Sprint “Customer Service” or lack thereof…
As a long time customer of ATT, I was hesitant to switch over to SPRINT. My Wife and all of her Family use Sprint so as a matter of convenience, I switched.
That was the last of the CONVENIENCE where Sprint is concerned.
I am in CUSTOMER SERVICE myself and because of many years of dealing with upset and sometimes downright mean people I have developed a strong sense of PATIENCE and EMPATHY. Besides, it has been my experience that you are more likely to get somewhere with someone when you are nice to them.
I started out nice. It took Sprint about 6 months to drain me completely of my Patience and now I am at the point where I feel a need to let others know just how bad they are.
The lack of Customer support I have been shown is so bad it almost seems like they are TRAINED to be like this.
My wife and I have both had some minor issues with them in the past, but I let them go as I know that “things happen”. This latest issue however made me so uncomfortable that I was willing to negate my contract with them and pay the difference outright.
My Wife was generous enough to buy a PALM PRE for me as a gift last June. Since the 1st week of owning this new phone it has given me problems. Hardware problems and software problems. Each time I have had an issue I took the phone to my local Sprint store (Kearny Mesa/ San Diego) to have it repaired. And every time (5 times in 6 months) I was put through the same time-consuming routine.
They would take the phone and tell me to wait 1 1/2 hour to 2 hours. Their Technician would do what they call a “PATCH” to fix the problem and they would send me on my way.
Almost like clockwork the same issues would re-occur and I would go back to them again and again.
After about the 3rd time this happened I asked if it would be possible to take a DOWNGRADE (as the PRE is their “Top of the line” phone) and keep my regular service plan. It took the sales “Lead” 3 hours to explain the options to me which came down to me taking a lesser phone and paying the same amount for a smaller service plan! That wasn’t going to work for me, I guess I am just High Maintenence that way, so I took my PATCHED phone home again.
That night I spent 3 hours on my Wife’s phone with the TECHNICAL SUPPORT department trying to figure out why all of my music and contact information had disappeared.
Soon enough the problems started again. I took the phone back to the store and demanded a better option. They wanted to look at the phone again so I agreed and let them take it. They then told me it would take the usual 1 1/2 hours to check it out. When I was explaining to the service agent what was happening he told me “I don’t have time to talk to you because I am the host and other customers are waiting!”
Feeling like I had been scolded I sat down quietly off to one side to wait. I was surrounded by 4 others who were there to fix problems with their PREs’! A few minutes later I was told that they would do another PATCH and that was all they could do at the STORE LEVEL. Anything more would require that I call CUSTOMER SERVICE. When I asked if they had a phone I could use for the call, they pointed at the display phones that are tethered to the wall. “They are all live” he said as he turned and walked away.
I picked up one of the phones just to realize that it was tethered by a 2 foot wire on a spring-loaded mechanism that must have been designed to keep people from actually being able to lift the phones. After figuring out how to call CUSTOMER SERVICE on my own (they were apparently to busy to explain to me that I had to dial 2*) I spent over an hour talking to 5 different people and explaining the situation in detail to EACH one of them (holding this UNIVERSAL WEIGHT MACHINE of a mechanism the whole time) just to be told that the policy is that they have to replace the phone 3 times before they will consider giving me a DIFFERENT phone.
6 months and 5 trips to the repair shop had gotten nothing done but PATCH jobs and the phone had never been replaced. So by my math I would have to go back to them at least 15 times before they would THINK ABOUT giving me a different phone!
Dismayed with the call, I went back to speak with the Asst. Manager. I talked to him calmly and efficiently and asked him to put himself in my shoes. He said he understood because he also has a PRE and it has the same problems!… COOL! EMPATHY! or so I thought. His theory was that because people have had bigger problems, mine don’t matter! So what if the phone only works SOMETIMES! it could be worse, RIGHT? I can’t help but wonder how they would feel if I only paid my bill SOMETIMES. Would THAT be a big enough problem to get some attention? Seeing as how my Wife and I have the most expensive phones that they offer and we pay for the most expensive service plan that they offer it seems like someone would take this into account and try to supply some customer service!
I realize that giving me a different phone might just put this MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR company out of business but couldn’t they at least be nice when they tell to COPE with my tiny issues!
I have a really hard time understanding how in this CUSTOMER SERVICE driven culture a company this large can justify treating their customers like our problems are our fault and we just have to learn to deal with it!
LEST THERE BE ANY DOUBT…. SPRINT SUCKS~!
Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.