My Cell Phone switch: 

-On Aug 10^th Justin’s iPhone stopped working.  It likely burnt up from using a super cheap car charger. 

-On Aug 11^th

10AM: I went to Verizon to get him a new phone.  It was still under contract and they said they couldn’t help.  Having been a customer for over 10 years I was pretty bummed to be turned away.  I even said to them “so the only way for me to get a working phone today is to change companies?” and they put their hands in the air saying “sorry.”

10:15 AM: I went to Sprint and talked with a nice young man about my options.  They would pay my final bill with Verizon up to $650 per line and “cut my bill in half.”  I would get the exact amount of my final bill via a visa check card.  I had him figure out what our monthly fee would be and looking at my current use he thought we’d need the 24 GB plan*.  It didn’t cut my bill in half but it did lower it by about $60.  I thought it sounded reasonable but thought I better shop around a little, so I left. 

10:25 AM: I backed into a really cute red sports car leaving Sprint.  I didn’t want to go near the vehicle—sure the people in the store had watched me hit this car.  I went in and asked whose it was.  It was the same guy that had helped me and when I told him I hit his car we went out to access the damage.  Turns out it was not even scratched, just some dusting off and his car was good as new.  I asked if he worked on commission and because he did and I was so grateful I hadn’t messed up his car, I decided right then to switch to Sprint.  Genius reasoning. 

10:30 AM: We start the process to switch. 

11:00 AM: He realized today is the last day with a buy one/ get one offer on iPhones, sweet.  Around this time he is telling me stories about how sometimes people switch just because they are late on their bill and they just don’t want to pay it.  Ha ha. 

11:30 AM: I ask about my teacher discount (I had one at Verizon) and he spends some time looking into it.  It would work but I would have to upload my pay stub on-line*.  Around this time he talks about how some people take the Visa Cash Card to buy an xbox instead of pay off the old company.  Ha ha. 

Noon:  My Verizon phone stops working.  He says I’ll get a box to mail those back to Verizon right after the numbers are ported out. 

12:30 PM: he realizes we are eligible for a “free tablet*.”  My lucky day. 

1:00 PM: I ask him if this usually takes so long and how it would work if anyone else came in?  He said they can work on more than one at a time and the more lines they switch the longer it takes… we had 3 lines.   He assured me we were almost done. 

1:45 PM:  We are finished.  That is over 3 hours of my life I will never get back but my phone bill should be cheaper and I have 3 working phones and a “free” tablet to boot. 

Aug 13^th: I call Verizon asking for my final bill.  Because my Billing Cycle started 3 days before the switch I would have to wait for it to end to get a final bill.  They don’t want the phones back, I will be charged for them on my final bill.  I will also be charged for a full month of service even though I only used my phones for 3 days.  I’m not too bent out of shape about this since Sprint is paying my final bill. 

Aug 14^th: I attempt to upload my pay stub to get my teacher discount.  I “chat” with a Sprint employee and they are sorry but I am not eligible for the teacher discount because I have the “cut your bill in half” discount already.  I let it go. 

Aug 15^th: I take my phones into Sprint because Verizon doesn’t want them.  A women helps me and says she can’t take them until I get my final bill.  This is on hold for a while. 

Sept 10^th: I get my first bill from Sprint.  It is $60 cheaper but has a charge for my free tablet, $10 a month.  Ugh.  I decide that the tablet would be worth $10 because I put Square on it and can run cards at art shows.  I let it go. 

Sept 19^th:  I take my final bill and phones into Sprint.  The final bill doesn’t say what they need it to say.  I go to Verizon and have them print out the detailed final bill and go back.  They spend a lot of time looking at the bill (that is over $1000) and say they can cover about $500.  They don’t pay the final bill, they pay the phone buy outs and the early termination fees.  I’ve spent more time than I have and leave.  Later that day I go to a different store in a different city.  They can’t take the phones—they don’t have a corporate store in Lawrence.  I can do it on-line, here is a pamphlet.  I look up the info about final bill vs. buy outs and understand that the information I was told is completely untrue.  I also look up Verizon prorating the final bill and some people have had a bit of success with that, but not many.  Our contract states that billing is in month long cycles.  I let it go for now.  Sprint isn’t going to help with this. 

Sept 20^th: I try to trade it phones on-line.  I need a serial number that I can only get from taking the phones into a store. 

Sept 24^th: I try to use the “free tablet” at an art fair in St. Louis.  It’s so sunny and the screen is so cheap you can’t see it at all.  I realize it is useless I need to cancel the service plan on it. 

Sept 27^th : I go back to the store I started in and bring a book.  I set me timer for 1.5 hours and start reading while the employee works on taking the trade ins.  He gets the first 2 done (in about an hour) and then gets to Justin’s broken phone.  He points out that it won’t charge.  I explain that it is broken—the whole reason I needed to switch—which I had explained when I first got to Sprint.  He said he can’t help with that one (even though it doesn’t have a buy-out amount, just a early termination fee of $220 plus $30 in fees and taxes on the termination fee).  At this point my timer goes off.  I leave with the serial number for 2 of the 3 phones.  This will cover about $400 of my $1051 bill. 

Oct 3^rd: I upload my final bill on-line with Sprint.  While on-line I’m looking for the place to cancel my “free tablet” and notice the cost of plans.  We have the 24 GB plan and it is really large compared to the others.  Looking more carefully I realize that when I switched I had only been on the 3^rd day of my billing cycle, the employee and I had “confused” GB and MB.  I had a HUGE plan I didn’t need.  I can’t seem to change this on-line… and turning off the tablet has a early cancelation fee of $350.  I call in to figure things out.  The person I talk to says that the promotion that was going on when I switched didn’t have a buy back program explaining that I got a great deal on my monthly bill and I would need to pay the full bill to Verizon. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was on hold for about 20 minutes.  He came back on and said he was wrong, it does cover the 2 functioning phones, but not the broken one and that he noticed a note on my file that I have a special team working on my issues and he gives me a different # to call. 

Oct 4^th: I call the “special team.”  They can help me with my broken iPhone line.  They get permission from a supervisor to cover the $220 early cancelation fee without turning in a phone.  They can’t cover the taxes and fees that I was charged on top of this fee, but it is better than nothing.  This is great and only takes about 30 minutes.  They have to transfer me to change my plan or cancel the tablet.  I wait about 20 minutes.  The person I talk to says I’m locked into the 24GB plan (of which we have used no more than 2GB the last 2 months).  I ask to speak to a supervisor.  I wait 20 minutes.  He comes back with permission to change my plan to 4GB and can credit my account for the last 2 months of not needing that huge plan.  He then addresses the tablet issue and says it has an $200 early termination fee and I ask to speak to a supervisor.  He transfers me and I get bumped back to the main menu (almost like being hung up on, but not quite.)  I talk to another representative and they have to transfer me to the cancelations department.  I’m on hold for 10 minutes.  The cancelations department can’t waive the termination fee but they can make it free for the 2 year contract and I can cancel at that time.  I have it on my calendar for Aug 10, 2018.  Today’s call was 2 hours long and saved me $280 in fees and lowered my bill by $35 each month.  That does actually cut my Verizon bill in half.  It has taken me over 10 hours to deal with the fall out and I haven’t received the $584 from them yet…. The remaining $467 will be what I have to pay Verizon if I can’t get them to prorate my final bill.  Would you recommend switching to Sprint?  I think I will enjoy my much cheaper phone bill…. but can’t say the last few months have been fun.