Carol Springs <carols@world.std.com> (06/20/91)
I noticed on this month's Sprint Plus bill that my June 5 and 6
evening calls were billed at evening rates rather than at night rates.
When I phoned customer service to inquire, the rep told me that there
has been a change in the Sprint Plus calling plan. Volume discounts
now start at $20 rather than $25, and there have been some
modifications to the structure of these discounts (to which I didn't
pay much attention during the conversation, but I can tell from my
bill that I'm getting no more discount than before, and possibly
less). In exchange for these "improvements," the *** standard evening
rates have gone back into effect *** for Sprint Plus customers.
I asked the rep when customers were being notified about these
changes, since I had received no warning of any sort. She said that
the insert should come in the statement for the June billing cycle,
which should be my *next* bill.
I told the rep that I was extremely uncomfortable with discount plan
changes that take effect without prior notification to customers. She
was apologetic but made no offer of credit. I plan to write to:
US SPRINT
Customer Service
P.O. Box 152046
Irving, TX 75015-2048
asking that they credit me for the difference between night and
evening rates on all calls made from my home phone between the day the
changes took effect (sometime in early June) and the day I received
word of the change. I suggest that all concerned Sprint Plus
customers do the same.
Since I felt it would do no good to give the rep herself flak over the
matter, I thanked her for the information and told her I would pass
the word on. B-)
Carol Springs carols@world.std.comken@sharkey.cc.umich.edu> (06/21/91)
Gasp! I heard about a Sprint billing change in misc.consumers before it appeared in the Digest! What's going on here? In any case, I've just finished takling to a Sprint rep and confirmed the following information: As of June 3, the Sprint Plus plan has been changed. Sprint no longer bills evening rate calls as night calls. Instead, all evening and night calls will will be discounted at 20%. Day calls will be discounted at 10%. The $8/month minimum has been waived. It wasn't clear during the conversation, but somehow a 2.7% rate increase plays into these changes. My residential bill runs around $100/month with 99% of those calls placed in the evening. I haven't worked the numbers out yet, but I suspect this is going to cost me more than 2.7%! I told the rep that I wasn't happy with the changes and wanted to register that with Sprint. She forwarded me to her supervisor. The supervisor was very nice and aside from giving the company line, let it slip that many people had been calling about the change. She said that all calls regarding this subject were being noted and that a change back might be possible. So ... if you liked the old Sprint Plus billing plan, please call Sprint and let them know. Be nice! Ask to speak to a supervisor and tell him/her why you liked the old plan. (I said I wasn't concerned about the minor increase, I just preferred the simple day/night rate structure.) Ken Jongsma ken@wybbs.mi.org Smiths Industries ken%wybbs@sharkey.umich.edu Grand Rapids, Michigan ..sharkey.cc.umich.edu!wybbs!ken
carols@world.std.com (Carol Springs) (06/24/91)
In article <telecom11.480.3@eecs.nwu.edu> Ken Jongsma writes: > As of June 3, the Sprint Plus plan has been changed. Sprint no longer > bills evening rate calls as night calls. Instead, all evening and > night calls will will be discounted at 20%. Day calls will be > discounted at 10%. The $8/month minimum has been waived. This is misleading and needs clarification. The $8/month figure was the minimum amount Sprint billed its Sprint Plus customers. In return, customers had their evening calls billed at night rates. Since evening calls are now billed at standard evening rates, the $8/month minimum would no longer make much sense. The volume discounts Ken refers to are another issue entirely. Customers must now make at least $20/month worth of calls to get the 20%/10% volume discounts on interstate dial-1 calls that Ken mentions. Whereas previously a person could make, say, $10/month worth of calls and still come out a little ahead of the standard plan on evening calls, one must now have $20 worth of calls to get any real benefit out of Sprint Plus whatsoever. (The minimum bill to get the old 10% volume discounts was $25. I'm uncertain whether there are any small, token volume discounts for customers failing to meet the minimum, the way there were under Sprint Plus Classic.) Clear as mud? Good ... Carol Springs carols@world.std.com
Ron Newman <rnewman@bbn.com> (06/25/91)
After reading several messages on this newsgroup concerning the
change, I called the Sprint Customer Service number (800-877-4646) to
inquire and complain. The operator who answered told me the
following:
- There is no more vanilla "Sprint Dial 1" service; "Sprint Plus" is
now the default calling plan for all customers. I forgot to ask
whether it also applies to people who don't have Sprint as their
default carrier but access it via 10333.
- They didn't send out bill inserts yet. She didn't know if they are
planning to.
- She claimed that Sprint had advertised the change and I should have
heard about it. When I asked how, she said that it had been "on TV"
(in commercials? I haven't seen any) and that there had been an
advertisement in major newspapers. I asked if it had run in {The
Boston Globe}, but she didn't know. She did say that it was in {The
Wall Street Journal}. I told her that I didn't own a television and
could not find {The Wall Street Journal} anywhere in Somerville, Mass.
(Not true, but I wanted to see how she would react.)
- She said that there wasn't very much difference between night and
evening rates. If the rates that she quoted are correct, she's right:
From Somerville, MA (617-628) to Santa Monica, CA (213-394):
Day rate: .249 /minute
Evening rate: .1496 /minute
Night rate: .1357 /minute
From Somerville, MA (617-628) to Columbus, OH (614-237):
Day rate: .23 /minute
Evening: .1495 /minute
Night: .1306 /minute
Something must have changed; didn't it used to be that "Evening rate"
was 30% off day rate, and "Night" was 60% off?
- She said that FONcard calls are now covered by volume discounts,
which didn't used to be the case.
- The change went into effect on June 3rd.
Ron Newman rnewman@bbn.comSteve Forrette <forrette@cory.berkeley.edu> (06/26/91)
For all of you who are upset as I am about Sprint's recent change, and in particular how they didn't tell anyone beforehand, here's a number for someone at the Executive Offices who has been able to do things in the past. They told me last time that if I ever have a problem with Customer Service, to give them a call and they'll deal with it. This included things like getting the standard BS answers that we're all too familiar with. You can call them at (800) 347-8988. I spoke with Debbie Hardy last time, and she was able to help me just fine. Steve Forrette, forrette@cory.berkeley.edu