Sprint’s roadside rescue sucks

I’ve been using Sprint cell phones for years and years. I have bought into a few of their add-ons, such as equipment replacement and roadside rescue.

The first time I had to use equipment replacement, they replaced my (by then very old) phone with a very nice phone. I was extremely pleased, and made it a point to let them know it. The second time I had to use equipment replacement, they sent me a piece of crap phone which felt and looked like it had been made by Fisher Price, and did not even have the same features as my previous phone. I fought and fought with them, and finally broke down and just bought a replacement phone since I needed those features. That set me back about $300, even though the policy is supposed to replace my phone with a phone which is the same or better than the phone which is being replaced. I could have gotten a 50% rebate on the new phone, but in order to get the rebate, I had to sign an additional two-year contract, which I was not about to do when I was already majorly pissed off at them.

Needless to say, I’m not happy with Sprint anymore.

Sprint used to be a very fine cell phone company, which took great care of its customers. However, now everything with Sprint is a pain in the ass. Even paying my bill is a pain in the ass, since they for some reason have a tendency to double bill me. Several times, they have actually cut off my service due to their own error. I don’t even get an apology when that happens. Needless to say, I plan to cancel my service when my current contract expires in March.

When I bought the roadside rescue policy years ago, I was told that if the car broke down, needed gas, you were locked out, etc, they’d take care of it no matter where I was. I never used it, until today.

My son’s car broke down again, and I arranged for it to be towed under my Sprint roadside rescue policy. I figured, what the hell, I want to get my money’s worth before I cancel the service, and it covers up to three tows per year. I also figured that I paid for my son’s car, I pay for all the upkeep on the car, and my son’s official address is my house, and I told them that the car is registered to my son, so I’m not being at all dishonest.

They told me no problem, the policy is attached to the phone, not the person with the account. I found out today that it can be used even if you’re in someone else’s car, which is pretty cool, I admit. You just have to have the phone with you when you get the roadside rescue service, so I gave my phone to my son, and sent him on his merry way to take care of this himself.

I’m only having the car towed about five miles, to a local certified Dodge mechanic so they can perform diagnostics and fix it once and for all, so I figured I wasn’t taking advantage of anyone, including the towing company which probably accepts a cut rate in exchange for the referrals from Sprint. It’s easy money for them, as far as I’m concerned, because it’s broken down in a store parking lot located on a major highway, and the mechanic is located on that same major highway, only about five miles away.

However, today I found out the roadside rescue policy only covers towing the car for three miles, and anything over that is subject to a per-mile charge. My son asked them what the per-mile charge is, and they had no idea.

WTF? We are dealing with a towing company, and that industry is very well known to be dishonest. For all we know, they’ll charge us $50 a mile for the extra two miles, because we are using this policy. We are at their mercy.

Why, exactly, am I paying for roadside rescue if it will only tow the car for three miles? That’s ludicrous. Three miles is nothing. I thought five miles is nothing, but it won’t even cover that much. The entire point of getting that kind of policy is so that if you were stuck somewhere, and didn’t have cash on you to cover a tow (many towing companies won’t take checks, debit cards, or credit cards), you would be covered.

This is quickly turning into yet another gigantic pain in my ass, thanks to Sprint. It’s bad enough that my son’s car keeps breaking down (this time it seems to be the alternator, last time it was the starter, the time before that it was the battery, etc), but now we are at the mercy of a towing company which is charging a mysterious per-mile fee for anything over three miles since we are using the Sprint roadside rescue policy.

What I’ve paid Sprint over the years for this policy would easily cover multiple tows, much further than just three miles. I should have saved my money in a Mason jar instead. But I bet if I had used it back when Sprint was still a reputable company, I wouldn’t have had this problem at all.

Argh.

UPDATE:  The tow truck finally got there, after over an hour of waiting.  Luckily, it was a young guy driving it, and he and my son knew each other.  The tow truck guy felt bad about taking so long to get there, and I guess he likes my son, so he just wrote in his book that he took the car less than three miles, and charged us nothing.  That was a relief.

I’d be interested to know what the damage would have been, had the tow truck driver not been a nice guy who knew my son.  We could have been gouged, and there would have been nothing we could do about it because then they could hold the car hostage until we paid whatever they demanded.  Towing companies work with the cops, to remove accident vehicles, so chances are the cops would be no help at all.

A moving company did that to me once, with my furniture.  They gave me an estimate of $1000, then doubled it after they had my furniture, saying they would not give me my stuff until I paid the extra $1000.  I called the cops on that rat bastard.  It turned out that it wasn’t the company doing it, it was the driver, and he was pocketing the extortion money.  I got my furniture, and he got some nice shiny handcuffs.

But, I digress.

Now we get to await the damage from the repair shop.  Argh.