Post by BR549I have a Samsung M360 phone that I got from Sprint upon signing a 2 year
contract. Not so sure it was that good of a deal but here's my problem.
The phone works except you cannot shut it off, it stays on all the time.
Took it to the Sprint office and they said that for $35 they would reset the
phone and see if that fixed it but there was no guarantee and that's it. No
offer of a working replacement even though I've only had it for 6 months and
the phone comes with a 1 year warranty. I remember a very similar thing
happening about 10 or 15 years ago and the phone I got was 11 months old
when it broke. I took it to the Sprint service center and they replaced it
for free the next day. Any suggestions on how to proceed other than jumping
ship?
I am the Lead Service Tech in a Sprint Authorized Service Center, and
would like to offer some suggestions here.
First, there is no reason for any Sprint repair center to charge you $35
for a simple reset. Any idiot (and I can attest to the fact that we have
plenty of those around) can back up contacts, punch in a reset code, and
restore them in two minutes or less and there's no reason to charge you a
penny for it. If you have been dealing with a company-owned repair
center, look for a Sprint Preferred Retailer that offers repair services.
The stores (and thus, the techs) are paid almost the same thing for this
type of transaction whether you have ESRP/TEP or not, and there's a strong
incentive for them to help you with this (customer satisfaction survey
scores are being watched very closely).
The only time a $35 fee would have to be charged is if the phone needs to
be replaced through the Sprint Service & Repair program. Due to the
financial accounting involved and the way money changes hands behind the
scenes, the store is billed for the replacement, and most of your $35
offsets that. Even then, there are ways around it for techs really
wanting to take care of the customer.
You do have the option to contact Samsung directly for in-warranty
service. Give a call to 1-800-SAMSUNG. Stores are not authorized to
handle manufacturer warranty replacements, and Samsung will most likely
try to refer you back to a Sprint repair center for service. The only way
to get the phone repaired or replaced through the actual manufacturer
warranty is to call that number and send the device to Samsung.
I have been told that the turnaround time is typically two to three weeks
for a device sent in to any manufacturer for repair service. If you have
an old Sprint device (or know someone who does) and would like to activate
that temporarily, call Customer Care at 888-211-4747 and give them the ESN
off the back of the phone. You can also do the swap online at
sprint.com/activate.
If you do need to replace the phone and decide to go through Sprint
Service & Repair for the replacement, in many parts of the country it's a
next business day replacement if the order goes in by early afternoon.
Your repair center can tell you what to expect. Sprint as a general rule
does not furnish loaner phones, though many Authorized Service Centers
(Sprint Preferred Retailers) do maintain a small arsenal of spare phones
for this purpose.
You can find an ASC by looking for "Sprint Store by xxxxxx" and checking
for locations that offer repair at sprintstorelocator.com.
Honestly, though, for now, I'd focus on getting a reset. If you have to,
jot down your contacts, call Customer Care and have them walk you through
doing a master reset over the phone if your local repair center is giving
you grief over a $35 fee they don't have to charge in the first place.
Good luck.
-Steve