Sprint Nextel taps Embarq's Dan Hesse as new CEO

With falling subscriber numbers and some difficult Xohm decisions to be made in the coming months, Sprint wanted a new man at the helm, and has picked Dan Hesse for the job. Dan's replacing Gary Forsee, who held the job since 2003 and was pegged for replacement since August. Hesse hails from Sprint spin-off Embarq, and served as CEO of AT&T Wireless from 1997 to 2000, back in the glory years of that service. Here's hoping that he doesn't axe the WiMAX, but it's clear something has got to change in Sprint land to turn things around.

[becky tracey @ Jan 27th 2008 11:59AM]

We have been with nextel for many years and just switched to sprint. I still have two weeks to change my mind about that too. I just spent 1 1/2 hours on the phone with nextel trying to disconnect service and figure out the final bill. Needless to say after talking to 6 people I am still no further ahead than I was 1 1/2 hours ago. The employees for nextel have way too much anger towards sprint. I have never in my life talked to a company that down graded another sector of their own company as much as these people did. A may not know how to run a large company but as a consumer I would say that you first must get nextel and sprint on the same page (maybe even the same book would be good). The one guy told me that I made a big mistake by switching my service and getting sprint phones from a sprint store because "those people don't tell you the whole truth, which to me is the same as a lie" (I had no problem with switching or getting phones he was just trying to get me off the subject I called about) even if this is true about the stores should you tell a customer that? To me he just defaced the sprint name because in bold BIG letters is SPRINT hanging outside the store. If sprint does not want to go where it dug nextel from it better step up to the plate and starting running nextel instead of nextel running sprint. who bought who?

[Bombaclaat @ Dec 18th 2007 9:31AM]

pwnd

[Flashpoint @ Dec 18th 2007 9:36AM]

Sprint stock has been falling steadily since the 90's - as well as its subscriber base.

#1 their customer service sucks
#2 Sprint customers got hit with ridiculous charges, bills,,etc and many of them left with ruined credit ratings.
#3 Sprint has always been expensive despite sloppy call fidelity.

I knew Sprint was doomed when they partnered with Nextel - the proof is in the pudding...Nextel phones mostly suck now and their have been no groundbreaking Nextel phones added to the market. Not to mention the phones that did come to the market like the I870 and the i880 were ridiculously bulky and outdated.

Sprint will steadily lose customers to T-MOBILE, AT&T and VERIZON

[jus10 @ Dec 18th 2007 9:39AM]

Yeah, my new handset comes today and I'll be moving off of Sprint.

[Jonathan Bergeron @ Dec 18th 2007 9:42AM]

First thing he should do is put the company up for sale.

[boe @ Dec 18th 2007 9:54AM]

I get good cell coverage for the most part with Sprint, I also get good data speeds in most places with Sprint, and I've managed to haggle my monthly bill to a great price point.

Problems with Sprint
1. rediculously bad customer service - there are some good reps but they are far and few between
2. billing issues - frequent mistakes with billing - which means you have to call customer service - see number 1.
3. Crappy phone selection and testing. They get phones that are two years behind the curve and then don't really do any testing but for some reason their testing takes about a year! There are better CDMA phones in asia and better GSM phones in Europe. Sprint's closed network means you can't call the manufacturer for support - see number 1.

[wireless.nemo @ Dec 18th 2007 10:02AM]

agreed on all points.

SERO FTW btw.

[boe @ Dec 18th 2007 10:00AM]

I should have listed this in my problems with Sprint thread but it kind of deserves it's own post since it is such an easy fix it boggles the brain why Sprint hasn't fixed this years ago.

Sprint has some serious phone clients in PDAphonehome, ppcgeeks and xdadevelopers and even a few in their own forum buzzabout wireless. THe sad thing is there are some people who even fix issues with their PDAphones but Sprint can't be bothered to post those fixes on their own page and Sprint can't possibly use these people who actually find all the bugs with Sprint phones for Beta testers. All they'd have to do is give them a free phone for testing and they'd have all the issues known within a week and even some fixes from those same people but instead they pay a "research firm" outside of Sprint to test the phones. I'm sure they get paid buckets full of cash to give Sprint some wonderful pie charts and thick binders full of useless paperwork but vitually no real world testing.

[Sprint_Engineer @ Dec 18th 2007 11:05AM]

Sprint isn't going anywhere. The company just needs focus. The old CEO had to many things going at once plus he botched the merger with Nextel. Two opposite worlds were forced together without a whole lot of thought. It is slowly working itself out internally.

The churn (AKA customers leaving) is mostly on the Nextel side of the house, and even those numbers are inflated because a lot of those accounts are being converted to Sprint CDMA accounts and the people using the hybrid handsets.

Having a new, fresh CEO come in and shake things up is exactly what this company needs.

[Brian @ Dec 18th 2007 2:25PM]

customers port number from sprint to me all day

[Brian @ Dec 18th 2007 3:57PM]

yeah right i get atleast 4 sprint customers a day buying from me

[Jason @ Dec 18th 2007 5:19PM]

I am willing to bet there are 4 people signing up for Sprint at the kiosk right next to you. Go back to the mall.

The engineer guy is right. It isn't going anywhere and 55 million other people agree.

[Nick @ Dec 19th 2007 7:21AM]

Here how about this for you sprint lovers. Each day people leave sprint/nexyel for a different carrier. The jive about nextel customers going over to sprint......HA! That may be true for 3% of them. Sprint would have the guts to say nextel is the reason they are the way they are. That is a line of you know what. Nextel was a good company before sprint came along and ruined things. In fact here's an example for all you sprint lovers, guess what you signed up for. You accept ANY and ALL charges from Sprint. Don't believe me. Read the fine print. Also, this no roaming with sprint is supposed to be free. HA! That's a lie. I have had customers bring in their sprint bills and show me that they are being charged for mobile to mobile. When sprints higher ups are questioned about this, the response i got (along with many others) is, "We can charge for whatever we want and nothing you can do about it." No bull. The two biggest carriers in the U.S. are Verizon and Alltel followed closely by AT&T wireless. Sprint is about to fall of the map. Ask people for their honost personal overall experience with sprint and i'm sure they'd agree with me.

[PowerCell @ Dec 18th 2007 11:16AM]

I see Sprint becoming a part of SK Cell within 18 months...

[Mark @ Dec 18th 2007 11:21AM]

I have a suggestion for Sprint. Simplify your plans and billing system to the point that your own employees can understand it. I'm always terrified to make ANY change to my plan, even just getting a new phone activated at full price while keeping my plan untouched. EVERY SINGLE TIME I've done ANYTHING to my account they've screwed something up (which always results in higher fees, not lower ones) and it takes 3-4 billing cycles before I finally get a customer service rep who understands how to fix it.

[boe @ Dec 18th 2007 3:00PM]

I think the only way to simplify anything enough for Sprint reps would be to have the same people who design the registers at McDonald's design the Sprint CS reps terminals. I'd suggest the researchers from Washington State who designed the computer interface for Washu the chimp create an interface for them but most of the time he just kept putting in "piece of apple" to get apple slices - frankly I don't know if Sprint could store enough apple slices for all the CS reps who would be doing the same thing at their terminal all day.

PS no disrespect to Washu intended - I have plenty of respect for Washu.

[Mark @ Dec 18th 2007 3:55PM]

If Sprint can get out WiMAX in the St Louis area, I'll switch from ATT in a heartbeat.

[Ivan @ Dec 18th 2007 5:31PM]

Good luck to this guy; he'll need it. I've switched cell providers three times, most recently to Sprint ~6 months ago. Worst. experience. ever. I'm scared to call a rep because they'll screw somtething else up. I understand they're staffing a new call center in the Philippines. Somehow that's not reassuring.

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2007 7:39AM]

Sprint is not going anywhere. Its has the best/fastest data network in the US. The customer service issue is known and being dealt with. Was it terrible in the past? YES. Is it getting corrected? YES. It will take time for the changes and perception of Sprint to change, but it will happen. I have used Sprint for the past 3 years and could not be happier. I have had the same issue described by others here, but not with Sprint. Those issues occurred with VZ and ATT. To each his own.

[TheLongView @ Jan 18th 2008 3:56PM]

HEY DAN!!!! SUGGESTION 1. NUMERO UNO,, POST HASTE,, IMMEDIATELY,,REDESIGN AND REPAIR THAT UNGODLY UNFRIENDLY WEBSITE FOR PHONE MANAGEMENT AND BILLING ACCOUNTS,, MAKE IT CLEAR,, EASY TO NAVIGATE,, CHANGE ALL ASPECTS OF ACCOUNT BY THE CUSTOMER,, BY-PASS THE STUPID CSR'S AND YOU MAY SAVE WHAT GOODWILL YOU HAVE LEFT..
SUGGESTION 2. IF YOU DROP THE CANCELLATION FEES THEY WILL COME. SOONER OR LATER THE COMPETITION WILL AND YOU WILL FEEL A DRAFT.
SUGGESTION 3. FIRE EVERYONE FROM THE OLD REGIME JUST AS FAST AS YOU CAN.

[adam @ Jan 19th 2008 11:23AM]

When I was deployed to Iraq Sprint had the nerve to continue charging me money even though I had my account suspended because of my deployment. Then I had to call at least 10 or 11 times to while I was deployed to get them to fix it. When I got back from my deployment, they made me renew my contract for another 2 years because they were no longer offering the same plan I had when I re-uped with them a year before that. I told these people numerous times that I was deployed and didnt have time to deal with this and they really didn't seem to care. Needless to say, as soon as I leave the states and am stationed overseas, bye bye sprint forever!