The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
Sprint Deserves the "D"
Wednesday - November 08, 2006 06:13 PM in
I expect our readers know that for three years we have been tracking the customer care performance of the major US wireless carriers, and on review, you'll find that the only carrier that has consistently failed to improve their customer's satisfaction is Sprint.
Three weeks ago, my college age son took his birthday money, deciding he needed his own cell phone rather than continuing to borrow mine or my wife's, and signed up for Sprint service. No, he didn't ask my opinion.
Last week, his new phone stopped working. His only experience with wireless phones were those of T-Mobile, whose phones have a memory chip (SIM card) that carry all the intelligence, and allow the replacement with a new phone by switching the card. Expecting a critical call, he opened the Sprint phone to remove and put the SIM card in an old phone we had lying around, only to find that Sprint phones use a different technology and there is no SIM card.
He immediately repacked the phone into the box it came in along with the serial number info, the card from the sales person and the sales receipt and even the original bag and went back to the Sprint store.
They refused to replace the phone, citing that since he'd removed a sticker inside in order to get to where the SIM card would reside if the phone had one, they were not obligated to take it back since he couldn't prove this was the same phone.
Distraught because he can't afford to pay $250 for a new phone, he called Sprint and was told that as long as he had the sticker on the original box, that was good enough and he asked for my help. I couldn't understand why they wouldn't allow a return, figuring maybe the kid just didn't explain things well. Nope. I got the same story when I went back that evening. The phone rep. was wrong. No-sticker-no proof-no replacement.
I was hot. They had oodles of proof, the serial number of the phone was on the box, the receipt was in the bag. We were told the ID on the box was sufficient. The sales person vouched for the sale, but still Sprint said essentially: "No deal. You are a criminal trying to foist a stolen phone off on us." I can understand a reasonable policy to provide the company some fraud protection, but to essentially call the customer a liar and cheat when the evidence was overwhelming that the kid was innocent, just boggled my mind. That they do not give the store manager any discretion to be fair and make the call speaks volumes about the company and why they have such a high employee (and disgruntled customer) churn.
Failing to get the manager to concede to common sense and good service, I said, "Ok, then cancel the service since the kid can't afford to buy another phone, and $59.95 a month for two years for an unusable service is unacceptable. "I'm sorry sir, we cannot cancel service here, you have to call the company."
Ok, how many guesses as to whether the Sprint auto attendant gives a service cancellation choice? Right, there isn't one. After a 20 minute wait, and an explanation to the CSR that did finally answer, she or the system disconnected me. Rather than start all over, I went to the GetHuman web site which lists how to bypass the computer and speak with a real person and followed the instructions. It worked, and in under a minute I was again explaining the issue. I was disconnected again. On the third try, the CSR explained that I'd reached Nextel not Sprint customer care and that callers are frequently disconnected when they try and transfer to the Sprint call center. But this time the transfer worked and I was back at the original Sprint computerized greeting. Smarter this time, I used the bypass commands (ignore all voice prompts and keep pressing "0" to get a live person). It worked. "I'm sorry sir, but the manager was following company policy" said the lady with the foreign accent. Ok, then please cancel the service. "I'm sorry sir, all I can do is transfer you to a 'retention specialist'". Fine. Do it. At least his accent was more understandable. His solution? For an additional $6 per month my son could have a replacement phone insurance policy, and he would backdate it two weeks to the original service date. We could call another #800 invoke the policy and my son would have a replacement phone in 5 business days. He would make a note of the conversation, so that if this was unacceptable to my son, he could then still cancel service. This was Thursday and I was out of town until yesterday. I explained this to my son. He called:
Guess what? "I'm sorry sir but the 14 day cancellation period has passed, I cannot cancel."
Because of my position which includes trying to maintain objectivity as we continue to evaluate customer service performance among the wireless carriers, I'm torn as to whether it is appropriate to take my revenge by spreading knowledge of this incredibly poor policy far and wide. But if anyone has a way out of this mess, I'd appreciate hearing from you.
Posted by Rick Rappe'
Last week, his new phone stopped working. His only experience with wireless phones were those of T-Mobile, whose phones have a memory chip (SIM card) that carry all the intelligence, and allow the replacement with a new phone by switching the card. Expecting a critical call, he opened the Sprint phone to remove and put the SIM card in an old phone we had lying around, only to find that Sprint phones use a different technology and there is no SIM card.
He immediately repacked the phone into the box it came in along with the serial number info, the card from the sales person and the sales receipt and even the original bag and went back to the Sprint store.
They refused to replace the phone, citing that since he'd removed a sticker inside in order to get to where the SIM card would reside if the phone had one, they were not obligated to take it back since he couldn't prove this was the same phone.
Distraught because he can't afford to pay $250 for a new phone, he called Sprint and was told that as long as he had the sticker on the original box, that was good enough and he asked for my help. I couldn't understand why they wouldn't allow a return, figuring maybe the kid just didn't explain things well. Nope. I got the same story when I went back that evening. The phone rep. was wrong. No-sticker-no proof-no replacement.
I was hot. They had oodles of proof, the serial number of the phone was on the box, the receipt was in the bag. We were told the ID on the box was sufficient. The sales person vouched for the sale, but still Sprint said essentially: "No deal. You are a criminal trying to foist a stolen phone off on us." I can understand a reasonable policy to provide the company some fraud protection, but to essentially call the customer a liar and cheat when the evidence was overwhelming that the kid was innocent, just boggled my mind. That they do not give the store manager any discretion to be fair and make the call speaks volumes about the company and why they have such a high employee (and disgruntled customer) churn.
Failing to get the manager to concede to common sense and good service, I said, "Ok, then cancel the service since the kid can't afford to buy another phone, and $59.95 a month for two years for an unusable service is unacceptable. "I'm sorry sir, we cannot cancel service here, you have to call the company."
Ok, how many guesses as to whether the Sprint auto attendant gives a service cancellation choice? Right, there isn't one. After a 20 minute wait, and an explanation to the CSR that did finally answer, she or the system disconnected me. Rather than start all over, I went to the GetHuman web site which lists how to bypass the computer and speak with a real person and followed the instructions. It worked, and in under a minute I was again explaining the issue. I was disconnected again. On the third try, the CSR explained that I'd reached Nextel not Sprint customer care and that callers are frequently disconnected when they try and transfer to the Sprint call center. But this time the transfer worked and I was back at the original Sprint computerized greeting. Smarter this time, I used the bypass commands (ignore all voice prompts and keep pressing "0" to get a live person). It worked. "I'm sorry sir, but the manager was following company policy" said the lady with the foreign accent. Ok, then please cancel the service. "I'm sorry sir, all I can do is transfer you to a 'retention specialist'". Fine. Do it. At least his accent was more understandable. His solution? For an additional $6 per month my son could have a replacement phone insurance policy, and he would backdate it two weeks to the original service date. We could call another #800 invoke the policy and my son would have a replacement phone in 5 business days. He would make a note of the conversation, so that if this was unacceptable to my son, he could then still cancel service. This was Thursday and I was out of town until yesterday. I explained this to my son. He called:
Guess what? "I'm sorry sir but the 14 day cancellation period has passed, I cannot cancel."
Because of my position which includes trying to maintain objectivity as we continue to evaluate customer service performance among the wireless carriers, I'm torn as to whether it is appropriate to take my revenge by spreading knowledge of this incredibly poor policy far and wide. But if anyone has a way out of this mess, I'd appreciate hearing from you.
Posted by Rick Rappe'
Posted at 06:13 PM by | | | |