What Was Your Worst Phone Company Experience?

Bad commercial or technical customer service abounds everywhere but it seems to concentrate in the phone industry, to the point of making you wonder if they actually have entire departments dedicated to come up with ideas to a) screw, b) annoy, c) patronize or d) all of above you. Giz reader Bruce sent us an option-c story about his new iPhone and Sprint trying to keep his contract in exchange for a free last-model HTC and three months of service, then losing it after his reply:

AU: iPhone experiences are limited here, of course, but I’m sure people have stories of nasty phone company dealings — feel free to vent in the comments! -SB

Dear Giz,

I got an iPhone for my birthday. I called Sprint to cancel my service. Before it was over, they had offered me their new HTC for free. “Just as fancy as the iPhone,” said the condescending rep. Plus, I would get three months free service.

I told them my choice was more about brand loyalty to Apple than any decision between AT&T or Sprint. To which the rep replies: “yeaaaahhhh, we turned down the iPhone; it just wasn’t worth it.”

“Wasn’t worth it?”

“Yeah, they just have so many problems.”

“But you said the HTC was going to be ‘just as fancy’ as the iPhone?”

“Let me get this cancelled for you.”

Thanks, Sprint… glad to know the phone that ‘wasn’t worth it’ is now worth your new HTC plus three months free service. Unfortunately for you, it’s worth more than that to me.

Giz-fan.

It looks like Sprint wants to stop people from leaving them because of the iPhone, but in a very snotty way.

This one was subtle, but we find it tremendously condescending and annoying. I’m sure there are worse. What about your own horror stories? Let the bitch-fest ensue in the comments.