Dear Mr. Berko:

I bought Sprint at $24 and it has never been back there since. I’m also a Sprint cell phone customer who has had service problems. A friend who works for Sprint says the reason the stock is stuck at $20 is that it’s being sued for billions of dollars because management was “cooking” customer statements and investors are afraid of the stock. After he mentioned that, I noticed a charge on my statement that I never authorized.

I called customer service, but the people at the calling center in Pakistan spoke such bad English that I couldn’t understand them. So I wrote CEO Gary Forsee for help, and he never answered. A couple of months later, I wrote him again to comment on the service decline. He never answered. So now I’d like to know who is bringing this suit, and how I can participate, because I’m mad.

E.G., Boca Raton, Fla.

Dear E.G.:

Don’t bother writing Chief Executive Officer Gary Forsee. I’ve received several letters since February from Sprint customers who have written Forsee about their problems and they, too, were disappointed that neither Forsee nor his assigns have responded. Strange, that! However, the prevailing winds suggest that Sprint’s legal people do not want Forsee or his staff to communicate with the public. Just read on.

Your Sprint buddy is right as cheese. He’s referring to the Lundberg/Benny class-action suit against Sprint, claiming that Sprint customers were defrauded. Of course, Forsee, like Ken Lay at Enron Corp., had no idea what was going on.

Under Forsee’s aegis, Sprint breached its contracts with customers by initiating rate increases and hiding those increases under the heading “regulatory obligations fee.” Again, on Forsee’s watch, Sprint committed fraud based on its charges for “directory assistance” and hiding those charges under “regulatory obligations fee.” Under Forsee’s reign, Sprint made misleading and deceptive statements regarding the practice of rounding up minutes to the next whole minute, unjustly enriching the company. Under Forsee’s rule, Sprint sold its service to customers without properly disclosing limitations on coverage, limitations on the geography of the Sprint network. And under Forsee’s governance, Sprint was less than forthcoming about its high volume of dropped calls and its inability to connect with called numbers.

The courts have determined that Sprint is liable for compensatory, statutory and related damages, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees and costs. Hmm — why fine the corporation when it’s management who committed the crime? That’s the advantage of having a “connected” law firm, I guess.

Sprint may also be guilty of fraud for adding a $10 per month replace and repair insurance package to cell bills without seeking customer permission. It also seems that Sprint charged its customers a $15 per month “vision pack” fee (camera capability and Web access) without informing them — even customers who didn’t own a computer and customers whose phones did not have camera capability. Then Sprint’s billing division billed its customers for overtime minutes without sending proof that tallied individual calls to verify the overcharge. If a Sprint customer wants proof of the excess minute usage, he’s gotta pay a $5 charge for an extra statement.

Using sneaky accounting devices and artifice, Sprint has managed to fraudulently enrich itself at the expense of its customers over the past five years and is still at it. If you check your Sprint/Nextel bill, you may discover charges you never approved but you just paid. And if you ring customer service to question the bill, you get a representative in India, Haiti, Pakistan or the Philippines whose English is impossible to understand. He or she will be polite and promise to act on your request, but your request is dropped in a shredder.

Meanwhile, if you wish to participate in the recovery, write Benny/Lundberg Settlement, P.O. Box 2025, Chanhassen, Minn. 55317. Or if you’re computer savvy, visit www.sprintclassactionsettlement.com and you should find the answers to your questions quick as a bunny. However, don’t expect to get much back. The plaintiffs’ lawyers (the lawyers suing Sprint) will probably get $5 million plus $500,000 for litigation expenses, all paid by Sprint. Sprint’s customers will probably get a credit of $2.50 to $10 against future Sprint service charges. Isn’t that wonderful?

Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 1416, Boca Raton, Fla. 33429 or e-mail him at malber@adelphia.net.

© Copley News Service