The Customer Service Survey
Too Much Service
Mon - July 9, 2007 02:24 PM in
Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint is canceling the account of wireless customers who call customer service too often (the link should work for a week or so).
Considering that the 1,000 or so affected customers were calling customer service nearly every day for an extended time, it seems reasonable from a business perspective for Sprint to decide that these accounts were simply too expensive to service.
But what if the customers were calling because of problems which were of Sprint's own making? That's what some weblogs, such as The Consumerist, have been reporting.
At a minimum, I'd say that puts the company on very shaky ethical ground, especially if the customer recently spent money buying a phone which won't work on any other network.
Then there's the fairness issue: when a customer decides that Sprint is too expensive and wants to cancel the contract early, Sprint demands $200. Customers, apparently, don't get to make a similar demand when Sprint decides that they're too expensive and wants out.
There's an upside to this, though: apparently if you want out of your Sprint contract without paying the fee, all you need to do is call customer service every day for a few months, and eventually they'll let you go. All you need to do is get a rep on the line and ask, "Can I cancel without an early termination fee at this time?" Sooner or later the answer will be "Yes, now go away!"
Posted by Peter Leppik
But what if the customers were calling because of problems which were of Sprint's own making? That's what some weblogs, such as The Consumerist, have been reporting.
At a minimum, I'd say that puts the company on very shaky ethical ground, especially if the customer recently spent money buying a phone which won't work on any other network.
Then there's the fairness issue: when a customer decides that Sprint is too expensive and wants to cancel the contract early, Sprint demands $200. Customers, apparently, don't get to make a similar demand when Sprint decides that they're too expensive and wants out.
There's an upside to this, though: apparently if you want out of your Sprint contract without paying the fee, all you need to do is call customer service every day for a few months, and eventually they'll let you go. All you need to do is get a rep on the line and ask, "Can I cancel without an early termination fee at this time?" Sooner or later the answer will be "Yes, now go away!"
Posted by Peter Leppik
Posted at 02:24 PM | | | | |