Sprint Cutting 8000 Jobs Will try to avoid cutting customer service positions Monday Jan 26 2009 10:16 EDT Tipped by jc10098 Sprint Nextel this morning announced that the company is cutting about 8,000 positions in an attempt to cut costs by around $1.2 billion. Sprint, still suffering from their botched acquisition of Nextel, says it will complete the layoffs (which account for 14% of their 56,000 employees) by March 31. Sprint says they haven't completely decided where all of the cuts will come from, but will try to avoid reducing customer support staff. "Labor reductions are always the most difficult action to take, but many companies are finding it necessary in this environment," proclaims Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. |
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CommercialsI wonder why they don't just cut those expensive commercials with Dan Hesse parading around instead of putting people out of work. | |
| | FFH5 Premium Member join:2002-03-03 Tavistock NJ
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FFH5
Premium Member
2009-Jan-26 10:03 am
Re: Commercialssaid by fifty nine:I wonder why they don't just cut those expensive commercials with Dan Hesse parading around instead of putting people out of work. Marketing costs will always be the last thing cut in tough times because it is Marketing that keeps the money flowing in. Back office costs, maintenance, & other functions will be outsourced to cut costs. | |
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to fifty nine
You know, I've been a Sprint Customer for about 10 years. I have left them once to try Cingular, and hated Cingular. I even had someone on here contact me once in regards to their report. Never heard much on a follow up. But he did a story about and the incoming Dan Hesse at the time.
So why exactly is Sprint Suffering? It breaks down to one word. Support. Their support is absolute bottom barrel. They outsource their support to a company named Teleperformance. While I commend Sprint for sticking with American Support, it's hardly capable of being called "Support". Many of the techs are ill trained or overworked. Ill trained is a huge factor. Have a problem? No one is ever on the same page. It takes HOURS to resolve simple matters. As I said, for ten years, I have been with them. I have had all the nightmares that come with this service and then some. For two years, my bill was WRONG. I was charged for stuff I paid for. Roaming was billed to me sometimes @ 40 dollars or more. Um hey, can you read INCLUDED in my package. I'd have to argue with the person and then their manager. I'd sometimes have to call back to get someone else who had a 1st grade reading level, to check my plan. Hours and Hours later. It'd get sorted ONLY to happen again the next month. This has been one of SEVERAL nightmares. Hell, I even had to resort to getting the Ohio Attorney General Involved to fix most of my issues. Then, problems went away for quite some time. Yet, they cropped up their ugly head a few times after.
So after reading this, you say, how come you haven't jumped ship? Well, Sprint has one thing going for it. A DAMN GOOD NETWORK that rivals all else. Sprint does a a good job at providing the service when it works and is billed properly. Sure there are dead spots, but then I got free roaming (when I'm not billed extra for it). Sprint has great plans for vision on their phone. I love the radio / tv stuff. More so, the radio. I use my phone when I take my walks. It's great for safety and I dont got to worry about having to carry a radio either.
So Mr. Hesse. What can you do to fix your sinking and ailing ship? Bring Support in house. Ditch this 3rd party crap. It might cost you more int he short term, but the overall savings will follow, as you stop bleeding customers like a hemorrhage. Seriously, streamline support and bring them under the Sprint wing. Train them efficiently, and get people on the same page. If you can succeed here, all else falls in place.
As I said before, I am a ten year customer, but I have a hard time recommending this service to anyone as of now. Give me ten minutes with the board, and I'd gladly give them my two cents on what needs to be done. Been there, done it, and see it all with this company from a customer standpoint.
Sprint Execs take note. When you're retentions become your customer support, you know you got an issue.
Feel free to contact should any Sprint Execs read this forum. I'm not selling anything, asking for anything, but I'll gladly give a FREE OPINION of my decade long experience with your product. Good and Bad. As maybe if someone takes the time to listen, you'd be adding millions versus losing them!!!!!!!!!! | |
| | | RVAguy Premium Member join:2006-01-05 Richmond, VA |
RVAguy
Premium Member
2009-Jan-26 10:30 am
Re: CommercialsI agree with you on support - I called to report a handoff issue between 2 specific towers and the girl tells me to restart my phone then gives me a $75 credit. Some support... | |
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jc10098
Member
2009-Jan-26 10:42 am
Re: CommercialsYep. All they can do is throw credits at you or send you to retentions when you've had enough. After 10 years, I told them I'd had it. My phone broke, I had insurance, and I'm sure you can guess. They claimed the insurance I spent like 150+ on over the life of the phone didn't cover the phone itself. It was for SOFTWARE HELP. WTF. I said, no, I didn't pay for software help. I paid for a brand new phone when mine broke. How about this, you cancel my service and I go buy a new phone with someone else. Immediately I got stuck on hold, and about 10 minutes later, someone answers from retentions. I told the guy cancel my service. If I've just spent money frivolously to have to go buy MY OWN PHONE, then I'll gladly do it elsewhere. The guy tossed a 100 dollar credit at me and I relented. I saw a new one on Ebay for about that price. Really, I should have demanded it all back. What a Scam. Sprint Techs don't know what they sell, and even their own people kept telling me, call back the insurance. It's covered. So yes, retentions is about the only place you will get a solution when all else fails. How sad is that! | |
| | | | old_dawg"I Know Noting..." join:2001-09-22 Westminster, MD |
to RVAguy
You might want to rethink that "DAMN GOOD NETWORK" as more and more of its support gets farmed out to foreign contractors. | |
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jc10098
Member
2009-Jan-26 12:56 pm
Re: CommercialsInfrastructure is Solid... at least for now. Support base sucks. We'll see what happens if they start outsourcing their infrastructural upkeep. If the service degrades, that's the last straw for me anyway. As of now, the only reason I keep my phone is because of the sirius radio that I use when I take my walks. Nice feature and I like the service generally. If either goes downhill, I'm gone. Our bill (Family Plan) is around 160 a month / 2000 dollars a yr elsewhere. We have 5 phones on a family plan, with extras on my phone. Had the service about 10 yrs in total, though started off as 2 phones. Branched out to my grandparents being added (though they dont use theirs much) as free calling between Sprint phones. Anyway, we're a big consumer and quite frankly, someone else can have our 2000 dollars if that happens. We could be considered one of those "Core loyal customers" that make up their base. However, we'll jump ship should any further incidents (including service degradation), start occurring. | |
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| | jmn1207 Premium Member join:2000-07-19 Sterling, VA 2 edits |
to jc10098
I'm not sure when he last time it was that you dealt with Sprint's customer support, but they have shown great improvements in this area. I thought I read somewhere that they had even won an award, or were recently ranked at the top of the list in customer support. I'm also a long-time customer of Sprint after having been with AT&T before that, and I have personally noticed an improvement when dealing with Sprint over the phone or in their stores. I just got a BlackBerry Curve a few months ago. I wanted to add this as new phone to my existing account, but use my existing phone number on the new phone while using the new phone number on my existing phone. I was expecting a major headache, but everything went smoothly. Even billing got it right. I was even able to get the mail in rebates immediately processed at the time of purchase without having to wait for months. Sprint certainly did have some major problems, especially with their website, but things have gotten much, much better. If anything, the Nextel merger was most damaging to Sprint. This probably contributed to their previous customer support issues. Edit: I found a link about Sprint's recent turnaround on customer service. » www.bizjournals.com/wich ··· y40.html Sprint has repeatedly identified customer support improvement as their highest priority. | |
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Re: CommercialsNot that long ago. Sprint support is on my shit list until further notice. I have had a FEW POSITIVE experiences. Like when the idiots screwed up my billing and service for the 10 millionth time. I got someone willing to work with me until it was sorted on the spot. What a rarity. 99.9 percent of the time, I get bumped around to more people than I can count. It might have improved, it's far from being any bit good. Maybe instead of utter failing at customer service, they get 1 or 2 problems right occasionally. Seems you got lucky. | |
| | | | | jmn1207 Premium Member join:2000-07-19 Sterling, VA |
jmn1207
Premium Member
2009-Jan-26 1:37 pm
Re: CommercialsWell, I did have my problems. I used to get charged for some service each month and neither I nor the CSR could find this service on the website. They would pull the charges and next month I'd have to go through the same routine again. This lasted for about 6 months. The last major overhaul of their website seemed to have corrected a lot of issued with their billing. A major communication disconnect was seeming resolved about the same time.
Maybe I have been lucky, but their customer service used to be terrible for me, and now it is top-notch for a business of this size. Sprint is saying that customer service improvement is the top priority, and the last couple of quarters seems to indicate that their efforts have been successful. | |
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jc10098
Member
2009-Jan-27 12:12 am
Re: CommercialsProbably. I had to resort to involving the Ohio Attorney General to see some relief. Sprint, for now, has a good network. Sprint itself (at least in my eyes and still current experience), has leaps and bounds to go with its support. Maybe this is changing, but I still seem to run into brick walls when inquiring about anything that's not in the "manual". Why did I get billed for roaming, it's included in my service. Why is my bill and pricing for services constantly changing, being removed, etc without my consent? I mean, all these things should be standard and routine. If X customer has a package, and suddenly you start double charging or removing it, there needs to be a solution. Not we'll look into it, wait 24 hours, or call back later. Yes, these are all the excuses I'd heard. Call reps and managers alike. I even got so attuned to these lines, I'd call them out and press until things got sorted. So is sprint's customer service award winning? Sure, maybe at the Razzies (Rasberry) ceremony. | |
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| | Tobester join:2000-11-14 San Francisco, CA |
to jc10098
As you stated so brilliantly, I also left Sprint PCS because of the poor Customer Service. Companies who outsource lose the Quality Control of their Support Services. The customers of those companies who outsource off-shore have the additional language barrier too. I frequently have to go through several representatives to get a problem solved; and this problem is not just in the telecommunications industry either! The problem is that no single company can buck the trend and provide in-house American Customer Service Representatives because of the immediate cost reductions seen on the bottom line by firing American workers. Corporate America as become so short sited. | |
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to fifty nine
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, is a tool. Once he started the job he fr-ooze all performance raises. I quit working for Sprint 1 month later and am now at a Union Telco where this type of abuse of employees is not accepted. | |
| | | FFH5 Premium Member join:2002-03-03 Tavistock NJ |
FFH5
Premium Member
2009-Jan-27 8:27 am
Re: Commercialssaid by StarFish267:Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, is a tool. Once he started the job he fr-ooze all performance raises. I quit working for Sprint 1 month later and am now at a Union Telco where this type of abuse of employees is not accepted. And how many PERFORMANCE raises do you get in a union job? | |
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PhoenixDownFIOS is Awesome Premium Member join:2003-06-08 Fresh Meadows, NY |
8k ... ouchI feel bad for those who will be impacted by this. | |
| | NY Tel Premium Member join:2004-04-09 Smithtown, NY |
NY Tel
Premium Member
2009-Jan-26 10:42 am
Re: 8k ... ouchsaid by PhoenixDown:I feel bad for those who will be impacted by this. Agreed. These people did nothing wrong, they simply work for a company with problems. Very Sad. | |
| | | StevenB Premium Member join:2000-10-27 New York, NY |
StevenB
Premium Member
2009-Jan-26 11:15 am
Re: 8k ... ouchmy friend is a store manager here in New York City, Bronx to be exact. I hope he doesn't lose his job | |
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Re: 8k ... ouchthey need to come to Toledo, Ohio and get rid of few stores and they'd be able to save some money. You have 1 mall with 3 Corp. owned stores. Go down the street and there is another Corp. owned store. Go 4 miles to the west and find another store- Corp. owned.
And one store actually refers everyone to a DEALER because they don't know anything.
And then go to Sandusky, Ohio in their mall and find the Sprint employees doing nothing but talking on the phone, yelling at each other and joking around, and then when you ask for help they look at you like you just grew three heads and make a big deal of it. And if you want to sign up for service at that mall you have to go down the isle way to Radio Shack's RS Solutions Wireless Div. and sign up with them. Because Sprint won't do it.
The stores need an overhaul and Dan needs to start out with them.
Sprint has more stores than what Alltel had dealers in 3 miles of one another. | |
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| | | | neftv join:2000-10-01 Broomall, PA |
neftv
Member
2009-Jan-26 10:30 pm
Re: 8k ... ouchThat CNN article should scare people. I know I am. I been laid off and don't have any full time job now. I really hope the Obama plans get approval and warp speed into the econmony because anything else will just make the 1930's seem like a picnic. Realistically it probably take this election cycle for changes to happen if we are lucky. As far as I am concerned Bush thinks he was a great president but I say he just a legend to his own mind. | |
| | | | NY Tel Premium Member join:2004-04-09 Smithtown, NY |
NY Tel
Premium Member
2009-Jan-26 10:36 pm
Re: 8k ... ouchsaid by neftv:That CNN article should scare people. I know I am. I been laid off and don't have any full time job now. As far as I am concerned Bush thinks he was a great president but I say he just a legend to his own mind. He and so many others are totally out of touch with "we common folk" and he made sure his "big business buddies" all got taken care of. | |
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Reno7 Premium Member join:2008-10-26 Keller, TX |
Reno7
Premium Member
2009-Jan-26 10:07 am
Watch the wordingA little over a month ago when AT&T announced they were eliminating 12,000 job, the internal memo said "eliminating" which meant it was a plan for getting rid of positions over the next year. Most of that will come from retirements. A lot of it has to do with the fact that five regions of seperated job functions are being combined into centers that cover the entire US.
What I found funny was that the news media (papers, tv, etc) changed the wording of the announcement to "layoffs". I know it's hard to believe, but the news actually made things sound worse than they are. | |
| | Rick5 Premium Member join:2001-02-06 |
Rick5
Premium Member
2009-Jan-26 10:13 am
Re: Watch the wordingThe story says it will take place by March 31. I don't think 8,000 people planned to retire by then.
This has been a bad day for job cut announcements. Caterpillar..20,000 Sprint..8,000 Home Depot...7,000 Pfizer..8,000 | |
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Re: Watch the wordingAnd it's gonna get worst before it get's better. People are cutting back in services, as they also lose their jobs. This is a big cycle that is effecting everyone. | |
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jc10098
Member
2009-Jan-26 10:31 am
Re: Watch the wordingDefinitely. However, if you read my post, Sprint is suffering due to it's own negligence and mismanagement. Sure the economy is bad, and one can blame everything on it. I've been with Sprint for a decade now, and they've been bleeding customers for ages. It now just accelerates because on top of those fleeing for "Greener Pastures", you now have those cutting back the extras and non essentials like a cell phone. | |
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to Rick5
The retirement comment was referring to AT&T. Just about any one I have known who was on Sprint have since left because of horrible customer support eventually price doesn't make you stay. I have two relatives based in KC which makes me wonder if they will impacted by this. Last time I talked with them I said it would be nice if Sprint would fix their act. I have VZW and have great service and support. Sprint has price and fairly good coverage according to recent Consumer Reports. T-MO and VZW take them in almost every major city on reception and call quality. AT&T is at or near the bottom every where. Sprint has a lot to fix. They still need to correct the massive bleeding on customer exiting. | |
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to Rick5
THD announced they'd have that many gone last summer. They already terminated their entire in store HR Departments and Corp. is next. They're outsourcing everything. The only way to get anything done is by emailing the new company since they don't answer their phones. And that's if they actually read the email instead of sending you some generic reply back.
And yes I worked for them for a few months in the summer. One of the worst companies to work for. The only thing the managers care about is their bonus at the end of the year.
Edit Add: The Frest Market, Inc based in Greensboro, NC laid off/terminated over 4,000 employees from their company in Oct. All which were HR Managers and Support staff. | |
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rsa0 join:2003-01-25 Birmingham, AL |
rsa0
Member
2009-Jan-26 10:43 am
What's next in store ?!I wonder, why the just won't lay down and die, as a company? Eventually, this is the outcome for this company. It is just a long agony for Sprint...oh,yeah for Nextel too. | |
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Re: What's next in store ?!Sprint needs to give up their current/former business plan and get rid of their contracts and go to the flat rate unlimited just like they're doing with Boost Mobile.
if they did that they'd be able to keep those employees as Sprint would start to show a positive cash flow since people would be paying a month ahead for their services. And if you don't pay you don't get service the next month. it's that easy. You don't have the people that sign up for services and then don't pay for what ever reason and then get stuck with their debt and have to write it off. Especially after the customer probably had several months of service before it was even disconnected.
Com'on Sprint change your business plan and take over VZW and ATT, You have the network and the phones! | |
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me1212 join:2008-11-20 Lees Summit, MO |
me1212
Member
2009-Jan-26 10:55 am
My cousin work for sprint.I hope he doesn't get fired. Hes even wokr on Christmas some times. | |
| neftv join:2000-10-01 Broomall, PA |
neftv
Member
2009-Jan-26 11:48 am
let's do the math1.2 billion/8000 employees is an average salary of 150000 per person. Wow am I in the wrong industry. I wonder if Dan or whatever his name is has practiced what he preaches by taking a salary hit till he can turn the company around. It's only fair because otherwise I lump him with the rest of "for themselves only" CEO's out there. Actually, don't mind their commercials at least they are not paying some singer to sing the commercial like they use to do a long time ago. It seems like the only way to survive this economy is to go vertical merge merge merge with a partner that can offer a value to the customer and then the stockholder not the other way around. But that just my thought on that. | |
| old_dawg"I Know Noting..." join:2001-09-22 Westminster, MD |
CEO NewspeakSuch a glib statement from a man who walked in the door for a cool $20+ million compensation thus replacing the previous incompetent (aka World's Worst CEO) who was drawing another $20+ million in compensation whilst being shown the door. | |
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Hopefully..95-99% in Customer Service.. those people suck and many have had it coming before the recession (sorry, it's true). Then last 1% in mangers who hired the goofballs.
And, no.. $50 prepaid for unlimited everything will not save sprint, but good try. | |
| WeSRT4 join:2000-11-20 Mobile, AL |
WeSRT4
Member
2009-Jan-26 2:05 pm
Death watchSprint is now on my death watch list with Sears and a few other specialty retailers. It looks as if a buyout by a foreign carrier or an equity firm is the only hope. | |
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Sbrint
Anon
2009-Jan-26 4:58 pm
Re: Death watchNahhh... who do you think is crazy enough to buy them as an entity ?! especially with the state of this economy. | |
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(Software) pfSense
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OH NOES!!1!!1!As a "Takeover" Sprint Customer (Came over from Nextel) all I have to say is this:
OH NOES!!!1!1!!!! They couldn't even keep customers with these 8000 people, what the hell is going to happen now?
And I feel horrible for those 8000 people. Good luck! Everything happens for a reason! Better things are on your horizons. | |
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