Why I freakin hate Sprint...and scumbag thieves

We've been with Sprint almost ever since we moved to MI...just over 10 years. We currently have a family plan with two phones, neither of which is used much. We don't actually have service anywhere in our neighborhood. Rarely, if the moon is just right and I stand on my head near the big pine, I can get a bar for a moment. The lack of service at home isn't really an issue because I work at home and have a land line. My cell is the emergency contact number after the home phone for my kids' schools because we have a disabled child, my husband travels and we have no family here. The other phone is used even less...my older kids take it when they'll need to be picked up from school functions. We actually pay for a plan with 700 anytime minutes but average only 80-120 (The "family phone" was originally mine but Peter took it over when he was job searching. When he got another company phone, he added another line to our plan and gave me the new number/phone, keeping the original for the kids as needed...the plan change extended our contract by two years and another change would extend it again).

In any case, last month someone put a call tone on my number. I found out about it when Abi broke her arm and the kids were trying to call me at the hospital to see how she was. No cell phone use in the ER so it was off and they got the call tone (I Kissed a Girl, which the kids thought was funny). I didn't know how it got there or how to get it off, had to ask Kait to remove it. A few days later, I got a text message (there is not supposed to be any text service even on my phone!?) alerting me to a renewal charge of $9.99 for "my subscription to Thumbplay." I had no idea what the hell Thumplay was so googled it, found them and had a live chat with. Apparently, I have a subscription for ringtones/games/etc. which has been heavily used and billed to my phone. WTF?

While I was still in this chat, Peter accessed our Sprint account online--which showed over $300 in charges for all kinds of crap. I asked the chat person how this account was opened...someone input my cell number and a password was texted to my phone and that's how the account is accessed. But I don't have a password and the only text I've ever gotten was the one about the subscription. She won't give me the password but will text it to my phone.

Meantime, Peter is now on the phone with Sprint. However all of this was done, it should have been impossible. Last December, my cell was stolen by a "friend" of Kait's (actually, boyfriend who became "ex" as soon as we realized he was the thief) . We reported it stolen to Sprint, they were supposed to deactivate and we ordered a new phone. Sprint messed up, the old phone *wasn't* deactivated until we tried to activate the new phone and it wouldn't work. The scumbag racked up ringtones/movies/games/blahblahblah charges. Sprint dropped all of those charges because it was their fault for not deactivating the phone. When we got the new phone set up, there was supposed to be a block on internet/text etc...we didn't use these things and didn't want access to them. So, no one should have been able to use my Sprint account for these things, even if they had my phone...which no one had access to my phone because--especially since the theft--I treat it the same as my cash and credit cards.

Anyway, Peter is on the phone with Sprint and they put on the block that was *supposed* to be on the phone since last Dec. I can't get the text with the Thumbplay password because my phone is now blocked. The person in chat won't just give it to me. So I had an account that I did not set up and could not access. Whatever. She said she would close the account and refund the subscription charge. Sprint tells my husband they will remove all these charges from my account. All is good. Maybe?

My husband keeps checking our account online and a few days later, they credit around $100. I call them and they tell me an investigation shows the charges are legitimate. But I don't have any of this stuff on my phone and I never did! A tech person finally tells me I can take my phone in to a local place (Digital Highway) where someone can look in my phone to see whether any of it is there or whether it ever was and then deleted. I took the phone in, the guy ("Rob") sees there's nothing there and no...logs? something? have been reset. In fact, he thinks web access may not have been deactivated on the stolen phone, even if calls can't be made (he says he can make and receive text messages on an old phone *he* had deactivated a couple years ago) and scumbag just recently discovered this. So HE started talking to...er, trying to talk to Sprint on our behalf. He's getting the run around...phone calls and emails never go to/are answered by the same person, he can't reply directly to their emails but must c/p all previous exchanges into fresh emails. We have auto-pay set up so the entire balance was paid. Blah.

So. Here we are with a new statement in today's mail. A new $75 charge for data usage, more games, some TV thing, eBay, etc....another $200 something (plus, the Thumbplay credit is not there and they charged me ANOTHER $9.99). It looks like many of these things are repeating (subscriptions??) from the last cycle. I call Sprint. "Well, if you want to stop being charged for these things, you need to remove them from your phone." THE STUFF IS NOT IN MY PHONE. I don't know how this was done, I don't know where the stuff is, I don't know how it was initiated and I don't know how to make it stop. All of these line items have "Sprint" in front of them...does this not mean they are Sprint based services? At least associated with Sprint? The cs guy asks me to hold while he looks into the account, another person picks up and asks me how she can help...where did the person I was talking to go? She doesn't know. She asks me how she can help, I start explaining all of this and SHE FREAKIN' HANGS UP ON ME. I wasn't rude or loud or anything, just patiently (in spite of being frustrated to tears) trying to explain what happened last month to get to what's happening this month. Wugh.

We went back to Digital Highway (which, by the way, is not an actual Sprint store but they, Sprint, sent us there originally) and talked to our now best friend "Rob." He's genuinely trying to help but still getting the run around from Sprint. After more calls and email, he finally sighed and told us we *might* have better luck at an actual Sprint store...45 miles away. Peter just had surgery on Weds., he's really not up to dealing with this but the account is in his name so we will make the trek tomorrow.

To be freaking continued...apparently ad nauseum.