Sprint layoffs start at the top

Well, not the very top -- give the guy a chance, will ya! -- but it's clear that heads are already starting to roll at Sprint Nextel following last week's disastrous report of subscriber churn, with the company's chief financial officer, chief marketing officer, and president of sales and distribution effectively getting the boot as of tomorrow. In respective order, Paul Saleh, Tim Kelly, and Mark Angelino will all be "stepping down" on Friday, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) -- the first casualties of a planned 4,000 head count reduction. CFO Saleh is getting replaced in the interim by Senior Vice President and Controller William Arendt, while the other two positions will be temporarily filled by unnamed executives. Sprint lost 639,000 valuable postpaid customers in the fourth quarter, and taking a look at our decidedly unscientific poll may give you some idea why.

Update: Sprint sent us some more info regarding the other interim replacements: "John Garcia, currently senior vice president, Product Development and Management, will serve as acting Chief Marketing Officer. Paget Alves, currently Sprint Nextel's regional president for sales and distribution, will serve as acting president, Sales and Distribution. All will report directly to Hesse."

[Image courtesy of Chip Kidd, The New York Times]

[kjb434 @ Jan 24th 2008 10:01AM]

And...big whoop! People get laid off all the time. It just means your skills aren't needed. You're job is never yours unless you own the company. You are offering a service for pay. As soon as your service is not need, the company has every right to let you go.

All it means is that if you're laid off, you have to take your skills and find a company that needs what you can provide. If no one needs it, you have to develop new skills.

So, if you are laid off. Find somewhere else to work. If a job isn't available nearby, you may have to move.

[Flit @ Jan 24th 2008 10:43AM]

Yes, because this worked so well for CompUSA. Lay off the top and middle management, and let the know-nothings run the place at $7/hr. At this rate, Sprint will be gone/bought up in 6 months to 1 year.

[thesb @ Jan 24th 2008 10:43AM]

And...because all companies are ran exactly as they should be, all layoffs should be understood as being "nobody's fault but mine". Additionally, executives should receive very large severance packages and an "A" for effort. Hey, at least they tried, right? /sarcasm off

[kjb434 @ Jan 24th 2008 10:50AM]

If no one worked for $7/hr they would have to raise the rate, but enough people go there and accept the $7/hr.

Executive pay is based of the value of what shareholders and the board think they are worth. If the executive is crappy, they just toss him out.

And yes, I can see Sprint/Nextel just dissolving away.

CompUSA failed because it overcharged for products compared to BestBuy and Circuit City and other large retail outlets. On top of that, online retails sell event cheaper. I used to like CompUSA for to visually see products and inspect them, then I go home and by it online for cheaper. I'm just as much to blame for the layoffs too.

Circuit City did the same thing as CompUSA and they are surviving.

[badqat @ Jan 24th 2008 10:07AM]

I never had any issues with my phone service while with Sprint. However, their customer service was proof positive that something could suck and blow at the same time. Horrible.

Hitched my wagon to the iPhone and at&t and don't regret it one bit...night and day, night and day...

[Joe @ Jan 24th 2008 10:12AM]

The customer service does suck at sprint, nothing but problems when I needed help. I really jumped for the iphone and the ATT service is much better.

[Joe @ Jan 24th 2008 10:19AM]

The customer service does suck at sprint, nothing but problems when I needed help. I really jumped for the iphone and the ATT service is much better.

[Barry @ Jan 24th 2008 10:38AM]

Sweet. Layoffs should ALWAYS start at the top. That's called taking responsibility for your failure.

[CosterMonger @ Jan 24th 2008 11:00AM]

finally management gets the boot first

love that Peter Principle

[badqat @ Jan 24th 2008 10:40AM]

I never had any issues with my phone service while with Sprint. However, their customer service was proof positive that something could suck and blow at the same time. Horrible.

Hitched my wagon to the iPhone and at&t and don't regret it one bit...night and day, night and day...

[lanejasper69 @ Jan 24th 2008 10:45AM]

Sorry Boys, should have been listening to the consumer instead of playing Golf!

Faslane

[mykeliam @ Jan 24th 2008 10:47AM]

That's the first step they needed to make. Now they need to get people from the old Nextel back. I've sold cellphones and pagers for years and those people were GOOD! If Nextel would've had as big of a network as Sprint has, they would've wiped the floor with them. I've personally seen instances where Nextel had a smaller footprint and crappier handsets than Verizon and the customers insist in Nextel, even to this day! And they now think that Nextel is starting to suck! How can you have the most loyal highest average customer in the business and screw that up???

[Phillip (PhillyMac) @ Jan 24th 2008 10:50AM]

Well, I was with Sprint for 6 years. Their customer service was never stellar. The pricing was fair-to midling. Their phones pretty much sucked. Their coverage used to be bad, but is increasingly better to where I ha. Better I must say than AT&T - which REALLY needs to "raise the bar" if they're going to have "more bars in more places" around where I live. BUT, I switched so I could get the iPhone and I'm totally happy I did!

[Tamer Brad @ Jan 24th 2008 10:52AM]

I just got a job at a Sprint/Nextel support center ... at an outsourcing firm in Canada, a country where we don't even have Sprint. I can tell you from what I've learned there already that Sprint is an absolutely terrible company.

[mireya @ Jan 24th 2008 10:54AM]

Does this mean those are the guys to blame why my Sprint phone sucks!!! That their finally going to listen to the consumer and make us happy.

*Why is it that about every 6 months, I would have to pay twice in the same month. When I complain their logic is completely ridiculous.
Mind you this is from a consumer that pays on time or ahead of my payments.

If they don't change soon. They will be losing another consumer this year.

[TheShoe23 @ Jan 24th 2008 11:04AM]

@kjb434, with comments like those you must have never been laid off. Its not always that easy to learn a new skill, some people aren't capable of doing certain jobs, because of intelligence, health, or some other reason. Same goes with moving to find another job, if you have a specialized skill and can relocate to another job utilizing that skill then more power to you. It doesn't usually work that way though. Your comment wreaks of arrogance, I bet you are rich, are self employed or both.
I'm glad the cuts are starting at the top though, where they belong. The only low level cuts I would do are the CSR's that apparently are A-holes or don't know what they are doing!

[JK @ Jan 24th 2008 11:14AM]

I must be awesome, because I've yet to have any problems with Sprint in the 2 years I have them; I just canned my first contract lines and moved to SERO with a Q9c for myself and Rumor for the wife, the transition has been cake so far, my first bill with all 4 lines was completely correct, 2 lines will get canned when the contract is up in April, don't really anticipate any major issues. Can _NOT_ beat the SERO deal, anywhere, my buddy is an asst. mgr of a VZW store and SERO beats his discounted rate (with unlim data/txt) into the ground.

[OneLove @ Jan 24th 2008 11:20AM]

They get the boot and a huge "step down" package.

[Ike Skelton @ Jan 24th 2008 12:22PM]

So they're based here in Kansas City (area), and everyone I know with Sprint service says their signal is terrible IN KANSAS CITY (and the surrounding areas)... Where they're based. Figure that one out.

[Sam @ Jan 24th 2008 1:36PM]

Waring Hudsucker thinks they got let off easy.

[Sinh Truong @ Jan 24th 2008 1:52PM]

It's the customer support! I was with them for 4 years before my rebate incident. My rebate got "lost in the mail" and couldn't give my $200 back because if I were to resubmit it, it would be after the promotion. That and they didn't prorate my plan. So when I switched plans I paid for 2 different plans in one month while I switched over. Hours on the phone trying to get my rebate back and finding extra charges on my bill was enough to make me switch. With T-mobile now and their support is EXCELLENT! Girlfriend went over her minutes by an obscene amount and they forgave her twice by not charging her. Plus they have Dwayne Wade and Barkley. =)

[Rodney Allan Rippley @ Jan 24th 2008 2:48PM]

I'm glad to see this finally happening.

Sprint has earned the right to come crashing down onto the rubble heap of failed companies. Companies who felt that they could ignore the customer and still stay in business. Companies who felt that they could retain customers through deceit and hostage-holding instead of providing superior value over the competition.

One of the happiest days of my life was when I paid a $400 ETF to be rid of this lying corporate-terrorist company for good and all.

Went with a Go-Phone from AT&T, strangely enough. Now we pay for only what we use, and we aren't anyone's hostage.

[rippityrappity @ Jan 24th 2008 3:10PM]

hopefully they'll use the money they save from firing the top 3 people to hire some customer service reps. i haven't been able to talk to anyone on the phone about my acct for the past 2 days and counting.

[Steve Shiller @ Jan 25th 2008 4:07PM]

I don't know why all the negative. I've had billing issues with Sprint but they were extremly helpful and give me discounts, I currently get 50 bucks off a month. They exchanged my phones a few times, no questions. I had them over 8 yrs. Always have service on the East coast. I do get the higher end phones, that does make a difference. Sprint would do much better if they marketed a line of phones for younger people like Verizon does.

[Bigtech @ Jan 28th 2008 11:37AM]

I've been with Sprint for about 6 years and June 8th is when my contract is up. Well, I'm not renewing my contract due to a lot of reasons, first reason: Sprint sales phones that don't work with their setup and too many dropped calls.
Second reason: They lied about my share plan contract and charged me a huge deposit for that second phone.
Third reason: At times I have to Roam on Verizon's network in order to make a call due to Sprint's poor signal here in Topeka, KS.
Fourth reason: The customer service has been extremly poor in the past when you have to call them on the phone, I would get this foreign chick who wouldn't listen to my issue, she talked around my problem and if you get mad at them, they hang up and then you have to wait another 30 minutes to talk to a Rep. Since I get a signal with Verizon I think that will be my switch when June 8th gets around!!!