sprint stores - just pathetic

I wanted to get a new pcs phone so I went to the sprint store. Ten
people in line ahead of me. Turns out seven of them can't pay their
bills/had their service turned off for non-payment.

Sprint should have two lines - one for people who pay their bills and
want to buy products or services and one for deadbeats who can't pay
their bills.

Otherwise happy with Sprint except when I'm in their headquarter city,
Overland Park. That's the only place where I've consistently had
dropped calls.

---

› See More: sprint stores - just pathetic

On Tue, 03 Aug 2004 21:52:12 -0500, joe broni <[email protected]>
wrote:

>I wanted to get a new pcs phone so I went to the sprint store. Ten
>people in line ahead of me. Turns out seven of them can't pay their
>bills/had their service turned off for non-payment.
>
>Sprint should have two lines - one for people who pay their bills and
>want to buy products or services and one for deadbeats who can't pay
>their bills.
>
I am on the road all day so I pay my bill at Sprint stores all over my
metro area.

If I pay near a less affluent area I see a lot of gangster and drug
dealers types. (Cash and pre-pay customers). There is a better
class of people way out in the suburbs.

Hotel S <[email protected]> wrote:

> If I pay near a less affluent area I see a lot of gangster and drug
> dealers types. (Cash and pre-pay customers). There is a better
> class of people way out in the suburbs.

This is an outrageous statement. I've paid Sprint in cash many times. And
there are plenty of pre-pay customers of any given carrier that aren't drug
dealers. Congratulations on making just about the dumbest statement I've
heard anyone make this month (yeah, it's still early in the month, but
you show a lot of promise with the ignorant statement quoted above).

And BTW, I don't deal, and I'm not part of a gang.

--
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Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
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Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

Well, I don't live "way out in the suburbs". I don't live in the
suburbs. I live in the city. Sprint PCS does not have any stores in
this city, only two in the suburbs and tree way out in the suburbs. So
all the classes of city people that want to go to a store, go to the
suburbs or way out in the suburbs. At first I used to pay over the
phone, through punching buttons, but now I just have it paid
automatically from my checking.


Hotel S wrote:

> On Tue, 03 Aug 2004 21:52:12 -0500, joe broni <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>
>>I wanted to get a new pcs phone so I went to the sprint store. Ten
>>people in line ahead of me. Turns out seven of them can't pay their
>>bills/had their service turned off for non-payment.
>>
>>Sprint should have two lines - one for people who pay their bills and
>>want to buy products or services and one for deadbeats who can't pay
>>their bills.
>>
>
> I am on the road all day so I pay my bill at Sprint stores all over my
> metro area.
>
> If I pay near a less affluent area I see a lot of gangster and drug
> dealers types. (Cash and pre-pay customers). There is a better
> class of people way out in the suburbs.

joe broni <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I wanted to get a new pcs phone so I went to the sprint store. Ten
> people in line ahead of me. Turns out seven of them can't pay their
> bills/had their service turned off for non-payment.
>
> Sprint should have two lines - one for people who pay their bills and
> want to buy products or services and one for deadbeats who can't pay
> their bills.

In my area, the local Sprint PCS store (125 Boston Post Rd, Orange,
CT) has a separate line leading to automatic payment machines for
people to pay their bills -- similar to the ticket machines at the
train stations at a glance.

Frankly, I don't see why people want to pay in person in the first
place. Just because you're low-income doesn't mean you can't get a
free checking account (most of the local banks offer them), and just
about every checking account these days comes with a Visa/Mastercard
debit card.

Jerome Zelinske <[email protected]> wrote:
> Well, I don't live "way out in the suburbs". I don't live in the
> suburbs. I live in the city. Sprint PCS does not have any stores in
> this city, only two in the suburbs and tree way out in the suburbs. So
> all the classes of city people that want to go to a store, go to the
> suburbs or way out in the suburbs. At first I used to pay over the
> phone, through punching buttons, but now I just have it paid
> automatically from my checking.

I actually find the cash payment machines to be quite convenient. I was
extremely happy when I moved out here and found the Victorville Verizon
Wireless corporate store has one.

As I've said before, I used to live in Mentor on the Lake, Ohio (solidly
middle-class suburb in Lake County), and our closest Sprint store was on
Mentor Avenue in Mentor. You couldn't make an assumption about the type of
people visiting the store based on where it was located. They might be
coming from the east side of Cleveland, or from Painesville, and not have
a ton of money, or they could be coming from a few minutes away in Concord
or Kirtland Hills and live on a million-dollar estate (yes, there are some
out there in southwest Lake County). Assumptions like the one Hotel S makes
are generally stupid.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

Nathan Strom <[email protected]> wrote:

> Frankly, I don't see why people want to pay in person in the first
> place. Just because you're low-income doesn't mean you can't get a
> free checking account (most of the local banks offer them), and just
> about every checking account these days comes with a Visa/Mastercard
> debit card.

Just because you like paying cash doesn't mean you're a low-income customer.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

"Steven J Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Just because you like paying cash doesn't mean you're a low-income customer.

Agreed, but someone who insists on paying with cash should accept
the inconveniences that go along with that. Personally, my time is
valuable, and I don't want to waste it by having to go through the
machinations of making a cash payment.

--

John Richards

joe broni wrote:

> I wanted to get a new pcs phone so I went to the sprint store. Ten
> people in line ahead of me. Turns out seven of them can't pay their
> bills/had their service turned off for non-payment.

> Sprint should have two lines - one for people who pay their bills and
> want to buy products or services and one for deadbeats who can't pay
> their bills.

Actually, it's pretty straightforward really... if you can't pay, you
can't pay and the service stays shut off. There's really nothing to
argue or stand in line for about that. It's the people standing in that
line who fail to understand this.

And for those who CAN pay, there are automated payment systems that
eliminate even having to go to the store.



--
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Transpose the c's and a's in my address in order to reply.

Hotel S wrote:

> On Tue, 03 Aug 2004 21:52:12 -0500, joe broni <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>

>
> I am on the road all day so I pay my bill at Sprint stores all over my
> metro area.
>
> If I pay near a less affluent area I see a lot of gangster and drug
> dealers types. (Cash and pre-pay customers). There is a better
> class of people way out in the suburbs.

Something's not quite right with this statement. If you're berating
cash-only customers, then why are you even visiting a sprint store to
make a payment? If you're paying via credit/debit card, then you can do
it online or through your phone. If your bank is in the stone age and
doesn't offer a check card, and your credit is so bad that you can't get
a credit card, then SPCS offers EFT through a checking account.

In the 6-7 years I've been a customer, I've made an in-person payment at
a store just once. And that was only because I wanted to see what the
deal was with the automated payment machines, if maybe there was any
advantage. Ended up paying with my VISA anyway, and I then discovered
there was absolutely no advantage, it wasn't worth my time and never
bothered with it again.

There's no need to even set FOOT in a Sprint store to make a payment,
unless you're doing it on a cash-only basis.... basically only if you
are a "ganster or drug dealer type" whose funds aren't exactly bankable.

--
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Nathan Strom wrote:


> Frankly, I don't see why people want to pay in person in the first
> place. Just because you're low-income doesn't mean you can't get a
> free checking account (most of the local banks offer them), and just
> about every checking account these days comes with a Visa/Mastercard
> debit card.

Without going into a political or social discussion, there are basically
only a very small number of reasons for not getting a bank account
regardless of your income level, and all of them have to do with one's
own personal choices they've made in their lives:

1. The money the person makes isn't exactly legal
2. They fear/mistrust banks for whatever silly reason
3. They've written a large number of hot checks, or bounced checks and
never covered them. Such things do get reported on a system similar to
that used for obtaining a person's credit rating, so if banks see that
on your record, they often won't open an account for you.


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Steven J Sobol wrote:


>
> Just because you like paying cash doesn't mean you're a low-income customer.


Agreed, but it defies logic why anyone would waste the time and gas to
drive to a Sprint store, wait in line, and then present cash to a
payment machine, when you can do all that without ever leaving home.

Unless there's some big advantage to paying in person that I'm missing
here. As I said in an earlier post, I tried it once and found it to be
a complete waste of time when more convenient means were available to me.


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Yeah tell me about it. I've been to the sprint store three times in
four years - once to get service and twice to upgrade to new phones.
Each time I waited about 15 minutes in line. Sprint REALLY needs to
push those automated options!




On Wed, 04 Aug 2004 18:48:53 -0400, Isaiah Beard
<[email protected]> wrote:

>joe broni wrote:
>
>> I wanted to get a new pcs phone so I went to the sprint store. Ten
>> people in line ahead of me. Turns out seven of them can't pay their
>> bills/had their service turned off for non-payment.
>
>> Sprint should have two lines - one for people who pay their bills and
>> want to buy products or services and one for deadbeats who can't pay
>> their bills.
>
>Actually, it's pretty straightforward really... if you can't pay, you
>can't pay and the service stays shut off. There's really nothing to
>argue or stand in line for about that. It's the people standing in that
>line who fail to understand this.
>
>And for those who CAN pay, there are automated payment systems that
>eliminate even having to go to the store.

Isaiah Beard <[email protected]> wrote:

> Something's not quite right with this statement. If you're berating
> cash-only customers, then why are you even visiting a sprint store to
> make a payment?

The poster you replied to is not the same person as the one who was
complaining.

> There's no need to even set FOOT in a Sprint store to make a payment,
> unless you're doing it on a cash-only basis.... basically only if you
> are a "ganster or drug dealer type" whose funds aren't exactly bankable.

This is still a foolish generalization.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

John Richards <[email protected]> wrote:
> "Steven J Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>> Just because you like paying cash doesn't mean you're a low-income customer.
>
> Agreed, but someone who insists on paying with cash should accept
> the inconveniences that go along with that. Personally, my time is
> valuable, and I don't want to waste it by having to go through the
> machinations of making a cash payment.

I've never had to wait behind more than one or two people making payments
at the Mentor, Ohio Sprint store. People who needed to get their service
turned on weren't at the machine.

And the one time the machine was down, a store rep took the payment instead
and waived the $5 fee they were charging to give the money to a live human.

So, I don't really see much of an inconvenience. YMMV.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.