Christ, what happened to Sprint customer service?! (Long)

So, back in August, I left Sprint because inexplicably, coverage where I
live went totally downhill, from a relatively decent 2-3 bar signal to
virtually nothing at all. I ended up moving to Verizon because,
although their pricing was more expensive, their coverage was excellent.

Recently, however, coverage seemed to be improving, as others who were
still on Sprint started noticing a lot fewer dead spots than had cropped
up. So, my main reason for sticking with Verizon seemed to be waning.
The services I use there (450 peak minutes most of which I don't use,
250 text messages, EVDO BroadbandAccess to tether my laptop for internet
access) comes to well over $115 a month.

Looking at Sprint's current website offerings, however, I see I can get
the following:

$29.99 F&F (most months, I use mostly night & weekends, and nights
starting at 7 pm is a plus, so 200 minutes should do me
fine)
$25.00 Phone as modem Power Vision add-on (as listed on the web site)
$ 8.00 500 SMS messages (I have 250 with VZW for $5.00)
$ 6.00 TEC Phone insurance (Since it appears Sprint wants you to pay
them to do even warranty work on their
phones these days)
------

$68.99 Monthly charge

That's almost cutting my cell phone bill in half! *IF* I can get it to
work!

So I go to a store and sign up. I purchase a Samsung A900, sail through
the credit check, and then we hit a snag when it comes to what Power
Vision pack I want. I say I want the Phone as Modem plan. The rep
looks clueless. I explain it to him, that it's the $25 add on that I
saw ont he website, that lets you hook up the phone to a laptop via USB
or bluetooth and use it as a modem.

The response I get: "... why would you want to do that?"

We go back and forth on whether this actually exists or not. I show
them the website. Hey, it exists! So, after further bantering over why
I want this when for $15 I could listen to music and blingtones and
watch tv on my phone (all of which I think is cute, but really, I won't
use nearly as much as the dial up access), clueless rep does his thing
on his computer, and though he looks to be completely unsure of himself,
hands over my A900 and assures me that all is well and that yes, I do
have the phone as modem pack added. So, I think him, take my phone and
go home.

Of course, I'm not at all confident that numbnutz got it right, so I log
in to the account access on the website. Can you guess what I saw?

Sure enough, I've got the $15 power vision pack, and the phone insurance
and SMS packages I wanted weren't even there.

*sigh*

So I call up *2. Worst. Mistake. Ever.

I can certainly tell that Sprint isn't outsourcing to India, as the
accents are certainly not Indian. But whatever the accents are, they
are there, they are thick, and while I don't mind and even grew up
around folks with heavy accents, I DO mind that the CS reps are having
trouble understanding what I'm trying to tell them. I had one explain
to me at least three times that if I wanted to tether my phone to my
laptop, I needed to use a USB cable and had to download the Sprint
connection manager at this url... and three times I said "yes, i know,
I'm aware of that, but question is about actually *putting* the
phone-as-modem pack on my account because it's not there right now..."

Another insisted that my REAL problem was that I forgot my password to
my online account access on Sprint.com, and THAT'S why it was logging me
into my account anyway, but only showing me the $15 add-on instead of
the $25 add on. Uhh, yeah.

And another insisted that the Samsung A900 simply isn't Power Vision
capable. *sigh*

I did what I used to do back in the bad old days with Sprint: politely
thanked the clueless rep, hung up, and called right back hoping to get a
more knowledgeable one this go-round.

Oh, one funny exchange I had with one rep, after she realized the issue
to be way over her head:

Rep: "I'm sorry sir, can you speak up? Your signal is breaking up."

Me: "I'll gladly speak up, but I'm actually talking to you on my
landline phone, so I'm not sure how I can be breaking up."

Rep: *Silence from her, even though I can still hear voices and
keyclicks in the background... and then she hangs up*

The more clueful reps actually attempted to address the problem - that I
want the $25 PAM option - but I still got no headway. In those cases, I
would get "We can't find that plan," and "we don't know what you're
talking about," and "that plan doesn't exist." I'm instead being pointed
to the $39.99 PAM option.

An afternoon of repeated attempts at this, and I finally managed to get
a CS rep who is willing to actually go to the web site and let me walk
her through the steps of finding this plan. She sees it, and admits (a
little grudingly, but I gotta give her credit for at least trying to
sound professional about it) that I was right, the web site DOES say $25
for PAM. She still can't find the correct rate code in her account
service tool, though. She puts me on hold and speaks with her supervisor
for 20 minutes. Still no dice, neither of them can find this plan to add it.

However, they are willing to compromise. Because the offer is still on
the website but not in *their* system, I was offered:

- $39.99 Phone as Modem plan
- A full $39.99 credit for the first month
- 15% discount off entire bill for 2 years

All things considered, the cost works out fairly close to what I
would've paid if I had gotten the $25 add-on. So, I accept, and
everyone is happy, right?

Well, no.

I let things be until the next day, when I decide I should try out the
Power Vision service. And I get:

"Error #67: Registration failure. Your PCS Vision username and password
may be incorrect. Note: Repeated entries of an invalid password during
a 24-hour period will result in your account being temporarily
suspended. You may have to call your service provider."

Lovely.

So I spend even MORE time wading through the tech support mess. I won't
bore you of those details, but it wasn't very different from my first
round of calls. Perserverance eventually pays off though, and once
again, I happen to reach a call center where they hide all the
knowledgable reps.

NOW, all I have to do is wait for Sprint EVDO tech support to process a
trouble ticket. Turns out my power vision profile is not authenticating
and I'm getting "Error 67" even though the username and password on my
phone AND their servers match (we went through the ##DATA#, entered
service code and verified that all was correct). I've been told I should
get a call back "in about 36 hours."

*grumble*

I'd really like to give Sprint a second chance, but this experience is
really discouraging. I left pre-Nextel merger, and CS was going downhill
then after a brief period of improvement. Now it seems like things are
even worse! If this is typical of the "new" Sprint Nextel, then the
time wasted fixing these random little problems won't be worth the money
I'd be saving.

13 days left on my trial period...

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

---

› See More: Christ, what happened to Sprint customer service?! (Long)

Sounds like the sprint I always known. They have the absolute worst CS and
nothing has ever changed or will ever change. Best thing is to do
everything over the web, buy your own phones via ebay auctions and try to
avoid CS as much as possible.

On Sun, 23 Apr 2006 19:50:02 -0400, Isaiah Beard
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>So, back in August, I left Sprint because inexplicably, coverage where I
>live went totally downhill, from a relatively decent 2-3 bar signal to
>virtually nothing at all.

[snip]

I can affirm a lot of what's written and implied here. I won't
bore you with my recent experience, which pales by comparison to yours
(and nothing really critical was at stake in my case).

I've been with SPCS for seven years, and I've seen things get
better and worse, naturally. The system works extremely well for my
needs, and always has, however. With regard to CS, I've simply learned
that you get your arrangement up and running, make sure it's right,
then let it hum along. Once it's going you need never deal with the
sales division at all. I've learned how to get the technical
information I need, and am fortunate to live near a Sprint store with
good, serious staff people (it's Wall Street, so that might make the
difference).

I can say this from recent observation: after really improving
CS in 2003 things plateaued. I haven't deal with them much except for
a recent interaction where I noticed that, yes, the accents were
different and heavy, but not in every case. My tele-sales
representative sounded like she was in Kentucky. I got several in the
US, and several somewhere outside the country. They seemed to be on
some sort of phone system that was indeed capable of breaking up.
Believe it or not, it sounded like they were on some kind of VoIP
line. Some sounded so distant and noisy I could barely hear them.
Finally, there seems to be some problem with their implementation of
the Sprint/Nextel merger structure. In four or more instances I got
switched to someone who either asked me whether my inquiry was about a
Sprint or Nextel problem, or told me that I was in a Nextel area when
I should have been directed to a Sprint area. This has got to be
troubling even for them.

So the scene you describe is quite vivid for me. And note that
in the paragraph above I seemed to speak to many individuals. It was
at least a dozen. What was I trying to do? Get a written receipt of
payment for a component purchase I'd made. That's it. I promised I'd
spare you the story.

Nevertheless, I've been through this before. My SPCS phone
continues to do everything I need it to, when I need it to. So it
looks like I'm not going anywhere.

DGI

David G. Imber wrote:
> With regard to CS, I've simply learned
> that you get your arrangement up and running, make sure it's right,
> then let it hum along.

Yes, that was pretty much my philosophy with Sprint when I was a more
permanent customer (I was with them from 1998 to 2005), and woe would be
the rare times that something did go wrong and I had to try to get it
fixed. However, much as I'd love to have my arrangement up and running
and let it hum along, as you say, the problem is *getting there*, and
now CS stands directly in my way. It's a shame too, because if I COULD
get this working, then Sprint *might* get another 7 years of steady
income out of me so long as CS and I don't ever have to cross paths
again. But right now, it seems like I might have to give up and
continue giving Verizon more money. It sucks to pay more, but the VZW
setup is *working*, where right now Sprint's is not.



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

Isaiah Beard wrote:
>
> That's almost cutting my cell phone bill in half! *IF* I can get it
> to work!
>
> So I go to a store and sign up.

That's as far as I needed to read. As a former Sprint customer, you
should have known better than that. The PAM plans are fairly new, and
there is NO way I'd expect an in-store drone to know much, if anything,
about them. Worse, there was a clear indication that the clerk was not
up to the task--that was a red flag meaning "LEAVE NOW" (just like you
said you did when dealing with CSRs on the phone).

I would have handled it all online (certainly after initial contact with
a clueless drone I would have done so). Pick a phone, choose a plan, add
add-ons (like PAM and SMS), check out, and wait for delivery. Sure it's
not instant gratification. But I have never even gotten satisfaction
from in-store SPCS drones, let alone instant gratification (plenty of
aggravation though).

The resulting CSR issues were likely due to starting off on the wrong
path in the first place, and the rather newness of the PAM plans (at
least EV-DO rollout is somewhat smoother than 1x was). Regardless, those
are probably the worst issues to deal with.


--
Mike

Isaiah Beard wrote:

> So I go to a store and sign up.

There's your first problem. Why didn't you sign up on-line?

"Isaiah Beard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>

> $25.00 Phone as modem Power Vision add-on (as listed on the web site)

URL please? The brochures I got from the store has PAM as 39.99 special
offer. I pointed at it and told the rep this is what I want while buying my
PPC 7600.

Todd W.

SMS <[email protected]> wrote in news:444d557f$0$1560
[email protected]:

> Isaiah Beard wrote:
>
>> So I go to a store and sign up.
>
> There's your first problem. Why didn't you sign up on-line?

I tried to sign up online. I couldn't figure out how to transfer my number
from Cingular over. So, I call and sign up on their 800 number. The CRS told
me they had been having a lot of complaints about this from others. So, he
takes care of everything for me. Except, they then proceed to charge me for a
phone I could have gotten for free on the website. So, what should have been
a free phone ended up costing $54.
But on the bright side, I went to their online CS and got a $32 credit issued
to my account.
Now if they will only get my wife's phone to her, so we can cancel our
Cingular account.

--
Larry Scott
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you will live like no one else,
Later you can live like no one else.
Dave Ramsey

The most knowledgeable reps are in the "Customer Retention" devision.
Amazing how quickly my problems were resolved when I asked that my
service be canceled.

SMS wrote:
> Isaiah Beard wrote:
>
>> So I go to a store and sign up.
>
> There's your first problem. Why didn't you sign up on-line?

Maybe because I was stupid enough to assume that, like other wireless
companies, you could walk into a branded, corporate store and the sales
reps would not only be motivated to sell you something, but have a
minimum level of knowledge to set up the account. Maybe not PERFECTLY
set it up, but at least get things to a point where it's not irrevocably
FUBAR.

Further, I guess I also stupidly assumed that customer service would
have a minimum knowledge level to assist customers whose accounts were
wrecked by incompetence. Seems every other wireless company can do
that... even Cingular. And Sprint even managed to do this for the seven
years that I was a customer with them previously. Stupid me for
thinking CS *might* get bad, but customer satisfaction and market forces
would prevent things from becoming downright dysfunctional.

You're absolutely right. Stupid, stupid me for thinking that Sprint was
a company worthy of actually getting a second chance. Fortunately, no
harm done: I'm within my 14 day trial and didn't port my number. Their
P.O.S. MM-A900 is going back, and I'll be sticking with a competent
company. Clearly, the $40 a month savings isn't worth the time I wasted
trying to get this working.

Oh well.


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

Todd W wrote:
> "Isaiah Beard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>> $25.00 Phone as modem Power Vision add-on (as listed on the web site)
>
> URL please?

Steps needed, and screenshots, are right here:

http://www.howardforums.com/showpost...00&postcount=6



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

Bill T wrote:
> The most knowledgeable reps are in the "Customer Retention" devision.
> Amazing how quickly my problems were resolved when I asked that my
> service be canceled.

On hold for cancellations now.

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

Tinman wrote:
> Isaiah Beard wrote:
>> That's almost cutting my cell phone bill in half! *IF* I can get it
>> to work!
>>
>> So I go to a store and sign up.
>
> That's as far as I needed to read. As a former Sprint customer, you
> should have known better than that. The PAM plans are fairly new, and
> there is NO way I'd expect an in-store drone to know much, if anything,
> about them. Worse, there was a clear indication that the clerk was not
> up to the task--that was a red flag meaning "LEAVE NOW" (just like you
> said you did when dealing with CSRs on the phone).

Yah, but the phone CSRs are dumbasses these days. There was a point where
Sprint PCS customer service *was* staffed with clued, helpful people for a
few years, but not now.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Apple Valley, CA
Resident of Southern California -
the home of beautiful people and butt-ugly traffic jams

Steve Sobol wrote:
> Tinman wrote:
>> Isaiah Beard wrote:
>>> That's almost cutting my cell phone bill in half! *IF* I can get it
>>> to work!
>>>
>>> So I go to a store and sign up.
>>
>> That's as far as I needed to read. As a former Sprint customer, you
>> should have known better than that. The PAM plans are fairly new, and
>> there is NO way I'd expect an in-store drone to know much, if
>> anything, about them. Worse, there was a clear indication that the
>> clerk was not up to the task--that was a red flag meaning "LEAVE
>> NOW" (just like you said you did when dealing with CSRs on the
>> phone).
>
> Yah, but the phone CSRs are dumbasses these days.

Some are, some aren't. In the last nine or so months I haven't had any
problems. In that time I have had two dealings with Sprint: one case was
a phone replaced under warranty, and the case was when I purchased a
(PDA) phone. No serious problems in either case (and not a single visit
to a SPCS store).


> where Sprint PCS customer service *was* staffed with clued, helpful
> people for a few years, but not now.

All cellular companies have CS horror stories. About the only thing
unique about this incident is that it might possibly be an indicator
that few people are interested in the PAM packs (if they were selling
like hotcakes you can be sure the CSRs would have been more informed).

That being said, I sure as heck am willing to put up with the occasional
CS hassle than paying TWICE the price I am paying now. I've often gone
many many months without ever needing to call CS. OTOH, I receive a bill
each month no matter what. <g>


--
Mike

Tinman wrote:

> That being said, I sure as heck am willing to put up with the occasional
> CS hassle than paying TWICE the price I am paying now. I've often gone
> many many months without ever needing to call CS. OTOH, I receive a bill
> each month no matter what. <g>

Well, if CS has gotten better since last year, that's very cool. My CS
experiences had gotten uniformly awful by the time I switched away.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Apple Valley, CA
Resident of Southern California -
the home of beautiful people and butt-ugly traffic jams