Sprint lambasted for disconnecting whiners, notorious roamers
By Darren Murph 
posted July 10th 2007 1:01PM
posted July 10th 2007 1:01PM
Recently, Sprint decided to cut its losses and give a number of CSRs a break from the nagging when it pulled the plug on nearly 1,200 of its mobile customers. Apparently, these whiners were dialing in "40 to 50 times as often" as the "average customer," and after failing to appease them, the firm chose to "terminate the relationship with those customers to allow them to pursue other options." As you'd imagine, some of these bicker-prone individuals are less than pleased with the outcome, and to make matters worse, the firm has also cut the cord with habitual roamers -- including some that are actually enlisted in our military. Can't a soldier (or sniveller) catch a break?[Thanks, John F.]
Read - Sprint cancels 1,200 contracts over excessive complaining
Read - Sprint cancels traveling soldiers' cellphone
Perhaps I'm the only one who hasn't had any problems with Sprint. Their actual phone service has wide coverage, fast speeds, and reasonable prices. I have had to call customer service to work through some thorny billing questions after I made some major changes to my plan, but they sat and walked through a 21-page bill with me until I understood it all, and made a few credits where we identified problems.
It seems I'm in the minority, but I haven't had any issues with their service or customer support. Furthermore, have you ever had to make more than a dozen calls to get anything resolved? I never have, even when fighting with insurance companies. If you're making 50 calls a month, yes, Sprint might decide you're just not worth the trouble. I don't see what is wrong with that. You can drop their service, and they can drop yours.
(And how about issues with Engadget/Weblogs Inc blocking your e-mail address from posting at all, like they did ever since I dared to disagree with Ryan Block, using facts and references?)
I too have not had any major issues with Sprint. I have had to call them, may be 5-6 times, since the 5 years that I've been with them. When I signed up with them, coverage was a little patchy in some areas around Central CA, but it has been improving constantly.
Actually - typically you *can't* drop their service - not without a penalty - if you're still within your contract. They can drop you by saying 'we won't charge you a penalty for dropping you'... [sarcasm] very nice of them [/sarcasm].
Personally, I don't see there's an actual issue here - except that it's entirely possible that at least some of these 'chronic whiners' may be trying to get a real problem solved that the telco doesn't want to deal with.
I had a problem with my landline provider in that my line quality was horrible - noisy and often unintelligible. Their view was 'well, it's not our problem - it's probably the building's wiring'. The building management, of course said it wasn't their problem, it was the phone company. After several tries to get it fixed - I just gave up. So I cancelled my phone and subscribed to a VoIP company and ended up saving about $20 a month (not to mention free long distance) that I'm now using for portable WiMax internet.
I also tried getting DSL from them and that was stunningly bad - regularly failing, replacing modems (at up to two weeks per try). I eventually switched to cablemodem and solved that problem.
Good for Sprint!
I work in the hospitality industry (okay... I'm a waiter), and some people just expect unreasonable things. For example, at a table of four customers, the kitchen cooks one guy's steak too much, and he expects all the food for his party to be bought by the restaurant. Irrational.
I'm sure Sprint was dealing with extremely unreasonable people. They're a publicly held company, they are required by law to make as much money as possible. They would never stop taking money from customers w/o a very good reason. Those people must have been leeches.
If some people were constantly calling in, complaining about their lack of service and asking for free phone service, Sprint should just give 'em the boot and wish them luck with the next provider.
I've never had a problem with Sprint's customer service before. Not on the phone, nor on location. I don't understand what the problem is.
Oh, and "kidqwik," if you believe Sprint's phone selection sucks, you must be trying really hard to be so ignorant.
The Samsung A900 is the best clamshell on the market, IMO. The phone has been out for well over a year, and it still doesn't have one competitor. (Verizon's [who has the closest product to compare] GUI sucks and the RAZR is a TERRIBLE phone with TERRIBLE reception and a TERRIBLE screen)
For smartphones the Sprint version of the Q is pretty slick, albeit with terrible battery life, but the Treo's have always been fantastic. The Mogul is also the newest, slickest smartphone available. (iPhone is not a smart phone, so don't bother comparing them)
In Kansas City, the best choice is Sprint if you want the best coverage and high speed data and the slickest phones.
The A900 the best flip on the market really? With a known memory leak problem, a music phone with no expandable memory? your joking right? and as a former waiter if a resturant screws up my dinner it should be free, maybe not the whole table but at least mine, that is unless the rest of my party is able to finish there dinner before mine comes back and they have to sit and watch me eat or let their dinner get cold then it should be. Belive me man i understand that your jaded and sick and tired of people complaining but thats not the problem of every customer who walks through the door
o and BTW the Q blows HARD!!! i have one
It would be wise to impose a customer service call limit (10 calls/mo sounds good) on low-value accounts. That ensures that those that use a lot of CS pay for it, and not those smart enough to take 5 minutes and read the manual.
Excessive roamers? Why doesn't Sprint offer free roaming like every other carrier, then?
Maybe their coverage has changed, but I remember Sprint's digital coverage was so bad that so many places you went placed you in a "roaming" area, which they would promptly charge you extra for. This is how they made a huge bulk of their profits, and subsequently, one of the main reasons I never touched Sprint with a ten-foot pole.
I don't understand why anyone even cares about Sprint. If someone's going to go the CDMA route, why on earth would anyone bother with Sprint when they have access to Verizon? Besides, between the two, Verizon is the best CDMA network, period.
If you got kicked off of the Sprint network, count your blessings and go to Verizon.
Cheap data plans, free data roaming, plus many free perks for my 5 years of having service.
This is like Verizon kicking you out of excessive data use. Same end, different reason.
Well, I guess no wireless provider is perfect. But certainly one choice is better than another. Maybe it depends on where you're at - one CDMA carrier is better in one area than another and vice versa.
You mention free data roaming on Sprint. Do they offer free voice roaming yet? I'm still unclear as to why this is such an issue for Sprint. I've never heard it being an issue on any other network.
I've always had free roaming. Maybe on the old, old plans you had to purchase a roaming option. I used to roam at my work site about 2 years ago, now I even get EVDO up in the sticks.
Also, Sprint also has this phone you call that will credit you, for your last phone call if it gets dropped. It's all automated, takes less than 1 minute.
They should just get rid of Sprint instead as their network sucks and is spotty at best, the CSRs are total tards, that is if you can get through the average 30 to 50 minute wait period. My wife and I got these A-holes and can get a better deal with better coverage, oh and plenty of 3G phones with AT&T, and no, we dont want a stupid iPhone. I'm perfectly fine with my old skool Treo. But if you still are set on going with Sprint, and you want certain things like oh, I dont know, insurance on your phone, you better make 100000% certain its on there when you get suckered into using them.
This really isn't as bad a move as everyone is making it out to be. Check out Seth Godin's post over at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/07/treating-differ.html . He says "These 1000 people were actually happy to be unhappy. They were unpleasable, and they weren't helping either word of mouth or the ability of the call center folks to do good work." Genius!
I know people just like that. I deal with a couple of hypochondriacs every month. You don't know what it's like to have people who simply cannot be satisfied no matter what we do. They literally have a psychological condition where they just want attention, and I can't keep doing it for free (because they come in to get basically free services only and have you redo your work a hundred times - for free) and neither can any company. Not for about $40 a month for sure.
best dam n thing i have seen done yet............
Actually there are several web sites that SUGGEST making a nuisance of yourself so your carrier will cut the cord. And excessive roaming is another method they suggest. Get outside your call area after hours (business trips) and just call a number - like a home line and leave the phone connected for the whole night.
perfect excuse to get that iphone
I don't get why everyone is always complaining about sprint? Are you complaining just to join the bandwagon or what? I've had sprint since the mid '90s to end of the '90s, I will not sit here and say they are the best company, but of all the companies i have had which is pretty much every single major wireless company in the U.S. (the big 4, sprint, verizon, cingular/att, tmobile) they have always been there for me. When I call CS I get everything done right away. When I need something to change they'll change it correctly. What I see though is that those that get awesome service don't say anything where as those that have a small problem have the loudest voice. Also, sprint has included roaming for a very long time now. Free that is, what they're talking about is traveling outside of the US continental border. I don't mean traveling out to Asia but, sprint does work in canada, mexico, and parts of europe, I know cause I've used my phone there before.
If you ask me who has the worst service I would say t-mobile. However, they know they have the worse service that's why it's so inexpenisive. Cingular, I unfortunately still have them cause everyone in my family has Cingular, has slightly better coverage then t-mobile but their CS is just as bad if not worse then Sprint. Verizon has the exact same amount of coverage as Sprint, those idiots out there that says "no look at their coverage map the entire US is covered," news flash verizon includes their roaming partners coverage in as well, and guess who their roaming partner is? That's right Sprint. Of all the wireless company out there Sprint is still the only company that is still here from the original wireless companies, that should tell that they ARE doing something right.
My experience over the years with SprintPCS is that they are likely to mess up your plan/billing if you need to contact them about any changes. As long as you never talk to billing, and everything is fine, then things will continue to be fine.
I went for two new phones and a consolidated plan for my family, and ended up regretting it. I figured talking to a person face to face was better than on the phone, so I went to the Sprint store, and made them call when it was necessary. After HOURS of their working on and explaining my new plan, I was told exactly how and when to cancel my old phones. At end of month the bill was out of control, they didn't understand it, so they asked me to come back the next month. It was MUCH worse then. As I was escalated at the store, they finally told me it was my fault. Everyone (but the store mgr) was friendly and tried to help, but they still couldn't get the job done, or fix the problem afterward. I was VERY nice and accommodating, yet finally threatened to file with FCC, they didn't care. The FCC was able to get them to offer a month free, but even after that I was still down ~$200.
I am still on Sprint (stupid me), but I'm looking for a new phone and new provider!
Ive had sprint for almost 10 years. They keep getting better and better every year, but customer service sucks. i have unlimited data and unlimited text and mobile to mobile nights starting at 7 and over 2000 minutes all for under 50 bucks a month. I call only when i need to. I have service where ever i travel in the US, except a part of jersey (jersey is weird). These people had to be real abusers, If you have a major problem thats not being fix, call retention, they will bend over backwards to help you. I also have ATT, not happy with ATT tech support but customer service is ok. Sprint has some nice phones, The exotic phones that are out their, i find that most of the features aren't supported by ATT so whats the point.
Wow, what an excellent comparison. So, if I oppose the war in Iraq, I should also oppose soldiers getting cell phone service? I don't have a problem with US soldiers. They exist for a reason. However, it is a fairly well known fact at this point in the game that the Iraq war is a crock of shit. Look at the polls. Look at the Australians.
There are a lot of reasons to oppose the war. One reason is that I don't want US soldiers to get killed for absolutely no reason. What good will it do to have them killed in Iraq? Iraqis clearly don't care about their own fate; they'd rather take month long vacations and let us fight for them. That's great and all, but you (the soldiers) are putting your lives on the line, and we (the Americans) are paying out the ass for them to have their cake and eat it too.
I am all for US soldiers. US soldiers need cell phone service like everyone else. US soldiers do not need to go halfway across the world to die for something that neither benefits America nor themselves.
This is one of the best things I have ever heard. Years ago I worked for GTE Wireless (before they were bought by Alltel) and I remember the problem accounts. as soon as people learned how the system worked they started to abuse it. on any typical day, I would get about 5 calls from people who made it a habit of calling on a weekly basis. They would usually say something like "my call dropped while I was going through a tunnel and it was a really important call.". even though I would try to explain that dropped calls happen occasionally they knew that if they escalated it to a supervisor they could usually get a $20 credit out of the call. and it always happened. and we were not allowed to hang up on people so customers could call us every name in the book and we had to deal with it. plus, if the call escalated to a supervisor, we would usually get on the supervisors shit list for not handling the call ourselves.
here's a great example of a constant caller. there was a guy who's name was "Ron $R" (I changed the first name and he came up with the last name to abuse the system). when you look at his name you want to say senior because that's how it looks on the screen. but if you called the guy Ron Senior he would yell at you and ask for a supervisor. his name was pronounced "Dollar sign R". I remember going through the notes on this guys account and he had received thousands of dollars in credits. His credits actually were greater than any of his balances. so we were paying him to use our service. and in return, we got to get yelled at every week by this guy. and there was nothing we could do.
by the time I finally quit I had been taking up to 6 Excedrins everyday because of the stress. to this day I cannot stand talking on the phone anymore. it makes me sick to think that people would rather sit on hold for 20 minutes to bitch about a dropped call rather than just calling the person back.
Let's not forget that these calls usually lasted 20-30 minutes which made everyone else wait longer to get helped.
this is just my two cents
I'm with Sprint, and yes the CSR's are idiots!!! they are the reason behind half this bs!!! I've been Sprint 5 years and bitched plenty because of their billing issues and faulty equipment, but this is a low blow, they SHOULD get rid of the idiot employees they hire to run their call centers that don't know shit, instead of kicking the customer away!!! F-Off Sprint!!! Kick me out, go ahead, I CARE!
Faslane
Hey Craig you fucktard don't correct someone then use a word like pwned.
I'll support you, here, Dqoy. I happen to support the war and the soldiers who fight it. I understand why people oppose the war--war is hell and I'm sure no one knows that better than those who serve. It's funny how those who have been there, tend to support the cause. Hmm... I think that should tell us lazy civilians that we don't know jack about what's really going on over there... for good.
Your point is one that seems to be ignored by the public at large. The methods that have been used to oppose the war effectively destroy the support for the soldiers; cutting budgets is one of the greatest.
I support continuing the war if soldiers are withdrawn as they can be. It's time to slowly take our hands off the seat of Iraq's bicycle so they can learn to ride on their own. It just scares the heck out of me to think about how easy it would be for terrorists to overthrow the fledgling government and undo all the good that our soldiers have done in the Middle East.
But don't fret; the same incredulous opposition would have surfaced had Roosevelt struck Hitler preemptively. That's what we (you) have done. One of the modern-day Hitlers is dead because of your sacrifices and dedication. Thank you for serving the cause of freedom, both in the desert and the blogs.
Hah, that lady has a tiny middle finger.
Makes sense. If these people are tying things up, then they need to deal with it.
Thanks but no thanks, Sprint! I remember trying to sign up for their regular telephone service. That ordeal alone was a nightmare. I couldn't even get off the starting blocks with this company connecting my phones correctly. Thankfully, I cut my losses and disconnected the service with them which never even got activated. After this news on how they treat their customer service problems, i'll say thanks but no thanks, Sprint---indefinitely. I'm so happy that i avoided the torture of their incompetence which i suspect ranks at an above average level.