Sprint PCS termination fee - no consideration for deployed soldiers

[paras4ri]

My cousin left the US in January and is now in Iraq. Before her departure she contacted Sprint to cancel her cell phone service and she explained she was being deployed. She was told that the early termination fee would be waived.

She's having her mail forwarded to my house but her final bill never made it here, but the collections notices have. The termination fee was included so I attempted to speak with Sprint to see what could be done. The phone number on the notice was the collections department and their response was shameful. The person answering the phone refused to even speak with me because I wasn't the account holder and didn't seem to understand why she cannot call herself. He also refused to let me speak with anyone else and hung up on me.

I did find a number for Sprint customer service and they were more helpful, providing a payoff figure for the account and an address to direct the payment. The phone rep did say that the only way the termination fee could be waived is if the soldier presents the deployment papers to Sprint before they close the account.

This contradicts what my cousin was first told and she doesn't have that paperwork available to her at her current base. She decided to payoff the bill and deal with the refund once she's home. Unfortunately Sprint is now sending bills for late fees accrued after she paid off the balance.

I'm posting this mostly to vent but also to see if anyone else has dealt with a similar situation and has any advice.

Thank you.

 

[jsmith]

Hmmm-check with post legal or have your cousing check-i think this is a violation of the Soldiers and Sailors Civil relief Act and that she is covered-I know we had to term a contract with verizon when my hubby deployed and we were covered by it-if it is a covered instance Sprint will have to refund her all of the charges.-how ever if you do not hold her power of attorney the reps cant not legally speak to you about it and neither can JAG-you will have to pay it now and have her deal with it when she returns-or get the person who does hold her POA to deal with them-and you do have to provided a copy of her deployment orders to them to have any recourse=that is the law-if you have other questions you can send me a PM or email orchidj5@yahoo.com-i have done military family issues for about 20 years and am really familiar with this stuff

 

[Alice28]

Had to do this with verizon- first I had to fax power of atty (I wanted to cancel family plan & doofus hubby forgot to put my name on plan)...then I had to mail deployment papers & they did terminate it...lots of silly loopholes, but it can be done with the right paperwork.

 

[Sleepy]

Once a final bill goes to collections for non-payment, they can no longer add interest or more late fees. The final bill in collections IS the final bill.

 

[AllyandJack]

Once a final bill goes to collections for non-payment, they can no longer add interest or more late fees. The final bill in collections IS the final bill.

That's not true....I did creditor's rights for a few years and our clients were collection agencies. We are allowed to add on interest...if there is a contract, we're allowed to add whatever the contract calls for....if there is no contract, in MA, we're allowed to add 12% per year from the date of default - in most cases the date the payment was due and not received.

If there is a contract that calls for attorney's fees, we're allowed to add those, as well.

Those people were nasty to US and we were representing them! Don't let their threats scare you. But, you should definitely do everything in writing. That way, you have a paper trail of how you tried to clear everything up.

I ran into this problem when my uncle died. I had his mail forwarded to my house and the credit card companies refused to believe that he died with no wife and no children and no estate and insisted that SOMEONE would pay the debt. It took many, many months of letters to make them realize they could try and try, but that someone was not me. It's definitely stressful to have to deal with them.

I hope everything works out and your cousin returns home safely.

 

[kandeebunny]

I used to work for sprint. Call them and get a fax number, fax the bill and the deployment papers saying when they were depolyed and this SHOULD be waived as well as late fees. If not find out if you can SUSPEND the service while away then upon return to the US have it reactivated. =) good luck!

 

[JohnsPrincess]

When I was deployed to Saudi a couple of years ago, I called Sprint and let them know I was being deployed. They said that I could pay 5$ a month for the phone to be suspended and that when I got back it would start up again exactly as left off. Cool. When I got back I had it restarted and they changed my whole service. I was paying more for the same thing and they said it was allowed because my service was stopped. No, it was suspended and I was told it wouldn't change. I cancelled the second my service was up. That wasn't the only problem I had with them.

 

[paras4ri]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I don't have her POA and she doesn't have access to her papers at this time. She's decided to pay the final late fee and deal with the refund once she's back in the US early next year.

 

[seashoreCM]

I ran into this problem when my uncle died. I had his mail forwarded to my house and the credit card companies refused to believe that he died with no wife and no children and no estate and insisted that SOMEONE would pay the debt. It took many, many months of letters to make them realize they could try and try, but that someone was not me. It's definitely stressful to have to deal with them.

Psst! It really takes only one letter to inform them (that "I got news for you buddy" not in those words) they could try and try but that someone was not [me]. Each time they try and try you let the executor deal with it he might choose to send them a copy of that same letter .

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