Comments on: Sprint breaks up with high-maintenance customers

Wireless carrier sends Dear John letters to customers who it says call the customer support line too often.

[mrs onion]

not all customers are "good" customers

Firstly I would like to state that, yes, there are better and worse customer service reps.
Having said that, I would be very interested, as a sprint nextel rep., to review the accounts of some of the customers who received these notices of termination. I am willing to bet that there is a pattern of access very far above the norm, and that generally ample correction and compensation has been done. I have seen customers who call in and call in for the same issue, but are not generally interested with pursuing avenues directed at RESOLVING the issue. Their main interest is receiving credits. I have seen customers who, with an $85 monthly bill, have received over $500 in credits in a 6 week period for the same issue. At what point is it ok to say that this customer is profoundly counterproductive to maintain?
Keep in mind that there are 2 sides to every story.

[knowak]

Sprint Dumping Customers

Can Sprint actually DO that? Isn't that against some fair business practices law or something? It's tantamount to refusing service to someone because of their race. I don't understand how they can do this.

[Quamic]

Termination Fee

It seems like if Sprint is terminating the service thye should pay the customers the termination fee.

[cougs_83]

It's about time

It's about time that someone did this. I currently have T-mobile, but I have gained a lot of respect for sprint because of this. Ever wondered why customer service seems to be so bad not just with cell phone companies, its just about everywhere. It's because the people that you are talking to have to deal with people like these 1,000 every day all day. So when someone calls in that actually has a legitimate issue they get the brunt of the customer service representitives frustration. It really bothers me that much of society things that they don't need to take responsibility for themselves. Jon or Jane doe think they can let their 16 year old daughter have a cell phone and when they run up the phone bill all the sudden it is Sprints fault. I love the fact that sprint is saying that if you don't want to be responsible for yourselves then go somewhere else. I think that everyone should do that.

[eyesofglass666]

Nothing but problems

Nextel/Sprint has caused me nothing but anger and confusion. I have had a nextel/sprint contract for years and when i recieved a promo for a 50 dollar razor phone i upgraded from my crappy i730 and got my new phone. Thats when all my worries started. I got billed 4x's for one game!! I got billed 3x's for each ringtone i have on my phone!! I got data usage charges for no reason!! i cant even use the internet on my phone! I for one find it bull@!*% that sprint could have the balls to say "you complain too much we dont want you as a customer anymore." How could it possibly my, the customer, fault for being charged consistently for the same ringer/game? I am not going to sit by an just dish out the money when i know i dont owe it. Damn right im gonna complain and they better get used to it until they get themselves together.

[wjohnson122944]

If only I could be so lucky

I was a Nextel customer for 5 years. I changed to sprint based on what I thougt would be improved service. I have found out that Nextel and Sprint are NOT "together", that Sprint customer service is the worst I have ever encountered starting with billing errors, failed promises, discourteous employees, poor telephone reception and long, long, long, waiting times to speak with someone. Had I known they would kick me out of the system for complaining I would have done so gladly. Please, Please, Please cancel my account.

[PattyJo75]

You read my mind

Amen!

[tlheidi]

Good vs Bad Customers

As someone who has been in retail almost 20 years there are always people that can not be made happy not matter the situation. Most people don't have problems and when they do have they don't come in with an attitude to get things worked out. Sprint sent letters to 1200 customers? What's the percentage rate to their overall customer base? Not squat. I have Sprint and never drop calls, don't have billing issues or hardly ever loose my signal (middle of WY goes without saying). If these are people who have run up bills because they use services they haven't subscribed to or don't read that when they purchase a game that it is a reocurring charge, they need to be let go. Take some responsibility for how you use your phones. And if you do have a problem ask for help don't go in to the conversation with an attitude!

[s.burlison]

Sprint "DUMPING" Letter

I wish they would add me to their dumping list. I believe that I qualify since I have to call Customer Service EVERY month for bogus charges added to my bill. Anyone else have this problem??

[grayhawk1]

Hey Sprint: Thank you

Ok, I won't argue that there are bad customer service reps out there. I've dealt with more than a few myself.

But having worked at several help desks & call centers, the sheer number of bad customers vastly outweighs the number of bad CSRs. People who think that they can pull any sort of bulls**t and get away with it. People who want their service restored even though they haven't paid their bills. (Trust me, a lot more people have not paid their bills than have had the payments fall though the cracks) People who won't follow troubleshooting steps because they've "already done that" (Maybe, but how the hell do we know that?) People who insist on having equipment replaced for free when they were the ones who damaged it. People who don't read the TOS and then get upset by them.

Take a look at the numbers, folks. They're cutting loose a thousand. Thats all. Probably less than 1 percent of their customer base. Hell, it's probably less than 1/10th of a percent of their customer base.

It needs to be more. And maybe, just maybe, some of these whiny bozos from "Entitlement Acres" will learn to accept responsibility for their actions and their lives instead of trying to get one over.

(Oh, and for the record, I was with Sprint for 7 years and was happy with them and the service. I left because I got a better deal from T-Mobile. Had Sprint decided to match the offer, I would have stayed with Sprint.)

[bfried7]

Sprint Scam - Did This Happen To You?

I am just checking to see if this happened to anyone out there. I have 5 sprint phones, about a year ago I notice a new charge on my bill; international calling service fee on one of my phone lines. I called customer service and after getting the run around they said it was a mistake. It was only a couple of dollars; they took it off the bill and said it wouldn?t happen again. But of course on the next three bills there it was again. I called again and went through the same hassles over and over again. It stopped for awhile, but the fee started showing up on my other phone lines. This is when I realized that the computer program was purposely putting this small fee on random lines. It was a different line every month. It was made so you wouldn?t notice it and wouldn?t really care because it was only a couple of dollars.. I was concerned that Sprint was running a scam on all their customers and I wrote a letter to the FCC to check into this. If anything the FCC could tell me I was just a big jerk. I received a response from the FCC saying I would be getting a call from Sprint about these international service charges, I got a call from upper Sprint Management, they were asking for forgiveness and promising it would never happen again. OK great its over:
Low and behold six months latter the charges started appearing on my different phone lines again. I wrote FCC again and got a letter in response (if anyone wants to see it I could post in online) but it basically said they were not going to do anything about it. I was just wondering if anyone else noticed these international service Fees?

[tx10262]

Data Charges

If you are downloading games and ringers, you are using the internet. Without a data plan, you are charged per kb.

[xsprintemployee]

Doesnt Surprise me at all!!

I worked for Sprint in a sales call center for 2 1/2 years. The last year and a half I was a sales supervisor. Does it surprise me that Sprint has done this. HECK NO!!! They are bullies! The biggest problem is customer service. I have experienced it myself on the inside. I as a supervisor who would try and help customers for one reason or another couldnt even get results. We would call to customer service and be transfered numerous times and most of the time end up with a foreign speaking representative. It was very frustrating because I couldnt even service the customer when they were done wrong and myself along with my sale representatives were trying to make situations right. When I left the company it was a blessing by all means. Believe me I will drop them as soon as my contract is up!! The only good thing is that when I left I still had my free employee service plan for 4 months afterwards.....hey thanks to that......be prepared for your Sprint Nextel service to be part of Verizon some day!!

[tailsock]

I worked for Sprint....read THIS

I used to work for Sprint for 2 years and i have vivid memories of waiting on these parasites. I think it is WONDERFUL Sprint is shedding these fleas. As to not be offensive i'm not naming or identifying any racial or socioeconomical groups. I will be telling you what it was like to work with these people: Answering stupid questions, watching them "straggle" in the parking lot towards the store with a yellow sprint bag in hand. They always had a problem with their phone AND bill. What i noticed is that they were almost always late with their payments every month. To get through to them you literally had to talk to them like CHILDREN. They would come in with arguements that began with " i done got off the phone with customer care and they said i could- ((***insert outrageous request***))..." They never qualified for upgrade because they swapped ESNs once a month. They yelled at us when our in house technicians detected liquid damage via litmus paper or ever corrosion inside the phone. We'd always get the same moronic response to the tune of : "WHO??! It's never been near no water!!" Farewell and goodbye to these parasites. I work for the competition now and i cant wait til i hand them back their driver's licenses while smoothly replying "That'll be a $750 deposit PER LINE Mr. Brown... maybe you should explore some prepaid options" I would walk to the back when i saw them coming into the store, hoping to come back out and see a well educated business man wanting to upgrade his Treo or talk about bluetooth earpieces or an aircard. I learned quickly which customers were revenue generators and which ones straggle into the store to make a partial cash payment that would NEVER cover the entire balance. It was such a fresh breath of air to occasionally get a young couple that had Verizon that wanted to switch to Sprint. No deposit... they'd buy accessories and add data/text. THEY were the ones that put money into our pockets... Not these bottom feeders sprint labeled "clearpay customers". Always hotlined..... always late..... always asking for credits.... always pulling on the door 20 minutes after we close. "My phone dont work my phone dont work!!! " Well Darnell, looks like you've dropped this Sanyo about a hundred times. Of course that's not YOUR fault and you don't have insurance on your account and you'll tell me it's supposed to be on there... and you don't qualify for upgrade. Dont even ask me about your $223 balance either cuz i'll direct you to the phone room. Because of people like you Sprint is known as the gutter of the wireless industry. You can go to any Sprint store and see your brethren there complaining about their bill & phone. Nobody else has these problems except you. I'm so glad Sprint is kicking you out... you took their service for granted and expected them to wait on you hand and foot. Au revoir! After you pull several hundred dollar deposits with Verizon, AT&T, Alltel, and Tmobile you'll be calling in to virgin mobile customer care to complain and guess what? THEY WONT CARE :-)

[lisa6950]

Idiot

I work in customer service and have worked in customer service for over 10 yrs now. Being that it is my job and I'm getting PAID to serve a paying customer, the only thing I had to LIVE by was that the customer was ALWAYS right, even when they really weren't. No offense but its people like you who give customer service reps bad names. If you can't handle the a pain in the ass customers then you have no business working in that environment. Its no wonder you're happy about what has happened here, you're probably one of those idiots sitting on your ass all day that doesn't know how to handle anything, can't answer a simple question and probably puts people on hold for the hell of it. If thats the case why don't you do something else other than customer service because as long as you're in this industry you'll always have to handle irate or pain in the ass customers. Oh and another thing....Sprint has this type of reputation because of its non trained employees who have barely a lick of knowledge on the product.....NOT the paying customers who basically paid YOUR salary. Grow up!

[PattyJo75]

Parasites?

I understand that some customers are frustrating and seemingly cannot be satisfied. That said, however, I cannot imagine that Sprint has more "parasites" than any other cellular provider. Why is it they can handle it but Sprint can't? As we all know, Sprint has been losing itself over the last few years and it's not getting better. We'll see whether getting rid of high-maintenance customers will improve Sprints service problems. As a Sprint PCS customer for 10 years, I doubt anything will change to a customers advantage. As this makes clear - customers are not the priority with Sprint.

[4Denise]

You sound like you are very prejudiced

I have plenty of experience myself. Most "stupid" people are NOT poor. To single out one social or economic group for this kind of abuse is very offensive. It is particularly offensive because the vast majority of the people you are targeting are mature and responsible citizens who deserve much better treatment than what they are getting. I suggest you get over it.

[Ericka2323]

Oh HORRAY

Obviously I should explore a job w/ Sprint vs. my current employeer. I commend them for engaging in such a practice & I surely WISH the company I work for would do the same but, alas they never will which further reinforces the many reasons I will be changing jobs very soon & I couldn't be happier. "Farewell and goodbye to these parasites." preach it my brother in cellular communications!

[lifeincolor]

!!!

AMEN!!!

[a_sprint_byproduct]

good bad and ugly

Yup! Every business has the good bad and the ugly. Having worked over 15 years in Sprint customer service I fine it particularly odd that with Sprint's 53 million or so customers (per Sprint spokeswoman on national t.v.) that the necessary training isn't given to overcome these 1,000 or so bad apple customers. This paltry amount of customers who seemingly threaten the company in such a way to cause this uproar is interesting. Overcoming objections was a major tool in almost every aspect of a customer transaction whether it be a billing matter, sales call etc. I can see Sprint's point of view regarding customers that wind up being more of a liability than an asset, however, are the customers who never call to complain going to receive at least an "atta boy"?....I doubt it!!! Sprint's termination of contracts in this manner is harsh and leaves existing customers wondering...."Am I next?" The next question is whether Sprint will get rid of the next tier of troublesome customers...where does this all end? Will Sprint publish their guidelines for calling customer service?... I doubt this too!! Those broken contracts very well should have a clause that allows this kind of customer termination. "We have the right to refuse service to anyone" can be seen posted in many businesses but a contract entered into to provide service puts the burden on the business as well as the customer. Each has the responsibility to live up to the agreed upon contractual terms. Customer service representatives walk a fine between the cold words written on paper vs. conducting business while bending rules. To achieve an atmosphere conducive to company profitability as well as keeping the human quality of doing business requires tact,training and more training. Sprint has LOST IT if they are so threatened by 1,000 customers because there will always be the good bad and the ugly!!!...and more ugly!

[zookeeper820]

sprint breaks up with high maintance

i been with sprint about 8 years, I've only had to call cs a couple of times. i didn't have any problem getting my problems solved. i only had one drop call
in that time in and was able to call from an island
on Lake Erie when other phones wasn't able to get an y signal. I looked at other wireless carriers and didn't see any with a better plans.

[crusadex]

2 years of hell

I was with sprint for 2 years.Mind you my bill was always paid on time,even in advance.I was a good customer.What Sprint is doing is a slap in the face everyone who has had to deal with their unethical practices,blame the victim sprint,you haven't changed a bit!!!.The first month was great.Added a second phone and was charged by the minute for over a month.The wanted me to pay something like $600,spent 5+ hours with the csr's who said PAY IT NOW.Finally a manager at the store i bought the PLAN from fixed it telling me the CSR's are commision based and make money off of every thing they do.
The very next month i was charged for $400 for internet-I had the unlimited internet plan,The csr verified that i did and fixed it,2 weeks later same thing a $400 charge.This went on for months.Had my phone cut off without notice,was locked out of customer service,hung up on,lied to,lied about in the record,lied about me settling when i didn't,actually locked me out of customer service at one point.I was forced to travel to a main service center where they put me on the phone with a csr.Lied to me about there ability to cancel my account after thousands of dollars of charges caused by them.A BBB report fixed most of the problems.Still i spent HUNDREDS of HOURS on hold,talking with csr's who either lied to me or called me a liar.When i went to cancel my contract after to years becuase i called one day after the contract was up they teid to charge me for another month.I was so furious i yelled at the csr for 20 minutes.When she said ok would you like me to....I said No i will find a real person,file a complaint against you and fix this myself the csr promptly canceled my account.I hope to God someone is Auditing them to the foundations!
2 years of hell is over.I am forever a former Sprint customer.

Heard sprint lost 222,000 customers this quarter!!!
222,000 set free.

[mac173]

Sprints problem is YOU

The problem is not the customers, idiot. Untrained and talentless employees like you are what is killing the business. IF you had a clue, you could see that.

And the disclaimer of "I am not singling out any group" falls way short of negating the obviously prejudicial remarks.

I find your attitude and total lack of professionalism offensive.

[crusadex]

get serious

Your no the Problem buddy,I am sure you do a fine job.
Your CSR's are unethical to the point where it should be criminal.

I would have got down on my knees and thanked God if sprint had cut me loose.Instead i endured 2 years of treatment that would have landed a normal bussiness person in jail.I was lied to lied about,demeaned,spents hundreds of hours and dollars in travel time to fix mistakes that Sprint made and would not correct.
Stop whining it aint about you.It's about a company having to fess up to there problems but instead the blame the customer.
Sprint lost 222,000 customers last qtr.
FREEDOM!!!!!

[crusadex]

Youare sick

Parasires?
We get screwed by people like you month after month and we are evil? Thank God you don't work for Sprint anymore.I pitty any person who would hire you.

[crusadex]

This company can not be defended,it should be investigated

Lady It has nothing to do with poor people.
A company with a good bussiness ethic would deal with them accordingly.
Sprints CSR's are commision based,they make money off of ever service added.It leads to corruption.

Sprint csr's lie as a first language.They expect that every customer with a large bill is simply trying to screw sprint.
It isn't the street trash that i see lined up at the sprint stores,it's bussiness men,military officers,husbands and wives.Most of them fuming,most of them will walk away even angrier becuase the people behind the counter will treat them like garbage.Chances are they will waste days trying to fix a problem that Sprint created.
This company need to go away.
someone buy it out and liquidate it please

[jty12388]

Thats not it

First of all we are talking to calls to CS. The number of times you go to the sprint store (who is commissioned) is not recorded and therefore would not get you dropped. You are right, going to talk to the store/kiosk reps is usually a very bad idea. I worked at radioshack in a mall with 2 kiosks and people usually came in after trying to get help at both of them.
On the other hand talking to sprint CS reps which I have much practice in, they are not unhelpful. In my experience though, I can tell you that these reps are so conditioned to being asked for refunds/credits/discounts/free stuff that without even asking I usually had a 10% discount on the account by the end of the call.
I am not saying to go to RadioShack and try to get a discount, because pay there is commission based as well so they probably are not willing to deal with you either. But personally I know that there are 20 people who would not go anywhere else after I helped them (doesn't help me much now that I quit though:)

[crusadex]

corrupt

OMG are you seriously defending this company?
Try being a sprint customer,you will wish to God you had never heard their name.
This isn't a bad apple thing,this is a matter of Sprint dumping their mistakes on the customer,believe me i know after having to force sprint to fix $3000+ in overcharges the first 6 months i was with them.