Sprint hangs up on a 1000 callers
 

Now...you know...it's not even so much that they are doing this...but will this set a standard among customer service lines to deny service to high maintenence callers?

It's bad also that Sprint has probably the worst customer service out of most mobile carriers. (and sadly enough...I am one of their customers....)


Phone firm drops frequent callers

Sprint Nextel says the callers were making "unreasonable requests"
The US number three mobile operator Sprint Nextel has dropped 1,000 customers who phoned its customer service lines too often.
The company sent letters to the customers saying their service agreements had been terminated.

They were given 30 days to transfer their numbers to other providers.

Sprint said that the customers concerned had been calling its help lines an average of between 40 and 50 times per month.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6288054.stm

Having worked in an inbound callcenter before & heard some really stupid reasons for calling in, I think I might just switch to Sprint to support this idea.

Do you know how many times I would get calls from people who just wanted to chat with someone? "My grandson sent me this printer, and he is in Iraq now, fighting for this country while he has got a pregnant wife waiting for him here & we thought it was going to be a boy but the doctor said its a girl and now I'm going to be a great grandmother and I think I will go make some cookies now..." blah blah blah

i think a better solution is to do like the banks do...let you have a certain # per month/billing cycle and then charge per call. that way you can keep the customer, and still put a curb to their constant annoying unneccessary calls...

i have also worked inbound call centers and know how it is. the ten minutes you spend on the phone with me blabbing about your life costs me money.

then again, Sprint/Nextel is notoriously trifling. i have had to call 6 or 7 times in a week to solve a simple problem...

u know what...others may see this as a way to get out of thier contract w/o having to pay.....hmmm.....let me call then now and 4 more times before 6pm today...hahahahaha

The agents themselves probably don't have permission to release individual callers from their contracts just because they're annoyed-its probably done strictly from a report that management runs. So you go on & call away, but I say they won't release any more people for awhile now. :p

and forgive me if this sounds mean, but since they started outsourcing, i have to call multiple times to get issues resolved! i cant understand Linda from India (and why do they give them american names? lol!)

No kidding. I kept receiving inappropriate text msgs on my work Nextel, and I called several times to tell them to get rid of texts all together. They told me it would take my voicemail with it, which is fine, because I use the two-way radio 99% of the time anyway. Anyway, 2 months later, I was still getting the text msgs, and they kept telling me that it was impossible, because they had disabled the ability to receive them on my phone...however, the obviously didn't disable their ability to charge me for them....

My company outsources to India & there is no requirement from our end that says they have to have American names. I know that the company we hired picks American names for the agents to use & contracts them to use it the entire time they work for the company (regardless of what campaign they work for.) I don't think its for any other reason than to make it easier for the callers to understand the name of the agent.

When I was visiting our callcenter in Bangalore I met a few agents who would give me their contracted American name when I met them & it drove me nuts, because I think its rude to not even attempt to know their real names when we'd be working together. A few of the agents had, in their own words, "Christian" names, because their families were Christian. (For example: Samuel, Jasen, Matt, etc.)

well half the time the only i do understand is their names...you can let them know at least THAT works:rolleyes:

I'm surprised they didn't drop me, although it was THEIR fault. I was in the Sprint store about 4 times within a month because they kept screwing my bill up. When the two companies merged, you couldn't get online to pay your bill, so mine was late. Then no one ever told me that you didn't get free texts with my new phone. It wasn't written anywhere and the person at the store didn't tell me. So I had to get my $700 bill fixed. They never fixed it, so into the store 3 more times I went.

I also told the store employees that I came in there because I wanted to speak to someone who spoke English. They agreed.

the last time i said that some smart-a** said that they "do speak English"...i very quickly replied "as a first language?"

i know the conversation is going to be very long and difficult when i have to give my name and number 3 or more times...

They wouldn't drop you because you're technically doing them a favor by coming to the store. Its cheaper to handle in-store questions or emails than it is to take inbound calls. If companies really wanted to save money they'd drop their 1-800 #'s & use local numbers instead OR they'd drop phone support completely.

I agree, most of our agents do have strong accents, a mix of hindi with british english makes for a very different sound than what we're used to. I also think that their inability to stray from the scripts they're given add to the frustration, but you gotta blame management for that, the agents are just doing what they're told to do then.

As someone who worked for a cell-phone company, in-store, I can't say I blame Sprint.

Sure there are plenty of people who came in with valid issues and needed help, which of course I had no problem helping them resolve said issues. However, when you have a 60 year old come in with a camera phone wanting to know how she can take pictures of her grand-kid on the tractor... it gets aggrivating. If you're too old to understand the technology, simply get an easier phone, don't waste the time of the workers as they attempt to explain to you how to press a button. Not to mention the people that would come in complaining about stupid things and expect me to fix it, sorry but I have no control over the fact that you don't get signal at your duck-camp that is in BFE.

Unfortunately, a lot of people lack common sense. These people create major issues by tying up phone lines for people that really do have a problem. The knowledge necessary to target simple issues can be found on websites and in user-manuals, but I guess that means customers would actually have to do something for a change.

Sorry to say...but THAT IS YOUR (Customer service reps') JOB.

Theyput stuff on the phone and half the time EVEN THE REPS don't even know how to work them but then have a NERVE to get frustrated when people have questions about certain functions??? I remember about 2 months back I went to the Sprint store to ask about GPS functionality on my phone...I had to get the mananger because the rep helping me had no clue about what I was talking about and was rushing just to get me out of the store. Bottom line is this...u can bury 10 to 100 functions on a phone...and even for the one that you do...knowing that almost everyone AND their grey haired gandmama is gonna use it....then YOU NEED people who know the equipment to be there to explain it....again...it's called CUSTOMER SERVICE...that is thier job...to explain things that may not be explainable even if it seems easy as pie.....what's easy to u may not be easy to me.

My biggest complaint is that phones don't just come with those basic technologies anymore. They all have to have internet, texting, multimedia, demos of games, shopping, etc.

one only wonders what tech support at iPhone is going thru....lol

Yes and no. I don't think it's the customer service rep's job to read someone the phone's user manual. You have in-store reps to resolve legitimate hardware issues, legitimate software issues (like updating the phone's software) and help clear up billing issues. They will also be happy to sell you a new phone. Otherwise, no, I don't see it the way you do.

Cell phone companies (and the producers of other technology) do not printo those user manuals just to add weight to the box. It should be a minimal expectation that the customer has at least referred to that manual before coming in and taking up space in a line full of people with legitimate problems who really need help from these in-store reps.

Many years ago, I had one of those in-store service jobs. When such customers would come in, I'd very politely pull out a copy of the user manual and refer to the part which described that feature. I'd then read the manual out loud as I walked the customer through the process.

Generally, I find these things to be so intuitive that a manual is just unnecessary. Once you understand the concept of smartkeys and menus and what sort of features would be found in certain categories, how to work a cell phone ain't rocket science.

-- and yes, I fully support Sprint's decision not to serve customers who were costing them money.

You're comparing your example of needing help with GPS (which may be something only a few customer service reps are comfortable with) to Soliloquy's example of helping someone take a picture? They're like apples & oranges in the customer service world.

Honestly, the person who helped you didn't handle your situation well at all. A good customer service rep would immediately refer you to someone who knew how to answer your question, without doubt.

But helping someone learn how to take a picture? That should only take a few minutes, which I don't think anyone would be opposed to helping someone do. Its the people you have to spend 45 minutes with because they don't press the button you tell them to, or they don't grasp the concept of zoom. It may be the job of the customer service rep to help that person, but its no less frustrating. (And costly if it comes in via a phone call, which is why Sprint terminated the services of all those people who call in far too often for inane questions that are answered in guides & manuals.)

Whoa there buddy.. I've worked service-based jobs for well over 3 years and did a damn good job too. You don't need to explain to me what my job is/was.

If you don't know how to use the equipment, and don't want to bother learning, why are you going to take it out on the people who work there? I always make it a point to educate myself about technology that I purchase before I call a service center or make a stop at a store. Sure I may have issues with certain functions, but I can pretty much guarantee I will find my answer in my user manual or on the manufacturer's website.

Maybe you should have re-read my post and notice that I said I had absolutely NO PROBLEMS HELPING PEOPLE WITH VALID ISSUES (i.e. their phone has a fuzzy screen, anything to do with a PDA because those things are complicated, media isn't being stored, the problem you were experiencing etc). But if you come into the store because you didn't bother to read the section in your manual that tells you how to use bluetooth, and you tell me to do it... I'm gonna be agitated. I won't let you know that I am, but I will be.

Apparently, you've never worked in retail or in a customer based environment.

And also, the fact that the employees at your particular store didn't know how to help you speaks poorly of the management. Most phones aren't that complicated and employees should be properly trained on how to troubleshoot or explain various tools. So your point that "even the employees didn't know how to use it" is invalid.

I agree with Daemon and Kevin...

true, it is your job to help...when i was at tmobile, i was always showing someones grandma how to turn the phone on. i didnt mind with the older people, but ummm, if you are 20 and can read, you need to give it a shot yourself first.

i also blame the phone companies a little too...some of the customers, like my mom, who had the same phone for years and then couldnt find supplies for it, had to upgrade. there is a need for a simple, basic cell phone, one that doesnt text, take pictures, have games, etc. just call out, get calls in, and voicemail.

Well, customers might be more willing to "do something for a change" if the websites and user-manuals were user-friendly, or just comprehensible, but all too often they are not.

While I agree with Kevin that "It should be a minimal expectation that the customer has at least referred to that manual before coming in and taking up space in a line full of people with legitimate problems who really need help," I also think that it should be a minimal expectation that the user-manual meet some mininal standards of usefulness. I have had my share of those that don't.

I never called customer service or gone into a store with questions about how to use my phone, but I can tell you that plenty of my time has been wasted by trying to find the information I need in the poorly-designed and poorly-written user-manual or website.

I completely agree.

I agree to a point, and I'm usually pretty good at the intuitive route. But I spent 30 minutes last night trying to figure out how to edit a speed-dial/phonebook entry on my mother-in-law's phone. (She'd misplaced the user manual.) I tried every command, every menu and every option I could think of, and I never could figure it out. Intuitive it was not.

See, Kevin that is a GREAT example..but NOT A LOT of customer service reps will do that at a store...then again this is the surse of having so many young kids who don't give a dayum working these kinds of jobs...gone are the days when a friendly person will sit down and take the time to go over those functions....and sure we can say 'refer to the manual' but 2 things that pop in my mind for an older person

1. a 100 to 200 page manual in small print may be intimidating

2. there have been more than enough times where I may have rea dthe manual but what they are trying to tell u what to do is SO UNCLEAR...

2a. and you show that same manual to the customer service person and they are just as easily befuddled....

Now granted, this doens't mean I side against sprint...I just hate bad customer service,period.....BUT if you got a nuisance caller, calling in 4 and 5 times a day about some BS....then yeah....u messing with my money vs someone that needs legit help.

If it's a simple "here's the button! enjoy!" kind of help session, no problem, but what I referred to was an actual case...

Showed her where the button was, how to aim the phone and take a good picture, where she could find her newly taken picture etc. She still didn't understand, so I tried again- explaining a bit more slowly and in a different way, still didn't get it. About 30 minutes later, and a line of people waiting for my help - who were getting agitated that this lady didn't understand what I was explaining to her, she said she finally knew what to do then left.

Guess who came back a day later because they forgot everything I told them?

i would still be on my phone i had in college if they sold a replacement battery. i miss it.

and this is why i bought my mom the same phone that i have. if she has questions, she calls me (from the house phone, tho). i can explain things to her because i have the same thing. i wouldn't expect someone at customer service to know everything about every phone ever made by their company.

however, i've been a sprint customer for about 7 years and everyone i know has had at least one MAJOR issue. things get cleared up after incessant calling or stalking the store employees, but that's the only way to things get resolved. last month i had a "notation" on my account that wouldn't let me pay my bill online because i had called customer service about something earlier that month. that meant i had to call customer service AGAIN to be able to pay my bill.

i wonder if the people who are being dropped called over and over again to get 1 issue resolved or if they really are the callers who go overboard and want to complain just for complaining's sake.

for 1000 out of millions of customers....thats what I am guessing....

I guess their message to them was:

"You won't stop yer bytchin'....we will stop it for ya...and u can go take ur bytching to someone who gives a dayum..."

yeah, and it really needs to stop. The American name thing is absolutely insulting. It's trying to "trick" the customer into thinking the agent is in the US. As far as not straying from the script, you are so right. I asked a guy the other day a question about purchasing a ringtone and he goes "I'm sorry, I know this can be frustrating" - WHAT?? I'm not frustrated, I didn't speak to you in a stressed or frustrated manner, I just want you to tell me what the amount is I have to pay because I couldn't find the info on the phone's screen. I really don't appreciate being informed of what my emotions are.

If the companies who outsource don't get better at it, it'll cost them all the money they're saving doing it.

Old people are no big deal. I'd always go out of my way to make sure they knew how things worked... I'd have them place a call before they left, etc. You never know when doing something like that could really make a difference in an emergency situation.

My boss got a phone for his 80-something year old mother. He tried to teach her how to use it but she refused to learn. She explained that if she were ever in a wreck, she'd just ask the other driver to place the call for her... or the policeman. Can't argue with that.

At any rate, in call centers and with live support, generally, there is a line. In most Sprint stores, to get service, you have to literally take a number and wait as much as (or more than) an hour to talk to a customer service agent. As for their call centers, there's still a queue. The folks with the inane questions which they could easily answer themselves are selfishly dominating the time of people with legitimate problems. That's just not good form.

I'm now in a law office. We routinely fire clients when they don't keep up on their bill or are rude to the staff. We happily field stupid questions, but then again, there aren't too many of those as we bill in quarter-hour increments (if you only talk to us for 30 seconds, you get billed for 15 minutes). That seems to cut down on the inane questions.

I think this is what it seems like, but I don't think that is the intention especially on the agent level. Maybe the management of the company sees the benefits of trying to "trick" the customer, but it also helps the customer to remember who they spoke to for the next time they call in, or it helps them feel like they can communicate with the agent a bit better because they know how to say their name. Amaranath, Srikanth, Sridhar, Amit, Anil, Balaji, Hema, Shunmugam, & Jitender would rather spend more time helping the customer with the problem then trying to tell the customer how to spell or say their name.

The companies who outsource can't get better at accents & scripts, its the company that gets paid who handles those things. Its crazy how we'll send over training material to our outsourcing "partner" and they turn it into scripts for the agents. Its not the business practice of our company, but the business practice of their company. They do it for every campaign that uses their services. The agents get training, not just on the material & the products, but they do get training on the language as well. In fact, if the language trainer doesn't approve you for the phones, you don't get the job. The language trainer is usually someone from the US (the trainer for our campaign is some sassy dude from NYC, he yells all the time "Its WORK, NOT WARK"). And we do have people here, who used to the be in the callcenter before it was outsourced, that do call monitoring, or handle extreme issues from the customers.

^^yes, i dont want to have to guess at how to spell your name, Balaji. :rolleyes:

i do believe the script is the problem. they should be trained to handle each call individually...thats how i had to do it at Capital One. and unfortunately i would get calls from India where we outsourced to that went something like this...

"hi! my name is Linda from customer service i have a customer who is very upset i transfer them now thank you! (click)"

and then id have to field 100 questions and insults about why "some indian dude" was handling their account...half the time id lie and say they were in texas!!

I have T-Mobile and was being billed for a function that my phone didn't have:eek::eek:!!! I was pissed! So, I called to ask how did I gain this service? The rep told me I got it on the phone internet (T-Zones...a service where you can check balance, purchase tones, walpapers, and games).

Now.....I think I know my individual phone and I do not have the internet.....I KNOW I don't. I asked him to pull up the time and date of then I signed up for it and he couldn't. I said I wnated to cancel it and I wnated a refund for the months that I had been charged, because at the time my phone (BlackBerry Pearl) didn't have T-Zones. So I was being charged $10 a month for something I didn't sign up for nor could I use it. When I requested to speak with someone else (because James from Mars couldn't understand) the Beiotch hung up on me.

Outcome....I was refunded $50. LIKE I KNEW I WOULD!!

I'm probably not going to say their name, unless they do something to piss me off, and in that case I'm going to ask for a spelling to write it down anyway. Hell, I know half the born and raised in America people can't spell my name (first OR last).

Everyone knows outsourcing to India & other places is happening, to pretend otherwise doesn't help the company.

I work for a company where we DO ask for names anytime we call customer service for another company (not my rule) - so I appreciate having to write Julie instead of Jubin or Joobun or however.

i think my worst experience was when i bought a new phone and switched it to my existing line...i didnt change my plan, i did nothing but change phones. next thing i know my phone is off because my bill was about $250.

i called and asked why in the HELL my bill that i had just paid to a zero balance, had magically jumped to the $250. 4 people couldnt tell me. 4 people...finally on my 5th call, someone discovered that they charged me for ending my contract. i didnt end my contract, i replied. "well thats not what it says"...but i didnt end my frickin contract, i PAID OUT OF POCKET for a $400 phone so that i could have a nicer phone, so why would i cancel my service after dropping all that money?

it took another 3 calls to get that straight. even then, it was never done correctly. everyone took off a little piece here and there, instead of the full $250. sprint is a joke. there, i said it.

I'm sure your experience as an inbound callcenter agent is different from mine, but its not like we were taking calls from business professionals or even savvy home users. Savvy home users figured it out with the online manuals, or used email, or didn't care what the name of the agent was as long as they could fix the problem.

The type of customer that makes up the majority of our calls, the standard home users, are the kind want to know who they're talking to, and want to be able to say the name of that person. They couldn't get my name right, and its not really all that hard. Elisa, Lise, Lysa, Lesa, etc. I could go on for ages with all the variations of my name that I've heard.

And its not that its even the US companies asking the outsourced callcenters to change the names of the agents, its the the business practice of the outsourced callcenters because they found that it worked to help familiarize the customer with the agent, or it helped the customer feel more at ease, or something. Its so hard to explain what the US company really controls over the outsourced callcenters unless you've seen the inner workings for yourself.

I know my company doesn't pretend, and I can't think of one that I've called who does?

Good for them - when I worked in Consumer Relations back in the day we did develop a list of customers that were "cut-loose" or even blocked from calling the call centre because of their constant harassment and completely facetious complaints... ultimately it came down to the simple economic fact that these 'uber-troublesome' customers were negatively impacting customer service by eating up so much time and resources, time and resources that should have been going to customers with legitimate concerns or questions.

Funny thing was that some of these troublsome twits developed such a terrible reputation that even the compitetion refused to deal with them (and between Unilever and P&G that made up a huge block of the market).

Off the top of my head, Dell and Linksys. A couple years ago after a huge Earthquake in India, I was talking to Dell customer service. While we were waiting for some diagnostic to run, I had a nice chat with "Mike" or whatever the person's name was about his family and how they were doing and whether they were okay, etc. I don't mind it at all. As long as the person I'm talking to knows what they're doing, I'm happy. I've received excellent service from foreign call centers in the past. If they keep the price of the end-product low, I'm all for it.

Good point. PR/advertising agencies do the same thing - when a client becomes too difficult to work with, to the point where we can't provide the services we were contracted for, we will resign or decline the business.

As a Sprint customer, I've actually never had to contact customer support except for maybe one or two instances when I first signed on with them almost seven years ago. These people they dropped deserved to be dropped. It's not like they were dropped for making 3 or 4 calls to solve a problem one month. They were calling ten times that amount for what sounds like more than one month. Calling customer support an avg. of 40-50 times each month?! That's harrassment, basically, and it's preventing Sprint from offering its services to customers that actually NEED help.

heree is a question tho....I wonder if those folks are gonna be blacklisted from other carriers


" I am sorry sir...we can't sign you up for service due to...errrmmmm.... technical difficulties..."

hehehehe