HORRID Sprint PCS Customer Service Experience

Damn!

I have been a Sprint PCS customer for years and, usually, have been
happy with the service. I rarely have to speak to Sprint themselves as
I do most account management online.

Yesterday, I turned on my phone and each time I went to use it, I would
get a message "Service Unavailable, Try Analog." When I switched to
Analog, no improvement as "Service Unavailable" was still the message I
received. I was unable to make ANY calls or receive any all day in my
home or office area. This caused me to have to stop at payphones a few
times during the day to contact my office. I am glad I didn't have an
emergency.

I decided to e-mail Sprint customer service yesterday to tell them
that, due to a problem with their network for the day, I was unable to
make calls and would appreciate some credit to my account to make up
for the trouble. I have never asked them for credits on anything
before.

A few hours later, I get THIS message back from customer support:

"Our network in your state is working perfectly fine, I checked. So,
you won't be getting any credit."

That was the tone used in the e-mail! I have the reps name, but won't
post it here. I couldn't beleive this guy was going to be curt with me
and call me (in essence) a lier! Heck, I have been a customer for
years, throw me a $5 credit, say you are sorry for the trouble and move
on... don't DEBATE the customer and call them a lier when they say they
can't make calls!

I wrote back saying I was stunned at the tone being used. I also asked
him to please share with me HIS explanation of why a customer would be
unable to make calls for a day if the network was not at fault when
their phone is almost new and was fine until then.

This morning, I was able to make and receive calls again. ODD, they had
no network trouble, but my phone suddenly couldn't make any calls on
Monday and was fine now and before!

I got a response back this morning from the same nasty rep that said "I
have given you $1.50 credit for one day without service." He did not
say he was sorry for his prior tone nor that share what he thought was
wrong if their network was not at fault. $1.50 credit is something, but
kinda still a slap in the face to someone who pays $50+ a month for
service.

Just plain annoying. The tone of this rep has trashed my feelings about
Sprint PCS. Was that really worth it for them?

---

› See More: HORRID Sprint PCS Customer Service Experience

On 12 Jul 2005 06:17:59 -0700, "Ryan" <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>Damn!
>
>I have been a Sprint PCS customer for years and, usually, have been
>happy with the service. I rarely have to speak to Sprint themselves as
>I do most account management online.
At most companies this is a plus but at Sprint this is a negative. As
far as they are concerned you have been a customer for years which
puts you into the "not likely to be leaving" file. You might think
that this sounds harsh but it works for them. They have all the proof
they need that this business model works. It is called shareholder
earnings. They know you aren't going anywhere.

>"Our network in your state is working perfectly fine, I checked. So,
>you won't be getting any credit."

Classic response to a customer. Management attitude always flows down
to the troops. The worst part is that the guy probably got a free
lunch at the support center for "funniest response to a customer."


Al

Ryan wrote:
>
> This morning, I was able to make and receive calls again. ODD, they had
> no network trouble, but my phone suddenly couldn't make any calls on
> Monday and was fine now and before!

Any possibility that your phone is getting intermittently flaky?
Are there any other Sprint users in the same area to test with?

--
John Richards

i firmly believe that when they hire CS reps, they pick the 'worst' instead
of the 'best' candidate.
"Ryan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

Damn!

I have been a Sprint PCS customer for years and, usually, have been
happy with the service. I rarely have to speak to Sprint themselves as
I do most account management online.

Yesterday, I turned on my phone and each time I went to use it, I would
get a message "Service Unavailable, Try Analog." When I switched to
Analog, no improvement as "Service Unavailable" was still the message I
received. I was unable to make ANY calls or receive any all day in my
home or office area. This caused me to have to stop at payphones a few
times during the day to contact my office. I am glad I didn't have an
emergency.

I decided to e-mail Sprint customer service yesterday to tell them
that, due to a problem with their network for the day, I was unable to
make calls and would appreciate some credit to my account to make up
for the trouble. I have never asked them for credits on anything
before.

A few hours later, I get THIS message back from customer support:

"Our network in your state is working perfectly fine, I checked. So,
you won't be getting any credit."

That was the tone used in the e-mail! I have the reps name, but won't
post it here. I couldn't beleive this guy was going to be curt with me
and call me (in essence) a lier! Heck, I have been a customer for
years, throw me a $5 credit, say you are sorry for the trouble and move
on... don't DEBATE the customer and call them a lier when they say they
can't make calls!

I wrote back saying I was stunned at the tone being used. I also asked
him to please share with me HIS explanation of why a customer would be
unable to make calls for a day if the network was not at fault when
their phone is almost new and was fine until then.

This morning, I was able to make and receive calls again. ODD, they had
no network trouble, but my phone suddenly couldn't make any calls on
Monday and was fine now and before!

I got a response back this morning from the same nasty rep that said "I
have given you $1.50 credit for one day without service." He did not
say he was sorry for his prior tone nor that share what he thought was
wrong if their network was not at fault. $1.50 credit is something, but
kinda still a slap in the face to someone who pays $50+ a month for
service.

Just plain annoying. The tone of this rep has trashed my feelings about
Sprint PCS. Was that really worth it for them?

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 16:02:38 GMT, Paul Miner <[email protected]>
wrote:


>You wouldn't say that if you were able to see what kinds of people
>come in off the street to apply for those jobs. Would you be eager to
>take a job where a typical day includes being yelled at by strangers?

You see, this is the problem with Sprint PCS. Why do you think that
these people are being yelled at? Could it be because the customer is
not treated as the most important asset the company has? I'll answer
that question myself.......YES!
If the CEO/COO thinks that the customers are simply a nuisance to deal
with in their quest to make money, how do you think the store
managers, store reps, csr managers, and csrs are going to feel about
the customers?
Most people that call in are already aware that they are calling a
company that doesn't follow its own policies and worse yet decides to
change the policies if they find that not following them isn't
screwing the customer enough!
And Paul............I am not a stranger ............I AM A CUSTOMER!


Al

Ryan wrote:


> Yesterday, I turned on my phone and each time I went to use it, I would
> get a message "Service Unavailable, Try Analog." When I switched to
> Analog, no improvement as "Service Unavailable" was still the message I
> received. I was unable to make ANY calls or receive any all day in my
> home or office area. This caused me to have to stop at payphones a few
> times during the day to contact my office. I am glad I didn't have an
> emergency.
>
> I decided to e-mail Sprint customer service yesterday to tell them
> that, due to a problem with their network for the day, I was unable to
> make calls and would appreciate some credit to my account to make up
> for the trouble.


You know, if both analog and Sprint networks weren't reachable, I'd be
more inclined to blame the phone. Cleary this isn't a network issue if
multiple carriers are unreachable in your area, unless some major
calamity had happened of the 9/11 scale. And even then, other users
would be affected, not just you.

> A few hours later, I get THIS message back from customer support:
>
> "Our network in your state is working perfectly fine, I checked. So,
> you won't be getting any credit.

> That was the tone used in the e-mail!

Well, what do you expect? While I can't speak for the tone you used in
your e-mail, I can infer from your demeanor here that it probably wasn't
so courteous. And if some CS guy gets an e-mail from some guy who
swears every network is existence is down when they're not, and he wants
a credit, what else is there to say?

Secondly, it's actually not common practice for carriers to just give
credits away, even for temporary outages UNLESS the outage is
significant (and we're talking close to several days or more). This is
because the rest of the month still warrants you an opportunity to use
all your alloted minutes in the plan.

I have the reps name, but won't
> post it here. I couldn't beleive this guy was going to be curt with me
> and call me (in essence) a lier!

He didn't call you a liar in the message. The network was up, he
checked it. And even by your own report of the problem, you could not
reach other carrier's networks on taht phone either. That generally
points to a handset issue, not a network issue. Being called mistaken
(which you were) and being called a liar are two different things.

> I wrote back saying I was stunned at the tone being used. I also asked
> him to please share with me HIS explanation of why a customer would be
> unable to make calls for a day if the network was not at fault when
> their phone is almost new and was fine until then.

Could be a number of things. Could be a transient environmental issue,
could be a software bug in the phone, could be a defective phone with an
intermittent antenna connection. But unless a whole slew of other users
were having issues too, then the idea of multiple networks down in the
absence of a substantial event to precipitate it is highly unlikely.

> I got a response back this morning from the same nasty rep that said "I
> have given you $1.50 credit for one day without service." He did not
> say he was sorry for his prior tone nor that share what he thought was
> wrong if their network was not at fault. $1.50 credit is something, but
> kinda still a slap in the face to someone who pays $50+ a month for
> service.
>
> Just plain annoying. The tone of this rep has trashed my feelings about
> Sprint PCS. Was that really worth it for them?


So to sum it up, you feel slighted because you have this half baked
theory about all CDMA and analog networks (including the ones Sprint has
no control over, mind you) in your area going bust all at once, and
Sprint won't coddle and support you on your theory, right?



--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

Paul Miner wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 10:57:41 -0500, "stevie" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> i firmly believe that when they hire CS reps, they pick the 'worst' instead
>> of the 'best' candidate.
>
> You wouldn't say that if you were able to see what kinds of people
> come in off the street to apply for those jobs. Would you be eager to
> take a job where a typical day includes being yelled at by strangers?

I'm sure they pick the best of the ones willing to work for $12 per hour.
You get what you pay for.

--
John Richards

"Ryan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Damn!
>
> I have been a Sprint PCS customer for years and, usually, have been
> happy with the service. I rarely have to speak to Sprint themselves as
> I do most account management online.
>
> Yesterday, I turned on my phone and each time I went to use it, I would
> get a message "Service Unavailable, Try Analog." When I switched to
> Analog, no improvement as "Service Unavailable" was still the message I
> received. I was unable to make ANY calls or receive any all day in my
> home or office area. This caused me to have to stop at payphones a few
> times during the day to contact my office. I am glad I didn't have an
> emergency.
>
> I decided to e-mail Sprint customer service yesterday to tell them
> that, due to a problem with their network for the day, I was unable to
> make calls and would appreciate some credit to my account to make up
> for the trouble. I have never asked them for credits on anything
> before.
>
> A few hours later, I get THIS message back from customer support:
>
> "Our network in your state is working perfectly fine, I checked. So,
> you won't be getting any credit."
>
> That was the tone used in the e-mail! I have the reps name, but won't
> post it here. I couldn't beleive this guy was going to be curt with me
> and call me (in essence) a lier! Heck, I have been a customer for
> years, throw me a $5 credit, say you are sorry for the trouble and move
> on... don't DEBATE the customer and call them a lier when they say they
> can't make calls!
>
> I wrote back saying I was stunned at the tone being used. I also asked
> him to please share with me HIS explanation of why a customer would be
> unable to make calls for a day if the network was not at fault when
> their phone is almost new and was fine until then.
>
> This morning, I was able to make and receive calls again. ODD, they had
> no network trouble, but my phone suddenly couldn't make any calls on
> Monday and was fine now and before!
>
> I got a response back this morning from the same nasty rep that said "I
> have given you $1.50 credit for one day without service." He did not
> say he was sorry for his prior tone nor that share what he thought was
> wrong if their network was not at fault. $1.50 credit is something, but
> kinda still a slap in the face to someone who pays $50+ a month for
> service.
>
> Just plain annoying. The tone of this rep has trashed my feelings about
> Sprint PCS. Was that really worth it for them?
>



His name wasn't CAL... aka piece of **** was it
See previous post

Paul Miner wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 10:57:41 -0500, "stevie" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>i firmly believe that when they hire CS reps, they pick the 'worst' instead
>>of the 'best' candidate.
>
>
> You wouldn't say that if you were able to see what kinds of people
> come in off the street to apply for those jobs. Would you be eager to
> take a job where a typical day includes being yelled at by strangers?

That's not the problem.

The problem is that they're hiring people from an area where the work
culture involves treating customers like ****.

Hey, Gary Cahsee. Get off your ass and earn your keep. Bring frontline
Customer Service back to the US where it belongs. Not that all American CSRs
are perfect -- of course they're not. But IMHO you have a better chance of
getting decent people here than some country like Malaysia where you're
basically hiring untrained, unskilled workers because they don't cost a lot
of money.

If Michael Dell can do it, so can you.

--
JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

John Richards wrote:

> I'm sure they pick the best of the ones willing to work for $12 per hour.
> You get what you pay for.

$12/hr isn't bad as an entry-level wage. That's $24K per year. If you're
just starting out in the job market or earning a second income for your
family, that might be plenty.

I guarantee you the idiots in CS right now are NOT being paid anywhere near
$12/hour.

--
JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

Paul Miner wrote:

>>The problem is that they're hiring people from an area where the work
>>culture involves treating customers like ****.
>
> I think it's just the opposite, but I'm not sure because I don't know
> exactly what you mean.

Sprint closed most of its US call centers and outsourced first-level
Customer Service to at least one or two third-world countries. While I am
philosophically opposed to that, I'd have less of a problem if the people
they hired weren't ignorant jerks. If I calmly, carefully explain something
to a CSR now, the chances are good (based on my experience) that what I say
will be completely ignored and they'll try to answer another question or
solve a problem different from the one I describe.

And I do believe part of the problem is that they are hiring low-wage,
(probably) uneducated people who (most likely) don't give a rat's ass if
they do a good job.

>>Hey, Gary Cahsee.
>
> It's Gary Forsee, and he took over after Bill Esry was ousted. Len
> Lauer was never in that position.

Duh. I don't know where I got Cahsee from.

What's Forsee then? Lauer was CEO, IIRC, and I thought Forsee was the latest
CEO.


>>If Michael Dell can do it, so can you.
>
> Last I heard, Dell Tech Support, (with Dell, is that the same as
> Customer Service?), was pretty close to the bottom of the barrel in
> CSat.

I own two Dell PCs and have some big issues with Dell, but their customer
service/tech support people (yes, same group) have done pretty well by me in
the two years that I've owned the two Dell computers. My big issue is with
one or two questionable business practices, not with customer support.

My major point was that Dell was offshoring CS and decided to turn around
and bring the CS operation back to the US. They'd already done that by the
time I bought my computers.

--
JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

Steve Sobol wrote:
>
> My major point was that Dell was offshoring CS and decided to turn around
> and bring the CS operation back to the US. They'd already done that by the
> time I bought my computers.

No, they've only done that for business accounts. Non-business customers
still have to talk to India.

--
John Richards

John Richards wrote:

>> My major point was that Dell was offshoring CS and decided to turn around
>> and bring the CS operation back to the US. They'd already done that by
>> the
>> time I bought my computers.
>
> No, they've only done that for business accounts. Non-business customers
> still have to talk to India.

That'd explain it.

I talk to customer service through the Higher Education Employee Purchase
Program because my wife got the PCs through EPP as a student of a university
partnered with Dell. That is *not* the same department that handles retail
customer service; retail customer service would have no record of my
purchase, only the people that handle higher-ed purchases would.

--
JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

Paul Miner wrote:

> I think Lauer is the President of Sprint PCS,

Well, is he still there? I might be mistaken. I thought he was gone.

--
JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

Paul Miner wrote:

> Yup, Len Lauer is still there. His job title is listed as President
> and COO. His boss is Gary Forsee, who is listed as Chairman and CEO.

Well, I've ascribed much of the improvements over the past year or two to
Lauer. So I should probably assume the slippage in CS is his doing too.

I wonder how much of it is due to cost-cutting mandates from above.

I'm >< this close to calling corporate HQ and asking for him.
(Seriously. Though I don't think they'd let me talk to him.)



--
JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"