Last week, I had the opportunity to interview Sprint Nextel’s new CEO Dan Hesse for about 20 minutes for my story “Sprint’s Wake-Up Call.” Hesse, an industry veteran who most recently ran the local phone company Embarq, has vowed to make customer service the top priority of the company. That in itself is a huge philosophical shift at Sprint Nextel that should bear fruit. Another major shift: “We are shifting investment from customer acquisition to retention,” says Hesse.
But Hesse must make sure that his message is heard, from the top layers of management all the way down in the call center trenches. Part of the problem of Sprint Nextel is that there’s been a huge disconnect between management and the field over customer service strategy and execution. One result of that dropped call: Even though Sprint Nextel maintained policies barring contract extensions without customer consent, government officials and lawyers have alleged that many Sprint Nextel customers still had their contract extended unknowingly. Here is an edited transcript of the interview in which Hesse speaks in detail about customer service for the first time since taking over the helm at Sprint Nextel last December.
What went wrong? Why did it get so bad?
I don’t have a history here. I came and took a look at customer satisfaction scores and churn. And I have just focused on improving it.
What did you learn?
The churn numbers were way too high and the customer satisfaction numbers were way too low.
How are you changing the way you run the business to improve customer service?
It is cultural. We have an operations review every week. When I walked into my first meeting customer service was not on the agenda. We weren’t talking about the customer when I first joined. The first team meeting agenda was already set. The second meeting after January 1 was reordered.
It’s also symbolic to the entire senior team. Every meeting starts with that. We started the practice at second ops team meeting. Also, my first visit outside of the headquarters was to a call center in Charlotte. I spent a day jacking in to calls.
How did that go?
It was eye-opening to me. You get to listen to the kinds of issues are reps deal with.
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What else are you doing to turn around the company?
I have to simplify our business. There’s an opportunity to improve our systems, with fewer rate plans and options.
How important is customer service now at Sprint Nextel?
The most important economic driver is churn. Customer service plays such an enormous role in maximizing the customer life. It was very apparent it was the most singular issue. It was very apparent that job one was to improve customer service and reduce churn.
How long will it take to turnaround?
We are beginning to improve customer service already. There’s always a perception lag. We did have problems last summer. There will be a lag when it improves and when the world knows that Sprint’s customer service has improved. First call resolution and average speed of answer are measured. That’s improving right now.
How hard is it going to be?
The customer experience is much more than customer service. It’s retail. Network quality, ease of use of phone. Experience with care reps. There are a lot of things we are focusing on to improve customer service. You will see progress and regular progress. It is very doable. We have the right people in place. We will get it done. I am holding an all-employee Webcast to talk about this tomorrow.
Customer service is job one. This is the number one priority of the company.
What’s working? What’s not working?
We have instituted self-managed teams. We’re focused on customer lifetime value as a company. I am making investments in customer care. We already have increased investment in customer service. Added more seats in call centers. We put service people in our retail stores. It is a significant investment. We are shifting investment from customer acquisition to retention.
Creating a great experience is very positive from a shareholder point of view. That’s how you create a great brand. We don’t look at this as a cost anymore. Great customer service drives profitability.
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Tags: call centers, churn, customer service, Dan Hesse, first call resolution, Sprint Nextel
Creative Capital 
February 26, 2008 at 7:29 pm |
My girlfriend was with sprint 2 years ago. Her phones hinge wore out and she was looking to get another phone with the same rate plan she had. It was $30 a month + $5 for unlimited web access. She was flatly refused at the retail store in zip 14623 on Jefferson rd. Then she called customer support who again refused to let her keep her same plan. She was being forced to change to a plan that was $35 + $15 for a “vision pack”. We then asked if I was to switch to sprint and we took a family if we could at least get the wireless web for the same rate she was currently paying. No, we had to pay $15 per line. We told the rep we were going to switch to Cingular. She didnt care. Later that day she switch to cingular, porting her phone number so there was no impact on her life. We are no re-evaluating our wireless carrier but because of the lack of regard for a current customer sprint is not on our list.
March 3, 2008 at 6:55 pm |
I like how every article posted about sprint’s customer service has readers responding with negative anecdotes… Look forward, not back.
January 29, 2010 at 7:15 am |
Yes you idiot! Look forward to more deceptive sales and marketing programs and poor customer service.
April 24, 2008 at 1:26 pm |
I have ins. with sprint-I have been on the phone for a week trying to get a replacement phone/the one they sent has no back, and no charger–this happened two yrs. ago, phone stolen, they sent a phone with a charger that is no longer in service/had to wait another week-we pay ins. for what??I call it blantant FRAUD!
June 26, 2008 at 6:27 am |
Lets see here where to start….lets start with internet….as years go bye internet gets a lot better, one would assume as internet gets better, faster, more equipped, that just maybe price would go up as well….from $5 to $15 a $10 difference….so you would rather pay $200 to cancel a line than to pay $10 extra dollars to experience the best internet service on a mobile phone….sometimes when you get new phones you have to get newer plans to go with the technology of the phone….hmmmm….and now apparently at&t is not good enough either….probably should take this $ your spending on phones and pay for a shrink….every phone company has advantages and disadvantages….sprint is turning the corner and coming on strong with a new leader….maybe should give them another try
June 26, 2008 at 6:33 am |
Now for the “Insurance Scam”….Maybe instead of trying to call in for a week you should get off your lazy potato couch butt and go into a corporate sprint store with a service center and get a freakin back and charger for your phone….we hand them out all day long….its a lot easier when you have a problem to go into a store and talk to a person face to face
February 24, 2012 at 5:02 am |
Wow Chad! Your attitude is the reason I’m currently considering other carriers for my phone service…sprint nextel excluded!
Maybe this is one of the reasons for low service scores mentioned in the article above. The CEO has one idea of retaining and satisfying customers while the common employee, whether over the phone or in the stores, treat customers as if they could careless about those two fundamental elements of running a business. More often than not customers want to be treated fairly and not bullied into situations. I also believe not every service rep is bad. I am having similar issues as described above and 3 weeks later I still don’t have resolution. I’ve been flat out lied to and treated as if I’m lying. No notes on my account and people “playing” supervisor to get me off the phone! That is the frustration that customers have to deal with and I’m sure I’m not the only one! I do believe persistance pays off and I will continue to press until they resolve my issue!
All the while, I’m on the count down to freedom from my contract!
LaTasha
July 18, 2008 at 7:10 pm |
Last week-end, we ordered the Instinct via phone. At the time they told us it was back-ordered so they would set up the order with a temporary number. Once the phone was received we would call and the number would be changed to reflect his present number. Imagine our surprise to find his cell phone turned off today when Sprint ported the number away from Alltel, even though the Instinct won’t be here for another week or two. This phone number not just a nice to have. We are not teenagers trying to stay in touch with friends. It is our WORK number. We are publishers and that number is printed on all our sales materials and business cards. Every hour that phone is off, we are losing potential customers and revenue.
I called customer service. The order was not given a temporary number so the number was ported over today. I was given two options –
1. Drive to a Sprint store (almost an hour away) and buy a phone, use it until the Instinct comes in (that means 2 phones on my credit card), then return it. That assumes that the Instinct comes in the next 30 day return window. That also requires us to set up the phone book temporarily and then again in the new phone.
2. Cancel the order, have the number moved back to Alltel and then reorder with a temporary number (like we thought we did already). This moves us back down to the bottom of the list and will take another hour of our time. You and I both know that once someone cancels the order, that is the end of that customer!
Neither of these solutions were desirable. I had already spent too much of my time trying to become your customer. I didn’t need to give up the rest of my day. I asked to speak to a supervisor. She was extremely rude and very unhelpful. When she wasn’t reading me her technical notes, and telling she couldn’t do anything, her method of dealing with me was to try to make me angry enough to hang up. Then I would be in someone else’s queue. It almost worked. She eventually “transferred” me to an escalation department, but it was really just back to the customer service queue. By this time 3 hours being on the phone had elapsed .
My husband gave up and called Alltel to transfer the number back. They couldn’t do it. The number was suspended because it had never been activated and Alltel can’t get it back. Now I was angry! I called back and eventually ended up with a service rep named Ben. He was very polite and helpful and tried his best to solve the problem. But he had no options but the ones already given me. I suggested he have a phone couriered to me from the store, but he didn’t have the authority. He did offer to overnight a temporary phone, but it here again we had the problem of temporary phone book issues.
By this time, I was done. I asked him to cancel the order and see if he could just clear the number. He called me numerous times to keep me posted on his progress. As it turned out there is a “glitch” and the number can’t be cleared. He escalated it to the manual migration department where it sits now. He said it will be tomorrow before anything will be done.
The bottom line is – I have a $246 charge on my credit card and no working phone. I don’t have access to our number and don’t know when or if I will get it. I have lost half a day’s work trying to fix this and missed a deadline with my printer. We have lost who knows how many sales calls. Alltel suggested we give up and just get a new number because we will never get it away from you now
Sprint has made it too hard for me to be a customer. You should work for me, not vice versa. No one has tried to make it worth my time to stay with your company. Ben offered my a 15% discount on my bill, and I had to ask for it. Now that I think about it though, customer service is more important than a discount. As soon as my husband’s line gets straightened out, I will be transferring my service and my daughter’s service also. All three are on the $99 everything plan. It will be worth paying the early termination fee to be with a company I can trust to handle requests and problems competently. Hey maybe we will all get the new IPhone 3G.
July 25, 2008 at 3:13 am |
Okay let me start off by saying what a mistake it would be to get at&t. The Iphone barely works as is and when it actually does work 50% dropped calls. Look every phone company has advantages and disadvantages. If you read the interview at the top of this page you would know Sprint and our new CEO Dan Hesse has addresed the problem with customer care. It is an ongoing process, this change cannot happen over night. I started with the company a year and a couple months ago. I see the change happening and it is very exciting. I am very sorry to hear about the poor service you have recieved. I would like to offer my # for you to reach me at, I believe I may be able to turn your awful sprint experience into a positive experience with the help of my team members and manager. Feel free to give me a call we have a meeting in the morning at 8 a.m. (eastern time) then I work all day tomorrow. I will do my best to turn this around. My name is Chad Campbell and our Store phone # is
(810)720-6800
August 6, 2008 at 2:23 pm |
Hey Chad, I like the way you insult people who have legitimate gripes with Sprint’s customer service, then offer your number for suckers to call you so you can make your quota. You’re a real chode, Chad.
I had Nextel (2 lines), transferred to Sprint, and just received two In-stinks. I’ll be switching to iPhones, thanks.
Chad – don’t bother badmouthing iPhones, you hack.
August 11, 2008 at 5:22 am |
MY M OO SAMSUNG PHONE WILL NOT KEEP THE CHARGE TO THE BATTERY.
I WENT TO THE SPRINT REPAIR STORE, I’VE BEEN WAITNG FOR A RE-PLACEMENT PHONE ALMOST THREE WEEKS. MY JOB IS VERY DEMANDING -SO I NEED MY PHONE.
THE STORE IS LOCATED IN MANCHESTER, CT ON TOLLAND TURNPIKE
August 11, 2008 at 5:22 am |
BAD SERVICE
December 3, 2008 at 12:25 am |
It is interesting to read that Sprint Nextel will be cutting employees and stores under Dan Hesse listing loss of customers as a source. I would think that Mr. Hesse might consider a much better investigation of his store staffs and the general ‘rules’ for subscribers. The required 2-year contract plan with few options is getting a little old. And quite frankly, the store staff I deal with are for the most part completely uninterested in the customer’s needs (unless they fall within very restrictive guidelines). Rather than list my own rather shabby experiences, suffice it to say that I have spent hours in a store trying to resolve problems over the past 2 years and have been met with dismissive attitudes, incompetence, and a general disinterest.
I hear from former customers who have switched another carrier and most list the above mentioned staff issues as some of their reasons for switching.
This is a very competitive market Mr. Hesse. You might want to look more closely at local causes for customer loss even if you are going to close stores.
Oh, if you’re going to lay off workers, could you please be sure it is the incompetent employees? They’re giving your company a bad name.
December 16, 2008 at 4:00 pm |
Hi Linda and thanks for sharing your tale. When I wrote my big story on Sprint earlier this year, I spoke to several store managers and they all complained about the poor hiring practices of the company.
Why don’t you just switch carriers?
January 10, 2009 at 11:42 am |
Being CEO at Sprint maybe a daunting task but customer service representatives making customers happy shouldn’t be; at Sprint it seems to be… I’m extremely unhappy with Sprint but I’m on the Friends & Family plan which is great as far as what I pay so I’m stuck. If I made more money then I could afford to be with a different cell phone service provider and I’d be gone in a heartbeat. I thought the apathetic attitude towards me as a customer was a function of their representatives realizing that I only pay $15 a month for my service but then I read the horror stories and now I know Sprint’s customer service issues are systemic. Their Instinct rebate program is administered so poorly that after being denied my rebate I had my friend (who works in billing at Sprint) resubmit my rebate paperwork and I was denied again. If she didn’t work there then I would have been screwed. After contacting her superiors my account has been credited but if a customer didn’t grow up in Kansas City what recourse would they have had? No wonder Consumer Affairs is investigating them for their suspect operating procedures. Another “for instance” is my recent experience at one of their retail outlets. I brought my Instinct in because for the third time almost all of my text messages just vanished. It couldn’t be a user error because a few of the veratable plethora of messages that I used to have remained and I had only filled up 20% of the handsets memory capacity. In statisitics they teach you that anything can happen once and they have a word if a situation replicates itself (coincidence) but if something happens 3 times or more then you have a pattern. Bringing my phone into the aforementioned Sprint store I expressed my issues to a disinterested representative who had me leave my phone with them for one of their technicians to check it out. I wouldn’t have had a problem with paying the $35 when I returned except that they wouldn’t allow me to speak with the technician who worked on my phone nor could the manager explain to me what steps were taken to fix this mess. The messages that self-deleted are lost forever; they won’t let me speak to the individual who worked on my phone or give me any explanation regarding what was done “that will be $35 please”. I took my phone out of her hand, turned and left. On the way out of the Sprint store the security guard looked like he wanted to physically stop me from leaving. I told him he was going to have to shoot me over the $35 to stop me. In hindsight I’m surprised that he didn’t draw his weapon, aim and fire at me. Considering that he works for Sprint I’m confident that he’s feeble and would have missed. I don’t see the Verizon or AT&T CEO’s in their company’s commercials either. A little more time working on the cornicopia of customer service complaints and a little less face time in front of the camera please…
April 11, 2009 at 8:50 pm |
[…] Twitter Hires Ex-Google Designer Douglas Bowman Part 6: Slouching Through the Great Depression Sprint CEO Dan Hesse Speaks About Custom Service Valley Boy: Part 1 of an Interview with VC Pioneer Thomas J. Perkins Apple Update: Is Steve Jobs […]
May 6, 2009 at 1:46 pm |
Liars and cheats at Sprint. They will say anything to end the call. Now their game is to transfer you to voice mail and then they never return the call.
June 25, 2009 at 12:03 pm |
SPRINT SUCKS…Straight up!!!
October 14, 2009 at 7:06 pm |
Sprint customer service is the worst. All the reps have absolutly no Listening skills. All they do is transfer and that makes the call escalate. I can’t bee that there are ppl that work for sprint with no emotion!!! Really Dan Hesse the CEO of sprint really needs to get ontop of his game ASAP. The point of having customer care is to console and help the customers because without US they don’t get paid. So what is the point of their jobs. To not help us out. Make a stand we need to unit and make sprint better.
October 23, 2009 at 5:27 pm |
I’M A DISSATISFIED SPRINT CUSTOMER AND I’M REALLY READY TO GO WITH A BETTER CELL PHONE COMPANY!! SPRINTS CUSTOMER SERVICE IS TERRIBLE THEY WILL TELL YOU ANYTHING WHILE YOU ARE ON THE PHONE BUT WHEN YOU GET OFF THE PHONE AND CALL IN TO VERIFY WHAT WAS SAID NO ONE HAS ANY KNOWLEDGE OF THE PREVIOUS CONVERSATION!!! I HAVE A ISSUE WITH SPRINT CURRENTLY AND NO ONE WILL EVEN TRY TO LOOK INTO IT DEEPER SO IN RESULT I’M SEEKING A MORE TRUTHFUL COMPANY TO GO WITH!! I HAVE BEEN WITH SPRINT SINCE 2007 AND ITS SAD THAT THINGS HAVE TO END SO HORRIBLE!!! EVERY TIME I CALL IN I GET TRANSFERED TO AT LEAST 7 TO 8 DIFFERENT PEOPLE BEFORE THEY GIVE ME SOME NONE HELPFUL INFORMATION OR THEY JUST HANG UP AFTER KEEPING ME ON HOLD FOR 30 MINS OR BETTER! SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE
November 13, 2009 at 1:42 am |
i sent this letter to the manager of our local sprint store no surprise no reply. so i will carry out my promise, it will be fun
Sean
late September my wife and I spoke to Dan at your store about a new net book we had on order. We bought the 3g/4g modem on his advice and had to wait for it to arrive. Dan told us they would help us with the set up when we were ready. He phoned to let us know it was in and we said the windows 7 net book would not be released for a few weeks so we would come in the day we got our new net book. So the day arrives we go to your store and ask for help getting the 3g/4g set up with our windows seven. This was third week of October. We visited Eric who is nice enough but clueless! I have been in your store 5 times trying to get help on this matter and I keep getting excuses from him, oh we have been slammed, they have not gotten back to me, oh yes I forgot. You should go to another sprint store, which I have been to twice! they also can not help and direct me to the web site. So after 40 minutes on live chat I am instructed to go to a download that has nothing to do with my issue.
I am a patient man but I am very near the edge
what I need you to do is please credit me for the money paid so far for the service I can not use and suspend any charges until it can be used or have an appointment made with a tech who can resolve this. if not, I will make myself a picket sign that reads this sprint store has poor service and will parade around the front of your store until it does get fixed. and if that does not work I will go to tv
March 1, 2010 at 6:22 pm |
Mr Hesse: I have been getting hang up calls from Sprint to sell me a second line. I called Sprint about the number as I do not call back these kind of calls. She checked and said it was Sprint!!! OMG, I cannot believe Sprint is doing this kind of thing. This is to avoid calling a no solicit number. The number calling me is 877-671-1851
March 9, 2010 at 2:47 am |
I love this blog. Thanks for the great information. I have it bookmarked and will be back. If anybody needs creating new credit file don’t hesitate to come on over.
April 10, 2010 at 2:39 pm |
I was in the sprint store yesterday I had a problem with my phone It was repaires but I was Impressed with the service but I am not happy with my Phone I bought 2 months ago I am in love twith the touch pro 2 but they told me I could not exchange it out next month one of contracts will expire I have 2 contracts with sprint so I think since I can get that phone at at@t or even verison I will not renew with sprint but I will go with the other carrier I can not see very well but with the touch pro 2 I can’t see that well but I can not afford to pay that amouth of money for it so I wish sprint was more caring for their visuially imparied customers this messege is for Mr. Hess Thank you ms Yvonne Pittman 6784856948
April 14, 2010 at 7:08 pm |
I had to add to this blog because I just spent twenty minutes talking to someone in the executive office and getting absolutely no resolution. I have been a sprint customer for over nine years, spent over $1400 a year with them totaling up to date over $12,000. Sprint decides to send me a happy anniversary card for my loyalty with a promotion of FIVE DOLLARS!! off my bill split up in three months. That is what Sprint thinks of their long standing customers. I called the executive office of MR. Hesse and was offered instead of the five dollars a TEN DOLLAR promotion applied a month for 24 months BUT I have to sign another two year contract. Why the hell would I want to do that when the reason I am calling the executive office is because I AM UNHAPPY. I was told that Sprint does not pay me to be a customer. Well I don’t pay sprint to abuse their customers either. It is the long time customers that will bring new customers as for me I will no longer be a Sprint Customer because I have been showed that Mr. Dan Hesse does not care at all about sprint customers. I left the phone call dissatisfied and mind you I have had bad service, poor customer care, mistakes made with my bill and Sprint taking no responsibility for it. Well Mr. Hesse you have not only lost me but I am taking the other customers I had sign up with sprint as well. AND THEY WILL GO!!!!
April 18, 2010 at 8:36 pm |
To whom it may concern, My name is Jerry Guerra and I reside in San Antonio, Texas. I have been a Sprint customer for over 25 years. Until this year I have been wanting to change to AT&T. Yesterday I tried to communicate with costumer service 5 times and throught those 5 times my phone would drop the calls, you would think that the people would call me back knowing that I was trying to fix a problem, “NO” not very professional. I was even talking to a supervisor and she promised if there was a drop call she would call back did she do it “NO” I was also informed that my contract was not up till Aug.of 11 when I was not ever informed of that I was ready to call it quits this Aug. of 10. I tried to fix this problem with 5 different people yesterday 4-17-10 and no one wanted to try and help me out this is why I want to leave Sprint. I am hoping that this letter will get to Mr. Dan Hesse, if I had his e-mail I would send it directly to him so he can see what VERY BAD service I got yesterday. Please let me know that this letter was read. My e-mail is jwarp3@yahoo.com and phone number is 210-313-2484. If I do not answer please leave me a number where I can call back. My wife had the same problem with you guys and she did leave Sprint and went to AT&T. I can go on and on about what happened, but I’m hoping that I get a responce. NOT HAPPY AT ALL, Jerry Guerra
April 28, 2010 at 6:01 pm |
[…] simultaneously attempting to make Sprint seem warmer and fuzzier. I have spoken a lot about my commitment to improving your customer service experience with Sprint because we know that will keep you as a customer.I guess you’ve read about our […]
May 26, 2010 at 2:46 pm |
[…] believe, and Sprint CEO Dan Hesse agrees, that it was no coincidence that the loss of customers and the low score occurred in the same year. […]
June 8, 2010 at 7:49 pm |
I have been dealing with a phone that BURNS me. It’s so HOT I can’t use it. So I am paying for service and can’t use it. What sense does that make? Don’t call Sprint b/c their Customer Service ASS holes will just tell you to leave Sprint. Well I say to you Mr. CEO you better hope it DOESN’T leave a burn mark b/c if it does I will see you in court. Your service sucks, you workers are RUDE, adn you are no better for NOT addressing your POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE!
July 1, 2010 at 12:24 am |
June 30, 2010
Sprint
Dear Sprint
I was shock today to receive from my Ex-husband of 35 years you contacted him. I called the number he gave me to find out that you have sent a bill collector to me how dare YOU Sprint. Again!!!!!
My account has been close since Oct 30,2008, I had called to cancel as I lost my job and have been told that I had to go in and cancel my account in person at one of your locations. I would only have to pay a closing cost on my contract which shows paid in full.
My record show from the bank transfers that you have been paid off since Nov,2009 the sum of $735.00 I had not heard nor read a single letter are word this was considered a problem as it was paid in full until today.
If you had not contacted me on this I would of never realized that the automatic payments were being made to Sprint of the sum of $735.00 on a bill less then $300.00
I do believe that I am owed a return on the over payments you say I owe, so who owes who here.
I like to think this is a small mistake, but in the past you have done the same thing to me, and Sprint tried to destroy my credit rating again!
Sprint found their mistake and was Sprints mistake not mine, and Sprint apologized, but this time the same mistake is made.
TODAY: Not only did I have to speak to a women with less education then my 6 year old grandson on this account but she was very rude and uneducated with the account at hand. All I can say at least Sprint is still hiring Americans.
Please check your records again and I am sure you will find the truth like before for this ill behavior of poor account management.
Sincerely yours,
nancy zoda przygoda
PS: Enclosed is a copy of all bank transactions on this account for your easier accountability and accounting needs to rectify this mistake do hope you can also rectify my credit rating as well.
August 7, 2010 at 6:12 pm |
Mr. Hesse;
My wife and I are in our sixties and disabled and the cell phones we carry are mainly for emergency contact from my 92 year old mother, my 86 year old mother-in-law and our daughter.
We own a lot at a private campground in Seneca, Illinois where we spend our weekends. We’ve had Nextel all these years for the walkie-talkie feature that they provided and never had a problem anywhere.
When it came time to update our phones, we told the salesman that we no longer needed the walkie feature which would make the phones thinner. So they guided us to Sprints phones which we updated in April. Unfortunately, I had a flare-up in my legs (polio at a young age) and was doctoring for months and we were not able to get to Seneca, Illinois.
Once we got out there, we found out that the Sprint phones DO NOT WORK AT ALL!!! Not only do they not work at the campground, I received a phone call from someone in my own town (Darien, Illinois) and it would cut-out every tenth word.
I went back to our Sprint store and they said the only thing they could do was to switch us back to Nextel and phones which would cost us $300+ each. If we cancel the contract it would cost us $200 per line a total of $400. I don’t have that kind of money to throw around on a fixed income. The Sprint store called me back and told me to bring it to another store (Downers Grove, IL) and they will test them. I did, and they said that they updated the software. When I got home, my wife called me on her cell to my cell and it was cutting out and we are in the same house. It had 0 – 1 bar….that’s it!!!
I called the Downers Grove store (on my cell) and told them the problem. It was cutting-out talking to him? They told me that probably the phones needed to be sent out…..sent out where? All I ask is to have the least expensive phones (no text, no Internet, etc.) so that we can use them in confidence especially in emergencies.
When I called Sprint’s customer service and spoke “finally” to a supervisor, all he kept saying was “sir, was it your choice to switch to Sprint?” No matter what I said, that was his answer. I told him that “all you are doing is reading from a book” and I hung up on him “thanks for nothing.”
My question to you is “where do we go from here?” Sprint/Nextel seemingly gives out phones like they’re candy, but when someone has a legitimate reason, they get the run around?
I don’t understand Sprint’s philosophy? Make a long-time customer happy or just say goodbye?
August 20, 2010 at 5:09 pm |
Dear sir, for some reason it apears that in the area were I live I have very signal and very poor reseption even with a air rave, I have a drop call history that is out of this world ,for over a year I have tryed to get help from custermer service and tec support and still no help do i need to go to verizon or at&t please help me sir my cell number is 240-855-3474 my name is james h allen jr iam a disable vet. can you help me please
September 8, 2010 at 11:54 pm |
Mr. Hesse, My battle with Sprint started in Dec 2008. My contract had 2 phones on it. The “owner” of one phone passed away. A copy of the death certificate was sent to Sprint and I was told nothing could be done! The second problem occurred on Feb 2, 2009 when I lost my vocal chords to cancer. When I attempted to contact Sprint about my contract I was told there was nothing that could be done. I ended up paying for 2 cell phones for a year and a half before I was able to cancel my “service”. According to the e-mail I received from the “customer service” rep my contact ended July 21, 2010. In Aug I received a statment stating I owed nothing. Today, Sept 8, 2010 I received a bill for $272.24 stating early termination on my contract was the reason. I am fed up with Sprint and will gladly tell all my friends and family so they too can pass the word on. Sprintis not customer friendly!
January 5, 2011 at 10:32 am |
occasionally and I’m contented to report this recent contribution is frankly reasonably effective and substantially superior than 50 % the other worthless junk I read today
February 11, 2011 at 6:07 am |
Dear Executives,
First of all, let me say that Sprint a great company offering good products and plans to many of us. However, Sprint’s customer service is terrible and unacceptable by any standard. I have a very bad experience with your customer service representatives and would like to bring it to your attention. I know you care about Sprint’s continued success and its reputation.
About two weeks ago, I called Sprint to cancel my mobile broadband plan. The customer service rep told me that there would be an early termination fee of around $80, which I did not agree since the plan started more than two years ago. He convinced me to switch the plan to a calling plan. I asked him that I currently have a family plan with Sprint and can that be added to my existing share minute plan, he said “yes.” He then sent me a new phone (a refurbished one). Three or four days later, the new phone arrived. I called in to activate it and add it to my family plan. The customer rep said he cannot do that and told me that my family plan no longer offered. I needed to upgrade the plan in order to get a new line added. I told her that I have been a loyal Sprint customer for ten years and please add the new phone to my current plan. After talking to her with no result for about 20 or 30 minutes, I asked to talk to her manager. She let me talk her manager and he said the same thing that the new phone cannot be added to my exist plan and hanged up on me. I then called back in and talked to a second rep. He was able to add the phone to my existing family plan with no problem. He is nice and helpful. While he walked me through the activation, I only tested to make a call to other phone, and it worked. I did not test for receiving calls. A day later, I called the phone from another phone and noticed that new phone cannot accept calls.
After that, I made a call back to Sprint tech support. The tech support rep helped me to reset the new phone a couple of time, but the problem of not able to receive calls still exists. He put me on hold and later dropped my call. I called again and talked to another tech support rep. He tried to fix it but no luck either. He opened a repair ticket and told me to take it to a Sprint store to get it fixed. Tonight I took it to a Sprint store and was told it cannot be fixed. It needed to be looked at by a technician at the store and would cost me $35 for that. I said no since the phone was just shipped from Sprint. When I got home, I called Sprint’s tech support about it. The rep tried to reset the phone a couple time and the issue is still not resolved. He put me on hold for about 30 minutes and hanged up on me. I then called in again. The second rep tried to reset the phone to the manufacture setting, but it still not working. After talking, being on hold and working with her for more than an hour, she told me to take it to a Sprint store to get it fixed. I told her that I just did and asked for a replacement. She put me on hold for about 2 minutes and hanged up on me, too.
This customer service experience with Sprint customer service and tech support is very bad and unacceptable. I was put in a loop, on hold for extended period of time and then got my calls dropped by the reps.
Thank you.
April 5, 2011 at 1:49 am |
Dear Executives,
I am disgusted with Sprint and its customer service. I had 2 phones on family plan. This plan cost $69. We discontinued one phone. The new plan would have been $29. They continued to charge us the $69 to our credit card. We realized and it, called the customer service and spent an hour and resolved the issue. To this, they sent an email confirming that they will credit the amount for $101 which they had over charged. They charged us $29 for a month and went back to charging $49. We called them to find out why we were being overcharged. Their response was that the email was incorrect. They could only credit only $40. There was no official communication about this. The customer service supervisor continued to say that we should not go by email from sprint. Can some one tell me how I, a customer shouldn’t trust official notification from Sprint??? We were so disappointed with the whole episode that we can celled the spring account. I would be discouraging my friends from sprint after this unpleasant experience.
Can Sprint customer service, service the customers???
Thanks
June 8, 2011 at 4:11 pm |
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June 20, 2011 at 10:15 am |
I have been a sprint customer for over 13 years. I have 5 lines on my account and spend over $3000 per year with Sprint. Recently my dad damaged his cell phone while travelling in a remote area of Montana. Because he is 83+ years old and spends his M-F time in these remote areas alone, it is imperative that he have a cell in emergencies. I purchased a refurbished phone and had it shipped directly to him. Come to find out a week later, it arrived without a battery and my parents, not realizing that the battery should have been included, went to Batteries Plus and purchased a battery..(There are no Sprint stores in Bozeman) When I found out about this, I called Sprint and got the same kind of help eveyone else is complaining about…NONE. Statements like..You should have called us first…we can’t reimburse you because then Sprint will be out the $. Maybe you can return the battery (Yeah right). When I continued to explain that my dad did not have time to wait for a battery to be shipped even if he had realized it should have been included in the purchase, the attitude was just “Tough Luck”. This for a 13+ year customer spending $3000+ per year. I started with a representative, got passed to her supervisor and then to his supervisor and all three read the same script from the book. I will leave Sprint over this, because this isn’t my first go-around with them. I’ve had many negative experiences over the years, this one is just the straw that breaks the camels back!
June 28, 2011 at 3:47 am |
To Corporate Management:
Today I had the worse service ever. I spoke with five different Sprint staff. I spoke to the first attendant at 5:30P.M. He was a male who didn’t identify himself. I made a payment to him for the amount of $65.00 through my checking account number. He took all the information and told me that a manager would get back to me soon in order to give me the payment confirmation number.
Since no-one called me back I called back. I ask the second person to contact me with a manager. She put me on hold and put a recording in Spanish. I called again and spoke with Heidi, I asked her to please contact me with a manager. She made me wait half hour and Lisa came to help me, but she was not a manager. I told Lisa to let me speak with a manager. She put Debra on the phone. Debra told me that she was a supervisor. I aadvised Debra about my payment. Debra told me whoever took my payment did not process it so far. And he only put in the computer that I was going to pay $65.00. I gave him my routing number. What happened with that check number? It is my account and I need the confirmation number. Debra said that his employee code was in the computer. I need someone to advise him to process my payment with the information I gave him.
Also, I mentioned to him that Sprint has not been giving me 20% discount as agreed because I work at Marriot Hotel. You need to make an adjustment.
I get too many drop calls and faded calls.
I am not satisfied with Sprint service. The attendants are rude, Lisa told me that she is not going to pass around the message about my payment even though she has his employee code number. Worst of all she told me that a manager would take up to 72 hours. In the mean time I didn’t get my confirmation number.
Raquel calderon
raquelmcald@yahoo.com
(860)985-4142
July 13, 2011 at 7:40 am |
I was a faithfull costomer of Sprint for 10 years. I had 4 blackberrys and 2 mifis on my account. I was told by the roaming department to take my service else where because 1 of my phones was roaming to much.I liked the service I had with Sprint but after being treated rudely by the roaming department I switched to Verison. I found the costomer service department tried to be very helpfull but had no idea what the roaming department was doing.
I asked the roaming department why I wasn’t sent a message about this problem before now and they told me the they sent a notice a year ago. When I tried to correct the trouble with the phone they told me NO, just take your service elsewhere.They atleast gave me 4 days to get my phone number changed to another phone.( wasn’t that nice of them ) I think that’s a great way to treat costomers.
I’m a over the road truck driver that travels 48 states. I think doing so I’m going to come across some roaming. There are 4.5 million trucks on the road today. I’m sure I’m not the only one that is useing the roaming. I also had a so called unlimited plan. I don’t know about the rest of you but I thought unlimited ment NO LIMIT not unlimited to an extent. Maybe we as costomers should send them a Websters dictionary so they can look up the word unlimited.
January 27, 2012 at 6:53 pm |
SHAME ON SPRINT-
In June/ July I entered into a two year contract with Sprint for an Air Card USB600. When I first contacted them the rep quoted me $39.00 for 5G and the contract was set.
When the first bill arrived it was for $49.00, so I called customer service and they said what the rep had done was apply our 20% corporate discount to get the $39.00. After checking their records and with my statement that I only agreed because of the 20% discount they then agreed to honor the discount in order to keep us as a customer. However, since their system would not allow them to discount an air card I would have to call in every two months and they would apply a $20.00 discount to our bill and they would document this on the account.
Done! – Or so we thought.
This worked very easily the next two times we called on, August 1, October 23, since it was documented on the account. Last night we contacted Sprint for the two month discount and, ALL OF A SUDDEN this notation is no longer on our account. They will no longer honor this because and I quote the rep, Mitch,” Sprint has to cut back in order to keep up with all the changes and money for equipment etc”. He will credit my account one time, which he did, but not for the full amount of $20.00, only $10.00.
Truly, if I had good coverage in my area I wouldn’t complain about it. But my Blackberry Smartphone only gets two bars and drops calls at our residence and for the air card, Skype is not an option, I can not from my home see my new great grandson. No matter what you do on the Internet it stalls and you have to set and wait for it to come back! I’m not a big user, typically I use about 1G and last month I used 2G.
However we had an (verbal?) agreement. I should have asked for something in writing and did not, because, we have been with Sprint since before they were Nextel and have always been treated fair.
So how do I get out of this contract? Our phones are out of contract, I believe, so this is no problem. But I think it’s time to spend my $174.56 for our phones and $49.00 +tax on the USB -SOMEPLACE ELSE!!
Please advise on how to proceed on this matter as Sprint Corporate no longer cares!
I will forward this to Norfolk Southern RR and International Paper
to let them know how you treat their employees!
March 29, 2012 at 1:40 pm |
The costumer service that have sprint went you call sprint zone is very very bad,the people that work in that deparment don’t kwon how to talk to the people and the very bad thing they have is that you ask for the name of the person is helping you they don’t want to give the name and the last name.I have very bad experiance whit sprint in costumer service.
April 25, 2012 at 2:09 am |
My complaint is with customer service. Last week I found my bill on the enter net I called sprint cause it didn’t look right. Well they told me that I call Guatemala, who in the hec do I know there? Any way I told them I don’t know no body in Guatemala. Hello please hold that’s all heard Monday then when I got off work I went to a sprint store on Montgomery Rd. I stayed on the phone for bout an half hour. Ok I spoke to a gentleman I think his name was Jeramy I forgot cause he said he was gonna call me back Friday he did then he said he was gonna call me Monday haven’t heard from him since. Now I asked supervisors and other customer service reps if you google where is the area code for 502 it came up Kentucky, then when you google what’s the area code for Guatemala it came up 502 also. Now on my phone bill I never made an out of state call so why was I charged. This is so irritating. Why can’t no one help me. After this if no one can help me I’m gonna go further action. My name is Minnie keeling – 513-225-2576- (1241 Groesbeck Rd.) – (Cincinnati,Ohio 45224). To whom it may concern thank you for your time P/S: the gentleman who pose to have called me back he also told me my phone don’t call out of state calls please help me.
February 18, 2014 at 7:45 pm |
sprint is the worst customer service ever,they have charged me 400.00 a month.for 4 months ever since I bought a 50 tab and 15 month,ive been with them for6 yeard and its time to go,we have an 80employee plan and we are leaving sprint.you guys have really gone to shit…brad heyes