Losing my phone: The Sprint Experience

Well, I’m a chump. I don’t know WHAT I did with my handset. Perhaps I was robbed without me knowing it. Or more likely, I left is somewhere highly stupid. It’s lost, though. Searched high and low.

I phoned Sprint straight away when I realised I’d lost it at about 11pm. Alas, they were closed.

The next morning — this morning — I phoned. I asked if I could sort it out at a Sprint store (i.e. walk away with a new handset immediately). Alas no. I was transferred through to the Sprint handset support people. Sprint doesn’t replace handsets — it’s their partner, Asurion, who takes care of that (for a $50 non-refundable fee), provided you’ve been paying the monthly insurance fee. Which, cleverly, I have. Normally I don’t ever do that. CDMA handsets though. You need insurance.

I thought the whole process might be a bit painful.

I gave my phone number and password. Explained I’d lost it. The nice lady from Asurion took my credit card details for the $50 fee and explained I’d have my new handset in four business days.

Now, that was the first surprise… (actually, the first surprise was how nice and simple the process was)… FOUR business days? In the UK, it’s next business day by 10am. We can’t operate without our handsets. FOUR days. If you lost your phone on Friday, you wouldn’t get a replacement until… next THURSDAY.

The lady offered me an express option for $15 — I’d get the handset in two days. Done. I accepted.

All told, 3 minutes. Nice.