exocet_cm
In memory of dadkins
Premium
join:2003-03-23
New Orleans, LA
clubs:   | Mmm, I see
1,200 customers whine so you cut em off... there ya go! Great idea Sprint! |
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GOLFnSUN
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·Comcast
| said by exocet_cm  :1,200 customers whine so you cut em off... there ya go! Great idea Sprint! If they are calling 35 to 40 times a month or more and when many of the complaints are bogus(some customers do try to scam the system and get money back they aren't entitled too), darn right you dump them.
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Internet News
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Jeffrey
too dark too early
Premium
join:2002-12-24
Dix Hills,NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Vonage
·magicjack.com
1 edit | said by GOLFnSUN :said by exocet_cm :1,200 customers whine so you cut em off... there ya go! Great idea Sprint! If they are calling 35 to 40 times a month or more and when many of the complaints are bogus(some customers do try to scam the system and get money back they aren't entitled too), darn right you dump them. Agreed. There is such a thing as "the customer is not always right". It's purely a business decision to dump those customers.
Edit: And I don't like Sprint at all, FWIW. Not a big fan of Big Bad Verizon either, but my Fios Internet and cell service with Verizon has been excellent, and never a billing error in the 3 years I've subscribed to Fios, and the ~7 years I've had Verizon, which I had back when it was Bell Atlantic Mobile.
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"When you get lost in your imaginatory vagueness, your foresight becomes a nimble vagrant."
[Ramblings] [RIP Millie 1993-2006]
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| reply to exocet_cm
a new way to get out of contract without paying early term fee.
 
the problem is how many calls does it take to get them to cancel you.
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth |
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maccentric
join:2004-11-30
Frisco, CO
| reply to GOLFnSUN
I have to call Sprint every month because of a billing issue. Today I've been on the phone for 2 hours to try and resolve an issue that I've had since I got the phone 18 months ago. When they set up the account, they neglected to remove the previous owners' County information, so I was being charged tax in two different counties. For months they were trying to tell me that it was my fault, I set up the account incorrectly (went to a Sprint store and had them set it up, exactly how did I go wrong here? Oh yeah, I went to a Sprint store, I should have gone somewhere else). They have finally stopped charging me, but I still can't get refunded for the past 18 months of erroneous charges. They keep telling me it's some other department, or I have to get the money back from the County, or anything else they can think of besides actually taking care of the issue.
I also had issues with Roaming (why do I need to roam when I'm on Main St. in Frisco, 5 blocks from I-70???). Those seem to be resolved after about 10 calls.
I am out of my contract and as soon as I find a better provider (iPhone?) I'm so done with them. |
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S_engineer
join:2007-05-16
Chicago, IL
·Comcast
| reply to Jeffrey
the customer signs a contract. Sprint holds your feet to the fire in regards to your obligations, why not hold their feet to the fire when they screw up?
Or are you just the type of idiot that Sprint wants; A non-questioning direct-billing recipient of bad service that does not scrutinize your bill whatsoever? |
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Jeffrey
too dark too early
Premium
join:2002-12-24
Dix Hills,NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
·Verizon FIOS
·Vonage
·magicjack.com
| said by S_engineer :the customer signs a contract. Sprint holds your feet to the fire in regards to your obligations, why not hold their feet to the fire when they screw up? Or are you just the type of idiot that Sprint wants; A non-questioning direct-billing recipient of bad service that does not scrutinize your bill whatsoever? First of all, I'm no idiot. Secondly, I don't use Sprint which, by definition shows I'm not an idiot.
Lastly, if you read my above post - and I don't think you did because I clearly stated I don't have Sprint and I have never had a problem with any bill as far as over-charging, for as far back as I can remember. So, who's the idiot now? 
I scrutinize my Verizon cell bill every single month when it's due. It's the same $64.32 (give or take a few cents) every single month.
Look, I'm not a huge fan of big business. That being said, companies are in business to make money. If a person is causing them a revenue hit, then as a company, I believe that they are within their right to terminate the customer. Likewise, if you don't like the service, move on. It's not like Sprint is the only carrier.
I've personally had to "fire" customers from our families own consulting business. It's a choice that the business has, and it's a choice of the customer to go somewhere else.
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"When you get lost in your imaginatory vagueness, your foresight becomes a nimble vagrant."
[Ramblings] [RIP Millie 1993-2006]
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mocycler
Premium
join:2001-01-22
Naperville, IL
·AT&T U-Verse
 ·AT&T Midwest
| reply to exocet_cm
Well, if you do the math:
1100 customers (split the difference) x 40 calls per month each x say, 5 min. per call average = about 3670 (rounded) hours per month of service rep time.
Dividing that by a 40 hour work week, Sprint needs roughly 90 full-time reps just to deal with the call volume from these 1100 customers. Even if you tweak the numbers a little more conservative, it still adds up to A LOT of overhead.
Not to mention the damage when legitimate customers get more irritated every second they wait to talk to someone.
Seems like a no-brainer business decision to me. Sprint gets my vote on this one.
mocycler.
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Michieru2
zzz zzz zzz
Premium
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL
| Every time you a transferred it's considered a new call, so if technical support transfers you over to sales, the system shows up as two calls placed.
So it's fair to say she probably did not even call all those 40 calls because I remember once being transfered 5 times, and on the phone for almost an hour to get a stupid power vision issue resolved.
It's also should be noted that the person who received this letter clearly made calls using her cell phone for her friends when they where having trouble with their cell provider (Sprint-Nextel) because she referred all of them too it.
If this customer leaves, so will her friends so the loss is not just one customer but if I remember correctly it's five. It's also fair to say that this customers has been on Sprint for about 8 years. It should also be made clear that Sprint has a billing issue, ever since the merger the billing errors has increased.
What Sprint does not see is how many customers has this user referred to Sprint. But Sprint is also being fair to waive all fees and to make this user move to another carrier.
She is not being forced to pay her contract, and they paid her last months bill. Sprint feels as if they could not satisfy her needs, although someone just did a mistake I am sure the user will not die or cannot live without Sprint-Nextel.
But maybe once the dust settles down in regards to the whole merger, and the systems are up and running some better training can be given to the staff and new channels to fix issues will open up stabilizing the company in the end and bringing the excellence of what Nextel had to offer.
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Duct tape, saving lives since 1942. |
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elister
join:2006-07-17
Seattle, WA
| reply to GOLFnSUN
Indeed, having worked in a call center, I know which ones are trying to work the system.
"Hi, my bill has jumped 40$ why?!", Customer
"You were on a 12 month promotion, which discounted the cost. If you dont like the cost, we can trim services, make changes and get the bill to a level that works for you?", CSR
"No, I dont want to make any changes, I want what I originally agreed to", Customer
"What you agreed to was a 12 month promotion, which ended last month. You do have options, we can make changes and lower the bill", CSR
"I want to talk to your supervisor!", Customer
It happens quite alot, when the customer doesnt want to cut services to lower the bill, all they want is an extension of the promotion. They are basically working the system and they know it, they just do a bad job at pretending they are shocked. Occasionally they throw in the "IM ON A FIXED INCOME, I CANT AFFORD THIS", and the monthly bill is basically 120$ a month for all bells and whistles services. If your on a fixed social security income, you can barely afford TV.
For billing abuse, I do deal with alot of customers who refuse to understand what pro-rating is. Since our company bills for the month in advance, major account changes require us to re-rate or re-bill them. So whatever they upgrade or downgrade to, they get billed for a month and a few weeks worth of service. They think were over billing them, they dont even bother to look past the 1st page where it FULLY details the cost of each service and the dates they were billed for. They call, and call, and keep calling trying to get us to credit them a few weeks worth of billing because of the changes they make. It happens and the customers typically are rude or abusive.
We would never drop them, but with some customers, they basically have to be transfered to the manager immediately when they call. They don't want to do because they know the manager will clearly define the terms of their service. Explaining everything so that there can be NO confusion later on, and still they keep calling. |
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Anub1s
join:2003-05-04
Cleveland, OH
·AT&T Yahoo
·RoadRunner Cable
|  TOTALLY DUDE!
I'm a supervisor for a terrible cable/hsd/tel company. I was going to write a piece, but you nailed it.
I just like to add that our service, is bottom barrel shit. I can understand why our customers call. The idiots we herd to handle the phones, they can't handle simple task, much less being berated by the general public for 8 hours.
The techs we use are the worst. Always running off at the damn mouth to the sub about shit they know nothing about.
We have new leadership at our supervisor queue and it is rough now. Most of the agents are dumb asses, the public has seen in the media how poor our customer service is. So, when they call, they immediately want to bypass the regular agent, who may be able to help them.
It is a sad, sick vicious cycle. Thats why, when I saw this article after work, I was like "Hell Yeah! Thats customer service!". A guy said we had poor customer service today, because "you did not call us and let us know our promotion was going to expire". WTF!?! |
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jc100
join:2002-04-10
| reply to elister
Then again, there's my case where they kept billing me double the cost of the Wireless Web service which I was told was 10 dollars flat when I signed up. Magically, it jumped to 15-20 dollars and NO it wasn't a promotion. Next, I kept being charged extra on my repair plan. The best one, 60 dollars in a month for roaming that was included in my package. Ah yes, the countless hours on the phone with the incompetent techs who kept promising it to be fixed and only made things worse. Hell, I got the same song and dance as this woman. It took almost a year to finally get our billing correct. I finally said screw it, contacted the State Attorney General and Better Business Bureau. It was only then did my matter get any real priority and corrected. While I am sure you are a good tech, there are plenty who flat suck at this job. If you aren't trained properly or don't know the system, maybe a career change is needed. Thankfully, for the last 6 months, I've had a correct bill. I am sure 95 percent of people calling are like me. Sick and tired of telling them to fix their stupid mistakes. There might be the other 5 percent working the system. Who knows. Yet, that's not the majority. |
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sivran
Long Live The Suite
Premium
join:2003-09-15
Arlington, TX
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
| In defense of the reps who promised to fix it-- hell, they probably honestly thought they could/did fix it. Then, if/when they find out they didn't/couldn't, they can't or don't want to give you a call back to give you the bad news.
Yeah, I speak from experience. I've -been- that agent before. I've seen every permutation of I did/will fix it but didn't/couldn't and didn't know it/found out after-the-fact.
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Think outside the fox...Seamonkey |
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tc1uscg
join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI
1 edit | reply to maccentric
said by maccentric :I am out of my contract and as soon as I find a better provider (iPhone?) I'm so done with them. Newsflash.. whyPhone is not a provider.. No wonder your having problems. 
If your roaming 5 blocks from I-70.. it appears the RF engineer didn't properly setup the antenna pattern during his "drive testing". You can open trouble tickets for this kind of issue.. Wanna get out of your contract since you hate them so much.. Then while your home, make a call then pull your battery. Do this 2 or 3 times a day for a week, then complain. Keep doing it. They can check this data and see they are not filling your needs. Maybe, just maybe you can get them to let you jump ship to Verizon or some other company without paying the ETF, but anyone else is just as bad and costs you more.. Your choice.. That's what makes this country great.. choices.  |
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
| reply to elister
said by elister :It happens quite alot, when the customer doesnt want to cut services to lower the bill, all they want is an extension of the promotion. They are basically working the system and they know it, they just do a bad job at pretending they are shocked. I have no doubt people try to work the system. However on more then a few occasions I've had to talk with a CSR that was very unhelpful, borderline clueless.
The latest incident was when I was trying to get signed up for FiOS TV. It took 3 or 4 calls to the order department before anyone would even acknowledge that there was a special going on for HBO and the Movie Package. Every time prior to that call, the CSR would always flat out deny that any type of package like that existed.
One of three things probably were the case.
-The package existed, but the CSR just didn't want to help me. Possible, but not likely.
- The package didn't exist. Plausible, but since numerous other people had it, again not likely.
- The CSR wasn't trained right/notified of the promotion/etc. Most likely.
When I called back several times on the exact same issue, I'm sure there was some type of note entered into the system about my call. From someone reading through my call history, I'm sure it would have appeared like I was trying to work the system to get something I wouldn't normally get. But I wasn't. I was just trying to get a promotion that I qualified for.
I've had similar problems in the past with Dish Network and T-Mobile where I've had to play CSR-Roulette before finding one that could actually help me get something accomplished.
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Go Colts |
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FiL
Premium
join:2005-08-16
Silver Spring, MD
| reply to Jeffrey
^"I clearly stated I don't have Sprint and I have never had a problem with any bill as far as over-charging, for as far back as I can remember."
Seems you overlook the fact the news item isn't about you...?
These guys felt the need to call in an clarify problems they thought existed. Seems ENTIRELY LOGICAL that if Sprint manned up to the problems, be it a real problem or p-noid customer, they MIGHT have found a concise way of telling their paying customers "you know what, your wrong and here's why" or "we'll fix that for you, sorry" (cold day in hell that last word is ever used by them).
One lady found many monetary problems in her bill, and so called to have them change it. Yet they shafted her. Why? Was it that her calling-in spree took up to much bandwidth(?), choking up the queue line? Or do they only do bizness with people that don't scrutinize their bill?
That's the problem right there. Don't offer free call in support numbers if you gonna get ya friggin panties wet when people 'call in'...lol. Otherwise, man the eff up. The money machine ain't stopping cuase of these few thousand people... |
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supertech315
join:2006-03-01
Perris, CA | reply to Anub1s
Dude you Rock this is totally true and funny |
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jc100
join:2002-04-10
| reply to sivran
Well good intentions often go bad. There are suppose to be logs to show whats been tried. However, no one seems to look at those. Everyone has a tendency to do the same thing over, and be surprised when it fails. Call it lack of training, understaffed, or simply not caring. I am not sure which it is. However, for the consumer, it equates to a headache when you got to call multiple times a month for the mistakes THEY create not you. Hence, sprint canceling customers for calling up too much is a joke. |
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Jeffrey
too dark too early
Premium
join:2002-12-24
Dix Hills,NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
·Verizon FIOS
·Vonage
·magicjack.com
| reply to FiL
said by FiL :Seems you overlook the fact the news item isn't about you...? Of course the news isn't about me. I didn't overlook anything--I was relating my experiences with other carries in relation to Sprint. You overlooked that.
Calling in 40, 50 times in a time period is unnacceptible, and as much as I hate Sprint, I don't feel that bad about their decision to drop a handful of customers.
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"When you get lost in your imaginatory vagueness, your foresight becomes a nimble vagrant."
[Ramblings] [RIP Millie 1993-2006]
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maccentric
join:2004-11-30
Frisco, CO
| reply to tc1uscg
Yes, I'm quite aware that the iPhone isn't a service, it's a phone provided by AT&T, I just assumed there was a certain level of intelligence here that could make that leap (since there's only one carrier that has the iPhone, it implies that I'll be using that service, no?). Also, as I noted in your quote, I'm out of my contract, I'm just waiting to see how things pan out with the iPhone or if I should go with Verizon, who seems to have the best service out here.
Likely it is people like you who are manning the phones at Sprint which is the reason my bill is wrong practically every month (can't comprehend simple English, can't make rudimentary logical associations, etc.)
Newsflash?---yeah, thanks. Though you did provide some decent info after trying to make me sound like an idiot. |
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