Sprint Store

Let me walk you through the horrible customer service experience I’ve had with Sprint over the last few days. I lost my phone on August 9^th and was debating how to replace it. I needed it for August 15^th as I had an important conference where I needed to be in touch with my colleagues. I contacted Sprint August 10^th about how much a replacement would cost. I also wanted to find out how much a new phone would be if I had an upgrade. The agent informed me that I did have an upgrade available and it would cost $ 200 for my deductible.
I then was informed of the prices I could pay for the iPhone 6 with my upgrade ranging from $ 299 + depending on the amount of memory I wanted. The chat ended. I went to the Sprint store in person at 2000 N Clybourn Ave in Chicago, IL and was discussing phones and which would be best for my price range and when I went to ring it up the agent informed me that I actually didn’t have a typical upgrade so my only options were to do an upgrade with Easy Pay plan or lease the phone. Which is not what the agent said online. The agent also informed me that I could just pay the $ 200 deductible in the store too and replace my phone. I decided to debate and wait.
The next day, August 13^th, I drove back to the Sprint store to replace my phone with the $ 200 deductible from my insurance. A different agent informed me that the previous agent was wrong and said Sprint does not replace insurance deductible phones in the store and that I have to call the Asurion number. I asked him to double check, given what the previous agent told me and took his word. I went home and called the Customer Service line to triple check that that was the policy since I’ve gotten so many different answers before. Asurion confirmed that policy but assured me that they would send out the phone to me by the next day. However, when I went through the Asurion process, they could not send my phone to me right away since it was not the address on the account until Monday. That was too late for my conference.
So I contacted Sprint customer service AGAIN and asked if I had an unlocked phone if I could be given a SIM card with my number and if there was a fee. They assured me that there was no fee and that that can be done in a Sprint corporate store. I then went to the Sprint corporate store at 3366 N Western Ave Chicago, IL with the unlocked iPhone 5s that I bought from a friend and they told me at the store that they cannot input the SIM card into an unlocked phone unless it is a Sprint phone.
I then talked to two customer service agents yesterday and one said that I was eligible for an «Upgrade Now» plan in which I would allow me to upgrade before my January 17^th, 2016 contract date but have to pay an additional $ 100 dollars for the upgrade and $ 36 to upgrade. That agent also said I was one of the «lucky» few to get offered that plan. My connection in that chat was unexpectedly cut and when I resumed with another agent she said that there is no such thing as the «Upgrade Now» plan…
Sprint customer services is uncoordinated and unhelpful

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AT THIS SPRINT STORE. Go to the apple store — their contract with wireless providers they can upgrade your phones, etc. learned about more options for upgrading at the Apple store than from the Sprint store manager who gave me basically zero information or ways to help. The Apple store employee said Sprint was the WORST provider and definitely made it the most difficult for people to make easy changes to phones, plans, etc. Also, the Sprint employees didn’t even know the correct info on their deals and upgrade options — we had to call a customer service line for Sprint to figure out what the actual deals are. This location is awful and you will surely waste your time if you go here.

In short: avoid Charles.
I have been with Sprint for 15-​ish years. People complain about them, but I can count the number of times on one hand that I’ve had an issue. Thus, I have remained loyal to them.
My iPhone was dying a slow and pathetic death. When the screen started working only about 50% of the time, I decided to suck it up and get a new phone. I popped in here while I was waiting for a friend to finish an appointment nearby.
I was greeted half-​assed by the only guy in the store. The music was up so loud and I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was one of their playslists and not a Sprint-​approved soundtrack.
I cut to the chase and told him I wanted a new phone, and that I would just buy it on my upgrade and not sign up for any of their new leasing programs or whatever they are called. Then he tried to sell me accessories. Yes, I wanted a case but they didn’t have the one I wanted and I said I would just go to Target and get it, so he seemed annoyed I wouldn’t buy what they had. Sorry your selection sucks, dude, but NO. Then he tried to sell me a $ 40 screen protector — nope. Then he tried to sell me an iPad — nope. After each time I shot him down he got further annoyed.
Listen, I get that his job is sales and he likely gets rated or whatever on how many upsells he does. I worked retail a lifetime ago, I know how it works. But also? Read your customer. All I wanted was to get a new phone, renew the existing contract I had, and leave.
And then… he’s having trouble with my contract. Long story short, he changed my contract without telling me, resulting in an increase in my bill. WHAT. How is that even legal? The killer is that he said it all like an afterthought and after it was already done, like it wasn’t a big deal. He told me the plan I had doesn’t exist anymore. Um, really? Because I’m pretty sure that I was on that plan 20 minutes ago. Then I ask if that number is before or after my employer discount and he said he couldn’t see my discount but I could go home and see my plan online. …what.
So I do that, and find he added a protection plan that costs $ 11 a month to my plan without telling me. So not okay.
Also, when I was leaving he told me I would get a survey texted to me and I was only allowed to give him the best score or he’d be sitting in the office getting a talking to.
Enjoy that meeting, Charles, because I’m fairly sure you’re in the wrong job.
To sum it up, only come here if:
— you like music that makes you feel like you in da club kickin it
— you like your contract changed without any authorization
— you like extras added to your bill without any authorization
— you like having to deal with Sprint corporate the next day to resolve all the errors they did in the store
— you like to question your long-​time loyalty to a company
— you like to be treated differently after you decline accessories or any other upsells
Thankfully I got someone at Sprint who knows what «customer service» is and she cleaned up Charles’ mess and reminded me why I’ve been a customer with them for so long. Too bad more people like her aren’t in the stores.

If you enjoy waiting in line with no confirmation of your existence from the store then this is the store for you.

Right when we walked in it took over 5 mins for anyone to even acknowledge me and my friend and tell us we needed to sign in. After we did they told us there would be a 30 minute wait. Ended up being 2 hours!!! They take forever. Service sucks! The only reason I gave 2 stars is because they tried to be nice, while activating a phone with some small talk. To activate a phone it takes less that 10 minutes. If someone just needs to activate their phone they should not make them wait 2 hours while bullshitting with another client just for commission. When we walked out the guy told us to please give him a nice rating once sprint texts my friend. F that. On a sat night making us wait for 2 hours cause it seems like there was a lot of small talk going on and not enough getting shiz done! Not to mention there was another person there that wasn’t helping anyone at all and just in a rush to leave when clearly you have over 5 people waiting past closing time. There was no sense of urgency. B.s.

Not sure why this place has low stars. I walked in and the staff was pleasant and very helpful with my phone issue. They were able to fix my phone (sofware issue) quickly and I was out fast. Store was clean and organized with adequate staff so nobody had to wait that long.

Had a great experience going here for the first time. I had to switch to Sprint because us cellular is closing down. Paul was super helpful in working through the transition with me and helped me pick out an awesome new phone.

Not that it’s their fault, but this place has stupid long lines every time. I avoid it like it the plague and visit the Lincoln store as there is always someone in Repair who is readily available.
Best to call this place ahead of time if you need repair to find out how long the wait is.

Had 2 leave us cell sadly. Heard not great things bout sprint but decided 2 check out anyway. Robert @ the clybourn store was fantastic. He took the time 2 fully demo & educate me & my sister on the phones, options and plan that best suit our needs. He was patient & clear 2 meet our needs. Outstanding customer service. Honestly 2 date-​3 weeks post purchase, I have experienced some dropped calls, but overall, not an issue. See robert if you have q’s– he’s a good guy.

First off if you live in Chicago save yourself the trouble and DO NOT get Sprint. They might be great everywhere else in the country but their signal is Chicago is abysmal. Except to get 2 or 3 calls a day that will not even ring and then hours later you will see you have a voicemail. Once you listen to your voicemail you will realize oh my goodness, this person called me five hours ago! Not only will the voicemail show up incredibly late on your phone but you will never even see that the person called and their call will never show up in your caller ID. This creates a huge problem for those who use their phones for work. I know my husband has missed important work calls because of this problem. This is also sometimes true with text messages. Often I will get a text message 3 or 4 days late. One time I even got a text message that was delivered over a week late. How does this even happen??? Is what I would like to know.
As for this location, I don’t know the name of the person I really wish I did but my husband went over to this location when Sprint first started switching the phones over to the new 4GLTE network over a year ago because his phone had not been working. He was missing calls, texts, ect… like I just explained. Well the slimy sales associate lied to him saying that the reason he was having these problems was because his phone was bad. So he went ahead and bought what was a brand new phone at the time the galaxy s3 and traded in his old phone. The guy told him that the trade in value for the phone was $ 60 but that he could not put the $ 60 towards the galaxy s3 that he was buying and that he was required to put it towards accessories so the guy sold him this dock «for the galaxy s3» that was supposed to connect his phone to our flatscreen. Funny thing is upon realizing a couple weeks later that he was having all the same signal problems with his phone my husband called sprint’s customer service number. We found out a couple things from them that the not so honest sales person failed to disclose, first being that it was NOT my husbands phone that was bad but that they we currently redoing the towers and that it would take another month or two for them to be fully up and running (which by the way it is over a year later now and the towers are STILL not up and running according to Sprint’s customer service, but don’t worry… if you call them they will offer you a WHOLE 5 dollar credit a month for your trouble… what a JOKE). We also found out that the sales associate was a slimeball trying to get more commission on the sale because the customer service agent at Sprint told us that it was not true that the $ 60 we received for my husband’s old phone buyback had to be used on accessories and that indeed he could have used it for the phone. Also, I did forget to mention that the guy didn’t even sell us the right model for the phone to tv hookup, after reading the instructions and trying to get it to work we realized it is not even made to work with the Galaxy S3. I could honestly go on and on with more and more stories about sprint, about us calling customer service every couple months and them saying «it should be fixed in the next month». The truth is with Sprint in Chicago if you do not have a contract with them then please please do yourselves a favor and go to one of the other networks in the Chicago area. I know I cannot wait to switch when our contracts are over. I am also looking forward to getting a piece of mail hopefully in the near future regarding a class action lawsuit against Sprint, cause I know they have it coming and deserve it.

I write this review from my Sprint phone as I am going on 15 minutes waiting to return a car charger that didn’t work a month after I bought it. They are busy, but you can get a guy a quick bottle of beer even if the girls who ordered four martinis ere there first. That I was only there because their product didn’t work in the first place makes it even worse.
Also, I was asked to check in a half dozen times by various techs. They could have taken the return in that amount of time. As someone who works in customer service I was very disappointed by their lack of it. 30 minutes in and they are still processing it.
To add insult to injury, Nickelback is playing in the background. 39 minutes later I’m finally done.

Just wanted to update my review. I received my replacement phone and have had it for a week and a half and have not had a single issue with it. All the problems I was having with the previous phone that the store was insisting was a network problem and not a problem with my phone, have not happened even once. I would not recommend going to this store for help.

I took my phone here one evening because it would not take a charge. The tech-​guy comes out with my phone slightly disassembled and says the circuitry around the charger plug-​in is fried and it can’t be replaced.
This news sucks and rather than look at new phones (as he suggests), I decide to go home and think about this (as I’m not out of contract and a new phone would be really costly). I look at my phone after getting home and after some googling I found a forum where some user with my problem simply pushed the tongue inside the charging hole that got slightly bent. Voila’ problem fixed!
Either the tech was lying to me or he was completely incompetent. Either answer is unacceptable and I would regard anything this store says with skepticism. Everyone was nice eough though. Yeah great! Nice when they are lying right to your face!

Fraud/​Plan Slamming/​Bait-​and-​Switch:
On March 15, 2011, a Palm Pixi was provided by this Sprint store (Chicago/​Clybourn) as the replacement device for a defective Treo Pro (I have «Total Equipment Replacement» coverage). Although very similar to the originally-​purchased/​replaced Treo Pro, this Palm Pixi phone was apparently subject to the $ 10 fee. I was forced upon this device due to my device/​subsequent replacements being defective. On November 4, 2011, Susan Mansfield denied my request for a refund. She said she needed to determine «whether or not Sprint provided that device as replacement for Treo Pro.» She said the records/​notes indicate I did not get this Palm Pixi from Sprint, and that the store manager (who was NOT at this location when the transaction occurred) said there was no reason to believe the records were inaccurate. I was obviously upset by this «finding» as it is 100% inaccurate. There is no logical reason why I would do otherwise. I was absolutely given a Palm Pixi by the Chicago/​Clybourn Sprint store as a replacement phone, and I’m quite sure Sprint could use the Serial Number to verify this. I’m willing to testify/​sign an affidavit to this point. This is just the latest example of terrible customer service, incorrect records, dishonest/​fraudulent business practice.

Do not go to this store, try the store downtown on LaSalle I’m a 10 year Sprint customer. I have been to this store numerous times to have my Palm Pre repaired. In each case I spent an hour to have to the phone looked at, then another hour to have it replaced. At one point, the phone was replaced three times in a one month period. The staff did not offer any compensation for my time spent at the store, nor for the time I paid when I did not have a working phone.
When I asked to switch phone models or get some compensation I was told there was nothing they could do at the store, unless I had the phone replaced four times in six months. Most recently the phone needed to be replaced again. After going to the store to confirm the power and volume button didn’t work, a new phone was ordered. I went back to have it replaced, however even with an appointment I needed to wait an hour. I left, tried again and same result. After a few weeks I went back and was told the phone had been sent back. The staff and manager seemed indifferent to my repeated problems and told me the store can be very busy and to call customer service.
They’re correct that the store can be busy. However, when I was in on a busy Saturday in February the staff was busy buying DVDs in the parking lot. I’m not making this up. While they’re store was packed with customers, the staff was buying illegal copies of DVDs in plain view of their customers. Add that to the fact that every time I’m at the store (which has been well over 10 times) a customer leaves angry at the staff.
Thankfully the people at Sprint customer care and at the 180 N LaSalle store do care, if you are a Sprint customer use those options instead.

Go here and ask for Robert.
He is one of the highly intelligent ones.
And with a sexy voice.
I have consistently received the best customer service from him over the past three years, over all the other representatives at cellular providers I have EVER come in contact with.
Especially the evil Verizon.
Although I have had very good experiences with US Cellular, but they don’t have a good selection of new phones.

I’ve had a mixed bag about this store. When times are busy, it seems like forever for these guys to get to you. Even if they have a scheduling system, it rarely is ever followed. Now on the other hand, when it’s pretty slow, these guys are some of the most helpful and knowledgeable guys you’ll ever meet.
My advice is if you need help, call beforehand. If you get the machine, they are probably pretty busy. You should immediately know not to bring it to this place. Google other areas and see if there are any less busy places to go.
If your need is urgent, try and call prior to getting there. Continue to call until someone picks up. Once someone picks up, make sure you schedule an appointment with them if you need to bring your phone in.

I have no problems with this place. Again, I think it’s one of those places where they’re dealing with the fall out from a crappy company/​products. I’ve dealt with the manager, the intake guys and the tech guys. They never look like they are standing around not helping people. They’ve been packed every time I’ve been there (3 or 4, thank you HTC Touch). I do agree that they could have some type of a number system as it does get a bit confusing for people and knowing who is next.
As far as I can tell, the employees have always been busting their tails to keep disgruntled customers happy. They are working with the Sprint’s policies and sub par phones and doing what they can to keep people from yelling at them (which I suspect happens often). They’ve fixed my phone each time within a couple of hours and have been pleasant in the process.

This place sucks. After my phone shorted out on me, I found this store as a repair center. I called the store twice, and the automatic machine informed me that no one was able to assist my call. So several hours later, I took it in and was greeted with a store full of pissed off people waiting to have their phones repaired. Some said they had been there for hours. Several employees were in the store apparently wasting time, obviously either oblivious or indifferent to the customers waiting for service.
Never once was I approached or talked to, only when I approached them was I told my name would be called when they could see me. There was no order in which to separate customers there to buy and customers there for repair. We all just had to wait. Many people left. I left. This is not a way to run a store.

A lot of my love for this location comes from how well we were treated by the assistant manager. We had a comically massive agenda, combining family plans and upgrading and switching and cancelling… We were there for almost two hours (all service time, no wait) and he was patient, sweet, and very clear on how to do what we needed.
Other associates appeared professional in dealing with other customers. Good hours and great service.