Sprint's sloppy reputation for customer service needs repair

I worked for Sprint for over 2 years and was told to get the call completed in 4 mins or less. My reasons for working in a Customer Service position was to Service the customer. After repeated side by side monitors with 3 different Supervisors I was told I needed to get my call handle down to 4 mins or less. The Customer was always calling back because "one" call never got the customer satisfied or resolved the issue. It was very upseting to see over 400 calls waiting due to the lack of taking the advice of the Customer Agents - Allow us to help and resolve the problem. Now after reading this report I can say, " Sprint Never accepted the fact that every call CAN NOT BE COMPLETED IN 4 mins or LESS. The Building at Sprint has a large banner with the words " NOW HIRING" every since my departure.

Posted Feb 26th 2008 5:17PM by Brian White "That means treating customer service associates like responsible adults and not like call center peons. If other companies know what is good for them, they should pay strong attention to that preceding sentence as well."
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A Center is a Call Center. The states get funding for hiring and the Corp Call Centers hire every 6 months a mass of out of work people to fill seats.
It has been noted during my research most Upper Management Level never get the picture until they are forced out. Cattle or Sweat Shop call centers will be a outsourced and never care for customers who are not able to self-serve themselves. The major Telecoms and Cable Corp are always hiring, this includes Automated software to auto-reply, what is known as "cans" pre-written replies in emails and voice response. When BELLSOUTH started their Outsource Services most Customer Agents were Union and loss jobs or paid off to move from the Company. AOL closed a major Tech Call Center in New Mexico and Another Call Center opened up - (Convergys)
Now back to you Dan....

I think it should be noted that Sprint is not alone in this transgression. None of the cellular providers have anything remotely approaching effective customer service. The now infamous "Verizon Math" event illustrates that.

I went through hell with at least 4 customer service operators who would not restore my contract which was supposed to be on $5.95 a month no usage for a few months. They wanted me to pay $200.00 cancelation fee and loose my annual $800.00 a year in billings, because i would die before renewing a contract with these rip off idiots. I called the cancelation department, in two minutes this person restored what was suppose to be, and gave me 3 free months. I must call those three people I talked to as total idiots working to ruin the company. I told these stupid fools to look at my three year history of doing this winter non usage and restoring the phone in april.

Sprint customer service is the worse. Their billing system is horrible. They have messed up my payment and deducted $50 several times within the month of Oct and Nov 07 out of my checking account and then cancelled the phone service for lack of payment when I never agreed to direct billing. They then placed me into collection without givng back the monies, when their customer service department was working out the issue to resolve the actual amount owed. No one got back to me from Sprint.

I am really upset at the level of customer service I have received from Sprint. I have been a customer for less than two weeks and have already regretted switching to Sprint. Partly it’s my fault- I should have done my homework. Just “googling” Sprint + customer service shows the number of individuals with complaints regarding your company and customer service department. Sprint offered a good plan and the quality of your service has been excellent but your customer service has been ridiculous. To say I am frustrated is too simple of a word.

The issue:

I received bill through my email account on February 23rd: My first payment would be $35 due on March 13th 2008
I received a test message on February 29th afternoon informing me my account was past due.

I contact customer service immediately through E-care and provided my information and their response: Please call Customer Service (This after 30 minutes attempting to resolve the issue through instant messenger).

I received a automated service call on February 29th night informing me my account would be canceled within 48 hours if I did not pay the amount past due immediately.
I checked my online account: my account overview said $35 due on March 13th 2008 but when I went to pay the payment through my checking account it informed me I owed $80 which was overdue.

I contacted customer service immediately and repeated this information.

First customer service agent I spoke to: You went over your minutes. (I’ve had it for less than 10 days that’s not right)
First customer service agent: Let me pull up your account (That would be helpful)
What was first customer service agents’ final response? Let me transfer you to a different department.

I repeated same information to Second customer service agent:
Second Customer service agent I spoke to: You never paid your security deposit. (Then how did I activate the account?)
Second Customer service agent: Someone overrode the deposit? (No, I paid it in full on February 14th; do you need the credit card information?)
What was second customer agents’ response? Let me transfer you to a different department.

I repeated same information to Third customer service agent:
Third customer service agent: You only paid $5 of your security deposit (That’s impossible I paid it over the phone on February 14th- why wouldn’t I pay the full amount of $50?)
Third customer service agent: I don’t know.

Third customer service agent informed me to contact my credit card company regarding this issue.

At this point I became upset; I had spent over 2 hours on the phone and online regarding this matter and no resolution was found and she suggested I contact my credit card company?

I am very rational person- I have never had a problem before to this extent where it was not handled in an efficient and professional matter. I was spoken to in harsh manner, was quick in being transferred to different departments and placed on hold several times. I understand that businesses make mistakes and customers too but this was not a customer mistake: I spoke to a Sprint customer representative on February 14th and provided my credit card information to pay the security deposit. No one in their right mind would pay only $5 of their $50 security deposit needed and for the matter what business would accept $5 dollars on a $50 deposit?
I understand if you need me to contact my credit card company regarding this payment of the security deposit but the manner in which this issue was handled has upset me considerably. Not one of your customer service agents listened to me, not one actually researched the matter fully before providing me with a response or transferring me to another person.

I worked in customer service for while and I understand certain customers can be difficult; I was not trying to be difficult yesterday just trying to resolve my issue.

I am tied up in a 2 year contract with Sprint Nextel and I cringe at the next time I have to contact customer service. Unfortunately this will be tonight after I speak to my credit card company regarding the issue of the security deposit so my phone won’t be disconnected.

Sprint does have numerous problems. I am a current Sprint employee. We do have the worst customer service. Calls are dropped, customers are treated rudely, they are left "holding" for minutes, etc. As employees, Sprint has promised us sales bonuses, pay increases, promotions -- nothing has happened. Many employees would quit if they had other jobs to go to.

I signed up for Lifeline, a government funded program utilized by Nextel. The government gives funds to Nextel to provide a discounted service to low income people to help them get either land line or cell service. Lifeline customers receive the basic 200 minute package at a discount and have a $75 spending limit to avoid deposit. I called the Nextel Lifeline toll free number several times asking what the cost of the phone would be, but they refused to tell me. I receive my phone two days ago, UPS ground, and the service was immediately suspended because I was over my limit. They not only charged me $79 for the $29 phone, they charged me $12 for overnight shipping. I have made several calls to Sprint and also the Sprint/Nextel Lifeline department, no help there, they won't even return a lousy phone call to let me know what is going on. (the Sprint rep advised me to "just pay it" if I wanted service!)
So now I have an overpriced phone, charges for overnight shipping even though it was shipped UPS ground, and no service because I can't afford the higher charges they are allowed to pawn off on lower income customers.
Looks like after I file a couple of complaints with the appropriate authorities governing the Lifeline program, I will be sending back the phone.
Lifeline would have been a great program if it weren't for companies like Sprint/Nextel gaming it. Never fails.
I suppose next they will try to charge me for getting out of the 2 year contract.
Sigh......