Whither SprintPCS

If SprintPCS goes out of business or is bought out by another carrier that
changes it drastically, we all lose; but that is where things are heading.

I have been lurking here for weeks and see posts where folks like the Network,
but hate the service, and what the result of that?

3% monthly churn = 36% annual turnover of customers, which fully explains why
SprintPCS is not profittable and its stock price is still in the dumps.

The bad Customer Service is well documented, go to Google and search on
SprintPCS complaints, and one gets many hundreds of hits.

We see 3 or 4 loyal Sprint employees here regularly, often giving useful tips,
telling about firmware upgrades, WirelessWeb issues, etc; but tilting against
windmills denying the bad customer service that is a fact and nothing they can
control. Their losing their cool and hurling epithets does not make the
Customer Service better, and since they have no control over it, they should
ignore those posts.

We see Phillipe who apparently is still a SprintPCS customer hit upon reasons
why CSRs react poorly. They have time contraints, and sales contraints.

So what is the result of bad customer service? Folks call up to CANCEL their
service. When that occurs, 2 things happen. First they may leave, and Sprint
has the 36% churn rate (customers quitting and new ones coming). Or Sprint may
try and retain customers with a Retention plan, which MUST cost Sprint many
lost dollars in revenue; and then others who read of those retention deals feel
cheated, and are more likely to leave or themselves get a retention deal.

---

› See More: Whither SprintPCS

"Glamour Cops" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> If SprintPCS goes out of business or is bought out by another carrier that
> changes it drastically, we all lose; but that is where things are heading.

Who says the carrier is going out of business? SPCS just announced they are
going to spend an additional $2,100,0000,000 to expand coverage areas and
increase capacity in current coverage areas. http://tinyurl.com/l7nv
>
> I have been lurking here for weeks and see posts where folks like the
Network,
> but hate the service, and what the result of that?

Just a couple of weeks? Result of what? Hate the service? You are talking
about Phillippe? If you are, maybe you might see the ratio of people
agreeing with Phillippe to those that aren't ...
>
> 3% monthly churn = 36% annual turnover of customers, which fully explains
why
> SprintPCS is not profittable and its stock price is still in the dumps.

First off all wireless carriers experience churn, and some where between
2-3%. No, I don't have a cite, which lists what all the carriers experience,
but I've seen those figures in numerous prior articles.
>
> The bad Customer Service is well documented, go to Google and search on
> SprintPCS complaints, and one gets many hundreds of hits.

Service has been an issue in the past, but it's improved vastly since Len
Lauer took over. It's been commented on in the past two weeks who many
people have been satisfied, a lot more than those that weren't satisfied ...
>
> We see 3 or 4 loyal Sprint employees here regularly, often giving useful
tips,
> telling about firmware upgrades, WirelessWeb issues, etc; but tilting
against
> windmills denying the bad customer service that is a fact and nothing they
can
> control.

This paragraph is tilted ... How are the CS folks, three of which post here,
suppose to control the CS? And how is it so bad now?

> Their losing their cool and hurling epithets does not make the
> Customer Service better, and since they have no control over it, they
should
> ignore those posts.

Those folks are here on their own time, and through their own computers ...
as has been said a number of times. As to the epithets, they've probably
been the most polite to Phillipe, compared to the rest of the users here who
have wasted their time reading Phillippe's posts and replying to them. He's
a troll, plain and simple and on his own agenda.
>
> We see Phillipe who apparently is still a SprintPCS customer hit upon
reasons
> why CSRs react poorly. They have time contraints, and sales contraints.

We see Phillippe quoting an old, assine and slanted website, which might
have had 1% validity in the past, but doesn't now. We see Phillippe, making
unwarranted demands to the SPCS employees for confidential internal
information, which can not be released.
>
> So what is the result of bad customer service?

What bad customer service? You talking about pre Len Lauer, or post Len
Lauer ...?

> Folks call up to CANCEL their service.

This happens with every wireless provider ... What's new about that?

> When that occurs, 2 things happen. First they may leave, and Sprint
> has the 36% churn rate (customers quitting and new ones coming).

Again, this happens to every wireless carrier and not just because of
customer service, but for any number of reasons. People will try the service
and find out it's not working up to their expectations as a landline in
their trial period, customers finish with their contract and want to try
someone else, a competitor comes out with a plan that better fits their
needs. Again, there are any number of reasons why carriers experience churn.

> Or Sprint may
> try and retain customers with a Retention plan, which MUST cost Sprint
many
> lost dollars in revenue; and then others who read of those retention deals
feel
> cheated, and are more likely to leave or themselves get a retention deal.

It costs SPCS much more to just acquire a new customer. It's cheaper to add
some incentive, some additional minutes which really doesn't cost them much
at all, to keep competive with the other wireless providers and to keep
their customers.

If you break down most of the retention deals, it's adding more minutes,
moving the N & W time to 8:00, or a rebate on a new phone. Guess what, all
wireless providers are providing a rebate on new phones when their
customer's contracts expire ... Tell me one carrier who isn't ...

Bob

Glamour Cops wrote:

> If SprintPCS goes out of business or is bought out by another carrier that
> changes it drastically, we all lose; but that is where things are heading.

Oh look, a troll! Or a short seller with lousy math skills, one of the two.

> 3% monthly churn = 36% annual turnover of customers, which fully explains why
> SprintPCS is not profittable and its stock price is still in the dumps.

Actually, your figures are wrong. Churn was 2.4% in the last QUARTER
(not month).

Also, your math is wrong. To compute annual churn, you don't take
monthly percentages and simply multiply them by 12. Rather, you apply
the turnover over the course of the entire year's numbers and get your
percentage that way.

For example, a person could by $1 worth of items and pay, say, 6% sales
tax. If they bought $2 worth of merchandise, would the state require
them to pay 12% sales tax? Of course not (unless of course, you happen
to be the governor, with your shoddy math and all). They would pay 12
cents, or still 6% of the total $2 price. Likewise, a steady 3% churn
over twelve months continues to be 3% of the total annual volume of
customers. That's how percentages work.

> The bad Customer Service is well documented, go to Google and search on
> SprintPCS complaints, and one gets many hundreds of hits.

One can do the same for virtually any major company. Ever seen the
Fordsucks website, the GMsucks website (there's many), or that of just
about any major corporation? Complaints are easy to make on the web,
and are often fueled by anger. Compliments are never as common, even
where they are deserved, because they actually take effort.

> Their losing their cool and hurling epithets does not make the
> Customer Service better, and since they have no control over it, they should
> ignore those posts.

And then we see the trolls complain that once again CSRs are ignoring
them. This is a no-win situation, especially since you're counting
message volume here. I count maybe two to three trolls posting 90% of
the negative posts we see here. That's a fairly disproportionate
audience that you're basing your "conclusions" on.

> We see Phillipe who apparently is still a SprintPCS customer hit upon reasons
> why CSRs react poorly.

The fact that Phillipe is still a Sprint PCS customer speaks for itself.
He himself doesn't even believe, for one iota, that his complaints
carry any validity. If that were true, he'd take advantage of the
current contract change and get an out on his contract without a
termination fee.


> They have time contraints, and sales contraints.

http://144.226.116.29/PR/CDA/PR_CDA_...111761,00.html

To highlight: "Re-tooled its automated voice service, making it easier
for customers to speak to a Customer Solutions specialist. Customer
service representatives strive to "own" each customer call and to stay
with each customer until the situation is resolved."

Is the source biased? Probably. But no more biased than
sprintpcs-sucks.org is in the opposite direction. Phillipe wants
refutation from an equally reliable source. He's got it now.

[email protected] (Glamour Cops) wrote in article
<[email protected]>:
> 3% monthly churn = 36% annual turnover of customers, which fully explains why
> SprintPCS is not profittable and its stock price is still in the dumps.
>

Um, you're saying Sprint PCS loses 1/3 of their customers in a year?
Not likely. While churn with all carriers, there is also a very high
rate of new activations, wether its new customers, or current ones
adding additional lines.


> The bad Customer Service is well documented, go to Google and search on
> SprintPCS complaints, and one gets many hundreds of hits.
>
> We see 3 or 4 loyal Sprint employees here regularly, often giving useful tips,
> telling about firmware upgrades, WirelessWeb issues, etc; but tilting against
> windmills denying the bad customer service that is a fact and nothing they can
> control. Their losing their cool and hurling epithets does not make the
> Customer Service better, and since they have no control over it, they should
> ignore those posts.
>

I don't think many people here deny the negatives, noone here has said
Sprint PCS is perfect, even I'll admit its not perfect.
Most of us also agree that the retail stores could stand getting rid of
incompotent employees.


> So what is the result of bad customer service? Folks call up to CANCEL their
> service. When that occurs, 2 things happen. First they may leave, and Sprint
> has the 36% churn rate (customers quitting and new ones coming). Or Sprint may
> try and retain customers with a Retention plan, which MUST cost Sprint many
> lost dollars in revenue; and then others who read of those retention deals feel
> cheated, and are more likely to leave or themselves get a retention deal.
>
Trust me, retention plans are not all money losers, it would be a very
poor business decision to offer people plans where you lose money, it
would be better for them to just let the customer leave. The only lost
money is the salary of the rep. who handled the retention call.

Retention plans usualy have an additional 1 year agreement, which means
they have another customer for 1 year or $150. The plans also don't add
on much (as pointed out in another post) and are usualy a higher MRC
than the original plan.

[posted via phonescoop.com - free web access to the alt.cellular groups]

In article <[email protected]>,
Isaiah Beard <[email protected]> wrote:

> > They have time contraints, and sales contraints.
>
> http://144.226.116.29/PR/CDA/PR_CDA_...,1111761,00.ht
> ml
>
> To highlight: "Re-tooled its automated voice service, making it easier
> for customers to speak to a Customer Solutions specialist. Customer
> service representatives strive to "own" each customer call and to stay
> with each customer until the situation is resolved."


We need only read Justin's posts, to put the lie to improved customer
service.

In article <[email protected]>,
Isaiah Beard <[email protected]> wrote:

> Glamour Cops wrote:
>
> > If SprintPCS goes out of business or is bought out by another carrier that
> > changes it drastically, we all lose; but that is where things are heading.
>
> Oh look, a troll! Or a short seller with lousy math skills, one of the two.
>
> > 3% monthly churn = 36% annual turnover of customers, which fully explains
> > why
> > SprintPCS is not profittable and its stock price is still in the dumps.
>
> Actually, your figures are wrong. Churn was 2.4% in the last QUARTER
> (not month).

those figure are understated actually:

news:[email protected]...
> Kansas City Star article on Sprint's PCS and long-distance combo plans.
> Interesting tidbit - SPCS' churn rate: 3.5% month, which the Star
> translates into 42% of customers leaving every year.

"Phillipe" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Isaiah Beard <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Glamour Cops wrote:
> >
> > > If SprintPCS goes out of business or is bought out by another carrier
that
> > > changes it drastically, we all lose; but that is where things are
heading.
> >
> > Oh look, a troll! Or a short seller with lousy math skills, one of the
two.
> >
> > > 3% monthly churn = 36% annual turnover of customers, which fully
explains
> > > why
> > > SprintPCS is not profittable and its stock price is still in the
dumps.
> >
> > Actually, your figures are wrong. Churn was 2.4% in the last QUARTER
> > (not month).
>
> those figure are understated actually:
>
> news:[email protected]...
> > Kansas City Star article on Sprint's PCS and long-distance combo plans.
> > Interesting tidbit - SPCS' churn rate: 3.5% month, which the Star
> > translates into 42% of customers leaving every year.

Total old report there. If one goes to SPCS's most recent quarterly report -
Page 18 in the pdf file, http://tinyurl.com/la97 ,
SPCS had 2.4% in the 2nd qtr. In reviewing the financial statement of the
other providers ... here are their numbers for the past quarter.

Verizon 1.7% churn
ATTW 2.2% churn
Cingular 2.5% churn
Alltel 2.03% churn
Qwest - No 2nd quarterly report and nothing mentioned in 1st quarterly
report.

So, your point is ...?

Bob

"SprintPCS Tech" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> [email protected] (Glamour Cops) wrote in article
> <[email protected]>:
> > 3% monthly churn = 36% annual turnover of customers, which fully explains
why
> > SprintPCS is not profittable and its stock price is still in the dumps.

> Um, you're saying Sprint PCS loses 1/3 of their customers in a year?
> Not likely. While churn with all carriers, there is also a very high
> rate of new activations, wether its new customers, or current ones
> adding additional lines.

Yes likely. In the wireless industry, churn is indeed quoted as a *monthly*
rate. A *monthly* churn rate of 3% does indeed imply a *yearly* churn rate of
roughly 36%. So yes, Sprint PCS does lose over 1/3 of its subscribers every
year; but of course, it apparently continues to find at least as many new
subscribers, so that its net subscribership continues to increase (though not
nearly at the same rate as Verizon Wireless or T-Mobile).

"Isaiah Beard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Also, your math is wrong. To compute annual churn, you don't take
> monthly percentages and simply multiply them by 12. Rather, you apply
> the turnover over the course of the entire year's numbers and get your
> percentage that way.

You are incorrect. In the wireless industry, churn is quoted as a *monthly*
rate. A 3% churn rate does indeed mean that 3% of the carrier's total
subscribers cancel their service *each* month. Thus, a 3% monthly churn rate
does indeed mean that 36% of the subscribership will cancel service over the
course of a year. For example, see

http://www.instat.com/press.asp?ID=311

"In-Stat/MDR estimates that one-third of US wireless subscribers will churn, or
decide to switch from one carrier to another, in 2002."

Of course, most carriers are able to find new subscribers at a slightly faster
rate than the lossage, such that their net subscribership continues to increase.

Phillipe wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Isaiah Beard <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>>They have time contraints, and sales contraints.
>>
>>http://144.226.116.29/PR/CDA/PR_CDA_...,1111761,00.ht
>>ml
>>
>>To highlight: "Re-tooled its automated voice service, making it easier
>>for customers to speak to a Customer Solutions specialist. Customer
>>service representatives strive to "own" each customer call and to stay
>>with each customer until the situation is resolved."



> We need only read Justin's posts, to put the lie to improved customer
> service.

Considering that you refuse to accept customer anecdotes (like mine) to
refutes your arguments, then I'm afraid I cannot accept Justin's
experiences to refute mine.

In article <[email protected]>,
Isaiah Beard <[email protected]> wrote:

> http://144.226.116.29/PR/CDA/PR_CDA_...,1111761,00.ht



It says in part:

Sprint recently began a series of initiatives to help it become the
company customers know they can count on to make wireless easy.

==

Maybe it will, it hasn't yet.