Sprint to 1000+ customers - Quit yer bitchin

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

Sprint Cuts 1,000+ Customers For Excessive Complaining
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Hundreds of cell phone customers are being given the boot, accused of being too high maintenance.
Sprint-Nextel is disconnecting more than 1,000 subscribers on grounds the clients call customer service too often and make "unreasonable requests."
The 1,200 people getting dropped will have to find a new carrier by the end of the month.
A Sprint representative said the average customer calls customer service less than once a month, but the 1,200 clients getting the boot call 40-50 times as often.
Sprint said whatever the complaint, it has worked to resolve it but due to the volume of calls it's obvious customers involved are not happy.
In a statement, the company said: "Rather than continue to operate in a situation that was unsatisfactory for Sprint and our subscribers, we chose to terminate our relationship with those customers to allow them to pursue other options."
Cell phone user Joe Graham said Sprint reserves that right.
"I guess the company had good enough reason to get rid of 1,200 people. You don't just do it on a whim," Graham said. "Because they make the contracts they can do what they want."
"I didn't even know you could do that with a contract. That's astonishing," said cell phone user Winston Bryant.
The customers told to find a new service provider were notified by mail last month and will not have to pay a termination fee.

---

anyone know if sprint is hiring? i'm liking them more alrady.
if only more companies would do this...

Valis

Comments

[goatavatar.livejournal.com]

good for sprint!

[hangar.livejournal.com]

Hahahah. I love that.

[http://users.livejournal.com/hub_/]

They gave the recipe to get out of their contract.

I guess that changing the contract this way might end up with a class action. I wish them good luck :-)

[forever-damned.livejournal.com]

Thats just absolutely awesome.

If only more companies would have the guts to do that :)

It's a shame - the customers that tend to be a pain in the arse at my company pay for the privilege, so we won't be dropping them anytime soon.

[ghostdandp.livejournal.com]

Some article I read mentioned sprint was mostly doing it because it was costing more to keep these complainers than they were making thru there call center.

[pisceandreamer.livejournal.com]

Nice to see at least one company that understands that not all customers are worth having.

[ghostdandp.livejournal.com]

make that making thru the plans the customers have.

Had a luser confuse me in the middle of that reply.

[lordstorm.livejournal.com]

Heh, too bad it doesn't happen more often.

[jenaiabird.livejournal.com]

on the one hand... Thumbs up for Sprint! that is an awesome and straightforward way to deal with them... 40 - 50x as many calls as the average user?? damn.

on the other hand... so all i have to do is call 20 times a month and they'll break my contract free of charge??? hmm.

(I have a nextel phone as a carry over from my old job and really want to switch carriers now)

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Wait... so stopping unprofitable contracts - that is, cutting costs - is somehow NEWS in the business world?

Bloody hell. How many businesses out there are haemorrhaging money while sitting around wondering why? And how much would they pay me to point this out to them?

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Hooray for "Y'know, 'customer is always right,' to HELL with that already!"

Customer is right about as often as he/she/it knows what the hell it takes to get them what they're asking for, which is painfully close to never.

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

The hard part will be coming up with 40 or 50 things a month you can fake not understanding. It's a PHONE! How freak'n difficult can it get!

I'd love to see the call logs on those people to see just what they were complaining about.

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

...really makes you appreciate the rare one who opens with "I don't have a clue what's going on - can you help me?"

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

we just need to find someone on here who works for a phone support place, have them record a bunch of calls we can play back.

[jecook]

+ 1 BAZILLION.

We have a few "frequent fliers" at work... and it's almost *always* a password reset. Fortunately, we in the Support pit have been instructed to use the work order request system to gather statistics on these loverly people, so that management can do something about it.

Hey Sprint Customers!

[ptomblin-lj.livejournal.com]

Want to get out of your contract so you can buy an iPhone? Just call them for help a lot.

Re: Hey Sprint Customers!

[hiroe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, let me go get my cordless drill.

[wyldthyng.livejournal.com]

oh I *WISH*.

~works for a cellphone provider too~

ummm...

[mouse-from-marz.livejournal.com]

I can understand that. I certainly wouldn't want to keep a customer who calls CS 40+ times a month. However, if my cell service turns out to be super-duper crappy I can't just drop THEM without paying a rather hefty fine, so I think the company should have to do more than just waive the early termination fine. Maybe just some kind of reimbursment for setting up new service?

[ateji.livejournal.com]

Depends on the customer, certainly. Consumerist (http://consumerist.com/consumer/one-way-contract/sprint-drops-you-because-you-call-customer-service-too-much-275178.php) has a note about a user complaining over being dropped. Not making any excuses for how this user may or may not act on the phone with Sprint and/or lack of technical savvy.

Re: ummm...

[adamjaskie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my dad just got Sprint service. He had some billing issues (something got really screwed up with his first couple bills' due dates), and it wouldn't let him add features on their web site. The first time he called, he spent half an hour on hold, and the person he finally got screwed stuff up even more. When he called back the next day, the person on the other end was able to straighten stuff out, but it took another 30 minutes on hold.

Apparently they don't want to help their customers. I can understand it getting annoying when people call 50 times asking how to add a number to the contact list in their phone, but billing issues that are due to Sprint employee screw ups, and customers being frustrated by 30-minute hold times certainly can't help the matter.

Re: ummm...

[xforge.livejournal.com]

That's the other side of the coin: "You're far too needy for our minimum-wage, all-but-untrained call staff to deal with, so gtfo mmkay?" Y'all don't wanna pay enough to draw people who are competent, y'all can do without *my* money.

[fenrirvallin.livejournal.com]

I got a better one.

I work for a major landline phone company.

Permenant note on the account, front and center. We called the cops on him, had the name of the officer we talked to, and had the local police issue an official warning to stop calling us with false complaints.

The guy had been calling our repair department three times a day for over 6 months complaining of various wire taps and shocks through his phones, etc, etc, etc.

WE CALLED THE POLICE ON HIM. <3

[toxico.livejournal.com]

One of the problems with this is that they are also terminating people who are constantly Roaming. That crowd also includes some servicemen and women overseas.

That part, I disagree with, point blank. The rest? Give 'em the axe, posthaste.

[manuka.livejournal.com]

It's been my experience with Sprint that asking for an accurate bill is an "unreasonable request".

As a former Sprint employee, I got 3 words: Don't Go There. Trust me, the specter of layoffs hanging over your head on an ongoing basis is no fun.

[soruk.livejournal.com]

Dunno about there, but here in UK roaming is a cash cow for the mobile phone providers, due to significantly higher charges than being on home network (some of it is shared with the roamed-on network, but a lot is profit for your home provider). And they want to cut these people off too?

Then again, this is coming from the mobile phone operator that switched off their GSM network when everyone else is adopting GSM. (My Motorola L7089's known networks list has an entry for Sprint. None of my newer phones do.)

Re: ummm...

[justwalker.livejournal.com]

With all of the recent mergers and the resulting humongous customer base, it's extremely good business sense for Sprint to cut loose the most costly customers. My company has its own share of extremely troublesome customers who call constantly for imagined issues or problems they've created for themselves.

Standard provision in almost any contract between consumer and service provider (and all cell phone contracts I've seen) is that the provider can terminate the relationship at any time. They'd be required to deliver for a month already paid, but otherwise the company has no obligation. That's just business.

You want their service and can't provide it for yourself, so you accept their terms. The only thing you as a consumer have that companies want is money, so if you cost them more than you're worth of course they'll cut you off.

[adamjaskie.livejournal.com]

Many providers here give you free roaming in a certain area (I've seen regional, nationwide, and even US and Canada plans). My plan gives me free roaming everywhere in Michigan and Wisconsin, plus a little into Minnesota and Ohio, but I get charged extra if I go outside that territory. I think the way it works is that Alltel has a contract with Verizon, and Alltel customers can use Verizon's network and vice-versa.

Some companies will kick you off if you utilize the free roaming "too much", though, which is really irritating for people who go to university in a different roaming area, and spend the summer at home. Luckily Alltel doesn't seem to do this, but I have heard of people having that trouble with Cingular. I don't know about Sprint.

[reishka.livejournal.com]

Wow. I didn't realize you were on this end of the internets. Long time no see! :D

[kyidyl.livejournal.com]

Your providor charges you for roaming at all? I haven't had roaming fees in years, with multiple providers, I thought it was SOP not to charge them within the US...That's why I got a cell phone, partially, my family and friends are all over (Literally, from NY to CA and places in between...not just across town or across the state.) and I visit them often, so no roaming fees is nice. :)

[ateji.livejournal.com]

Shhh! It's... um... mostly lurking. :) Good to see you here, too.

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

When I worked at Bell we could cut customers off from techsupport. they still got billed and service, but no techsupport

[canray.livejournal.com]

Dude, we're tech support. Make a list of the calls we get.

Complain about dropped calls, noise on the line, the crappy screen, a stuck pixel, bad data transfer, complain about lost minutes for a wrong number, complain about lost minutes for an answering machine "Because I couldn't talk to a real human being", complain about the bill, have them explain the bill, five times, ten times, complain that the bill is too complex and obscure, phone up drunk and complain about not being able to make people understand what you're saying, complain about solar flares, complain about the lack of features on the phone and demand they "Activate them RIGHT FRAGGIN' NOW!", complain about not having the features/benefits/package your buddy has, demand the "Deal of the Time Period", before you're even out of your old deal, call complaining about your method of payment, phone and just SCREAM at a Supervisor in a manner that cannot be understood, phone up drunk and demand to know why the screen is blurry, demand to know why the Pizza you ordered "ON YOUR CELL PHONE SERVICE!" isn't here "RIGHT FRIGGIN' NOW!", complain because your computer isn't connecting to the Internet through your cell phone via the USB Connection...

That's all I got off the top of my head. Give me some more time, I'm sure I can remember a few calls I can pervert into Cell Phone Issues.

[canray.livejournal.com]

Wow, too stupid to use the Telephone.

That, I can believe. One caller I had to deal with was too stupid to use a Toaster.

No, I'm not kidding.

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

Oh God... The Pain!

[goose-entity.livejournal.com]

*curls into foetal ball*

please... stop... no more! Uncle! Ni! Whatever! Just stop the pain!!!

[goose-entity.livejournal.com]

STORY!


... pretty please?

[canray.livejournal.com]

But I just started. >:-)

[canray.livejournal.com]

Oh, but I have just begun! >:-)

[canray.livejournal.com]

The Cable Company that I work for had a crazy lady that called in all the time.

We had a direct number to contact her Worker to get her to take the medication demanded.

As much of a pain it was to deal with her, I felt sorry, yaknow?

[canray.livejournal.com]

"OK, Ma'am, you're going to need to unplug the Cable Modem from the power for fifteen seconds."

"Oh, I can't possibly do that, it's too complicated."

"No it isn't. You just need to find the right wire, and unplug it. Like unplugging a toaster."

"I'll have to wait until my Son is home."

"You don't even know how to unplug or use a toaster?"

"No, that's got too many buttons on it."

O.O ... ... "It's like unplugging a curling iron."

"Oh, that I can do."

*Mutes Customer, Thrusts Head Into Desk*

[kayfox.livejournal.com]

Complain that your blackberry is not working in Costa Rica, complain that you in Sub Saharan Africa on holiday and you can only get the sat phone to work, complain that your BlackBerry does not work with your company's Exchange 5.5 email system, complain that your service sucks in some crazy middle of nowhere, Texas and your 8.6 dBi antenna is not cutting it and you'll have to *gasp!* buy a 15 dBi antenna. Complain that your internet is crappy on the train, plane, or in your autocar, or that its slow in your steel box of an office. Complain that your BlackBerry is on T-Mobile in Germany, complain that your Palm is iffy in India, complain that your bill is too high, complain that you have to complain.