The reader first wrote me in mid March:

"I've had my cell phone for seven years, and decided it was time for a new one -- the new features finally outweighed the pain of re-entering all my stuff. I'd had good experience with Sprint in the past. They bought the company that bought the company that bought the company I bought my phone from -- once, someone even called to tell me I could have a better plan with hundreds more minutes for $5, and also fixed a longtime error in my record. So I decided to stick with them. Ah, hindsight."

"My last phone had been the top-of-the-line model, so I decided to opt for that again, and selected the Blade, whose reviews I had seen. OK, I went to the Sprint website and found a number to call to order the phone and also to get a new plan with more minutes. I called, and the sales guy said the phone would cost me $199, after my $150 discount for being with them more than two years. But because I was an existing customer, he couldn't make the deal for me, I had to go through customer service. He did eventually send me to customer service for a new plan, after pushing me to agree to a two-year contract in order to get a 5 percent discount. OK, so I got the new plan, for two years, in time to start the new month with more minutes. But the customer service person said that the Blade phone was available only in the stores."

"The next day I went to the Sprint store. The nice fellow there said they were out of the Blades, but I could order one on the phone. I was about to explain how I had tried to do that, but he picked up the phone right there and even dialed it for me, and I talked to a jovial fellow who found my account info, agreed that I was entitled to the discount, and said that the phone would be shipped out right away. I asked how I would pay for it, if I should give a credit card to the fellow in the store, and he said no need, the $199 would go onto my statement that would be prepared after midnight that night. I was happy with the way it had (seemed to) turn out."

"The next afternoon, I got a call from a Sprint guy in India. He said he was with the shipping department. Yeah, right. I recognized his accent and asked if he was in India and he said he was. I didn't bother to question whether the phone was really being shipped from India. He said the price of my phone would be $349 because I couldn't have the discount on a telephone order, just in the store. I said that wasn't fair -- I went to the store and they didn't have any, and the guy in the store even dialed up the order-taker for me. He allowed as how maybe I had a point, and told me to call Customer Care and explain, and then they could do a manual override so I could get the discount."

"Maybe he gave me a number, maybe I got the number off the Web again, I don't remember now. But I did get a salesperson who was literally unintelligible, her accent was so strong. I kept asking her to repeat things, hoping she would use different words, but she appeared unable to deviate from the script. I asked if there was someone else I could talk to, but she wouldn't let me. I did get enough understood that she was able to tell me I needed to talk with Customer Care, but then she wouldn't transfer me! She was repeatedly pushing me to take some offer I honestly could not decipher, and she wouldn't transfer me until I said she had to or I was hanging up. I couldn't believe she was so intransigent. And I couldn't believe Sprint had someone on the front lines with customers who couldn't even speak understandable English. I am, ahem, of a certain age -- I know what COBOL is -- and have NEVER had such a frustrating experience with a salesperson. Never had one I truly could not understand, never had one who was so unhelpful! Never had to threaten to hang up."

"OK, she transferred me finally and I got someone else, who was, thank goodness, intelligible. She was also understanding. She kept me on the line for a good while, as she figured out how to do the override. But she was pleasant and finally she said it had gone through. Then she asked me for my credit card number. I told her that it wasn't needed, that it would go onto my statement, as the other guy had said on the phone in the store. But no. I said I had a confirmation number -- she said that was just an order number, it didn't mean my phone could go on the statement. I had to pay then or no phone. OK, I gave her the info -- after all, I had expected to pay in the store -- but jeepers, how come every person I talked to had different rules?"

"Well, that was on March 1. Guess what -- I still haven't got my phone. But my credit card has been charged the $199. Should I bail on this? Darn it, I want the phone now, I really got into the features. Can I even bail now if I decide I want to? And, is this normal? If so, what the heck have we come to?"

I suggested to the reader she might want to consider disputing the credit card charge while it would still be easy to do. Perhaps that would spur Sprint to either send her the phone or cancel the whole deal. But a few days later she wrote back with another development. "There is a wrinkle that should give you a chuckle," the reader wrote. "I just got my latest Sprint bill, and it included two credits, one for $100 and one for $50. That's how the customer service rep overrode the out-of-store price of $349! So the phone, which I still don't have, would cost me only $49, if I were to keep this to myself. But I won't, and that's because I am a human being with ethics, eve if they're not. Sigh. But even $49 is too much for a phantom phone. I will let you know what happens."

Over the next few weeks, the reader valiantly did battle with Sprint Customer Care, but without much success. Although not quite as bad as her first experience, most didn't quite seem to speak her language. "You might think I'm tone deaf by the way I have gone on about the accents, but it's the contrary," the reader wrote. "I have quite a good ear, and I live in an area where many people's first languages are not English or even Romance languages, and I don't have problems with them. I am harping on this because it is so removed from my experience, and so strange."

Finally, the reader tried calling the Sprint sales line again and managed to hook up with a rep who looked up her order and assured her it would now go through with the proper discounts. "And in just a couple of days I got my exciting, sleek, space age phone delivered to my door!" the reader wrote. "The phone is very nice, I am pleased with it. The manual leaves much to be desired -- the instructions are often not fleshed out enough to tell you how to actually DO something, just that it can be done. The camera is pretty good though. So I have been playing with my luscious new toy and thinking that all's well that ends well..."

"Not! A couple of days ago I got my invoice for March, and guess what? I bet you can guess ... Yep, there was the original $349 for the phone."

Essentially, Sprint has double billed the reader for what has become, from her point of view, quite an expensive cell phone. "Yes, indeed, a veritable Faberge phone," the reader wrote. "Let's see, $199 on the credit card plus $349 on the Sprint bill, plus $12 shipping -- a nice $560 total. Then $150 in credits, so it's $410 for a phone that was supposed to cost me $199. I don't know what I am going to do now. It makes me feel tired to even contemplate it."

Not wanting to brave Sprint Customer Care again, the reader is hoping that perhaps she can dispute the original $199 charge with her credit card company, since nothing was ever really shipped for that order. Or perhaps some kindly Sprint person reading this will want to look into her case -- phone order number PZW1224001 is what's on the packing slip, she says -- and see if they can straighten it out. One way or another, hopefully we will still eventually hear a happy ending to this very long cell horror story.

Update [2006-5-12 19:4:51 by Ed Foster]: Good news -- the reader reports she was contacted by several Sprint officials today who apologized for the problems she's had. Her account will be credited so she pays $199.99 plus tax and shipping for the cell phone.