Sprint Collection Mix-Up
By Heather Catallo
February 23, 2005
A woman from Harper Woods was outraged after a collection call from her wireless phone provider led her to a very insulting message, but there’s a twist to this bizarre voicemail tale.
Tosa Gilbert was shocked when she returned a phone call that came in from Sprint and ended up hearing a voicemail recording that called her a "jerk." At first, she was really mad at Sprint, but after we started digging, we found out the person who recorded that voicemail is also furious.
Tosa Gilbert spent a recent Sunday using her home computer to catch up on e-mail. While she was online she missed an incoming phone call, so Tosa dialed back the number from her caller ID.
"When I called back, that’s when the recording from Sprint played," she remembers.
This is what Tosa heard:
"Pay your Sprint bill or your service will be shut off. It’s that simple. If you don’t pay your Sprint bill, you might as well take your Sprint phone and throw it in the trash. Even a person with your limited intelligence should be able to figure that out. Go ahead – write a check. Hang up the phone, write a check, jerk."
"I was shocked," Tosa now says. "I couldn’t believe it."
Tosa thought the call had come from Sprint’s collection department because the caller ID matched other calls she’s received from the company about her past due wireless phone bill.
She explains, "Oh, I was really upset. I took it real personal."
But when she called Sprint to warn them about the message she did not make much progress.
"I played it for about 2 or 3 people, and they said they couldn’t hear it, and they were more concerned about me paying my Sprint bill," Tosa says.
When we called Sprint to find out what happened, we were told Tosa must have misdialed the Sprint collection department’s number, and they knew exactly whose number she did dial.
They knew because many of their customers had dialed the same number, a number that’s just one digit off from Sprint’s toll-free number.
So we tried dialing the "mistaken" number that Sprint says Tosa Gilbert dialed, and guess who answered the phone?
It was a small business owner in the Boston area who says he’s received and logged about 8,000 calls from Sprint customers during the past 2 ½ years.
Stewart Woodworth told us because his business cell phone number is toll-free, he’s had to shell out about $1,000 to pay for the incoming Sprint calls.
Catallo: What was Sprint’s initial reaction when you told them what was going on?
Woodworth: Uh, we don’t care. Change your number.
Catallo: Do you think that’s fair?
Woodworth: No, especially since I’ve had my number since 1997.
"I’m in the map biz," Woodworth says, "and my phone number is printed on my map, and there are several tens of thousands of them out in the field with my phone number."
Woodworth says since Sprint wouldn’t help him, he got fed up and decided to record the insulting out-going message on his voicemail.
He explains, "My objective was to get them to call Sprint, and light a fire under them to get Sprint to do something."
It looks like the fire has been lit. Sprint officials tell us they’re in the process of changing their collection department phone number.
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