1,200 Sprint customers getting the boot
Remember that severance notice from Sprint that we posted a while back? Sprint, apparently fed up with excessive calls to customer service, decided to unilaterally sever a customer’s line of service. Further investigation, however, has uncovered a much bigger operation. Sprint themselves recently admitted to releasing over 1,200 subscribers due to excessive support requests. The customers in question average 40-50 calls to customer service per month, and were apparantly placing an undue strain on the company’s support and CS system. The affected consumers are now free to port their number to another carrier without an ETF, but this could prove to be little recompense for those that feel that their rights have been violated. Is it just us, or does it seem unwise to further aggravate a small army of your most annoying, complaint-filled, customers? We smell a lawsuit coming on…
Honestly can’t say I blame Sprint. If the people are calling THAT often, they must be really displeased and are probably looking to get out of their contracts already. Sprint just made it easy for them.
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Dear Sprint,
I will be happy to change carriers upon your payment of the $155 early termination fee of our contract. The same fee you would charge to me if I had tried to cancel the contract a couple of months ago. In fact, I would have left you when I was alread sick of your crappy service if I wasn’t already bound by a contract having an early termination fee…
That would be the only part that would make me mad. Why can they get out of the contract without paying me an early termination fee? Talk about a cohesion contract.
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Pat torney,
BRILLIANT!
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In my opinion tech support isnt a right its a service and the company who offers the service can deny it to anyone it believes cannot benefit from it. Havin worked in tech support for many years I do know for a fact that many many customers will call tech support for absolutly everything thus wasting the time of the agents who could be working on more relevant issues. Some even call over and over for the same issues that have already been resolved. I do know some very technical issues do sometimes never get resolved but for many different reasons but if A customer is stupid enough to stay with a company that cannot meet its demands then the customer is the one to be blamed and not the company. Usually those who also complain alot are not affordable customers because they over use resources. Its in the best interest of the company to release them of their contract. And also if the customer was calling alot that customer probably wasnt even happy with the service in the first place! So in my opinions move’s like this are win-win situations.
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@Pat torney They can get out because IT’S IN THE CONTRACT. You agreed to their contract, not the other way around. They’re letting these folks out with no early termination fee and with plenty of notice. I’m sure that there are some innocent customers that are going to be affected by this, but there are A LOT of deadbeats out there that do nothing but try to buck the system and scream and yell to do it. I have no doubt that most of these folks will be a PITA to their next carrier as well. Plus what do you expect Sprint to do? These people were identified as costing the company money. The cell phone carriers are not charities. As a CEO, what would you do if you had 1200 clients that were costing your company money? It’s called a "business" for a reason. I have Sprint and don’t have much of a problem with them cuz their service is so d@mn cheap (d@mn I love SERO). I have had billing problems but I’ve gotten them resolved, sometimes with drama, sometimes without. I hate dealing with Sprint CS just as much as the next guy. But you know what? Chances are, there’s going to be customer service issues with ANY carrier you go to, so pick your poison. My poison is cheap service, no other carrier can match the plan I have, so Sprint it is. @Joshua Karp, you may want to edit your post, they are axing people that call in 40 to 50 TIMES MORE than the average customer, not 40 to 50 TIMES a month.
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Maybe if Sprints techs weren’t complete morons and had half a brain, then they would get their shit right the first time and people wouldn’t have to call back 5-6 times to finally get someone competent on the phone to resolve their issues.
Its no wonder they have lost over 250,000 clients in one quarter.
God forbid something happen to your phone out of the norm that ISN’T resolved by taking the battery out and putting it back in. Then you get the nice little “okay, well we are going to have to open a fictional support ticket and pass it onto our fictional engineers that will call you back within 56 hours”. Now you ask for the ticket number so when you call back, you have it and get told “oh, well that system is down right now, but I promise I will get it put in for you”. Bullshit. Don’t get off the phone UNTIL they give you a ticket number (which they probably will make up anyways).
Then what happens? You wait. And wait. And wait. And never get a call. You call back and after 45 minutes, you finally get someone on the line. You give them your ticket number, and hear one of two things:
A: that ticket number doesn’t exist
B: that ticket was closed by our engineers.
You:What the f+*k?!?! CLOSED BY THE ENGINEERS?!?!?
Rep: Yes, it shows the problem was resolved.
You: Bullshit! Noone even called me!
Rep: Well it shows here it was.
You: Let me talk to a supervisor.
Rep: They are busy
You: Let me talk to them.
(This goes on for approximately 5 minutes and many explicatives fly out of your mouth until the dipshit on the other end finally finds a supervisor)
Supervisor: Hi! Thank you for calling Sprint where we are having a wonderful day today! How can I help you?
You: What the hell is going on? My ticket was CLOSED?!?!
Supervisor: Hmm. Yes, it shows that here and that it was resolved.
You: Bullshit! It wasn’t. I never got a call. What is the tech’s ID that closed the ticket?
Supervisor: I’m sorry, we don’t have that information here.
You: Then let me talk to someone who does.
Supervisor: I am the highest person here.
You: Bullshit! There has to be someone over you!
Supervisor: No, I am the highest person here.
You: So you are the President of Sprint? No shit?!?! What are you doing in a call center then?
Supervisor: No sir I am not, but what I can do is open a trouble ticket (fictional) and have someone look into it.
You: Have someone look into it now.
Supervisor: Sir, I can’t do that, I have to open a ticket.
You: Ill wait.
Supervisor: Excuse me?
You: I said I’ll wait. I’m on vacation, so if I have to sit on this phone with you for 8 hours straight to get that resolved, I will wait. I have nothing better to do.
Supervisor: Please hold.
(Now you are put on hold for 7 minutes while they probably go outside and smoke or call their boyfriend to tell them about you)
Supervisor: Thank you for holding sir. Would you like me to open that ticket for you now?
(Now you’re really pissed off as you have spent over an hour and a half on the phone with these idiots).
You: Get…ME…A…TECH! OR SOMEONE WHO CAN GET ME SOME RESULTS!!!
(Finally someone comes on the line that says “National Data Support, can I help you?”
Supervisor: Okay sir, thank you and have a nice day!
You: Whoa! Hold on. I told you you were in this with me for the long haul, so you need to stay on the line!
(Data Support Rep laughs. Sprint supervisor sighs).
Data Support: Oh, here is the problem! They added the wrong plan to your BlackBerry. You have a TREO plan on their!
You: WTF?!?! Are you serious!!! Even after I asked these people and they said “everything was right” and I had them recheck and check again, the retards didn’t notice a TREO plan on a BlackBerry?!?!?
Data Rep: It appears that way sir, can you try and provision the device now.
(Options-Network-Start Provisioning….BAM, it works!)
You: Are you F’ing kidding me!!!
You now slam the phone down 4x and hold it close to your stereo speakers so that the feedback makes their ears start bleeding, then slam it down to hang up on them. The first thing you do on your BlackBerry now is google how to build a pipe bomb and where the Sprint call centers are located. You’re on a mission…
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Like someone else said, this is a “Get Out of Contract Free” card. If it were me, I’d be happy as a clam.
And I said: if there is this much acrimony between a customer and any business, they are BOTH better off somewhere else.
Don’t know why this is trying to be trumped up as some great moral outrage on this site and others.
Sprint is saying “you are clearly not happy with us so we are releasing you to find your wireless bliss elsewhere.”
Geez, like a jilted lover, let it go and get on with your (wireless) life.
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@ ieatbutter
Dude, classic comment!!!
@ Aaron Walker
I don’t think that the major issue is that they’re dropping the most "unruly" customer, just more of a combined thing with them losing so many subscribers already. Especially from a PR standpoint, too. If you are not a current Sprint subscriber, wouldn’t this at least a little bit make you think twice? Maybe not, if you do not care so much about customer service and don’t have that many issues to call in about but, every other carrier for the most part seems to be doing fine. I think it’s more a reflection of how bad their customer service support is in general. When looking at it from a business standpoint, sure it might be "cheaper" to drop those subscribers, but also in business you have to evaluate the potential customers you possibly are scaring off by this move…
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I don’t know anyone who is not in the business of serving people. We all are; doctors, dentists, plumbers, restaurantes, hairstylists, etc. We are all customers and deal with customers. Without customers nothing will function. I am certain we all can relate with the type of customers that are “difficult”.( there are exceptions, i am sure). Sometimes you have to look at other things besides money when it comes to cutting ties with a customer. I have been there, and my sanity was more important. Having said that,
I am totally against Sprint terminating people in the military, and because of that, since my contract is up with them, they made up my mind to move to another carrier. I have Nextel and besides this very serious one, I have no complaints.
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@ Juke Box Hero:
Thanks for the comment. They are indeed axing people that call in 40-50 times more per month than the average consumer. The average consumer, however, calls in once or less per month, so the numbers still work out.
@ ieatbutter: I’m rolling here. Hilarious.
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That’s cause Nextel CSR’s kicked ass man! They were the bomb. Knew what they were doing and how to do it.
But you’re in for a rude awakening next time you call “Nextel” for something, because they no longer say “nextel”, its all Sprint now baby!!!!
Good luck Amigo!
Better roll that joint BEFORE you call ‘em next time!!!
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@ JKarp
Too bad I am writing on a BlackBerry right now or that would have been WAY more entertaining.
Damn BlackBerry thumb.
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I’ll remember that, thanks.
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ieatbutter … sounds like the real retard buying a 300 dollar glorified 2way pager thinking its a multimedia device with a real web browser that can download the pdf and then send it via bluetooth to a printer so he can read the aggie instruction on how to build the bomb.
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@BoyGenuis
Wait, according to your article, they are calling 40 - 50 times PER MONTH! On average, that would be nearly TWICE a day, EVERY day. That’s a lot of customer dissatisfaction.
Obviously they are not happy about something and it seems that them calling about it at least everyday means they are still not happy or getting their issue resolved.
The thing about the military is stupid and they should be called on to the carpet, but allowing unhappy customers to leave without a penalty isn’t anything to get upset about.
If I walked into McDonald’s two or three times a day (everyday) complaining about my fries eventually the manager would tell me I should go to another fast food restaurant who might make fries more to my liking.
The Burger King across the street might make them just right and I never have to complain about my fries again.
What’s the difference? If Sprint were the only wireless carrier in the country, I’d understand, but they aren’t.
Except for the military thing, this is much ado about nothing.
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@ieatbutter
You get the same shit with Cingular so don’t think that you’re missing out on anything since all these shitty carriers today are just as bad as that, I had to call Cingular four damn times in one hour because none of those idiots do shit about your problems they just send the same model until you sit on there for like three days waiting for somebody to just give a shit enough and then you ask them and they say they were from AT&T. then you’re like oh so that’s why you got me a new make/model and some good help.
The guys that replace or actually help were from the good side of the old network you came from.
At least with “at&t” (cingular) that’s how it is now.
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I think that the 40-50 calls a month thing may be somewhat misleading. I read on another message board that every time you get transferred during a call it counts as a separate call. Also, if you get disconnected during a call (which considering the quality of Sprints’ service isn’t too unlikely) that also gets counted as a separate call. So if this is true 1 or 2 calls to customer service could easily turn into 10 “calls” with the way that Sprint measures call numbers.
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I personally haven’t had any problems with my Sprint service or the customer service. I’ve been a business customer for several years with several lines. Maybe they treat business customers different? I don’t know.
I think if you buy quality equipment ie a Blackberry, instead of the $19.99 Motowhatever, you wouldn’t have all those “problems” with your phone.
I went through 3 Treos before my first BB and everytime there was an issue, they sent me a new phone without any charges or extending my contract. In fact, they just credited my $399 for my BB7250 and overnighted me a BB8830. Not that there was anything wrong with the 7250, I’ve been dying to upgrade.
I think the people who were dropped wanted to be and so be it.
As far as their coverage, my BB gets great reception everywhere I go and their plans are way cheap, especially the Unlimited BB plan $39.99. Can’t beat it.
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This isn’t the whole story. Sprint responded to Consumerist.com the link is below.
http://consumerist.com/consumer/exclusives/sprint-customers-terminated-for-complaining-too-much-were-scamming-sprint-for-free-service-277026.php
It seems most of the callers were requesting credits every month and some haven’t paid a bill in years…
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i used to be with sprint, in fact my very first cellphone was with them. ive tried them all: sprint, verizon, nextel (before joining sprint), at/t (before becoming cingular), one more i dont remember the name of company, and now i am with cingular and am VERY happy. in fact, i also use their air card for my laptop internet service and am also VERY happy.
with sprint, their customer service really does suck. having to wait over 20 minutes just to talk to someone?! and then they’re rude to you, acting as if your bothering and inconveniencing them.
as for verizon, they just straight up lie to me. got me in a 2 year contract. i was so desperate to leave i actually paid the early termination fee!
been with cingular for over 2 years and am very happy! even brought my brother and sister over, and both very happy.
the only thing i miss about the other companies is the old i830 i had with nextel. kind of heavy but small and felt very sturdy, like i could knock someone’s block off by throwing it at them, lol.
other than that i am not going back to any of the other companies. ia m with cingular and am here to stay.
by the way, cingular is starting to upgrade from edge to 3g, faster internet service. i know because im using it right now to type this letter, lol.
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T-Mobile is the BEST!
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Sprint should just give up as a wireless carrier.
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Yes, we all know T-mobile has the best customer service out there . No other wireless service provider has received back to back JD powers awards in customer care and T-mobile is working on getting their 6th.
On the comment about 39.99 for BB account with sprint being a great deal T-mobile has an add on for unlimited email and data including using phone as modem for 19.99 or 29.99 if using services with the BES. I havntreally check other providers but I think T-mobile is the cheapest by far.
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If i had known they would let me out of my contract if I was a Pain in the @@s I would have been calling them long ago. I broke my never ending nextel contract that cost be 447 bucks to do it and went to Verizon. Verizon actually has coverage in Michigan. Your contract with Nextel goes on forever because anything that changes causes your contract to start over. Nextel has a good racket going in the contract areas. When the nextel/sprint phones have coverage they work, just don’t rely on them in this part of the world. Go with Verizon. I tell as many people as I can to stay away from Nextel and their never-ending contracts.
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These people aren’t happy.. this has to be a win win for both parties.. sprint doesn’t deal with their calls.. the people get out of contracts with a company they apparently don’t like.
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