An interesting email appeared in my inbox the other day. I received a Change.org petition about a woman who was in a domestic violence situation. Her breaking point came when she was laying on the bed, her four month old infant next to her, and her partner began to strangle her, threatening to crush her skull with his steel-toed boots.
She finally left the next day, and got a restraining order.
But she also had a Sprint family plan with her abuser, who subsequently had access to her phone records, and could use them to track her. When she tried to cancel his line, Sprint told her that she would have to pay an ETF of $200 – even though she had a restraining order against her abuser, even though she had no income, even though she had no steady shelter, and even though she had a four month old infant to support. In essence, Sprint wanted to charge $200 for her safety.
Sprint says that it can cancel contracts with no ETF if it breaks its end of the bargain, or if you join the military and move to a place without native coverage. It can also waive ETFs if you die.
Unofficially, Sprint has also been known to waive ETFs if you move to an area with poor coverage, or if you call in and complain enough. There are also many documented cases in which Sprint will cancel your agreement if you force your phone to roam all of the time, thereby costing Sprint more money than you’re worth to keep you as a customer.
In other words, Sprint will waive your ETF if you’re annoying enough, expensive enough, or if you can pull off some fraud. Sprint will also waive the ETF if you die.
It won’t waive ETFs to help protect your life, however. Sprint won’t even offer any other ways to help you if you are being abused, and your abuser is tracking you with your phone records. It seems that Sprint won’t waive that ETF unless your abuser kills you.
And that is wrong.
I’m not trying to be sensationalist here, but the situation in which this woman found herself is appalling, and the only thing that’s more shocking is Sprint’s unwillingness to work with her, which directly put her and her child in harm’s way. Sprint didn’t even offer a way to keep the abuser from tracking her.
What’s worse, Sprint has added insult to injury by forcing the victim to relive her abuse every time she opens a collections letter or receives a phone call from a bill collector, all due to a $200 fee that Sprint should have waived in the first place. As the original petition writer said, “Nobody should have to pay for safety when escaping an abuser.”
I believe that cell phone carriers should add clauses about waiving the ETF in cases of domestic violence, especially when the life of the victim and the children could be in danger. Sprint should “update their policies to make sure they are helping to keep domestic violence victims safe – not punish them. Sprint has all sorts of programs to promote family safety, but when my family was unsafe, they refused to help.”
In an increasingly competitive marketplace, Sprint has a chance to rise above the others and show us what kind of company it really is. Or, I guess, it could also just be business as usual. I just hope the top execs at Sprint take notice, and do the right thing.
ETF policies are so hard for phone companies. Everyone tries to get out of them and they exist because the company provides such huge discounts to phones. They have to make up that money some how.
It’s the people that abuse the ETF system that make it difficult for those phone companies. How does one prove domestic abuse to a phone company?
I feel sorry for her, and it’s odd for me to side with the phone companies, but honestly there are literally thousands of excuses that people can use to say that Sprint should morally not force someone to pay it.
If you read the original petition, this is something Verizon has already implemented. I don’t think it’s asking too much that Sprint follow suit, and I don’t think it’s an abuse of the ETF system. Sprint needs to find a way to cut down on ETF fraud and people who hack their phones to roam all the time – not charge people for their safety.
This makes no sense and was blown obscenely out of proportion.
You either are the account holder (in which you should change your password and ensure no one else has access) or you are a sub account (which just porting that number to google voice and sticking the guy with an ETF or just stop using the phone are your options… also you wouldn’t receive collection letters as the account isn’t in your name.)
Sprint will also let you split your account from a family to an individual without an ETF.
In no way would her life be threatened due to ‘phone history and tracking’, she would have to choose to use the phone and if she was intending to cancel the line then the she should be fully prepared to not be using the phone in the first place.
It’s not quite that simple. The abuser would probably have to agree to the line split. Changing a password also won’t necessarily stop someone from accessing your account if they are motivated enough.
Sadly this is true when I wanted to split from my moms account and get my own but keep my number for business and personal reasons it required both of us to be there even though I was listed on her account as someone who could make changes to the account. They needed her physical signature as well as mine.
Plus, if married you’re credit scores are connected. If the abuser doesn’t pay the bill, they’ll go after the account holder first but they WILL go after the spouse too after that fails.
One would assume that an empathetic human-being on the other end of the line would figure out a way to make this happen without a policy in place… this is pretty bad. As a business I could see why they don’t want to let anyone with a “good story” off the hook, but I’m sure there’s a way to validate her claims without invading her privacy. C’mon Sprint, step your game up!
So glad to know I can get out of my contract if i die.
just cancel the plan, man. They will bill you for the ETF later. Paying the ETF isn’t a condition of the cancellation. And get a cricket phone. And stop calling your sister-in-law because she’s ratting you out to her brother. She’s not your friend.
Rather than waive the ETF, Sprint could offer to seperate the accounts. I think waiving the ETF would lead to a lot of untrue claims (along with the true ones).
The burden of proof would obviously be on the person trying to split/terminate early but a restraining order should constitute proof.
Having split a family plan before I can vouch for the awkwardness of meeting your ex-girlfriend at a sprint store so that both of you can sign off on the agreement. Being forced to meet someone whom has threatened your safety to cancel the line would be even worse. I personally would just take the credit hit and stay anonymous. Situations like this are tough for customer service to deal with, I do not envy the person on the other end of the line.
They should at least let her split the account without the abuser being there
That is shocking!! Sprint, and every cell phone company for that matter, should absolutely update their policy in this situation. What they did is not only bad business, it’s just bad
This is a terrible policy. There should be a clause with Sprint that with the right documentation, you are released or something. The other thing that could have been done though is put lines on seasonal standby. That would have cost $8.99 and could have been done for 6 months. I have $20 bucks to help her out if there is way to setup a donation.
Why not just get a prepaid phone or open an account with another carrier somewhere and leave the phone with the abuser?? I got this email also and signed the petition because the situation is wrong and I find this very typical of Sprint. Sprint is losing customers so they are trying to keep them I guess and this is one way of doing that.
Here’s Sprint’s response btw: http://community.sprint.com/baw/community/buzzaboutwireless/customer-service/blog/2012/10/10/sprint-statement-about-changeorg-petition
Report the phone lost or stolen, change the account’s security info, and fight the bill…safely
One of the many problems with ‘customer service’
The Sprint statement mentions they already have policies in place to deal with issues like this. I think it’s just a matter of Sprint failing to relay those policies to its stores and customer care hotline.
Lets not make Verizon out to be some sort of knight in shining armor..In case anyone forgot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kelsey_Smith
I myself complained a bunch because my device has sucked ever since I got my EVO LTE. Yesterday the lady said she is going to send me a package and for me to send the phone back. Free and clear. They will terminate my contract without me having to pay anything… I’m glad cause this phone has been nothing but trouble. I get the Sense reloading screen a lot, my phone gives me random reboots, my text don’t come and go, no 4g even though I’m covered on there coverage map by it. Well HTC it was nice knowing ya. I am now moving on and getting myself the Samsung Note 2.
Oh, and my phone has been don’t a while wiped by there sprint technical support several of times.. I have taken it to the Sprint store three times and this is my second LTE.Both me and my wife are sending ours back.