# Sprint drops customers for complaining too much (weak) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 9, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096 "2007-07-09T20:46:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2007, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/41 "2007-07-10T18:57:39Z")
What a coincidence! I just dropped Sprint for being a crappy company! And yesterday, I got my first monthly bill from T-Mobile. It’s $20 cheaper than my Sprint bill! And their customer service has (so far\*) been excellent, while Sprint’s customer service representatives repeatedly lied to me. \*I’m sure it will start to suck soon, as all telecom customer service does, but at least it hasn’t started yet. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/42 "2007-07-10T19:25:36Z")
[QUOTE=LVgeogeek] I’m female by the way [/QUOTE] _Mea culpa_ ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/43 "2007-07-10T20:23:26Z")
[QUOTE=Mtgman] Call customer care twenty-five times a month for twelve to eighteen months in a row. Then they may put you on a list like this. This is the first time I’ve heard of it being done, so you may need to wait a while to get in the next purge. [/QUOTE] I can see this happening to me with my ISP - the service is awful, the billing is done by morons, and things are never, ever fixed until call 15 or so. I’m sure I use way more than my share of services and CSR time, but when things continue not to work, what else can I do? (Leave? No - because they have a huge penalty for leaving before the end of the contract.) I only wish they’d drop me. I’d love to change. ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/44 "2007-07-10T20:45:51Z")
[QUOTE=Dangerosa] Get a supervisor on the line…say… [/QUOTE] Look at my post right above yours. We tried to get a supervisor. The CSR claimed they did not have any. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/45 "2007-07-11T01:40:21Z")
[QUOTE=ASAKMOTSD] Look at my post right above yours. We tried to get a supervisor. The CSR claimed they did not have any. [/QUOTE] The ever lovely **Dangerosa** was directing that to me, see my quote above her reply. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/46 "2007-07-11T02:21:51Z")
[QUOTE=ASAKMOTSD] Since Sprint took over Nextel, it has gone from being a decent cell company to the company from hell. Apparently, they have taken a page from AOL’s customer service manual lately - my wife called to drop a line from the account and they “couldn’t” and then upon being pressed they placed her on “infinite hold”. When she called back to ask for a supervisor, they apparently do not have any of those. Talk about a flat organization! [/QUOTE] Let me clue you in on a little insider information. Nearly every “Sprint” person you talked to in fact worked for another company. Sprint is huge. So huge in fact that my contract for 2 call centers and around 200 agents was a tiny, tiny hunk of the outsourced call pie. I guarantee they do have supervisors. This person was either lying, poorly trained or in a call center where she had never even met her supervisor. Turnover is high that chances are they were on the job for maybe a couple months. We would promote good employees to management within as little as two months of hire because management turnover was just as bad. Literally, people would turn over or they would get promoted. The rest was a mediocre mass who was either competent but with severe personal flaws that prevented them from being in management or training, or, people on the route from being trained (poorly) to being fired (though they would often quit before we could fire them). Outsourced call centers mean that they will do the bare minimum to meet Sprint’s requirements. They are, literally, the lowest bidders. Ultimately, the person you talked to probably does not care if Sprint makes any more money or loses customers unless their call was random monitored. They don’t work for them. Very few call centers are Sprint-operated, and the ones I know about were only at high technical levels. Don’t get me wrong, there are good people in some of those positions, but the structure is fucked. You could talk to the boss’s boss’s boss’s boss, and on up the chain (as one customer demanded to do) and you’d never reach the top of Sprint. In fact, as a supervisor I had no escalation point. My manager would never deal with customer issues as they were dealing directly with Sprint. The only way for me to get an issue to Sprint - including a critical one - would be to go to my boss, who went to the person who dealt with the client mostly, who went to their rep in Sprint who’s in charge of dealing with call centers, and on and on. As you can imagine, not much information is carried along. I don’t think this situation is any different with most of the carriers out there. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Sprint - I still get a decent volume discount from my corporate job (we weren’t eligible for employee discounts of course) and I go to some business call center that seems to do well. I just think the outsourcing of customer service and minimization of costs has created a monster. I understand that we were considered one of the “good” ones and many of the things that occurred, despite the efforts of good employees, would curl your toes. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/47 "2007-07-11T05:42:28Z")
I have been using Sprint for many years. They dudes I speak to at CS seem helpful and OK by me, and I get good service. They have made a few nice adjustments to keep me as a customer. However, I call them maybe twice a year, and pay my bills on time. I do admit that the sleazy jackals they have at the Kiosks trying to pitch their phones are dickwads- but so are all the other cell companies. ---
**Author:** ![Tinkertoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@Tinkertoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinkertoy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/48 "2007-07-11T06:07:09Z")
[QUOTE=fluiddruid] Let me clue you in on a little insider information. Nearly every “Sprint” person you talked to in fact worked for another company. Sprint is huge. So huge in fact that my contract for 2 call centers and around 200 agents was a tiny, tiny hunk of the outsourced call pie. … …Outsourced call centers mean that they will do the bare minimum to meet Sprint’s requirements. They are, literally, the lowest bidders. Ultimately, the person you talked to probably does not care if Sprint makes any more money or loses customers unless their call was random monitored. They don’t work for them. Very few call centers are Sprint-operated, and the ones I know about were only at high technical levels. [/QUOTE] You are correct that most customer service is done by outsourced companies. But if Sprint is getting bad service by these companies it’s there own fault I work for an out source company that demands the highest standards of it’s reps because the company we take calls for demands it. We are monitored on, and graded for 3 calls a day at random. If we are caught being rude, lying or hanging up on a customer it’s immediate dismissal. A customer we have dealt with is called weekly to get their feedback on our service and we are rewarded for good reports. That’s why our call center has won the J.D. Powers award 6 years running. For their hard work the employees get great benefits and are rewarded for a job well done. It must be working our company has been voted one of the top ten stocks to watch. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/49 "2007-07-11T17:40:10Z")
[QUOTE=Dangerosa] I hope more companies drop toxic customers. Those people are costing me money in higher costs of doing business, which are passed onto me in the form of higher prices. There are plenty of people whose goal in life is to scam companies into giving them free shit - and we should all be happy when these con artists are told to take a hike. (I can’t speak to Sprint’s customer service or the quality of their network. If you want to pit the quality of their network, go for it - but don’t pit them getting rid of the customers that are costing them - and by extension - you - money.) [/QUOTE] I’ll agree with this. I used to work in a (small, local) bank, and I know for a fact that several account-holders had their accounts closed out by management because the account-holder was more trouble than their money was worth. (Especially the ones who were abusive to associates.) I’d like to have seen the faces of those customers when the branch manager told the teller to go cut a check for the balance of the account-holder’s money, because they were going to have to take their money somewhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/50 "2007-07-11T18:17:04Z")
Actually this may be a bad move by Sprint as it may encourage customers to be constant complainers if they want to get out of their contract. However, it seems to be a win-win, they get rid of dissatisfied customers and those customers can move on without any charges. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/51 "2007-07-11T20:13:32Z")
Actually this may be a bad move by Sprint as it may encourage customers to be constant complainers if they want to get out of their contract. However, it seems to be a win-win, they get rid of dissatisfied customers and those customers can move on without any charges. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/52 "2007-07-11T20:40:50Z")
I will not vouch for the veracity of this article, but it is an interesting read. [Sprint Customers Terminated For Complaining Too Much Were Scamming Sprint For Free Service](http://consumerist.com/consumer/exclusives/sprint-customers-terminated-for-complaining-too-much-were-scamming-sprint-for-free-service-277026.php) ---
**Author:** ![DudleyGarrett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DudleyGarrett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DudleyGarrett)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/53 "2007-07-11T21:00:43Z")
[QUOTE=D\_Odds] I will not vouch for the veracity of this article, but it is an interesting read. [Sprint Customers Terminated For Complaining Too Much Were Scamming Sprint For Free Service](http://consumerist.com/consumer/exclusives/sprint-customers-terminated-for-complaining-too-much-were-scamming-sprint-for-free-service-277026.php) [/QUOTE] Also interesting: [this guy was terminated.](http://consumerist.com/consumer/one-way-contract/sprint-drops-you-because-you-call-customer-service-too-much-275178.php) ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/54 "2007-07-11T21:20:21Z")
[QUOTE=Gangster Octopus] Actually this may be a bad move by Sprint as it may encourage customers to be constant complainers if they want to get out of their contract. However, it seems to be a win-win, they get rid of dissatisfied customers and those customers can move on without any charges. [/QUOTE] One problem is that certain businesses do become targets for the scam artists who like to complain to get discounts and freebies. I imagine cell phone providers are one of those. Unfortunately decent customers with real issues get labeled with the same “scam artist” label. The only way for a company to know is to go case by case and detail by detail and they don’t have time for that. The good news is you’re right here. If all said customers complaints were legit they should be happy to be moving on and free to sign a new contract with a new provider. If you’ve been biting the bullet on bad service waiting for your contract to run out , here’s your opportunity to get them to boot you. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/55 "2007-07-11T21:39:16Z")
I admire Sprint for taking this action and I wish more companies would drop abusive clients who expect something free just because they’re pissed off. The customer is NOT always right. However, the customer THINKS they are always right. But I’ve never known any company where your $29.99 per month entitles you to abuse staff. As mentioned above, most of Sprint’s service reps don’t even work for Sprint anyhow so all that abuse being poured out on them is wasted breath. Sure, you can ruin the day of the rep and cuss him out so he’ll never forget you. But the giant corporate behemoth he represents? Does. Not. Care. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/56 "2007-07-11T22:02:23Z")
[QUOTE=DudleyGarrett] Also interesting: [this guy was terminated.](http://consumerist.com/consumer/one-way-contract/sprint-drops-you-because-you-call-customer-service-too-much-275178.php) [/QUOTE] What I don’t get is someone complaining that they can no longer be a customer of a company that has treated him so poorly. I’m reminded of the joke about the old couple who go to dinner, and one complains, “The food here is just terrible!” And the other chimes in, “Yeah, and the portions are so small!” Or, in other words, “I can’t believe I’m paying so much for awful service from Sprint!” and “Yeah, and thank god I’m still one of Sprint’s customers!” (I note that the blog entry concludes with this: “Michael, if you (and anyone else who is having this problem ) do want to stay with Sprint and get this resolved, you might want to try the Consumerist hotline: (703-433-4401). Let us know how it goes.”) ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/57 "2007-07-11T23:22:51Z")
[QUOTE=NurseCarmen] The ever lovely **Dangerosa** was directing that to me, see my quote above her reply. [/QUOTE] I guess it is probably very different because you were the one asking for the supervisor then… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096/58 "2007-07-12T13:22:34Z")
[QUOTE=DudleyGarrett] Also interesting: [this guy was terminated.](http://consumerist.com/consumer/one-way-contract/sprint-drops-you-because-you-call-customer-service-too-much-275178.php) [/QUOTE] From the comments section in the article I linked: > [@](#): > > BY ISLNDBOI AT 01:29 AM > > That guy was me and I can tell you now that I’ve never called Sprint to ask for credits or freebies. I simply want them to fix whatever issues they have that keep causing the billing errors every month. That big downgrade thing has been resolved I think. They finally sent me a new working unit. It’s not a Windows Mobile unit like I had, but they did send me what appears to be their equivalent PalmOS unit. > > I don’t expect free service or extras. All I expect to receive is service that I pay for and the features on the plan I signed up for without paying over what I agreed to pay when I signed my contract. It’s a good thing Sprint is dropping the problematic customers, but the way they executed this policy was botched. This Roni woman that keeps saying that Sprint wasn’t using some computer to audit accounts and that they spent months going over these customers’ acconts, it is just a move to save face. If they really did go over each account individually, then they would have noticed those out of this 1000 that had legitimate reasons to call. > > I called that number listed at the bottom of my letter yesterday and spoke to a woman in the “HFC” department (that’s what she told me they call it) and told her that I had received one of these letters. I told her that had it not been for the recurring monthly billing error, I wouldn’t have had any reason to call CS. She put me on hold to look over my account and after a short hold, told me that she had looked over my account (billing and notes) and that I did have a legitimate problem to be calling and that there was some erroneous glitch 'causing this recurring billing problem. She took me off the list, but didn’t tell me if the billing problem would be fixed. > > Her going my account right there and then checking my notes tells me that they really go in depth into these accounts like Sprint’s PR woman said they did. It seems more like they had some automated process that determined who would be dropped. While a hassle, it seems they are willing to work with people who got the letter erroneaously and wish to keep Sprint service. That said, I think the guy should have cut and run. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-drops-customers-for-complaining-too-much-weak/411096.md?page=2)