SPRINT PCS deleted my voicemail
A week ago I upgraded my phone at a Sprint store. Then the trouble started on Friday (allegedly related to the upgrade then not related to the upgrade). I tried to retrieve voicemail and got nothing but a busy signal. I thought, there must be a problem with the network and waited a day.
On Saturday I still could not retrieve voice mail, a customer service rep said I would need to use a landline and that was the only way I could ‘ever’ retrieve voice mail. That was confusing enough but then I said I didn’t know my password and so they reset the password.
I attempted to call voice mail from another line, but my voicemail never picked up so that I could input my code. Something was definately wrong, I called Sprint PCS back and asked them to please fix the problem. Well they did, oh boy did they, they obliterated my existing voicemail account and in that process they deleted my saved messages and new messages. This in the end was the explanation from the Sprint store, that my voice mail box had been deleted and then recreated.
However, customer care claimed that the Sprint store had closed my account and then re-instated it. Then Technical support said I needed to call Sprint corporate security and they could retrieve my messages for $150. I asked why I should have to pay for that when they lost my messages to begin with. He said I should go back to the Sprint store, that they were the ones who cancelled service and then reinstated it and they might be able to help me out. I still didn’t understand how the burden of resolution to this problem kept coming back to me, how all I did was upgrade my phone and now I had all these hoops to jump through to get my voicemail back. The technical support person said “I’m giving you the solution, take down the corporate security number”…I attempted to call corporate security on Sunday but could not get to a live person and was even cut off at one point saying that my call could not be completed.
So today is Monday and I arrive at the Sprint store asking for help. They called customer care and both the store rep and the customer care rep said that it was ‘crazy’ that someone would tell me that voice mail was retrievable. They said the voice mail is gone, sorry. There is no way to retrieve it BUT (the customer care rep says) I am authorized to give you up to a $25 courtesy credit for the mis-information. Sorry about the voice mail, there is nothing we can do…
I then called corporate security and pushed the option for receiving a ‘copy’ of my voicemail. I spoke to a representative who said deleted voicemails could not be retrieved and I said “I didn’t delete them though, you guys deleted them…” she said there is nothing to be done, the voicemails are gone. I said “So there is nothing you can do for me…” and she said “Nope.” So there it is, there is nothing that can be done, that’s it.
1. Where is the redudancy? There is no back-up procedure in place for a voice system that is being reset?
2. What about those phantom voicemails that have been deleted long ago and suddenly reappear, where do they come from? I don’t believe that voice mail is irretrievable…the company must take on the responsibility of ensuring that voice mail cannot be lost…if the system can just randomly crash and messages lost, what is the point of charging for the service?
3. $25 to cover my lost information? These are potential clients, these are existing clients, how can $25 cover this failure.
4. Why do I get a different response every time I call the company for help or an explanation?
5. What is my recourse? Am I a victim of corporate rot and well that’s just how it is going to be and there is nothing I can do about it…
I feel helpless and well after writing this will move on and get new voicemails I can respond to but it will be awhile before I shake this nagging feeling that I just got screwed and Sprint PCS just got away with it for $25 and an apology for misinformation but no explanation for the cause of losing my voicemail. A total shoulder shrug moment, ‘saaaaahweeeee’…yeah, thanks Sprint…when my two year sentence is up, i’ll be moving on, you can count on that…