Posted on 07/11/2007 9:45:02 AM PDT by Kaslin
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."
In my work, I do get plenty of time to deal with customers who, to say the least, have unrealistic expectations - people who want things which are impossible and/or who get amazingly rude when not instantly given what they demand. More than once I've wished I could just say, "ok, I've had it; I've closed your account, we don't want your business, please go annoy some other company".
On the flip side, companies can also be more reasonable - I've often wished I could just forgive something in an account because it was a one-time thing, or the customer was in a jam and just needed a kindness...I guess my plea is for everyone to just remember that we're all people on each end of the line, and all of us can use a break from time to time.
I have a buddy that works for a major credit card company... they have let some of their customers go... but not for a reason you expect (complaints, ect).
He said it was mostly older people... or folks with some kind of social issuse... and they just wanted somebody to talk to. So they would just call up customer service just and just rabmle on and on. The CS folks, for the most part are always friendly/polite...and they can’t exactly hang up on right away.
So these folks would just keep asking about balances, offers, rates, whatever... to keep the CS person on the phone.. just to hear another live person.
One side doth not a story make. If Sprint/Nextel is the mark of excellence in cellular service we are in trouble. So, someone calls and they are on hold for a long time, hang up and call again, again, again. It doesn’t take long to make 25+ calls to have a problem resolved, especially a billing error where you want to ensure you pay what you should. Nextel is on my Sxxxx list. So, Nextel can’t deal with their poor customer service so they blame the customer. What a great company!! Hmm, two tin cans with string might work! Unacceptable move by the Sprint/Nextel management losers (IMHO)!
“Unacceptable move by the Sprint/Nextel management losers (IMHO)!”
humble?
really?
When I lose my temper, it is usually when I am on the phone with customer service. I think it is the knowledge that these people’s jobs are to keep me from the people who actually have the power to help me.
And you know what? Screaming my head off at them works better then being nice. I used to be nice but never got anywhere. I learn to be mean to customer service from customer service.
If they would just do what is right to begin with, but no. Now I don’t know if it is even possible for me to be civil when I have to call customer service. Being mean and rude it too ingrained in me now. But it doesn’t matter to the CEO of the company because he has people in customer service to keep him from knowing how much I hate his company.
More humble then most. I don’t know about you but my time is worth money and I don’t deal with schmucks. There are plenty of other providers of services who treat customers with respect and don’t just take their dollars and run while laughing all the way to the bank. I’m a show me kind of person and if a service is mediocre I really don’t need them! They may get an A for effort but an F for execution; just my HUMBLE opinion, REALLY! Enough of this for now. I have other things to do (earn a living) which are more pressing then this forum right now. Take care!
humble?
really?
That’s kind of sad.
bfl
I worked for Airgas years ago doing AR reconciliations and I recall once getting a letter from a fairly large customer that they were henceforth going to pay us Net 120. So I set their account to COD as they were already as much as 180 past due on a number of invoices.
Their CEO called me personally to bitch about it and I told him that if he needed a loan to do business that he needed to see a banker and that my company was not in the loan business.
So they paid us up to current, returned our cylinders, and took their business to Air Liquide.
And filed Chapter 13 about six months later and hosed Air Liquide out of a bundle of money - I got a nice atta-boy from my firm and an excellent reference when I moved on to my next job. I did the right thing then and, IMHO, Sprint is doing the right thing, too.
Their CEO called me personally to bitch about it and I told him that if he needed a loan to do business that he needed to see a banker and that my company was not in the loan business.
So they paid us up to current, returned our cylinders, and took their business to Air Liquide.
And filed Chapter 13 about six months later and hosed Air Liquide out of a bundle of money - I got a nice atta-boy from my firm and an excellent reference when I moved on to my next job. I did the right thing then and, IMHO, Sprint is doing the right thing, too.
That mirrors a half dozen experiences we went through in the late 1990’s with clients we fired. Most, if not all, went belly up, leaving somebody else holding the deficit.
To me, when I see that kind of lagging payments, its a HUGE red flag.
Thanks for the laughs!
LOL.My old boss the chef used to say,"The customer is never right,but he's always the customer".And he backed that up.If someone complained to the waitress,he'd go out into the dining room and ask the customer himself.If there were a legitimate grievance(rare),heads in the kitchen would roll.If not,he would tell them to leave and not come back.He'd even chase customers into the parking lot to chastise them for stiffing the waitress,telling them not to come back!
I am doodad there too!
NO SOUP FOR YOU!!
Having worked as a waiter, busboy and sometimes fill in dishwasher, I don’t blame him. The stuff I have seen people pull in restaurants (and usually women.
Order a double of high end liquor and then complain it did not taste right after most is consumed. Right.
Mine is to conduct market research in advance and ongoing to always choose the right market segment of customers to go after in the first place. Spint/Nextel’s size of only dropping 1,200 customers out of 10 million is proof positive they also conduct good market research. I have always admired Sprint. They always seem to have the best management and execute. They also adapt and adopt with the times.
Your a Market Maven. That is a compliment. Ever read the book ‘The Tipping Point’?
Verizon is the worst company ever. My business is I.T. related. When I could not connect at home their customer service maintained that my I.P. block showed me as having spyware and that it was connecting but it was so slow it could not display content. I am a CEO not a techie but I do have some knowledge and this sounded like utter BS to me. I wasted about 40 hours of time bringing my system in where my best and brightest IT minds confirmed I did not have spyware. I switched to Metrocast and it’s been pretty solid. About two months later one of the IT guys had printed out an obscure article they found on blogs. It reported that Verizon’s DSL was not compatable with Microsoft in a small regional area because of contract disputes. My zip code was in the outage which based on the article lasted 90 days while it was resolved. I called Verizon and demanded a refund of the entire month I lost without service. They refused at first and as an executive, I know where to call and what to say. I got my money out of principle which cost me another 10 hours of time.
LOL!!! Yeah those commercials that show 500 people with the network are the people you have to go through to get refunds or credits :)
humble!
really!
Wow, I am overwhelmed with your command of the English language, however, it is very limited (IMHO)...
humble!
really!
Gee, this is fun.
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