Why is Sprint Nextel bleeding customers?

The Main Reason -

I've been a broker of cellular service for 15 years and have over those years carried every operator. Nextel had always been far and away the best of them all - not the best coverage or the sexiest handsets and deffo not the best compensation/commission but internally they always had a SOLID structure and a great business model -

Nextel split the business into 2 sides of the house; direct Nextel employees who worked directly for Nextel and indirect employees who are 3rd party resellers of Nextel service; indirect actually did the lions share of the business; each of those 2 groups are split depending upon zip code and also corporate/governemt/general business/consumer etc.

When it was Nextel we were by far the best trained sales reps out of all the carriers in the field with optional/mandatory training sessions available on a weekly basis. These trainings were tiered depending upon experience and geared towards different vertical industries and stemmed from the simplest "how does cellular actually work" to stripping down a cell phone to the board and processors and then in later years DATA - DATA is what sets all the carriers apart and at Nextel again we were given the most fantastic training.

Now despite all of the 'dropped calls' (which over the years as a Nextel user you would know the exact mile marker on the freeway that you would drop service) as a BUSINESS user of Nextel service nothing could touch Nextel - the rate plans and handsets were geared towards business customers and the reps/agents in the field were very well trained in the wants and needs of that business customer and the bond/relationship[ between the customer and the rep in the field were so strong that a business knew they very rarely needed to call a 1-800 number to talk to a minimum wage employee reading a rolling script from a PC screen in front of them - the customers problems were taken care of very quickly - isnt that the type of customer service we all all enjoy receiving? We all expect problems with some type of product but its how that problem is taken care of that seperates the men from the boys.

We were so well trained that a relatively new Nextel employee (sales) attained mnore training and thus knowledge that a Verizon employee who'd been in the field for years - we NEVER lost a business deal to Verizon or Cingular or T Mobile EVER !!

Customer loyalty was at an all time high with business customers talking to their rep on a daily/weekly/monthly basis taking care of everything from a broken antenna to an antenna that usually provide coverage to a simple or large billing problem - we had the ability to go to someone who knew how to take care of that problem and have it taken care of - not anymore !!

Since the merger it has been a living HELL - it would be far too easy to say that almost everyone from the CDMA Sprint side is an idiot BUT it's true - position for position the legacy Nextel employee has 4, 5 or 6 times the pay grade of knowledge than that of the legacy Sprint employee - that's in every position i.e. the average consumer type legacy Nextel salesperson knows more about every aspect of the business (bar none) than the VERY best Enterprise level sales person from the legacy Sprint side.

Now that said imagine that same problem rolling on up 12 pay scales to a director or AVP type level? We had Joe Schmoe sales people in my office with far more business knowledge than the legacy Sprint AVP.

Legacy Sprint people seem to have all of those 'decision making' positions - they are making the WORST decisions - positions of any importance or requiring a higher skill set were filled with legacy Sprint employees with sub standard acumen.

We feel Sprint are in the process of phasing out cellular on the iDEN/Nextel side and pushing consumers/business/government customer into the CDMA Sprint cellular even though the voice quality on the CDMA side is TERRIBLE, yes it doesn't drop as many calls as the iDEN/Nextel but who cares when no-one can understand what you're saying anyway.

Take the new HYBRID phone which has the Sprint cellular and the Nextel 2 way radio - well the handset has been out for a couple of months now and we stil CANNOT add any data products to that service - Sprint are proactively pushing as many people as they can to the handset even customers with 100's of phones who use GPS to track their employees - how smart is that to train your retention department who are there to 'retain' those leaving customers to lose $1,000's in lost revenue each month by putting them into a handset that the system cannot recognize to add those data products??

This type of 'zero forethought' activity happens on a daliy basis at Sprint - Forsee's head should roll for the way he's ran a fantastic company like Nextel into the ground - BRING BACK DONAHUE - PLEASE!!!!!

As a former employee of Sprint, I can assure you that the company went downhill as soon as the merger with Nextel happened. All of the Sprint people who have been there since day 1 were basically replaced by Nextel leadership who did not understand a company like sprint. The reason is because the Nextel people made about half the salary, but alot of them were not used to the volume of sales that a much larger company were producing in a non niche market. These leaders (in retail) have driven the good sales and customer service people away and the quality of service has gone way down. They are in way over their head for the jobs that they have. Also I think Sprint has lost track of what made them who they are, new braking technology and the newest most modern phones. They are now last to come out with a new phone ie. Motorola RAZR, Q, etc. and their service has always been subpar. They blew their wad on the whole Sprint TV thing that noone wants. I think Gary Forsee should be fired and a new leader should be brought in, he is a prick anyways. I played golf with him on a company trip once and he takes about 5 mulligans a hole. Hows that for integrity? The Nextel people need to go to and then the company might have a chance.

It went downhill after the merger because Sprint was use to dealing with consumers, not businesses. You cant get to $65 ARPU by selling ringtones to the houligans on the corner.
The Nextel folks dont understand a company like Sprint? You are correct. They dont understand how lazy people can keep jobs for years on end. They dont understand that ancient sales/order entry/billing processes keep customers in the past. They dont understand that the Nextel folks were used to selling (quite successfully) the most expensive service along with all of the different solutions (GPS, Credit card swipe, BB apps, etc). Having to deal with Sprint being more concerned about whether or not their phones had an mp3 player or if their ringtones were properly installed just wont cut it. The reason that Nextel management was preferred is that they were better. Period. You said it yourself (See the Gary Forsee comment).

I think all CEO's should have their compensation tied to the performance of the company. Their ENTIRE compensation.

Sprint Nextel will pull it out in the end with EVDO Rev-A and WiMax but its going to take another year before it comes to fruition.

simple answer, they are not promoting them self well enough. cingular has their lies of having the fewest dropped calls, T-Mo has their cheapest plans, and Verizon has their own, bias, network claim. Every other company is playing to their strength, except for Sprint Nextel. They are starting to now, but they need to more with it. They need to promote their free voice and data roaming with Verizon, Alltel, ect better. Most people just think it is for voice. They need to promote their $15 PDA data plans. They need to promote that their streaming radio and TV works ALL over their network, even while roaming.(Unlike Verizon). They allow for the use of free Java app's like Opera mini, Flurry, & Gmail. (Again unlike Verizon, T-Mo, ect)
They need to promote their plans better. They now have Moto phone, they have the same adaptive maps as T-Mo. Sprint is making the changes they need but just not promote them correct. Most customer that are having problems, just don't understand the product. They run into a problem and don't bother to seek help for it.

Mainly what Sprint needs to do is play up to the (Techie) crowd. More Techie customer use Sprint and move to Sprint's service because it is the most lenient service in the US. No phone lockdowns, free app's, better data plans, full access to the web through app's like Opera mini, the largest overal data network. (Way larger then Cingular's when you take into account the roaming). Largest wireless broadband network. On and on and ON!

Sprint, Just promote these facts better!

Does anyone else see the point to the merger? Nextel was going to be forced to give up spectrum by the FCC. They would also need to upgrade their network to something more up to date. Nextel was looking into Flash-OFDM, for which no company would have enough phones available. The only company that has 1 or 2 compatible phone models is Flarion and Qualcomm. Nextel would also have to upgrade their network fast enough in order to use QChat, in place of Iden direct connect.
This would be huge! To spend vast amounts of money to not only upgrade the network to a brand new standard, that would require major tower upgrades. Then to perform the spectrum swap with the FCC. Then to get customers to switch their Motorola iDEN phones for something completely different and new. Which would be impossible to get everyone on board seeing as Motorola has the highest mobile phone loyalty rate in the industry. Does anyone else see another way but to merge?
This is a major merger that will take time to workout. So analyst need to stop with their **** and be patient, because NONE of them have ever run a 70 billion dollar company!!
Cingular is only starting to make a profit, even though they now have more dept then any other carrier.
Did Sprint tell people that overnight their two networks would magically work together, and that everything would be perfect? NO!

Stop the bashing and just give Sprint a chance.

Let's face it, the wireless biz has gone to hell and handbasket since the demise of pagers. All these companies trying to be different and they are really all the same. Nextel was the only that had a different product and now even that is crappy due to Sprint bozo's not managing the business correctly. I would dump all Sprint stock before it hits $10 bucks.

How many compnies that are Fortune 100 fail to implement a Total Quality Management program. Sprint is one og them and it shows in every way. What a debacle the merger has been. The troubles will continue as long as Gary Forsee continues to do all three of his jobs poorly. He is the COB, CEO and COO. What a joke!!!!!!!

Sprints says "Where the customer comes first!" Bull____! They are giving new customers better deals and sticking it to the old customers. I own stock in Sprint/Nextel and since the merger the stock has went to hell. I love my Nextel, but if they don't make some improvements soon Im selling my stock and dropping my contract on several phones. James in Ky.

Customers service is the most damageing part of being a Sprint customer which I have been for four years. I am not going to itimize the problems there but will instead tell one of the dirty little secrets that gets 0 piblicity.
Sprint out sources most of its customer service and if you ask these outsourcers they will tell you Sprint is the worst client they have. They can't keep up with the constant changes that Sprint demands. They are told to implement a change and three days later they will change things again.
This plays havoc on training and makes it impossible for the customer service reps to give the best service.

Gary Forsee must go! He has ruined Sprint. The customer service is a joke! As a shareholder I am ready for him to leave ASAP. Bring back the Sprint of the mid 80's that was a pioneer in telecom.

Mr. White, try being a Sprint / Nextel customer for a while and you'd probably learn why they are bleeding customers. I've been a long time Sprint / Nextel customer. There will probably always be billing problems, equipment problems, and coverage problems. To be fair, this won't be unique to Sprint / Nextel. However, keep in mind that I can get the nearly the same service, for the same price from a number of suppliers. At least for me, the quality of customer service ends up being a major differentiating factor between the various suppliers.

Sprint / Nextel’s customer service has deteriorated to an utterly unsatisfactory level. Little things that should take one call to fix take many repeated calls to fix (if you can get them to fix the issue at all that is). I feel like I’ve been flat out lied to several times. When I explain what I was told on a previous call and have questions about why something that was agreed to didn’t happen, I’m told that I “must be mistaken”. When I ask for a supervisor, I’m told there are none, or they don’t talk to customers, etc. My contract end date has mysteriously moved out 6 months though I didn’t change anything and at least one willing customer service representative couldn’t see any changes or any reason for the date moving out either. Of course nothing happened and when I called back to follow up on the issue that service rep wasn’t there anymore and they had no record of me ever calling about that issue before.

For the moment I’m still a Sprint / Nextel customer. When my contract is up, I’ll look elsewhere first. I really doubt I’ll stay with Sprint / Nextel. If my next minor issue blows up into a big hassle like the last one did, I may just pay off the early termination fee and move on. It just isn’t worth the time and hassle to be a customer of this outfit any more.

Its due to a combination of poor phones that are defective like the red motorola razor, and even worse customer service from all levels including the executive level. Sprint nickel and dimes you to death and then does not take care of the customer when they make a mistake, as a stock holder its time to show Gary Forsee and his lackies the door! Hooray to the Texas Attorney General for filing charges against this poor company.
sprintsuxhard@aol.com

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I have spent over $5,000 in overage fees in the last year with Nextel. Ever time they fix a problem it costs me more money. Nextel you turned into a sorry bunch!!!... Hello Verizon!!!...

This is simplistic-
1. The phones (NEXTEL) do not work- I do not throw mine into the street-etc, however, two have had "hardware problems" and I had to replace these phones- within the year
2. Customer service is horrible
3. I can't wait until my contract is up- you know who never complains? Verizon customers!

Its the worst carrier with NO customer service. For over a year they have powed me 5000 United miles. I have called them several times - they have opened three case files but have never responded. After 6 months we are still working on it. Complained to California PUC -Sprint does not care. I needed two new phones - bought them new for full price - just so I dont have to extend the contract.Thank God there are only 10 months left on contract. Sayonara

I have had Sprint service for three days. I have a new Samsung Upstage, that will not work with the provided Sprint software. I have been placed on hold and then hung up on three times in the whole three days of service I have experienced. I drove 30 miles round trip to the service center to have their techies check the new phone, but they did not have the necessary troubleshooting hardware on site.

I called Customer service and asked to escalate my issues to someone in charge and the customer service rep told me that I had to contact the technician to escalate my customer service issue. So to clarified I repeated that I want to speak to his supervisor.... and to do that I have to speak to the technician???, and he said yes.

Monday will be my sixth and final day with Sprint unless they get the phone working and throw me a bone for this extreme aggravation I am having.

Other than that the actual calling aspects of the service have been the same as my Verizon service.

No, absolutely No service can be worst than Sprint and God forbid if you call Customer Services. If they don't want to help you they will transfer your call to everyone department under the sun. I literally hate this company and as soon as my contract expires in June, 2008 they can kiss me good bye.
Also, the salespeople at Sprint never disclose to you the charges, therefore, when you receive the bill your eyes starts to bulge from their sockets from pure SHOCK. The latest bill I received stated "Charges assessed on Sprint that we elect to pass on to customers & are intended to recover the administrative & other costs of complying with.........mandates," which totalled $17.40. As a consumer, I don't have any say so over what someone else "elects" that I pay. Please give me a break. Be GONE!

My daughter is wanting me join sprint, she is actually getting me a "special offer" for Christmas and begging me to go to Sprint. I have been researching Sprint for days since I've never had an interest in Sprint.
My history-I was with Cingular. I paid to bail out of the contract, after about 14 months for all the things that are normal complaints-customer service, OUTRAGOEUS hidden charges, and horrible dropped calls. I went to Verizon. I LOVED Verizon. The only fault Verizon has is they do sell crappy phones, so when you have to replace a phone your contract is extended. My daughter went through 4 phones in about a 2 months period, I went through 3 phones in a two months period and found out two of them were refurbs so i demanded a new phone and told them they BETTER NOT extend my contract. When our contract was up we very reluctantly left Verizon because we just didn't have enough minutes to keep our bills low--our fault. I do love t-mobile. My friends have never ever complained about their t mobiles, my daughter loves her new t mobile. I was going to go to t mobile and then my other daughter heard of the sprint offers. As I said she is wanting to hook me up with Sprint, so I've done research because I've never had an interest in Sprint. Ok, everyone has dropped calls, everyone has customer service issues, my big beef is I want service when I travel in the US. I want NO hidden charges. Sprint offers me 200 more minutes for $10 less a month than Verizon did. And according to what I read all Sprint phones have a one year warranty--so how hard is it to get a phone replaced and how do they handle this? Extend your contract even under warranty? Or is it just a new phone and it's a done deal? I am about to submerge into a two year contract with these people and I don't want it to be the nightmare I had with Cingular. And truthfully, if I get these phones does anyone know if I can bail out in the first 30 days with no repercussions?
As far as a service rep, yes I did email Sprint to ask them why their coverage map was horrid and what did they do about roaming.
The response I got cracked me up to no end it was "Yes, we offer roaming, and take care of all those fees"
Made absolutely no sense what so ever to me and all that led me to believe was I was talking to someone as if I had had to call Dell. And that's all I'll say about that.
This has been the most helpful site yet that I have found with Sprint.

I received a form letter from Sprint informing me I had recently made a change to my account. The letter stated I had extended my service contract for 18 months. The letter is in error.
I tried to call the service number on the letter to correct the error and it was the wrong number. I searched and found a number on the net and was informed my 17 year old daughter had purchased a phone to replace the one she lost. (I was 400 miles away caring for my mother.) She had permission to buy a phone, and the salesman lead her to believe she was receiving a discount on the phone because we had been customers for so long. I don't feel that gave her or the salesman authority to extend a contract in my name without my permission or knowledge. The representatives at the call center refused to correct the mistake on my contract stating the new phone obligated me to an extended contract.
I did not make a contract or give authority to anyone to make a contract in my name. I was also charged for a phone upgrade activation fee on an already existing line. This seems excessive and appears to be taking advantage of a 17 year old child’s gullibility. She has since moved and has no wireless coverage during much of the drive home from college. My husband I have tried all year to resolve the issue and have delt with many frusterating and rude service people. I will never return to Sprint as a customer and am warning everyone else of the poor quality of customer service.