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Gadgets Sprint Hangs up on Needy Customers
Brandon Hill (Blog) - July 11, 2007 1:46 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 56 comment(s) - last by Parhel.. on Jul 12 at 2:06 PM
Sprint kicks "unreasonable" customers to the curb

When it comes to customer service, there's only so much that Sprint can apparently take. The company promptly cancelled the mobile phone services of roughly 1,200 customers that it deemed made "unreasonable requests."

The unlucky Sprint customers received the following letter in the mail:

While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time had led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs.

Sprint claims that the customers whom were disconnected were averaging 40 to 50 calls per month to customer service representatives -- typical customers only called in once per month according to Sprint.

"These customers were calling to a degree that we felt was excessive," Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton told Reuters.  "In some cases they were calling customer care hundreds of times a month for a period of six to 12 months on the same issues even after we felt those issues had been resolved."

Sprint has an install base of 53 million customers, so dropping 1,200 customers is a relative drop in the bucket. In addition, Sprint is taking care of the early termination fees and last month phone bill for affected customers.

So if you're an unhappy Sprint customer and still looking for a way to bolt from your contract relatively unscathed, a new out has presented itself.

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WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By swtethan on 7/11/2007 1:57:35 PM , Rating: 2
Who has the damn time to do that?




By mendocinosummit on 7/11/2007 2:00:11 PM , Rating: 2
Angry old people


RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By Hotdogah on 7/11/2007 2:00:37 PM , Rating: 3
I currently work in the CS segment. I can tell you that people do call this much sometimes to try to get credit over and over over maybe a few dollars or just because they are lonley, or just like to complain. This could very well compute to 50-100 hours on the phone in some cases in a month and I hope the rest of the indrusty follows sute like sprint. Well it could lead to problems if it goes to far these people need to be sent a message.


RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By FITCamaro on 7/11/2007 2:01:30 PM , Rating: 2
Housewives. Not necessarily hot, desperate ones though.


RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By GlassHouse69 on 7/12/07, Rating: -1
RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By TomCorelis (blog) on 7/11/2007 3:22:39 PM , Rating: 4
The Consumerist has a rather interesting interview with a Sprint insider regarding their booting customers:

http://consumerist.com/consumer/exclusives/sprint-...

quote:
These customers were for the most part literally defrauding our company. Not just a courtesy credit or two... We're talking customers that haven't made a payment since 2005 and still have active service. Customers who were getting better deals than our own employees get for their own personal accounts.


RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By FITCamaro on 7/11/2007 3:51:46 PM , Rating: 2
I can attest to that. I worked for Sprint for a year as a phone rep. While I didn't deal with any customers like that, I heard of customers who were like that.


RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By mtres on 7/11/07, Rating: 0
RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By SandmanWN on 7/11/2007 5:14:21 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
Sprint needs to get their CS issues cleared up!!

I think they just did. Now that these 1200 nuisances are gone that frees up the CS staff to handle 50-60 calls a month for people having real issues. 1200x60=72,000 freed up calls and a customer service staff that is less stressed, more helpful, and more likely to fix your problem the first time instead of making a mistake on your plan while answer yet another call from another one of these annoying bastards.

Well thats my take any way. :)


RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By dever on 7/11/2007 5:29:30 PM , Rating: 3
I absolutely agree. I'm a relatively satisfied Sprint customer. I see no problem with a company saying "I'm sorry we're unable to meet your needs" and moving on. I've had a few issues over the last 5 years, but nothing they haven't cleared up fairly quickly. I'm sure there are a few bad eggs that complain just to get free services. And it certainly is valuable to know that reasonable customers like me will not be paying for other customers' incompetance.


RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By Parhel on 7/12/2007 12:27:21 AM , Rating: 5
I have Sprint, and I can attest to the fact that they have far worse customer service problems than these 1200 customers. I am not exaggerating when I say that Sprint has by far the worst customer service I have ever dealt with in my life.

A few years ago, the company I worked for went out of business. I had my cellphone through them and they used Sprint. Since they were closing their doors, I asked for and received permission from the company to port my work cell number to my own personal account. I called Sprint and they allowed me to do this.

About a month later, they sent me a personal bill for all of my previous employer's phone lines. I called Sprint maybe 150 - 200 times before this was resolved. It went on for months. And I spoke with multiple "supervisors," a few of which went so far as to threaten me with a lawsuit if I did not personally pay for all of my previous employer's phone lines for the duration of the contract that they had been under.

That was two years ago. Since then, they have still never resolved several issues. First of all, they placed me under a two year contract which I did not agree to. They insist that I agreed to it at the time I moved my phone number, yet have consistently refused to provide evidence. "We don't have to," they say. Also, my local phone taxes are withheld for the city and state that my employer was headquarted. They refuse to fix this and charge me the taxes for my home address, which happens to be where they send the bill. In addition, my caller ID still shows up as my old company name when I dial someone.

Many, many, many times I have called and spoken with their customer service. First of all, and you can set watch to this, you will get hung up on after 5 minutes. They may place you on hold for the whole time and maybe not. They may be talking, you may be talking, but at exactly 5 minutes the call will suddenly disconnect. No kidding, this happens on at least 7 out of 10 calls to Sprint. And then, when you call back there is no record that you have called in the first place. Secondly, the average intellect of their customer service representatives is that of a high school dropout. They do not hire quality people at all.

I'm not saying that these customers didn't have it coming. I really don't know. But, Sprint has abysmal customer service. I know that customer service is bad in general, but trust me on this, Sprint is far worse than your average unpleasant experience. If you do happen to choose them as your service provider, pray that you never have any problems at all that would require you to call their support.


RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By Chudilo on 7/12/2007 10:43:51 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
A few years ago, the company I worked for went out of business.

If their customer service is so terrible why are you still with them.
You know about the number portability law, you can take your number to any carrier.
Are you not still a customer because of various incentives that they have given you since then? And if so ... they have all the right to do that. they have given you the incentives to keep you happy if you're still not happy after all they've tried. Then go on your way to another carrier.
Or should they call a carrier of your choice for you?


RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By Parhel on 7/12/2007 11:00:06 AM , Rating: 3
Sorry, I thought I explained that in my excessively long post. They insist that I signed a 2 year contract when I moved my number to my own account. I didn't sign or agree to a contract, as I had no incentive to do so, and they will not furnish me with any proof. I tried to cancel my service two years ago, but they wouldn't allow it.

That "contract" recently expired, but I wouldn't cancel my Sprint account at this point. I don't hate the company or anything, I just think their customer service sucks.

We are getting quite a deal in comparison with what other providers offer. Between my wife and I, we call from the US to Brazil about 1000 minutes / month. They charge $0.14/minute to either a landline or a cellphone while the nearest competitor charges $0.14/minute to a landline and $0.28/minute to a cellphone. Also, I get 15% off of my bill through work.


RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By RamarC on 7/11/2007 5:16:23 PM , Rating: 2
I too have a had Sprint for years and occassionally had a billing problem. The issue (too me) stems from too many partial credits and charges when service is changed. Sometimes I'd get bills with up to 20 different things on that were charged then partially creditted this month and creditted again the next month.

Still 40+ calls to customer service in a month is ridiculous. If the customer is that upset, they should just change providers.


RE: WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH?
By ryedizzel on 7/12/2007 5:41:12 AM , Rating: 4
quote:
WTF! 40-50 calls per MONTH? WTF! Who has the damn time to do that?

Some people post on DailyTech all day, others call Sprint. ;-)


By Christopher1 on 7/12/2007 7:02:12 AM , Rating: 2
First off all, while I sympathize with Sprint's decision.... I still think it is the wrong decision, for the sole reason that they did not, to my knowledge, from reading the article make sure that the people who were calling in were calling in with unreasonable requests.

Now, what is their definition of 'unreasonable'? Expecting the network to be up almost all the time? Reasonable to me. Expecting every feature on the phone to work all the time? Reasonable.

Actually, I can't think of one complaint, even straining my brain to think of the most outrageous request (I can't really think of any)....... that would lead to me dropping someone who paid for a service from the network.

Now, I will be honest.... my parents have a cell phone that we use instead of our land line (only have it connected for 911 access), and they have never called their company to get something fixed, even though Cingular's (the company we have) service is spotty to none at certain times back where our house is.


Does not surprise me at all
By Flunk on 7/11/2007 2:16:46 PM , Rating: 4
Call Centre time is expensive. People who call in 40-50 times a month cost the company far more than the revenue they bring in. Assuming the CSRs are making $8 an hour at 20 minutes a call 40 * (20/60) * 8 = $106.67 in wages alone, not including overhead like phone lines, equipment, facilities.

So because of this many companies decide that these customers are not worth having and terminate their service. I'm surprised more companies don't do this.




RE: Does not surprise me at all
By AntiM on 7/11/2007 2:28:20 PM , Rating: 5
Yes, I don't blame them a bit. As a desktop support tech at a large corporation, it's a well known fact that 10 percent of our users generate 90 percent of our calls and problems. Some people are just too stupid, some people just like to complain about unimportant crap, and some people just seem prone to having weird problems. Maybe they have some sort of overactive brainwave activity that interferes with the flow of electrons in a circuit?


RE: Does not surprise me at all
By alifbaa on 7/11/2007 2:52:10 PM , Rating: 2
Yes, and some seem to have an uncanny ability to get an incompetent moron every time they call, not have their issue resolved, and get treated like crap in the process. (The reason why I left Sprint a year ago.)

I thought the most interesting part of the article was when they said the average customer needs to call customer service once a month. Since I moved into my home 3 years ago, I haven't had to call my electric, water/gas, internet, telephone, or satellite company at all. Why is it reasonable for me to need to call my cell phone company once a month? I think it's time we all start dropping Sprint for causing us to have excessive calls to customer service. Of course, if we did that, we'd all have to pay early termination fees.


RE: Does not surprise me at all
By elpresidente2075 on 7/11/2007 8:32:25 PM , Rating: 2
Congratulations for becoming an above-average consumer! I too have attained such status, and find it quite demeaning when I have to call customer service at a company. To imply that the average consumer would call on average least once a month is absolutely insulting! They should certainly redefine the term "average" to not include all those who have to actually make a call to their centers. That way, it would mean their average would be zero customer service calls. What a great average that is for this aspect of business!!

</sarcasm>

It's called an average for a reason. And yes, for the above-average consumer, CSR's are generally "incompetent morons". Keep in mind the types of people/problems they generally deal with though... there isn't a very vigorous hiring process for these positions.


RE: Does not surprise me at all
By