Many wars have been fought throughout Mankind’s history. The Revolutionary War, The War of 1812, The Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, The Global War On Terror…

…and the Paul Wein-Sprint War.

For close to three-and-a-half years, I have fought a knock down-drag out, Hell-In-A-Cell, No-Holds-Barred, Brawl-For-It-All with that company. I have been told lies, given misinformation, offered false promises – and even hung up on. As a result of my war with Sprint, my phone has been disconnected, I have been charged fees I should not have been charged – and they have even threatened me with interruption of my service.

On the flipside, because of my perseverance to simply be treated not only like a customer – but as a human being – my constant complaints have gotten my reduced bills, eliminated fees, escalations to their highest Customer Service Specialist – and even “upgraded” to a “Premier Customer.” Once, after spending literally six hours of my day on the phone with Customer Service – I had a $678 bill reduced to $66.

The reason I bring this up now is because one of our battles in this war took place yesterday. I called because, once again, my bill was higher then it should be. I got a Kelly on the phone who explained to me that when I made a change to my plan last month – Sprint policy was that they bill you a month in advance whenever you do that…

…now I was mad.

I told her that the person who made the change never told me that (a typical practice when it comes to Sprint). She said that she was, “sorry to hear that,” and then told me when my bill was due, which, according to Kelly – was now. She then said that I could get an extension, and that she would be happy to transfer me to Customer Finance who would set that up. She did – and Linda told me that I did not need an extension – because my bill is not even due until the 30th. She then said, after I told her about the advance billing – that Kelly should have given me some sort of compensation for the fact that I was not told about the double billing…

…now I was furious.

Transferring me back to Customer Service, I was told by a Kayla, when I asked her to immediately transfer me to her Supervisor – that she could not because – they were all in a meeting…

…now I was livid.

I told her that I expected a phone call within the hour along with a resolution to my issue. About a half-hour later, Kayla called me back and told me that her Supervisor Maria told her to apologize to me on her behalf for the inconvenience and that she had authorized Kayla to remove the advance charge as a courtesy. Sure, I was pleased that I won the battle. But how many times can a human being endure this – and on that note – why should I have to when all I want is to be a Sprint customer?

To show you the extent of this war, Linda (the woman from Customer Finance) told me, after I very briefly explained what I had gone through since December of 2005, that she can see I am not lying to her about the extent of my problems with Sprint – because after each phone call with a customer, every Sprint employee has to write a memo about the call…

…and my file had 592 memos attached to it.

To put that into perspective, that means that for the last three years and three months, I have been on the phone with Sprint arguing about something an average of 179 times per year – or once every two days. When I heard that – it actually took me a minute to absorb it – because I realized that while they have caused me much grief, anger and frustration – how much time from my life have they stolen from me all these years? I am a Contractor for the United States Army whose company bills the Government for my time and services…

…so how much do you think I would get if I billed Sprint for mine?

I have nine months left on my Sprint agreement, so there is a light at the end of this very long and very dark tunnel. Although I surely hope not – I am sure as the sun will rise and set that last night’s battle will not be the last one before this war is over. I am also sure that 597 memos on my account (which is what the number is now after last night’s battle) will not be the final number the day my agreement finally comes to an end. But despite those two assurances – I am positive about something else…

…there is a lot more fight left in me – and in the end – I will be victorious!