Dear Sprint: You Kinda, Sorta, Actually Suck
I have been a Sprint subscriber for six years. For the most part, I have been happy with my cell phone service. In the beginning, you had somewhat “cutting edge” cell phones when I first signed on as a subscriber. The clarity of phone calls on your network was unmatched to any other carrier I’d had – Alltel, Cingular/AT&T, and US Cellular. While your initial network penetration in my area had some mixed results, I noticed that you focused on building up your infrastructure; therefore, I actually had cell phone coverage in more rural areas and not just metropolitan areas. Technology and infrastructure concerns aside, you had some other issues: like a policy of extending your customers subscriber agreements (the infamous two year contract) for another two years if you made one small change to your plan. And while you just recently discarded that policy (after numerous complaints by your customers), you still have some other issues to contend with. I recently sent you a snail mail letter addressing some of my issues with you, but I’m ready to take these issues to the public. Let’s discuss a few of them, shall we?
In a nutshell, your customer service reps are nice and pleasant, but they have a different answer (or none at all) to the same question whenever I am transferred around like a ping pong ball. In fact, I recently got trapped in “transfer hell” after speaking with at least five people (all over the world) just to get a simple answer on what I need to do about a broken, defective cell phone case. I’m normally a pleasant person, but when you spend nearly 35 minutes plus on the phone - explaining the same problem to five different people who keeps telling you they don’t handle my issue - your patience wears thin. That’s what happened to me after being told to call *2 on my phone for the third time…probably to speak to someone else who would tell me they couldn’t handle my issue. I wasn’t having it, so I asked for a supervisor to give me an answer to a very simple question, which she did: return your case to the Sprint store and they will replace it. I finally got some resolution to an issue after one of your reps (a few weeks earlier) promised me he would order me a new case to replace it, which was a straight out lie; one of your supervisors told me that they could not do that and that whoever told me that should not have. Well, gee, that’s great to know now, but you shouldn’t have given me expectations that were outright false and then don’t tell me what I need to do to get my issue resolved until I’ve gone through five different people in several call centers. While I had to sweat blood and tears to get that issue worked out, my recent experiences with your customer service reps fired me up on a whole new level.
You recently upgraded to a new online billing system that involved having your customers change to a stronger user name, password, etc. Now, I’m all for tighter online security since I am security paranoid about all of my online information. However, your site’s code was broke!! When I tried to update my user name and password, I kept getting an error, which resulted in numerous FAILS! After trying for several days to access my online account, I finally did what your website told me to do: call *2 on my phone for assistance…because your code was still broke. I did just that and after 20 minutes or more with a customer service rep, I finally got that resolved. Unfortunately, your crappy roll out of the new (buggy) billing system messed up my plan information.
You sent me a form letter telling me I recently made changes to my account, which I did not, and to review my plan information listed on the letter. I did and I noticed you were charging me 20.00 instead of 9.99 for other lines on my account. Naturally, I hopped on the phone to straighten this issue out. I figured the 20.00 charge was a mistake, but I wanted to be sure that it was before making any assumptions. You were not about to change the terms of my subscriber agreement without my consent, especially when I made no changes to my account. And if you were going to change my subscriber agreement, then you were going to cut me out of my contract for those extra lines without paying the 200.00 charge. Fortunately, it didn’t get to that level. After being transferred to the “Accounts Department” and explaining my issue to a second person, I sat on hold while he researched only to inform me what I already knew: that the charge of 20.00 per extra line was incorrect and that it should be 9.99. You think? Apparently, the awesomely, smooth roll out of your new system screwed up my plan information because you put the wrong code in for my extra phone lines’ service plans. Brilliant…and another FAIL! I explicitly asked your rep if this issue is resolved because I did not want to have to call again about this issue. He assured me it was, but I wondered if it was truly over in the back of my mind. My suspicions were correct.
You sent me another form letter two days later telling me the same exact thing as the previous form letter. I took a breath or two to calm my blood pressure before getting on the phone to confirm if this letter was just an accidental duplicate or if they’d screwed something else up again…after it was supposedly fixed. It didn’t help that right before calling *2, you did something to my PCS Power Vision and essentially told me I took it off my phone when I “made changes to my account.” Lie! Whatever your reps did to re-correct my account information messed that up. I straightened that out quickly then turned to the issue of this second form letter. Naturally, I was a little testy about this situation because of the problems I’ve been having, so I admit I was a little hot on the collar when I spoke to your customer service rep, whom I later apologized to because I know it wasn’t her fault. I just got beyond frustrated with the numerous issues I’ve had over the past couple of months. Anyway, I essentially told your customer service rep that I hope this issue is straightened out once and for all; it would make me extremely unhappy if I have to call back about it again when I get my next bill. I’ve had to call you to correct billing issues more recently, so I won’t be shocked that if you screw up my next bill. We will see, won’t we?
I recently sent you a letter explaining my dissatisfaction with your customer service and of course, didn’t hear anything back from you. I was trying to keep any issues I’m having between me and you; however, these recent incidents forced my hand, and I’m taking it to the Internet every time you mess up. I want other people to see what kind of company you are. Before these recent strings of incidents, I was generally happy with Sprint, minus the stodgy phones you’ve been showcasing in your stores and on your website. After these incidents, you got me thinking about taking my business to another carrier as soon as my contract ends. I do like your service and call clarity, but your customer service=FAIL. It’s no wonder you’re losing subscribers by the thousands per quarter. People don’t want to have to deal with aggravation like that; I certainly don’t. Essentially, you made me truly understand why one older lady had a conniption fit at my last trip to the Sprint store over issues with her phone and billing problems. I could easily see her doing what the Comcast lady did, so don’t be surprised if that happens one day in one of your stores.
Sincerely,
An Aggravated Sprint Customer who May Jump to Another Carrier if Sprint Keeps up the Crap
P.S.
Verizon, Google…someone, please buy Sprint. I would like to think that you two can’t do worse for the company than Sprint is already doing to themselves.