Sprint Dropping "Problem" Customers...

[terpkristin]

...if by "problem" you mean "they call customer service too often."

Strikes me as nuts, I recently switched from Sprint to Verizon, in part because Sprint's Customer Service was downright unresponsive and frankly incompetent when it came to dealing with my problems (trying to change features in my plan, understand my bill, figure out why even though I paid my bill on time, Sprint said I was late, etc). This makes me even more comfortable with my move to Verizon. Anybody here get a Dear John from Sprint?

A copy can be found at http://news.com.com/2300-1036_3-6195...5014&subj=news

Originally Posted by CNET

Sprint breaks up with high-maintenance customers Posted by Marguerite Reardon
The squeaky wheel doesn't always get the grease.
At least not if the squeaky wheel is a Sprint Nextel customer. On June 29, 2007, Sprint sent letters notifying some customers that their service would be canceled by the end of July due to excessive calls to customer service.
"Our records indicate that over the past year, we have received frequent calls from you regarding your billing or other general account information," the letter reads. "While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs."
"Therefore after careful consideration, the decision has been made to terminate your wireless service agreement effective July 30, 2007."
Subscribers who have gotten letters from Sprint terminating their service won't have to pay the early termination fee. Their account balances will also be set to zero. But subscribers will have to sign up with a new wireless provider by July 30 if they want to keep their phone numbers. Otherwise, the numbers won't be available after the Sprint service ends, the letter states.
(You can take a look at one of these letters posted within this discussion stream on a Sprint users' forum.) And click here to see an image of one of the letters.
A Sprint spokeswoman acknowledged that a group of letters had been sent out on June 29. She said that only a "small minority" of customers were impacted.
"We have to be able to quickly and efficiently serve customers," said Roni Singleton, a Sprint spokeswoman. "And when we are unable to consistently solve our customers' problems it results in a lot of frustration and longer waits for other customers. So after looking through our records, we were able to determine that there were customers who we could couldn't meet their current needs."
Singleton said it was normal business practice for Sprint to audit customer service interactions. She also said the company has always reserved the right in its terms of use to terminate the contract for whatever reason.
Posting on the Sprint users' message board, one customer who received one of these letters said the calls she made to Sprint were for errors in the company's billing. She also questioned how the company counted the number of calls.
"I absolutely didn't call as much as they say I did, but I did always have the hang up/transfer scenario--even today calling in I was hung up on twice and transferred at least five times," she said in one of her posts. "I mean I DREAD calling in and sitting on hold, why on earth would I do it unless I had to!"
Clearly, Sprint is trying to shed customers who seem to eat up too many resources. But it seems crazy that a company that's already having a hard time keeping subscribers would be willing terminate contracts.
For years, Sprint has had a reputation for poor customer service and poor network coverage, and as a result, the company is suffering. For the first quarter of 2007, it reported a loss of 220,000 post-paid monthly subscribers--customers who pay monthly. This was the third quarter in a row the company had a substantial loss of these types of customers. The company has consistently had one of the worst churn rates in the wireless industry. At the end of the first quarter of 2007, Sprint reported a churn rate of 2.7 percent.
This issue has gotten me wondering about wireless contracts in general. If you are a Sprint customer who recently received one of these letters, or you've received a similar letter from another carrier, please write me at [email protected].

/tk

[BrianD]

I haven't seen a lot of these cases get much attention, but I have seen them a few times in smaller scales. I worked for an ISP that dropped a number of customers because they were calling in for so much help that we actually lost money on those customers. This is a slightly different case since the problems weren't caused by our service but rather customers who didn't know how to work their computers.

A quote in the above article comments on the oddity of terminating contracts when they are having trouble keeping subscribers, but it makes sense to drop the ones that are costing them money.

[vex]

Wow.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by BrianD

A quote in the above article comments on the oddity of terminating contracts when they are having trouble keeping subscribers, but it makes sense to drop the ones that are costing them money.

Yeah, just never realized how much customer service cost them. I mean, I called about once every other month, owing mostly to their website not working or them billing me incorrectly, my experience with them is that they are a big part of their own problem...

Surprising, too, I'd been with them for quite awhile, and my family is all with them (family's been since 1998ish), only in the last year did they start going downhill in my book...

/tk

[TroyF]

This is the greatest news ever. I have sprint. If I ever decide to switch carriers, I'll simply barrage the damned call center. I can easily create 15-20 problems a month for three months.

Get my letter absolving me of the breaking the contract fee and I'm good to go.

Thanks Sprint.

[dawgfan]

More and more I'm thinking I won't continue with Sprint when my current contract ends. I almost did so already before my last phone purchase, but I decided to go with the Samsung A900 and continue with Sprint rather that switch service providers and get a Razr (Motorola hadn't yet reached an agreement with Sprint to have Razr's available) on the advice of multiple co-workers.

By the time my contract ends next year, iPhones should cost less and there should be a number of iPhone-like competitors.

My biggest beef right now with Sprint is I haven't been able to log-in to my account online for about the last 6 months despite numerous calls to customer service to try and figure out what's going on.

[JediKooter]

If Sprint actually had competent customer service, they probably wouldn't be getting so many repeated calls from the same people.

I'm sure there's plenty of people that have had no problems with Sprint, but, the problems that my wife and I have had with them and the simplicity of the problems (not due to our doing) that we have called in for repeatedly, I'm almost hoping to get a letter from them.

[vex]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

More and more I'm thinking I won't continue with Sprint when my current contract ends. I almost did so already before my last phone purchase, but I decided to go with the Samsung A900 and continue with Sprint rather that switch service providers and get a Razr (Motorola hadn't yet reached an agreement with Sprint to have Razr's available) on the advice of multiple co-workers.

By the time my contract ends next year, iPhones should cost less and there should be a number of iPhone-like competitors.

My biggest beef right now with Sprint is I haven't been able to log-in to my account online for about the last 6 months despite numerous calls to customer service to try and figure out what's going on.

Well, you'd better stop calling, huh

[vex]

I would think that Sprint's plans would be enough to keep people away.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by vex

I would think that Sprint's plans would be enough to keep people away.

actually...as a data-heavy user...i like sprint's plans. $15 a month for unlimited data is pretty sweet. can't get that with any other company.

[vex]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

actually...as a data-heavy user...i like sprint's plans. $15 a month for unlimited data is pretty sweet. can't get that with any other company.

Don't think we reach your area, but U.S. Cellular is $9.95 a month, unless you're are talking about Blackberry service, which we offer for $40 a month.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by vex

Don't think we reach your area, but U.S. Cellular is $9.95 a month, unless you're are talking about Blackberry service, which we offer for $40 a month.

it would likely fall under blackberry...it's a WM 5.0 PDA/Phone

but you're right...U.S. Cellular doesn't reach up into New England. Verizon and Cingular/AT&T are the two other options, both of whom charge an arm and a leg for data

[vex]

Yeah, I wish ours didn't cost $40 so that I could get the Moto Q.

[sterlingice]

I know I'll be seen as crazy for saying this, but I just don't think it's a big deal. I have long maintained that the customer is *not* always right and that if you're a company, there are some people you *don't* want as customers. There are some who have an overwhelming sense of entitlement so if your phone/computer/car/airline/whatever doesn't make coffee at the perfect temperature, cure cancer, and print money then it's the worst ever. Until they pick another phone/computer/car/airline/whatever and then that next one is the worst ever. So, you're in a lose/lose with that sort of customer because of their overinflated expectations- either you lose money serving them and they complain or you don't and they complain more. Either way, you cannot win as a customer and, frankly, people like that don't deserve service.

That said, I don't think this is an instance of this. I think this is just Sprint being stupid. But what else is new...

SI

[MrBug708]

Heh. Sprint sucked 4 years ago when I had them and this just makes me glad I switched to T-Mobile