Customer Service?

I have to tell you this story.  Upon receiving my last credit card bill I discovered that my card numbers had been stolen and that several thousand dollars worth of illegal charges had been made.   I immediately called and their security department handled the entire situation promptly and courteously.  Hooray!  I asked about three bills that were regularly debited to that card and what I should do.  The representative said that I would have to contact them and give them the number of my new replacement card once I received and activated it. 

Today I received my new card and activated it as directed.  I then attempted to notify two of the three organizations that charge their monthly bills to it.  They made the changes practically instantaneously.  Then I tried to do the same for the monthly Sprint bill for our “family plan.”  I must note that my wife – that named account holder – and two of my children are no longer on the plan.  They have all found providers they prefer and have gone elsewhere.  Primarily out of laziness I suppose, my son and I still have cell phone service with Sprint.  Not having the requisite usernames and passwords to do it on line, I called customer service.  I explained my situation and asked that the bill now go to my new credit card since the old one would reject the charges for Sprint service.  No one could help me the account was not in my name and I did not know the PIN.   I explained the circumstances and offered all other means of identification.  I repeatedly stated that I just wanted to arrange for Sprint to be paid as before, but with the new card- all to no avail. 

I was told that Sprint could send me a form through the US mail and that I could fill it out and that it would take effect in thirty to sixty days. I noted to the Sprint representative that the thief who had stolen my earlier card numbers managed to acquire five Cricket accounts and one T-Mobile account all in the space of a few hours.  I also pointed out that I could go into a Sprint store today, close the current account, walk across the mall and open a new account in less time than I had been kept on hold for that phone call.  This only resulted in me being escalated to a higher level in the Sprint customer service food chain, but with a representative who had a nicer voice.  The same scenario was then repeated.  I was then sent up another rung in the customer service ladder – again a nicer voice, but with the same result.  I finally made it to the fourth level.  Apparently that is where Sprint keeps it most solicitous and sweet-voiced representatives.  That being said, the same scenario played out as at the other three levels.  I can only surmise that Sprint’s method of dealing with dissatisfied customers is to offer ever-increasingly dulcet tones of non-cooperation.

The result is that I am paying off the outstanding Sprint bill directly, and am sharing this experience with you in the hope that you will share it with others.  Maybe if Sprint loses enough customers they will actually start trying to do right by them.  Oh, by the way, I am switching cell phone carriers.  Any suggestions?