Sprint hangs up on a 1000 callers

[DaemonSeid]

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

[_Lisa_]

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

[OneTimeSBX]

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...

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by OneTimeSBX

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

[_Lisa_]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

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.

[OneTimeSBX]

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!)

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by OneTimeSBX

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

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....

[_Lisa_]

Originally Posted by OneTimeSBX

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!)

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.)

[OneTimeSBX]

Originally Posted by _Lisa_

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.

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

[PM_Mama00]

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.

[OneTimeSBX]

Originally Posted by PM_Mama00

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...

[_Lisa_]

Originally Posted by PM_Mama00

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.

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.

[_Lisa_]

Originally Posted by OneTimeSBX

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

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.

[Soliloquy]

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.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by Soliloquy

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

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.

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.