with Sprint and I denied due to no longer having need it anymore.

He then goes on a condescending manner saying, “yeah looks you've had a lot of past dues.” What? Super rude and tried to get into my business asking why did you have so many past dues etc... I then explained my situation which I did not have too! It is my own business?! Raymond then goes on still trying to convince me to stay and after I said no he went ahead, treated me so disrespectfully and had the worst snob attitude, (I'm better than you type of attitude) and as I proceeded to ask a question he says “have a great day” and hangs up on me.

This is soooo beyond on me. I have been a customer with Sprint since 2011. I kept paying monthly for the past 3 years even though I didn't even use my lines with Sprint and I went over to AT&T. Because of my loyalty to Sprint. The customer service I received from RAYMOND from cancellation depts is BEYOND me and I've never had such a disrespectful experience as such with any other company.

I am baffled and appalled at the manner of his condescending tone and how he made me feel so belittled because I am choosing to have one less bill to pay during the pandemic COVID19. I commend all supervisors to look into this at Sprint. The number one reason to having good relations with customers is respecting their choices and being understanding and non judgmental. This conversation with Raymond felt like I was being BULLIED in high school. I am beyond taken back with Sprint and the people they have working at their call centers. Completely disgusted.

MIAMI, FLORIDA -- When I first decided to join Sprint, the salesperson gave me the wrong cost breakdown for what my plan would be. After realizing, she apologized and corrected herself and it was quite a difference. Still, I decided to go with Sprint because my previous carrier didn't have iPhones available. I got 2 lines since there was a Buy One Get One Free promotion, where I received a free iPhone SE with my 7 Plus.

For some reason, the promotion was never recorded and they started trying to charge me monthly for this free iPhone. It took 3 months for them to finally add the promotion to my account, discounting the monthly payment as an adjustment to my bill. Aside from those billing issues, the service is terrible! My calls were always dropping. When hurricane Irma hit, a bunch of their towers were either down or functioning at their lowest capacity. I couldn't use my phone anywhere without wifi. Meanwhile, my boyfriend and his family who have AT&T were using their phones without a problem.

I called Sprint and asked for a credit to be added to my account for the time I was without service. They told me to call when the towers were completely back up so that they could assess me for a credit that would cover all the time I was without service. Months later after continual calls about this, I was told Sprint was not going to be issuing any credits.

Which brings me to another point, their customer service is terrible. No one ever knows what they're talking about. Every time I call I learn that the last person I spoke to left out a key detail. I paid the pay-off price for my phone since my 2 year lease was finally up and I asked if I could have my phone unlocked. I was told yes, that this was completely possible because I paid my phone off.

A claim was submitted and I was to wait 48-72 hours. After this period of time, I called and found out that the request was blocked because I have a past due bill for both of my phone lines (which I already have an automatic payment scheduled with them for). How ridiculous! What an inconvenience.

The person I spoke to said they had no idea why the claim was even submitted, as the person should have known it would be denied due to my past due balance. I've really had enough of Sprint. Too pricey for the terrible phone service and terrible customer service that they provide. And way too shady.

WASHINGTON -- Let Sprint buy my AT&T contract with 2 months left. Big mistake!!! I also turned in 2 iphone 5s. The advertisement on the store window was "half off at&t". Not only did I not get money for contract. I got no money for 2 phones. HOLD ON IT ONLY GETS WORSE!!! I have 6 phones. With at&t my bill was 369.00 unlimited text, data, all the bells, and whistles. Sprint for the 1st 6 months was all over the place always way over $400.00. Now my bill is 429.00 month for less service and the worst customer service I have ever dealt with. Let me explain how I got here.

HERE'S WHERE IT GETS UGLY!!! I went back and forth to the store numerous times [{24} and in all fairness it was right around the corner from my daughter's dance class; however, I never wanted to spend my time dealing with a 20 year old manager telling me things that were not true]. After going to store for almost 3 months the store closes and it was not even a corporate store!!! Not being a corporate store means the store could not help me anyway. This was a real eye opener!!! It is a lose-lose, catch 22, vicious circle. Weird the store said 'sprint'?!?!

After the store closed [incredibly frustrating], I started calling customer service. No help!!! I asked to get out of my contract because it was not cheaper and I have no service!!! The response was [and I quote], "If we did not have contracts we would be out of business." I think that says it all.

THAT'S RIGHT NO SERVICE!!! THIS IS THE COUP DE GRACE, FINAL BLOW, CLINCHER. After having a tech look at towers etc, I get no service unless I go down the road 3 miles. My wife is a surgeon and has to take call all night. Paying for no phone service is not only revolting in our case dangerous. Not sure why they do not understand??? I have never had a problem like this, nor ever had to file a complaint. Thank you for giving me a voice!

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -- If you are not a customer yet: you still have time to save yourself! They entice you with their appealing low prices, free store credits, "free" phones (for which they charged us in the end), apparent friendliness but the truth unveils itself through the months. We were a group of European students in the US for only a year so we decided to get a cheap no-contract family plan from Sprint, or that was what we were told. The first shock came when we realized the prices excluded vat + store charges (being European, we were not used to that) on top of activation charges for each line. So, our bill ended up being about twice what we thought we had to pay.

The worse was that they lied to us in store. We made sure to ask multiple times that we were not signing any contract, and they assured us that there was no contract since we would be leaving the US and couldn't keep any contract. Ended up that we actually had one of our lines under a contract. We had 8 lines so they easily slipped that without us noticing it in the agreements! After spending an hour with customer service, we were told that if we canceled our lines on the 21st of June 2017, we would not need to pay any additional fees.

We visited the store about a month before the above mentioned date in order to ask whether we could request for the cancellation on the 21st June in advance, but they said that we would just have to call on the 21st itself to have it canceled. Any guess what happens next? We call and they tell us that we actually have a 30-day wait period for the cancellation to take place. Yet another lie told to us in store!

So yeah while we would all leave the US, we still have to pay for the lines because of some people lying to us! The only solution they found was to keep our lines on standby, which means that we are still paying over 11$ for no service. So my advice is to rather pay a little more for a safe and reliable service from a company where you actually know your exact monthly expenses.

TAYLOR, MICHIGAN -- Sprint has the worst customer service ever. I was paying around $210 for 4 lines. In December, we went to Best Buy to add another line with a new phone. I was assuming with a new line and phone it will be additional 50 to my bill so I was expecting my bill to be around 260-270. I also called and got the activation fee waived off. But a month after when I got my bill it was close to $400.

When I called, they told me that the person at Best Buy put the 5th line in wrong plan and I would have to be pay at least $300, and they can't bring it down more than that but my next bill for February will be around 250 before taxes. So this month, I again saw my bill and it's even over $400. I called couple days ago and customer service representative told me, "It will be fixed and we will make sure the bill goes down," and told me to call after 48 hours. When I called, I found out the 5th line was still in some other plan and they had only credited me about 35 dollars.

Spoke to supervisor, she said she can only bring down the bill to $299 and then transferred me to where they will find me a better deal to bring down the bill but I stayed on phone for more than an hour... No one came to the line so I just hung up. I've literally spoke to over 20 customer service reps and they don't help you at all. They keep giving you false hopes. I can't believe I just paid so much into just a phone bill that should have been taken care of. This service is just ridiculous. I wish I can punch every single one of them. Biggest frauds.