Sprint Nextel defends customer terminations / LJWorld.com

Archive for Tuesday, July 10, 2007

By David Twiddy - Associated Press Writer

July 10, 2007

Kansas City, Mo. — Sprint Nextel Corp. isn't apologizing for its decision to ax customers it determined were seeking customer service help too often.

The nation's third-largest wireless provider sent letters to around 1,000 subscribers on June 29, saying that its records showed they had made frequent calls to customer service with questions about billing and other account information.

"While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time had led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs," the letters stated.

The customers were then told their service agreements were being terminated, they wouldn't owe anything on their final bill and the company would waive early termination fees. They also were told to switch to another wireless provider by July 30 if they wanted to keep their phone number.

Sprint's move, which began being debated on the Internet last week, has attracted criticism that the company is penalizing consumers for trying to get what they paid for, or that the frequent calls are more a reflection of poor customer service by Sprint itself.

But Sprint officials said Monday this isn't a case of someone being flagged by a computer program, and that an internal review lasting between six months and a year focused on the types of problems the callers had and what information they were seeking.

"These accounts have been researched very carefully," Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton said. "We feel strongly that the decisions we made, we stand by them. These decisions weren't made lightly."

Singleton said the targeted subscribers each made an average of 40 to 50 calls a month to customer service. She wouldn't say how that compared with the overall number of calls logged by the customer service department in a given month.

She said the internal review also found that the subscribers often were calling about the same problems over and over after Sprint officials felt they had resolved the issue. She said some callers were repeatedly asking for information from other customers' accounts, which customer service workers aren't allowed to divulge.

"If the average person is calling less than once per month and these people are calling 40 or 50 times more, that takes away from customer service," Singleton said. "Our priority is to improve the customer experience."

Officials at competitors AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless said that while they may terminate customers who are abusive toward customer service operators or violate other terms of their service agreements, they don't terminate customers because of customer service calls.

"We have never severed ties with customers in a mass mailing like this," said Verizon spokeswoman Cheryl Bini Armbrecht.

Investors have been largely ambivalent, with Sprint's stock down only a dime, or less than 1 percent, to $21.48 in trading over the past week.

Sprint has been trying to upgrade its customer base, tightening credit requirements and attempting to attract customers who will spend more each month on data services, such as Internet browsing, music downloads and streaming video.

During the most recent quarter, the company said it gained just 600,000 new customers, while AT&T and Verizon gained 1.2 million and 1.7 million, respectively.

Discussion

LJWorld.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post.
Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.

10 July 2007
at 2:10 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

baby_girl (Anonymous) says…

wow. thank goodness for tmobile.
10 July 2007
at 2:49 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

crazyks (Anonymous) says…

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you…

But then, Sprint hasn't exactly been an icon of intelligent business decisions, have they?
10 July 2007
at 7:38 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

quik (Anonymous) says…

I would think that this would invite lawsuits. If you call customer service to resolve an issue that is Sprint's doing, maybe a billing mistake, and it takes 25 calls to get it resolved then how is the customer abusing Sprint's customer service line? I don't have Sprint but had a billing error with another company where I called a customer service line over 20 times in order to get it corrected. If my service would have been terminated, I would definitely sue for my time spent resolving the issue.
10 July 2007
at 8:02 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Kam_Fong_as_Chin_Ho (Anonymous) says…

It's a win-win. Sprint dumps chronic complainers and the complainers get to use a better provider with no concern of fees for breaking the contract.
10 July 2007
at 8:21 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Agnostick (Anonymous) says…

Nailed it, Kam Fong!!!!!!!!

So remember, everyone: If you want “out” of your current contract, just start calling customer service three or four times a day. In about two weeks, they'll probably cut you loose!! :D

Agnostick
agnostick@excite.com
http://www.uscentrist.org
10 July 2007
at 8:24 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Agnostick (Anonymous) says…

Oh, and now might be a good time to get a better grip on Kansas telephone recording laws… and maybe find a way to start recording all your customer service calls. Seems to me that as long as **you tell them** that you're recording the call… might that be okay?

—Ag
10 July 2007
at 8:32 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

mom_of_three (Anonymous) says…

One article said Sprint was terminating 1000-1200 customers who made 40,000 calls to customer service in 12 months. Some of these callers called Sprint over 25 times a month for over a year!!
And some were calling to find out other information on other accounts.
Sprint has 53 million customers, and they are terminating just a few. I wonder how the other providers will feel about them once they get these problems on their service.

10 July 2007
at 8:41 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

acg (Anonymous) says…

I have to admit, when I first started reading this story, I was aghast at Sprint's behavior. But then I started thinking about it. 40 to 50 customer service calls per month, on average? That's kind of ridiculous. There are only 30 to 31 days in a month, so doing the math…well, it's just nuts. Maybe these people are really lonely and customer service is all they have to talk to. Plus some folks are just really stupid and no matter how many times you explain something, they're just not going to get it. Wouldn't we all like to dump those people out of our professional lives?
10 July 2007
at 9:35 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

75x55 (Anonymous) says…

Typical story - shock headline about the 'evil corporation', when you find out it's finally taking reasonable action in the face of clearly out-of-control customers. I particularly like the typical competitors ploy to pontificate on how lily-white they are in their customer service. Five bucks says they either do the same thing now, or are going to when this hubbub dies down. It's win-win for them.

Despite the old maxim, the customer is NOT “always right”. Sometimes the customer is a psycho, and given that there are other options for them, it's 'bye-bye to the loonies'.
10 July 2007
at 9:44 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

snap_pop_no_crackle (Anonymous) says…

Is Sprint still laying off tons of people over in Johnson County? Eventually they will have fired more people than have ever worked there.
10 July 2007
at 9:44 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

amyc (Anonymous) says…

I am a Sprint customer and not thrilled with their customer service or policies. That said, I read on a Sprint customer forum a suggestion that one could call customer service and at the voice prompt say “dropped call” and one's account would automatically be credited, I believe, 50 cents. The suggestion was that one could do this daily and receive $15 credit per month. I'm guessing this practice has something to do with this mass termination.
10 July 2007
at 9:51 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

avoice (Anonymous) says…

Wow! This is great! We've been waiting for our contracts to run out so we can jump ship from the terrible service we get from our Nextel phones since Sprint took over. And all this time, all we had to do was call at least once a day and complain about something, and they would have let us out of our contract! Wish I'd known. I'm going to start harrassing them ASAP and maybe by the end of the month they'll let us out of our contracts. I wonder how many of those customers were Nextel customers. It sure seems like Sprint is trying to eliminate Nextel. Our service with Sprint, which used to be very good when Nextel was Nextel, has become the worst we've had in the history of cellular phone service.
10 July 2007
at 10:03 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

mommaeffortx2 (Anonymous) says…

If I was calling cust. ser. that many times a month I would not be waiting to change providers, would have done it ages ago. Why put up with that.
10 July 2007
at 10:14 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

crazyks (Anonymous) says…

My sister used to work for Sprint, at customer support.

Did you know that call center employees are expected to resolve each call within six minutes? If the customer's problem is not resolved within that length of time (and most can't be), they are put on hold…forever. The rep has to go on to the next call, and the customer is stuck in canned music hell until they get the idea and hang up.

Customer service reps are not allowed to keep each customer on the line for as long as it may take to resolve a problem. If they do, the employee gets bad reports and will get fired.

No wonder people are calling back so many times. It may take several tries before the problem can be resolved, because Sprint keeps hanging up on them anyway.

In the corporate world of customer service, it seems that the faster they deal with calls, the happier the company is…whether or not the problem was resolved.
10 July 2007
at 10:57 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

biggunz (Anonymous) says…

if you're stupid enough to call customer service 50-60 times per month …then you're just stupid.

10 July 2007
at 11 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

i_have_only_valid_opinions (Anonymous) says…

I have had Sprint service for 7 years. Although I do admit their customer service is terribly lacking, no one has ever hung up on me for taking too long to resolve an issue. Just last week I was having problems with sending picture mail, and the customer service rep stayed on the phone with me for at least 20 minutes to resolve the issue. In the small talk during the conversation while we waited for the phone to reboot, he even said he was supposed to clock out and go home 15 minutes ago (he said it in a nice way, not complaining).

Even though it appears to be bad business to cut off customers, at some point you are losing money on them and it's not good business to keep them around. I like their pro-active decision. But, it needs to be accompanied with good, efficient customer service when someone does call for help. And, unfortunately, that is still a crap shoot.
10 July 2007
at 11:50 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

snap_pop_no_crackle (Anonymous) says…

I'm calling BS on this “Did you know that call center employees are expected to resolve each call within six minutes? If the customer's problem is not resolved within that length of time (and most can't be), they are put on hold:forever. The rep has to go on to the next call, and the customer is stuck in canned music hell until they get the idea and hang up.”
That wasn't my experience when I was talking to Sprint earlier last month. The call did take more than six minutes, but the rep came back to resolve the issue.
10 July 2007
at 12:17 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

deec (Anonymous) says…

I work for another call center for a different co. While they talk the talk of help the customer, one-call resolution, customer is supreme, blah blah blah, what really counts is the numbers. Numbers like how many calls you take per hour, the length of calls calculated in seconds, your claims rate, etc.
10 July 2007
at 12:52 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

gccs14r (Anonymous) says…

I wouldn't have Sprint service if it were free. I was a customer of theirs once and that was enough.
10 July 2007
at 2 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

ihatejohntravolta (Laura Watkins) says…

i used sprint service for about six years and wow….i don't think i ever made forty calls a month to customer service but there were definitely times when i'd have to make about ten calls a week to resolve a problem. the problem i had with sprint was just their consistency in the answers they'd give me. one customer service person would tell me that an issue was resolved…then when it wasn't, i'd call and get another person who would tell me that the issue couldn't be resolved…or could be but not the way i was told it would be resolved. plus, i went to the sprint store up in shawnee station one time and i have never been treated worse by a customer service rep in my life. i'm not even an aggressive person, but every time i had a question the guy would get angry with me. oh well, at least i have better service now.
10 July 2007
at 2:06 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

crazyks (Anonymous) says…

And I can guarantee you, snap, that the rep you talked to was reprimanded and/or fired afterward for the amount of time they spent on one call.

Sure, there are reps that will spend more time with customers, until the problem is resolved. But they won't last in the company. Because as Deec said, their priority is how many calls you can handle in a set time period.

Not whether the problems were resolved.

My sister now works as a rep for a different company. Same story, pretty much. The employees get bonuses depending on how long they spend on each call, and how many calls they took each month.

Less time on each call, more calls handled per month (again, doesn't matter if the problem was resolved), the more the rep can get in bonuses.
10 July 2007
at 3:14 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Agnostick (Anonymous) says…

What we know about the “targeted customers”:

—They were making 40-50 customer service calls per month

What we *DON'T* know about the “targeted customers”:

—Their age
—Their technological savvy
—Their experience with cell phones and other consumer technology
—Their geographic location
—Their family histories

Is Sprint an “ee-vul” corporation? Probably not any more “ee-vuhl” than most other corporations, 'cept maybe for Enron and Halliburton. ;)

I found this sentence *very* telling, though:

“Sprint has been trying to upgrade its customer base, tightening credit requirements and attempting to attract customers who will spend more each month on data services, such as Internet browsing, music downloads and streaming video.”

Sounds like maybe this is the beginning of Sprint's “big shift.” Maybe they're leaving the telecommunications business, and getting into the “web-browsing, music-listening, video-watching, picture-taking portable-electronic-thingie” business.

There's a bigger picture to be seen here… and you won't see it unless you step back away from the glare of the media spotlight on this one little corner.

Agnostick
agnostick@excite.com
http://www.uscentrist.org
10 July 2007
at 3:18 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Confrontation (Anonymous) says…

We've been with Sprint for 5 years. My spouse has called customer service to dispute repeated mistakes on our bill that appeared for several cycles. That's been our only problem, but we will not sign another contract with them.

10 July 2007
at 6:55 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

crazyks (Anonymous) says…

I think this decision will backfire on Sprint big time.
10 July 2007
at 7:26 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

purplesage (Anonymous) says…

Wish I'd known this might work. Several years ago, my daughter got phones from a Verizon predecessor, Cellular One. They “guaranteed” they would work in the rural area where we live. They didn't (and still hardly do, though a tower is about 2 miles away). She paid the bill for months and they phones sat in a dresser drawer until she paid a ludicrous early termination fee. I wouldn't have cared if they done a mass termination; but I would have called the 5 times a day if I thought they'd get mad and cut us off!
10 July 2007
at 8:17 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

redwaggoner (Anonymous) says…

I have only one comment to make…. stay the hell away from alltel!!! Moved from another state last fall to Kansas and it took two months for Alltel to realize that I was not going to pay for two separate accounts for the same service! Instead of cancelling the first numbers/contract, they went on billijng me for the two numbers I had at my previous address! When my contract expired, I dropped them like a hot, burning ember & told them where they could put their cellular service!!!!!!!!!!
10 July 2007
at 10:31 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

lubyloo (Anonymous) says…

IhateJohnTravolta, I had the exact same experience with Sprint. Totally inconsistent service. I had to call them way more than I should have needed to and it was so exasperating. I had to stay with them for a year or pay an outrageous fee to get out of the contract. I've had Cingular for the last year and have had no problems. I remember that when I switched from Sprint I smashed the hell out of my Sprint phone. Man, that felt good!
11 July 2007
at 8:59 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

craigers (Anonymous) says…

I have had great customer service through Sprint and I have had a phone with them for about 7 or 8 years now. I usually have good customer service no matter where I go since the rep, no matter what company responds better when you treat them nicely. Usually people call customer service with a chip on their shoulder and that is the type of response the person gives.

Overall, I've noticed that Sprint's only competition on quality of network is Verizon. Cingular is very staticy and T-Mobile is just that T-Mobile. My wife had one of their phones for awhile and boy did it suck. Then when you look at the phones, Sprint has the best handsets across the board. I'm very loyal since they have a great product and won't just switch because of a bad customer experience. After working in Target for years, you notice that people are jerks and think they never do anything wrong and like somebody said earlier, “The customer isn't always right.”

Ag, you are trying to point out a trend in their business, but the fact is that they state what every business is doing. Trying to target the most profitable customers. Oh wow, what a horror that is. Sprint isn't leaving the telecom industry, just leading it in another direction where voice isn't the differentiator since voice is becoming a commodity. When a customer obviously isn't happy, the best thing to do is let them free of their contract with no penalties which is what Sprint is doing.
11 July 2007
at 9:31 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

crazyks (Anonymous) says…

No, they aren't just letting people free of their contracts with no penalties.

They sure as hell aren't doing that for the people who aren't satisfied with their service and want out of their contract.

I guess you guys know what you have to do now. Start calling them non-stop if you don't like the service. You'll suddenly have no contract and no cancellation fees!

Don't be surprised, however, if you try to get another service, to find out that your “troublemaker” status has been spread around the cell phone world.
11 July 2007
at 9:45 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

llama726 (Anonymous) says…

No kidding. I've handled some activations for Sprint from a popular third party provider of their service and everyone just reads a story like this and gets to foaming at the mouth, finding every little problem with their service and saying “Well I'll just go to prepaid.” Companies really shouldn't have to bend over backwards to accomodate you making 50 service calls per week. These same people come into electronics stores and take their phone in after having found a way to lock it entirely and complain that it's the provider's fault for not sufficiently hiding that feature from them.
11 July 2007
at 10:10 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

75x55 (Anonymous) says…

Reminds me of a former boss of mind - a psycho that thought that, if he didn't like a contracted service anymore, that he was justified in yelling and screaming and forcing his employees to act in the same way until the vendor or other party got sick of it and gave in.

Unfortunately, it worked all too often.

11 July 2007
at 10:17 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

craigers (Anonymous) says…

crazyks, re-read the story. For these customers that were obviously unhappy with their service are being let out with no strings. As for you, I don't know. If you are a big enough turd to them then maybe they will. You seem to enjoy your rant though so you might want to stay with them!!!
11 July 2007
at 10:24 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

imastinker (Anonymous) says…

You guys complaining about customer service need to get used to it. They are all like that. I use speaker phone or a hndsfree phone to do something else while on the phone. It's not so bad that way.

I also have no problem with them deciding which customers they want to do business with and which they do not. I don't even care the reason. The biggest business lesson I;ve learned is that it's as important for the business to decide who to do business with as it is for the customer. Maybe more so, even. Most places that I deal with quote custom jobs, and if you don't want to work for them, you quote them some high price. If they go with someone else, you win. If they go with you anyway, you get paid extra for the hassle of dealing with them and whatever problem they present. Otherwise, you're working 16 hour days just to pay the bills and never get ahead.
11 July 2007
at 10:24 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

crazyks (Anonymous) says…

Yes, of course they are…for the people they determine are troublemakers. But they don't do that for everyone.

Why is there a need for such an extravagant fee to drop a contract?

Ah, I know…they charge it because they can. More money for the shareholders, right?

I don't have a cell phone, craigers, thank you. More hassle than it's worth, in my opinion.

Besides, I don't have that kind of money just sitting around to be able to pay the disconnect fee if I happened to pick a company with crappy service.

Although to hear most of you cell users on here, I guess there isn't a company without crappy service…

My biggest beef with Sprint overall is all the thousands of people they have laid off over the last few years…while upper management still gets outlandish salaries.
11 July 2007
at 10:39 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

staff04 (Anonymous) says…

I think it is fine for now, but I do worry about the implications it could have as wireless technology increasingly becomes a part of the critical infrastructure in this country and the world. Does this establish any precedents for other utility providers to terminate a customer's contract because they deem them to be difficult to deal with?
11 July 2007
at 10:43 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

crazyks (Anonymous) says…

Good question, staff04…

In the future, will they be able to cut off your electricity, or gas, if they deem you a “troublemaker”?

And craigers…the company isn't always right, either.
11 July 2007
at 11:21 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

craigers (Anonymous) says…

crazyks, I would agree with your comment and see your frustration about the layoffs of people. The wireless portion SprintPCS grew way too fast for thier own good since wireless was making tons of money and then money wasn't flowing as freely and they had to tighten up so jobs had to be cut. The cuts that happened today have more to do with redundancies with two companies put together. All companies get people on contract to try and keep them with the company and to recoup some of the cost of the initial activation of that customer. We pay much less for the phones we get than what the company pays and there is a lot of the company has to get from that customer before they turn profitable, hence lock them into a contract and if they terminate you should be able to recoup that cost all at once in the termination fee. It sucks yes, but Verizon and Sprint both are offering try it for a month and return it if you don't like it. So they are trying to get it right for the customers.
11 July 2007
at 12:03 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

crazyks (Anonymous) says…

If they were trying to get it right for the customer, they would allow their reps to be on the phone, with one customer, until the problem is either solved, or the customer is determined to actually BE a troublemaker. But they don't do that.

Or they could stop insisting on using automated systems, even though most of the customers hate it. I don't think they're cost effective anyway.

They might have a lot more customers if they treated them like people, instead of a profit margin.
11 July 2007
at 12:42 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

packrat (Anonymous) says…

I don't see how anyone has time to call Sprint Customer Service more than once a day. The last time I called, I was on hold for over an hour and that wasn't even during a supposed peak time.

11 July 2007
at 12:44 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

I can understand Sprint's position in that some customers are simply pains in the a++ and not worthwhile having around. I occasionally “terminate” business relationships with customers for similar reasons. Playing namby-pampy and handholding for with a customer for six or eight hours over a $100.oo deal is simply not worth the time, energy and effort.

And like it or not, some people are just too stupid to deal with!
11 July 2007
at 1:18 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

mom_of_three (Anonymous) says…

Basically, Sprint is trying to do these customers a favor by letting them out of their contracts to find someone who can service them better. Obviously, after making over 25 calls a month, every month for six months or more, these customers are not happy. These customers should be happy they are free to choose another company without any penalties.
11 July 2007
at 1:37 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

smgkag (Anonymous) says…

I'm on hold with Sprint Customer Service right now…35 minutes so far. Ggggrrrrr…. I'm trying to get them to port over my phone number to my new provider. They keep saying my contract is still in effect. I signed my contract over three years ago and it was a two year contract. They told me I could go to a monthly contract until I resigned, which didn't happen. This is torture!!!
11 July 2007
at 1:51 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

smgkag (Anonymous) says…

Customer Service phone call h**l update…when Sprint merged with Nextel last December they automatically reupped my old contract without my consent!!!
11 July 2007
at 2:05 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

ihatejohntravolta (Laura Watkins) says…

i've worked in customer service positions for about seven years. i totally understand how irritating customers can be, especially if they are wrong. but i'm sorry, there have been times that i *haven't* been wrong and sprint would just write me off. they'd tell me that the problem was fixed (i.e. my billing) and then it wouldn't be fixed. that has nothing with me being a dumb customer.

also, does sprint just expect that every customer know everything there is to know about a phone? i have a grandma who would probably have a hard time setting up a phone service. she might have a question about how to turn off her ringer, or how to put a phone number onto another phone, or how to turn off spam text messaging. does this mean she shouldn't call sprint's customer service line to get help? customers can be irritating but this doesn't mean you should completely write them off. if you do, then it's bad for business. you would think that sprint would want to do whatever they can to bring in and keep customers, rather than turn them away.
11 July 2007
at 3:05 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Agnostick (Anonymous) says…

staff04 (Anonymous) says:

“I think it is fine for now, but I do worry about the implications it could have as wireless technology increasingly becomes a part of the critical infrastructure in this country and the world. Does this establish any precedents for other utility providers to terminate a customer's contract because they deem them to be difficult to deal with?”
______________________________

Bingo!!

I don't know how germaine this is to the discussion, but here goes…

Four years ago, when my parents had to vacate their home twice in one week, due to threatening floodwaters (one phone call from my dad on a Friday night was, “Son, the sheriff is here telling us we have to evacuate. We'll call when we get back… bye!”), I put my foot down and said “That's it! We're adding you to our T-Mobile plan, and you're getting a cell phone!”

Dad was born in '31, my mom in '33. They've never been the most technologically-savvy of people. My mother bought herself a computer eight or nine years ago, and reads a couple of news sites on the web, and that's it. My dad has never touched the computer, and he only talks on the cell phone when my mother answers it and hands it to him. So, for Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon etc., my parents and their contemporaries are pretty much a lost cause, as far as “market share” goes.

But then you have this little Baby Boomer group…

Yeah, they buy “boner pills” and Harley-Davidsons in their mid-'50s… many of them have better retirement plans, better “second-career” opportunities and better health care opportunities… but their eyesight WILL begin to fail, their hearing WILL begin to fail, and their fingers will become plagued by arthritis, and teeny-tiny buttons and itty-bitty screens WILL become a major P.I.T.A. for a lot of these folks!

Not to mention justifying the price of a $799 iPhone G2 in the midst of soaring prescription drug prices, skyrocketing property taxes and gasoline @ $9/gallon… as the Social Security pie dwindles down to nothing.

This is a big, big market to serve… and I see them pretty much being ignored by the cell phone industry.

Last year, somebody *did* try to do something about this:

http://www.jitterbug.com/

Sad thing is, you can only get this phone if you sign up with this service called GreatCall. Everything I've read about GreatCall is that the service sucks buffalo biscuits, big time.

[more]
11 July 2007
at 3:06 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Agnostick (Anonymous) says…

If I'm gonna pay $499 for a phone, I don't want an iPhone. I want a phone with a battery that I only have to charge once a month. I want to take the phone out to the empty shopping mall parking lot on a Sunday morning, launch it through the air in a big ol' “Hail Mary” pass, watching it bounce a few times when it hits the pavement… then I want to pick up the phone, the phone with an easy-to-read screen, big buttons, and some good ol' fashioned stainless steel or aluminum in the frame… and I want to dial my folks, right after I've abused the s**t out of it.

My point in all this rambling is that we may be moving into an era where telecoms start dumping people that don't fit their “profile”… and other companies come along and offer great service, great hardware and affordable rates to these “rejects.” And become big players in the industry by picking up the other companies' castoffs.

Sprint says they spent 6-12 months studying the problems. How much time did they invest in exploring solutions?

Agnostick
agnostick@excite.com
http://www.uscentrist.org
11 July 2007
at 3:24 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

trinity (Anonymous) says…

comparing
one's
cottage
business
to
a
huge
corporation
is
just
nuckin'
futs.
thanks
trinity.

11 July 2007
at 4:12 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

hammysammy (Anonymous) says…

If CrazyKS is correct then I have probably gotten a good 5 or 6 people fired or reprimanded over the years. I don't believe it for a second. Your average customer service represantive doesn't care enough about some strangers phone problem to risk losing their job or getting in trouble. My best friend worked this job at Sprint and she said she has never heard something so ludicrous. Additionally…giant corporations would rather pay someone to stay on the line to resolve an issue for a couple more minutes rather than having that person call back and do the whole thing over and over…talk about throwing money away. One more thing, they don't like a high turnover rate, training costs, etc…
11 July 2007
at 4:32 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

Marion (Marion Lynn) says…

The general public does not really understand what the “New Consumerism” has done to businesses of all kinds. Consumers endow themselves with all kinds of “rights” that they do not have:

(1) “Three Day Right Of Recission”, which actually ONLY applies to in-home sales in which the salesperson's presence was NOT intially requested by the consumer.''

That “right”, for the most part does not esist.

(2) The “right” to return anything for ANY reason.

Nope; you cannot return your lawnmower because you ran over rocks and bent the blade or the crankshaft.

(3) The “right” to unilaterally modify terms of service or warranty specifications.

“Uh, Sir or Madam, this gizmo is NOT warranted against MISUSE by the consumer; you cannot hang a 100 lb plant from the arm of this lamp!

(4) YOU bought the wrong part, tried to install it, screwed it up and now you expect a REFUND?????!!!!

I will galdly sell you the correct part and you can have the wrong one bronzed for all I care.

(5) “I had work done on may car and now it won't run!”

Yes, you did. We also TOLD you in writing that merely installing the new control module was not going to resolve all of the issues that you car had as the control module will not fix bad valves. You refused the valve job but did buy the new module because your old one was bad. You do not get a refund on the control module.

(6) And my absolute favourite consumer LIE:

“I'm just looking!” in response to the sales person's greeting, so the guy or gal makes a beeline to the new refigerators thus telling you that the old one has died, that all the food in the house is being stored in iced dwon styrafoam coolers on the kitchen floor, that the “consumer” knows nothing about refigerators and is so frightened of the sales person that they will not tell the salesperson of their needs; the salesperson being the one who is knowledgable about refrigerators and don't EVEN start on me with that nutbag publication “Consumer Reports”. That yellow rag once rated two identical refirgerators differently; they were both manufactured by Norge but carried different brand names, CR lsimply liked one brand name over the other.

WOO HOO!
11 July 2007
at 7:29 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

ksmom (Anonymous) says…

Half the time when I have called Sprint customer service, I get a rep that speaks such bad english, I can't understand them. So, I hang up and call back hoping to get a rep I can understand. Talk about annoying! I have made changes in my plan about 4 times over the last 7 years. Each time, I had to call Sprint and get their billing errors fixed. All in all, as far as coverage and plan rates, I think they provide a good service. It is annoying, but as they say: “you get what you pay for.”
11 July 2007
at 7:33 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

crazyks (Anonymous) says…

Well, just come right out and call me a liar, hammy…but you're wrong…

My sister worked for Sprint for several years in customer service. She works as a rep for another company now, and it's the same thing.

They are patted on the back if they complete a call under a set amount of time. Doesn't matter whether or not the problem was solved. They have a chain of command, and when customer calls with a problem, that problem is related to the proper dept., where the customer is assured the problem will be taken care of.

The reps have no way of knowing whether it has been or not. Sometimes they find out, when the same person calls back multiple times, that no one in the other dept. has done anything. But who gets blamed for it? The rep…

As a rep, she is only allowed so many calls per month that go over the allotted time frame. If she goes over that amount ( a small amount, by the way), she gets a warning. If it happens again the next month, a second warning. On your third warning, you're fired.

And yes, some reps will do this in order to keep the customer happy, even though the company doesn't like it. Some people like to help others.

Corporations don't care how many times you may have to call back to resolve the same problem, as long as you don't tie up their lines for very long with one call. See, if they can put on paper that the average call takes only so long to resolve (even if it wasn't resolved at all), that looks good for the company.

Like when they put in their ads to prospective new customers that the average call time for tech help is such and such…or that the average time on hold per call is such and such.

And reps are never allowed to admit to the customer over the phone that the company is in any way at fault for whatever problem the customer may be having. That one will get you reprimanded big time.
11 July 2007
at 9:59 p.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

hammysammy (Anonymous) says…

Wow Crazy, since your sister stuck with it for “several years” there must have been some aspects of the job she found rewarding. But you are clearly stating things that you might think are “truths” but are in fact, lies.
12 July 2007
at 12:44 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

crazyks (Anonymous) says…

They aren't lies. Perhaps your friend had friends in higher places.
12 July 2007
at 8:07 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

craigers (Anonymous) says…

I agree hammy. They are definitely lies. My brother and sister in law both were in Sprint call centers and they never had problems with this.
12 July 2007
at 8:29 a.m.

Suggest removal

Permalink

crazyks (Anonymous) says…

Perhaps because they always followed the rules and cut calls short, instead of actually trying to help people fix a problem.

Seems Sprint liked how my sister did it, as they kept her for so long.

Guess you all forgot how Deec, who still works in customer service for a different company, told you how it is.