Subscribers fume over what has become yet another bungled Sprint launch
Why can’t Sprint launch a handset? That’s the question countless subscribers are asking themselves as the release of the BlackBerry Tour 9630 continues to look more and more like a paper launch. A fair number of people who ordered the handset have received it by now and many were able to snag a unit at retail locations, but it seems that for every happy new Tour owner there are three enraged subscribers looking for answers. At this point, you can’t find a Sprint or BlackBerry forum without reading post after post from people fuming over the bungled Tour launch. Since July 12th, the official launch date, we’ve also received countless emails from Sprint subscribers venting their frustrations and recounting various horror stories. The consensus among them: Sprint can’t launch a handset to save its life — or business, as it were.
Beyond a few emails we have from people who got their Tours at retail locations and couldn’t activate them, the biggest problem being reported is a seeming lack of candor with regard to inventory. We have tons of emails from people who ordered the Tour within the first hour of online availability — within the first 15-30 minutes even. Despite the website showing the handset as being in stock and ready to roll, they received a backorder notice immediately after ordering. Here is an example of an email received by a Sprint customer shortly after submitting his order online about a half hour after the Tour went live on Sprint’s site:
Product ID: SP9630RIM Description: Blackberry Tour 9630 Qty: 1 Order Date: 2009-07-12
Status: Your order or a portion of your order is in backorder status. If you would like to select an alternate product or cancel your backordered item, please call 866-789-8292 between 8:00 a.m. EST to 11:00 p.m. EST Monday to Friday or 9:00 a.m. EST to 9:00 p.m. EST on Saturdays and Sundays.Please note that cancellation requests may not always process successfully due the speed of warehouse processing. If you cancelled your backordered item but still received a shipment, please refuse the shipment or call us to process a return within 30 days of receipt.
Why is it that Sprint just can’t seem to stock a handset — and perhaps more importantly, why was the handset listed as being available if in fact it was not? It has gotten to the point where the carrier even confirmed to us ahead time that the Palm Pre launch would be a mess. Fast forward to the Tour, Sprint’s next flagship handset, and we’re seeing the exact same mistakes all over again. We understand it was a big deal for Sprint to finally get a hot new BlackBerry out to market at the same time as Verizon. Great. Golf claps. If doing so simply means the carrier is going to have to snub half of the people who want to buy the handset however, we have to think waiting for shipments would have been the wiser move. In fact, we’ve received several comments from people who decided to switch to Verizon for the Tour because of this mess. If you’ve looked at Sprint’s numbers over the past couple of years, you know the last thing the struggling carrier needs to be doing right now is giving subscribers another reason to jump ship.
Of course Sprint isn’t the only carrier plagued with launch issues, it just happens to be more in need of smooth sailing than any other at this point. Trust us — we want nothing more than to witness and report on a great and successful launch at Sprint. The company has made plenty of good moves of late in an effort to strengthen its network and focus on better customer service training. It shows, it really does, but it’s all for naught if Sprint continues to stumble where top-level strategy and execution are concerned.
All of you are serious? All the bitching over a phone? DO YOU HAVE TO HAVE IT NOW???? All of you are acting like children and should be treated as such.
Backorders happen all the time. If you live in an area where you have multiple choices, then go the one that has it. Period! Sprint or VZW pick one.
BTW: To me it was a good launch. Its on their website, you order it, eventually you will get it. Its simple! I don’t need it now, I have a phone that works til I get it, Amazing!!!!
It occured to me I have a mental disease, one that causes me to read whiny, idiotic, non-newsworthy, far-from-journalistic blogs and the whiny, inane, self-serving comments that go with it…. and then to leave a comment myself!
This guy said it best:
“VZW, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, my experience with as well as my wife and close family, They are all the same shit! Not one ever stood out. We pay our bills, and that’s it”
Then some other net-turd said BGR is biased… ok, yeah, and when T-mo said the Touch Pro 2 wasn’t coming until August, I read all the SAME exact complaints both in the blogs and comments about T-mo. Lets face it, almost all tech blogs and their bloggers are Apple fanboys… but that’s the only bias they have. They’ll trash everything else. The only reason some bias leans toward At&t is because they have the iPhone. If Sprint was the carrier for iPhone, you’d rarely see a blog bitching about Sprint then.
What I find funny is half the a-holes that want to hate in those articles, saying all other carriers suck, blah blah blah, now come into this blog and then bitch about their own carrier… over what? SUPPLY AND DEMAND? Come on, grow up you shmucks.
Oh, and chew on this also:
- Had Sprint delayed the Tour to build stock rather than release what they have now, that story would have been blogged about here and you all would STILL be complaining
- Another commenter pointed out that the entire blog here is simply hearsay by Zach, “We have tons of emails from people who ordered the Tour within the first hour of online availability”. Ok. So what’s “tons of emails” VS. the total number of people who actually did get a Tour?
- We have a philosophy at the job I work at… for every mistake that gets blown up, you’re overlooking 1,000 things that went right. No one cares when things are ok, but one mistake everyone will notice
I was going on vacation so
i had my local sprint store order my Tour on Sunday around 3:00pm. The phone arrived at the store on Tuesday Morning. I’ve been with Sprint for 10 years and I’ve never had a problem with the signal. In fact, I’m on a boat in the middle of Lake Erie and I’m using my old Blackberry Pearl to get on the Net with my Laptop.
my issue is WHY does it matter that much…its a damn phone…its not like sprint delayed the cure for cancer…
so what if you dont get the newest blackberry and get to say “First”
its the most asinine thing ever…people crying over a delayed phone…theres more important stuff going on in the world people…
seriously…open the door..take a walk…enjoy the outdoors…feed some birds..go out on a date…and push phone releases waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the list of things to get pissed at…
Tour De Sprint said: “Alabama back bush!”
Go to hell bitch. Our coverage over powers Sprint. We are more reliable then Sprint. Verizon is Sprint’s daddy. We get a nice huge check from Sprint each month. Sprint has 2nd worse nationwide network coverage in the US.
VZW loves making up numbers, tell us about the check your provider cuts for thier roaming and who said Sprint is 2nd worse?
go back to the store and tell them to use the sprint curve 8330 with cor 100 for the celebrite machine (if that’s what they use… IT WORKS cause I DID IT…)
go back to the store and ask them to use the sprint curve 8330 with the micro usb cord for the tour IT WORKS because I DID IT….
Whatever don’t bumble the touch pro 2 launch. *shakes fist*
@ VZW:
I take it you’re from the Alabama back bush I was referring to. I can tell as all the inbreeding that goes on down there causes a spike in ones anger and hostility which you have so beautifully displayed. Its okay, but I don’t know why it causes you to say things like “we get a nice huge check from Sprint every month”? Are you on the B of D? I didn’t think so, so what check are YOU actually receiving? None you say? I thought so. See, up north we tend for the most part not to claim coporate america’s profits as our own. Again, it okay; if I were the product of my mother and her brother shackin up, I’d probably be saying asinine things as well. So to recap, you really are not receiving ANYTHING from VZW at months end, but you are paying $30-$40 more to VZW for the plan comparable to Sprint! And they have you shouting their praises as if a televangelist stopped in your town and personally told you to do so!! WOW, dem VZW boyz got one helluva following!
Take care, and BTW, if you happen to see Boss Hog or Roscco P Coltrane, can you take a pic and MMS it to me? I’m a huge fan! Oh, but if you gotta pay extra for any data usage then don’t bother. That money could go to something more important like entering your son in a yoddling contest or a back sheer for your daughter!