University Park Sprint Users Finally Have Service After a Two-Month Outage

For nearly two months, dozens of University Park residents couldn’t use their cell phones in town. The Sprint service they had wasn’t working within town limits, because a cell tower was down after an electrical storm in August.

For many of those customers, their only phone was their cell phone as landlines have become nearly extinct.

University Park resident Jenny Glenn said the town’s listserv was filled with dozens of accounts from residents dealing with this issue.

Glenn said during the and , while many residents were dealing with three-day long power outages, they had no way to call 9-1-1, family or anyone in an emergency or to report they were OK unless they left town. She called her mother from the parking lot at University Town Center post-earthquake.

When Glenn went to the local Sprint store, she said employees told her they couldn’t help her with her service and after calling Sprint, she was told they didn’t know when service would be restored. However, she was still billed for the full amount and they refused to refund or credit her account until service was restored.

Patch has called Sprint several times and discussed residents' issues with spokeswoman Crystal Davis, but Davis hasn't been able to pin down why the outage occurred. She also did not speak to any billing issues.

University Park resident Loretta Vitale Saks said her family of four—two in University Park, two in Philadelphia—has had spotty service since Aug. 25.  When she finally called Sprint in early September to find out what was wrong, they offered her $15 per each of her two phones in University Park.

“That seemed fine to me, since we still has use of the phones elsewhere,” Saks said.

Nadia Monroe of University Park said she noticed in early August that she could not receive calls or texts when she was at home. When she and her family would drive outside of town limits they’d receive voicemails and texts all at once from the previous day.

Monroe, a Sprint customer for nearly 10 years, said although she didn’t have service in town for nearly two months, Sprint only reimbursed her for half of one month’s bill.

However, personal cell phone use wasn’t the only thing barred for two months.

Home businesses suffered, too.

Leslie Jenkins, who runs a medical business from her University Park home, is on-call at night.

“It was really inconvenient to not be able to use my phone at my home, or anywhere in the 20782 ZIP code,” Jenkins said. “I had to purchase an AT&T Go Phone and buy minutes to use when I was on call. I had no other option.”

Jenkins called Sprint to relay her unhappiness with the service, but she said she was told it wouldn’t fully be restored until Sept. 29. Service resumed in mid-September.

“I have been a Sprint customer for many years and, while there have been a few glitches, I've had mostly good service,” she added. “When my next two-year contract is up, I will definitely consider going to another provider.”

Mohammed Mobaidin estimated that his loss in cell service cost him about $50,000.

Mobaidin runs a flood and water damage business from his Tuckerman Street home and said he could have had so much business during the outage with Hurricane Irene and other rainstorm damage. But he said his phone didn’t ring. 

“It’s the season for our business,” he said. “We count on it to stay afloat the rest of the year.”

He said he knows many of his neighbors’ basements flooded, including his own, but that he lost business due to the lack of cell service in town.

At this point, all of the residents mentioned in this article said their service has been fully restored.