If this blog post is correct, then Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) is possibly taking a large step backward in trying to woo new customers to the wireless carrier's service in the U.S. According to many customer reports and forum postings, wireless carrier Sprint Nextel is terminating service contracts with some customers due to excessive calls into the company regarding service or phone issues. On the surface, it appears that high-maintenance customers are being dropped by Sprint since the cost of providing after-sale service is too high. Solution: Sprint terminates service and zeroes out the customer bill.
This is the first time I have heard of a wireless carrier terminating service contracts from their end without penalty for customers who have accounts in good standing, but who require higher levels of service than other customers. That may be a little hard to grasp, as some customers are never pleased no matter what is done for them and complain about every single thing with repeated phone calls to a company's call center, tying up expensive resources in the process. Are some customers not worth having as customers? Sprint thinks so, and to a point, I agree with the company here.
However, sending a form letter announcing that "your service is being terminated" without any warning beforehand is not a good idea for increasing one's public image. In recent quarters, Sprint has lost hundreds of thousands of customers to the competition and has floundered with subscriber numbers as AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon Wireless have grown and grown.
Terminating paying subscribers is not the way to increase customer count. However, Sprint could have opened a dialog with these high-maintenance customers and came to some kind of understanding on why all these customer service calls were happening (billing mistakes? phone problems?) before summarily terminating service without any prior notice. That surely will not win Sprint additional customers, and as all things on the Internet, the word that this is happening will spread like wildfire.
Sprint Nextel hanging up on some customers
Posted Jul 6th 2007 12:45PM by Brian White
Filed under: Bad news, Rumors, Consumer experience, Sprint Nextel Corp (S)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-06-2007 @ 1:49PM
Michael Schneider said...
Sprint does not need more problems as recent item posted at the Apple Channel at http://www.Barrelomoney.com suggests that Sprint is the company likely to be hit hardest by Apple
s new iPhone. Cost-cutting may be something they need to do and cost-cutting almost always means something is lost-- the question is whether the savings they get will be worth it in their situation. Loss of customers doesn't sound like a good thing though.
7-06-2007 @ 3:18PM
Justin Fletch said...
What a complete rip-off from nobosh: http://www.nobosh.com/Article/Sprint-Hangs-Up-on-Customers%3A-Was-it-Something-They-Said%3F/676/
7-06-2007 @ 6:29PM
HATTY43 said...
SORRY TO HEAR WE HAVE 6 ON SPRINY FAMILY PACK HAVE BAD SERVICE BUT WENT AHEAD AND STAY WITH SPRINT. SPRINT WILL LOSE ALOT OF CUSTOMERS THEY COULD OF BEEN CHECKING WHY THE PROBLEMS WHAT WAS GOING ON SORRY TO HEAR HATTY43
7-09-2007 @ 11:28PM
Kimberly said...
I have been a Sprint victim and have already reported my problems to the FTC. I had billing problems, numerous dropped calls trying to resolve Sprint errors and terminate service, and resistant to nonexistant help in resolving Sprint's billing errors (not to mention the rude customer service prior to or after the "accidently dropped calls"). I encourage everyone who has had these kinds of problems to tell the FTC who can investigate to determine if Sprint is using unfair business practices against consumers.
7-10-2007 @ 9:50AM
neeshia said...
HATTY43. Please respond. What does the letter state? I am out of town and my mom checked my mail and she said that I have a letter from Sprint. I just wanted to know the verbage exactly. In fact I hope that it is the letter for termination, because I hate Sprint and their service.
7-10-2007 @ 9:55AM
neeshia said...
Correction Kimberly, please respond.
7-10-2007 @ 12:19PM
Kimberly said...
Neesha, you can see a copy of the letter by clicking the linked words in the first paragraph of the original blog "terminating service contracts with some customers". The linked blog article has quotes from the letter as well as links to scanned copies and imagages of the actual letter.
7-10-2007 @ 1:15PM
Kayleen said...
I'm actually surprised I did not receive one of these letters in the mail - seeing as I have to call Spring EVERY month several times because of billing errors (on their part) which they say they've taken care of and then never do. One day, in a matter of 3 minutes, Customer service told me my bill was $153, then $172, and finally $189...in a matter of 3 minutes!!! Between April and May they tried to get over $1000 out of me!! And they wonder why people are calling customer service constantly...Not to mention the fact that every single one of my phone calls lately said they had been trying to call me for hours only to get the busy network message...I live in Las Vegas for crying out loud...are you kidding me?