Sprint screws up Treo 700p orders

I recently ordered a new Treo 700p from Sprint and it’s amazing how screwed up big companies sometimes get. They took the order and $434 later they gave me my receipt. I upgraded from my blackberry and although it’s not cheap, I was excited. We had gone over absolutely everything for almost an hour and I walked out of the store with my receipt and they said they would have to fedex me the phone. I understood as they change so fast that it’s hard to keep them in stock in a small store that sells a lot of different phones. They’re also expensive and relatively light so it makes sense to just overnight them.

Unfortunately the next day when I checked the status after not receiving it, I got a message saying that my credit wasn’t good enough or they needed more information. Now, maybe my credit isn’t perfect but I’ve had a phone with Nextel for years and years, since they came out with the unlimited incoming calls. I’ve upgraded a couple times, and I actually have 4 accounts with Sprint or Nextel all together including all of the cell phones and air cards that I pay for. So it seemed strange that they would have a problem with me. And besides I was in the store and gave them all of the information they needed.

I tried calling the number but got lost in a maze of voicemail options so I figured it’s easier to just go back to the store. Unfortunately they didn’t even have access to the message I got and just called the same number. Eventually we wind up talking to an operator in India, and believe me it was obvious we were calling the other side of the world. The call sounded like she was on the moon more than India and the operators poor English didn’t help things.

Anyway, after I had already paid $434 for the phone and was agreeing to upgrade to about $225 per month for just about everything unlimited, they decided to charge me an additional “service fee”. Actually they had added two additional fees that the store had no clue of and couldn’t explain. The operator couldn’t really explain it either, but said that they were upgrade fees.

I can understand having to pay a significant amount for a good phone. I can also understand needing to have reasonable credit. But I don’t understand why Sprint couldn't tell me the real price up front; why they stopped the order holding it up for almost four days all together because of these mystery fees; and why they couldn’t even explain what they were for. The bottom line is that once you order something it seems like extortion to tack on additional hidden fees. Otherwise you’ve already paid for the phone but they're not going to activate it for you. Actually I had already paid for it, but they weren’t going to even send it to me. And when they did send it, they sent it four days late.

Come on Sprint, ordering a new wireless phone shouldn't be such an ordeal. You spend millions of dollars on advertising and then make your new customer hate you before they even get the phone. It’s not the additional $48 and $15 they wanted to charge, it’s the way they did it that just makes you feel like you’ve been taken advantage of. This isn’t exactly toll free oriented but it’s phone related so I figured it was worth venting a little. I’ll write a review of the actual phone later too.

Toll free service to a cell phone

Many phone companies don’t like to provide toll free service to a cell phone for three reasons. It costs them a little more to terminate the calls to a cell phone, they don’t get the outbound long distance which they always want to sell too, and they're usually smaller accounts too. So most companies just say they can’t or won’t do it. It's really not that they can't but they just don't want to or quite often don't know how.

Most cell phone companies and voip companies are usually pretty ignorant about toll free service and how to process transfers, not to mention how to help you get a good number. To be fair though, I don't know how to even use half the features on my own cell phone so I couldn't begin to do their job. But I really focus on finding valuable vanity numbers and have gotten good numbers for tens of thousands of s over the past 12 years so I’ll be happy to help you. And the bottom line is that you can certainly point any toll free number you find with our site to any cell phone company you want.

Look in the toll free manual that we email you after you activate a number for an explanation of the process of "Picking Your Provider" and some forms. You can of course take your number to any company you want but we also try to make it as easy for you as possible to get not only the best number but the best service for your needs too.

7+ digits on a cell phone

Every couple months I hear someone say they couldn't get through on our number. That usually means theyre calling from a cell phone. Anything after the first 7 digits is usually ignored. The last R is basically only there to make it easier to remember and it doesn't matter if you dial it or not. But some cell phones think you must have hit the small buttons wrong and don’t put it through. It’s not network specific, it’s related to the hardware.

Some of the newer phones are even smarter and will put toll free numbers with extra digits through but they’ll block local numbers with additional digits. In any case, most people look at the screen and then drop the last digit. You lose far fewer calls for that than you would for people that don’t remember your phone number, although the people who don’t remember your phone number usually don’t contact you.

Some people don’t want a number that stands out. I usually point out to them that your goal isn’t really to make the most important part of your advertising, the call to action, blend in. Your goal is to really get them to notice it and think about it long enough to get it to stick with them. Some people do really funky things to make their commercials stand out. You don’t have to go crazy but you shouldn't worry so much about trying to make it blend in or take less thought, if that makes sense. Part of the job of your advertising is to get the visitor to notice you or think about you.