EX Sprint Sales Rep

Just a little heads up to those of you thinking about switching to Sprint. You might be glad you take the time to read this.......

Untill not too long ago I was a top sales rep for a local Sprint Retail Store. After working there for only a couple of weeks I realized why people hate Sprint so much!

I bought myself a Sanyo 8200, but kept the phone I had previously with Cingular b/c I had just bought it. Let's just say my Cingular phone had to go everywhere with me so I could use it when my Sprint phone would drop my calls or not get service at all.

As a sales rep, when we would get a customer service issue come into the store we would try to rush through the process as quickly as possible to move on to get our next sale. There's quota afterall. And just forget it if we have to call Customer Care for something! We hate talking to them just as much (if not more) than the customer. They are RUDE, SARCASTIC, and hardly ever helpful, believe me I had to call them on a daily basis. It is rare to get a helpful person on the line, but when you do you will never forget their wonderful voice.

It seems to take an act of Congress to take care of things that shouldn't be an issue at all....... Like $30 in roaming charges from making a phone call well within the Sprint PCS network. People end up paying for the charges because of all the trouble they would have to go through.

Ah yes and the ever classic: "Your phone isn't working? Oh yes well I know you have a year warranty on this, BUT you see this green stuff right here? No no .... there ya go right there.. yep that little green dot! Well that is corrosion on the port which indicates liquid damage. This will actually void your warranty. You will have to buy a new phone for the retail price. Your phone will be $279.99 plus tax." ------- 95% of these phones should have been replaced!

Time after time I would hear customers shout about how much they despise the customer service they receive... It's just because the majority of sales reps just don't want to deal with it now that we don't have a customer service area in the store. Customers would throw phones, cuss and scream and refuse to leave the store untill we would have to call the police to remove them. I think anyone who works for Sprint can say I'm not exaggerating on any of this.

I'm not saying there's nothing good about Sprint... But the bad DEFINITELY outweighs the good.

And why did I stay with Sprint? The money. Enough said. Why did I leave after being a top sales rep for half a year? Apparently they weren't supposed to hire me to begin with. I was fired for being too young. I passed a background check, drug test, personality test, 2 interviews and turned in a copy of my driver's license - BELIEVE me they knew how old I was from the start (it was always something to joke about around the store). So because someone made the mistake of hiring a 17 yr old, someone in HR "realizes" it 6 months later, and I get the boot one morning with no notice and not even a 'sorry!'... But HEY GUYS!!! I'm "eligible for rehire!!!!" How wonderful.

Gotta love the way Sprint does things!

So are you going back or are you gonna say the H with them.

you have got to be kidding me, how long have you been working with them? this sounds like crap, b/c there are certain guidelines that have to be followed, and if everybody got their phones replaced for ruining them themselves, then taht defeats the whole purpose of BUSINESS

I've worked for several different providers before working at Sprint, and I agree with what you had to say, HOWEVER, it is like that at any other company. You can never expect good sales people to also be good at customer care, it just doesn't work that way. If companies want to be really good, they need to have seperate in store customer service and sales. Like sprint USED to be about a year ago....changing to universal reps was a bad idea. Being a salesman myself, and a pretty good one at that, I can't stand dealing with stupid billing issues and phone problems. And the worst part of it all is that 90% of the time, it is user error, or customer abuse to the equipment that is causing the problem to begin with!!!! As far as the service, I am really picky about cell service, and in my area (it can be different in other parts of the country) Sprint and Verizon hands down have the best networks, far beyond Cingular ATT is. But maybe its just in my neck of the woods.

Does anyone know how to get out of a cellphone contract? I am in 2 contracts with 2 cell phones. Excel/Sprint customer service told me one phone would cancel in Feb. '05. I started with another phone company in Sept. '04, then went to cancel my Excel/Sprint in Feb. '05 and they said they made a mistake and my contract was actually extended to 2007. I am now stuck with 2 different companies and feel they made the mistake. My contract was extended for a year each time I made a change on my old plan. So the "extensions' were verbal agreements over the phone. Someone please help me. Thanks. Miles

If it is extended til 2007, then it had to be done in 2005. Did you start a new plan in 2005?

This doesn't sound right. Go to sprintpcs.com>my pcs-sign in>my plan - plan details should show you the date your Agreement expires. If it says x-date 2007, then what plan did you start on that date in 2005?

If you did not, then follow up with a supervisor or higher level and DEMAND that your account be corrected.