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Cellular Phone Forum / Providers / Sprint PCS / April 2006Christ, what happened to Sprint customer service?! (Long)
So, back in August, I left Sprint because inexplicably, coverage where I live went totally downhill, from a relatively decent 2-3 bar signal to virtually nothing at all. I ended up moving to Verizon because, although their pricing was more expensive, their coverage was excellent. Recently, however, coverage seemed to be improving, as others who were still on Sprint started noticing a lot fewer dead spots than had cropped up. So, my main reason for sticking with Verizon seemed to be waning. The services I use there (450 peak minutes most of which I don't use, 250 text messages, EVDO BroadbandAccess to tether my laptop for internet access) comes to well over $115 a month. Looking at Sprint's current website offerings, however, I see I can get the following: $29.99 F&F (most months, I use mostly night & weekends, and nights starting at 7 pm is a plus, so 200 minutes should do me fine) $25.00 Phone as modem Power Vision add-on (as listed on the web site) $ 8.00 500 SMS messages (I have 250 with VZW for $5.00) $ 6.00 TEC Phone insurance (Since it appears Sprint wants you to pay them to do even warranty work on their phones these days) ------ $68.99 Monthly charge That's almost cutting my cell phone bill in half! *IF* I can get it to work! So I go to a store and sign up. I purchase a Samsung A900, sail through the credit check, and then we hit a snag when it comes to what Power Vision pack I want. I say I want the Phone as Modem plan. The rep looks clueless. I explain it to him, that it's the $25 add on that I saw ont he website, that lets you hook up the phone to a laptop via USB or bluetooth and use it as a modem. The response I get: "... why would you want to do that?" We go back and forth on whether this actually exists or not. I show them the website. Hey, it exists! So, after further bantering over why I want this when for $15 I could listen to music and blingtones and watch tv on my phone (all of which I think is cute, but really, I won't use nearly as much as the dial up access), clueless rep does his thing on his computer, and though he looks to be completely unsure of himself, hands over my A900 and assures me that all is well and that yes, I do have the phone as modem pack added. So, I think him, take my phone and go home. Of course, I'm not at all confident that numbnutz got it right, so I log in to the account access on the website. Can you guess what I saw? Sure enough, I've got the $15 power vision pack, and the phone insurance and SMS packages I wanted weren't even there. *sigh* So I call up *2. Worst. Mistake. Ever. I can certainly tell that Sprint isn't outsourcing to India, as the accents are certainly not Indian. But whatever the accents are, they are there, they are thick, and while I don't mind and even grew up around folks with heavy accents, I DO mind that the CS reps are having trouble understanding what I'm trying to tell them. I had one explain to me at least three times that if I wanted to tether my phone to my laptop, I needed to use a USB cable and had to download the Sprint connection manager at this url... and three times I said "yes, i know, I'm aware of that, but question is about actually *putting* the phone-as-modem pack on my account because it's not there right now..." Another insisted that my REAL problem was that I forgot my password to my online account access on Sprint.com, and THAT'S why it was logging me into my account anyway, but only showing me the $15 add-on instead of the $25 add on. Uhh, yeah. And another insisted that the Samsung A900 simply isn't Power Vision capable. *sigh* I did what I used to do back in the bad old days with Sprint: politely thanked the clueless rep, hung up, and called right back hoping to get a more knowledgeable one this go-round. Oh, one funny exchange I had with one rep, after she realized the issue to be way over her head: Rep: "I'm sorry sir, can you speak up? Your signal is breaking up." Me: "I'll gladly speak up, but I'm actually talking to you on my landline phone, so I'm not sure how I can be breaking up." Rep: *Silence from her, even though I can still hear voices and keyclicks in the background... and then she hangs up* The more clueful reps actually attempted to address the problem - that I want the $25 PAM option - but I still got no headway. In those cases, I would get "We can't find that plan," and "we don't know what you're talking about," and "that plan doesn't exist." I'm instead being pointed to the $39.99 PAM option. An afternoon of repeated attempts at this, and I finally managed to get a CS rep who is willing to actually go to the web site and let me walk her through the steps of finding this plan. She sees it, and admits (a little grudingly, but I gotta give her credit for at least trying to sound professional about it) that I was right, the web site DOES say $25 for PAM. She still can't find the correct rate code in her account service tool, though. She puts me on hold and speaks with her supervisor for 20 minutes. Still no dice, neither of them can find this plan to add it. However, they are willing to compromise. Because the offer is still on the website but not in *their* system, I was offered: - $39.99 Phone as Modem plan - A full $39.99 credit for the first month - 15% discount off entire bill for 2 years All things considered, the cost works out fairly close to what I would've paid if I had gotten the $25 add-on. So, I accept, and everyone is happy, right? Well, no. I let things be until the next day, when I decide I should try out the Power Vision service. And I get: "Error #67: Registration failure. Your PCS Vision username and password may be incorrect. Note: Repeated entries of an invalid password during a 24-hour period will result in your account being temporarily suspended. You may have to call your service provider." Lovely. So I spend even MORE time wading through the tech support mess. I won't bore you of those details, but it wasn't very different from my first round of calls. Perserverance eventually pays off though, and once again, I happen to reach a call center where they hide all the knowledgable reps. NOW, all I have to do is wait for Sprint EVDO tech support to process a trouble ticket. Turns out my power vision profile is not authenticating and I'm getting "Error 67" even though the username and password on my phone AND their servers match (we went through the ##DATA#, entered service code and verified that all was correct). I've been told I should get a call back "in about 36 hours." *grumble* I'd really like to give Sprint a second chance, but this experience is really discouraging. I left pre-Nextel merger, and CS was going downhill then after a brief period of improvement. Now it seems like things are even worse! If this is typical of the "new" Sprint Nextel, then the time wasted fixing these random little problems won't be worth the money I'd be saving. 13 days left on my trial period...  SignatureE-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. Sounds like the sprint I always known. They have the absolute worst CS and nothing has ever changed or will ever change. Best thing is to do everything over the web, buy your own phones via ebay auctions and try to avoid CS as much as possible. >So, back in August, I left Sprint because inexplicably, coverage where I >live went totally downhill, from a relatively decent 2-3 bar signal to >virtually nothing at all. [snip] I can affirm a lot of what's written and implied here. I won't bore you with my recent experience, which pales by comparison to yours (and nothing really critical was at stake in my case). I've been with SPCS for seven years, and I've seen things get better and worse, naturally. The system works extremely well for my needs, and always has, however. With regard to CS, I've simply learned that you get your arrangement up and running, make sure it's right, then let it hum along. Once it's going you need never deal with the sales division at all. I've learned how to get the technical information I need, and am fortunate to live near a Sprint store with good, serious staff people (it's Wall Street, so that might make the difference). I can say this from recent observation: after really improving CS in 2003 things plateaued. I haven't deal with them much except for a recent interaction where I noticed that, yes, the accents were different and heavy, but not in every case. My tele-sales representative sounded like she was in Kentucky. I got several in the US, and several somewhere outside the country. They seemed to be on some sort of phone system that was indeed capable of breaking up. Believe it or not, it sounded like they were on some kind of VoIP line. Some sounded so distant and noisy I could barely hear them. Finally, there seems to be some problem with their implementation of the Sprint/Nextel merger structure. In four or more instances I got switched to someone who either asked me whether my inquiry was about a Sprint or Nextel problem, or told me that I was in a Nextel area when I should have been directed to a Sprint area. This has got to be troubling even for them. So the scene you describe is quite vivid for me. And note that in the paragraph above I seemed to speak to many individuals. It was at least a dozen. What was I trying to do? Get a written receipt of payment for a component purchase I'd made. That's it. I promised I'd spare you the story. Nevertheless, I've been through this before. My SPCS phone continues to do everything I need it to, when I need it to. So it looks like I'm not going anywhere. DGI > With regard to CS, I've simply learned > that you get your arrangement up and running, make sure it's right, > then let it hum along. Yes, that was pretty much my philosophy with Sprint when I was a more permanent customer (I was with them from 1998 to 2005), and woe would be the rare times that something did go wrong and I had to try to get it fixed. However, much as I'd love to have my arrangement up and running and let it hum along, as you say, the problem is *getting there*, and now CS stands directly in my way. It's a shame too, because if I COULD get this working, then Sprint *might* get another 7 years of steady income out of me so long as CS and I don't ever have to cross paths again. But right now, it seems like I might have to give up and continue giving Verizon more money. It sucks to pay more, but the VZW setup is *working*, where right now Sprint's is not. SignatureE-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. > That's almost cutting my cell phone bill in half! *IF* I can get it > to work! > > So I go to a store and sign up. That's as far as I needed to read. As a former Sprint customer, you should have known better than that. The PAM plans are fairly new, and there is NO way I'd expect an in-store drone to know much, if anything, about them. Worse, there was a clear indication that the clerk was not up to the task--that was a red flag meaning "LEAVE NOW" (just like you said you did when dealing with CSRs on the phone). I would have handled it all online (certainly after initial contact with a clueless drone I would have done so). Pick a phone, choose a plan, add add-ons (like PAM and SMS), check out, and wait for delivery. Sure it's not instant gratification. But I have never even gotten satisfaction from in-store SPCS drones, let alone instant gratification (plenty of aggravation though). The resulting CSR issues were likely due to starting off on the wrong path in the first place, and the rather newness of the PAM plans (at least EV-DO rollout is somewhat smoother than 1x was). Regardless, those are probably the worst issues to deal with. SignatureMike >> That's almost cutting my cell phone bill in half! *IF* I can get it >> to work! [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > up to the task--that was a red flag meaning "LEAVE NOW" (just like you > said you did when dealing with CSRs on the phone). Yah, but the phone CSRs are dumbasses these days. There was a point where Sprint PCS customer service *was* staffed with clued, helpful people for a few years, but not now. SignatureSteve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows Apple Valley, CA Resident of Southern California - the home of beautiful people and butt-ugly traffic jams >>> That's almost cutting my cell phone bill in half! *IF* I can get it >>> to work! [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Yah, but the phone CSRs are dumbasses these days. Some are, some aren't. In the last nine or so months I haven't had any problems. In that time I have had two dealings with Sprint: one case was a phone replaced under warranty, and the case was when I purchased a (PDA) phone. No serious problems in either case (and not a single visit to a SPCS store). > where Sprint PCS customer service *was* staffed with clued, helpful > people for a few years, but not now. All cellular companies have CS horror stories. About the only thing unique about this incident is that it might possibly be an indicator that few people are interested in the PAM packs (if they were selling like hotcakes you can be sure the CSRs would have been more informed). That being said, I sure as heck am willing to put up with the occasional CS hassle than paying TWICE the price I am paying now. I've often gone many many months without ever needing to call CS. OTOH, I receive a bill each month no matter what. <g> SignatureMike > That being said, I sure as heck am willing to put up with the occasional > CS hassle than paying TWICE the price I am paying now. I've often gone > many many months without ever needing to call CS. OTOH, I receive a bill > each month no matter what. <g> Well, if CS has gotten better since last year, that's very cool. My CS experiences had gotten uniformly awful by the time I switched away. SignatureSteve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows Apple Valley, CA Resident of Southern California - the home of beautiful people and butt-ugly traffic jams > Well, if CS has gotten better since last year, that's very cool. My CS > experiences had gotten uniformly awful by the time I switched away. It's definitely not better, Steve. In fact, it's worse than when I left Sprint in August. SignatureE-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. >> Well, if CS has gotten better since last year, that's very cool. My CS >> experiences had gotten uniformly awful by the time I switched away. > > It's definitely not better, Steve. In fact, it's worse than when I left > Sprint in August. My biggest problem wit CS is not being able to understand the accents. Sounds like they are hiring Mexicans to do the job. If I lived in the Southwest somewhere I might be able understand them. SignatureLarry Scott ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If you will live like no one else, Later you can live like no one else. Dave Ramsey > My biggest problem wit CS is not being able to understand the accents. Sounds > like they are hiring Mexicans to do the job. If I lived in the Southwest > somewhere I might be able understand them. I live in Southern California. I hear plenty of people speak with Mexican accents every day. The people you're calling are *not* from Mexico. SignatureSteve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows Apple Valley, CA Resident of Southern California - the home of beautiful people and butt-ugly traffic jams >> My biggest problem wit CS is not being able to understand the accents. >> Sounds like they are hiring Mexicans to do the job. If I lived in the [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Mexican accents every day. The people you're calling are *not* from > Mexico. Doesn't really matter where they are from, the point is they don't speak with American accents. I get very few I can understand. SignatureLarry Scott ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If you will live like no one else, Later you can live like no one else. Dave Ramsey > Doesn't really matter where they are from, the point is they don't speak with > American accents. Agreed. SignatureSteve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows Apple Valley, CA Resident of Southern California - the home of beautiful people and butt-ugly traffic jams >> Doesn't really matter where they are from, the point is they don't >> speak with American accents. > > Agreed. Well as I've said, I can deal with "unamerican" accents, IF they could understand what I'm saying. It appears they cannot. SignatureE-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. >> Doesn't really matter where they are from, the point is they don't speak with >> American accents. >Agreed. I love it when they tell you their name and then correct themself: Hi! My name is enyabuharabandulehutavi, I mean, my name is Karl!... > I love it when they tell you their name and then correct themself: > Hi! My name is enyabuharabandulehutavi, I mean, my name is Karl!... I need to corner the market in alphabet soup in that country, huh? >>> Doesn't really matter where they are from, the point is they don't speak with >>> American accents. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > I love it when they tell you their name and then correct themself: > Hi! My name is enyabuharabandulehutavi, I mean, my name is Karl!... That's one of the things I hate the most about CS outsourced to other countries. They obviously aren't from here and most likely aren't giving their real names. The other thing is that you can outsource to people outside the USA who have a clue and are actually helpful. I've dealt with offshore programmers before. Many of them are very highly skilled and eager to help. Even some of the lower-paid workers like call center workers can be helpful, but it seems like Sprint's CS people just don't care. That bothered me more than the simpl fact that they aren't in the US. SignatureSteve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows Apple Valley, CA Resident of Southern California - the home of beautiful people and butt-ugly traffic jams >> Well, if CS has gotten better since last year, that's very cool. My CS >> experiences had gotten uniformly awful by the time I switched away. > > It's definitely not better, Steve. In fact, it's worse than when I left > Sprint in August. Really? Before choosing Sprint a few months ago I called CS to check 'em out and ask some questions. Got a guy in St. John, NB, CA that was most helpful. After ordering the phone online (clearanced Sanyo PM-8200, $19.95, free shipping & activation) and trying the service for a week or so I called CS to port my number. Got a knowledgeable gal in Manila who spoke English better than I. Phone was up n working within minutes with the new number. I originally ordered the $10 SprintPCS Vision Access Pack..... not so much for the Web but for avoiding ala carte data charges resulting from tethering to a laptop. First bill had $200 of data charges! Called CS, got another lady in Manila who's English was fine and told her the Access Pack obviously hadn't been added to my account following the first free month. She removed the data charges and added the Vision Pack. The online bill was corrected and payable within 15 minutes. While I was at it I asked her about the new $39.95 plan with the same 400 minutes as my $35.99 plan but started nights n weekends at 7pm instead of 9pm. She said if I wanted to change to that package without affecting my contract, no problem. Next bill showed a charge of $15 for the Vision Pack. After sniffin' around online I discovered the $10 Access Pack is no longer offered.... in it's place is the $15 Pack with a bunch of stuff I don't need or want. Called up CS and got a guy in Manila who's English wasn't very good that was unable to understand what I wanted. He switched me to someone else.... ended up being a girl in St. John, NB who confirmed that the Vision Pack had been changed with things added at additional cost. I told her I didn't want to pay for things I didn't need and wanted the original $10 Vision Access Pack I ordered with the phone and original account. No problem, done deal. If Sprint CS is lacking you can't prove it by me......... TL > Really? Before choosing Sprint a few months ago I called CS to check 'em out > and ask some questions. I think your opinion of good CS, and my opinion of good CS, differ greatly. By even your account of a "good" experience, I see at least 2 major billing errors that CS reps were at fault for, and one instance of a language barrier. It would seem that to you, good customer service means it's okay to make all kinds of mistakes and waste your time, so long as the reps appear helpful and appear to be fixing each problem... and who cares if their "fix" causes other problems, so long as they're willing to keep "fixing" it? My idea of good customer service is, things are done right and set up right, so I don't have to waste my time and theirs, and repeatedly jump through hoops to get the problem resolved. Sure, no one's perfect, and mistakes happen. But still, I shouldn't have to call three or more times without any real hope of a fix. My latest CS misadventure is a case in point: I decided that maybe I wanted a PRL update. I had heard that Sprint finally fixed the PRL update problem by allowing the system to automatically do the update instead of having to deal with a rep. Wonderful! So I called up *2 and when the automated prompt came on, I said "PRL Update." The automated system said: "I think I heard you say you wanted to update your phone's software. Is that correct?" I said: "Yes!" (and thought, "hey! this thing GOT it!") The automated system then said: "Sure! I can help you with that! Let me transfer you to a customer service representative who can help." Me (under my breath): "Oh Lord, here we go..." CS Rep: [Useless banter about Sprint together with Nextel]..."How can I help you?" Me: "Hi. I just want a PRL update." CS Rep: [repeats the question, then pulls up my account info and asks for my password. I give it, and the rep "helpfully" suggests that I can also use my password to access my account on sprintpcs.com. Gee, I only set up my account password on the site, so thanks Captain Obvious!] CS Rep: "Okay sir, all you need to do is say 'PRL Update' at the automated system prompt when you dial *2 from your PCS phone, and the system will do it for you automtically." Me: "Well, that's what I thought too, but when I did that just now, it instead transferred me to you." CS Rep: "So you're saying that the system transferred you to customer service instead of giving you the update?" Me: "Yes." CS Rep: "Well sir, all you need to do is, when you dial *2 and get the prompt, you just say 'PRL Update' and the system will do it for you." Me: "Uhh yeah, but I just DID that, and it didn't happen..." CS Rep: "Okay sir, all you need to do is dial *2 and say 'PRL Update' at the automated system prompt..." No lie. In her poor little head there was simply no course of action programmed for "what happens when this doesn't work?" and so she resorted to repeating the same thing... over and over.... I tried it, one more time. The exact same thing happened, only I got a different rep. He too, went into the "just say..." endless loop. Afer that second try, I decided that having an out of date PRL isn't so bad after all. SignatureE-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. >> Well, if CS has gotten better since last year, that's very cool. My CS >> experiences had gotten uniformly awful by the time I switched away. > >It's definitely not better, Steve. In fact, it's worse than when I left >Sprint in August. I believe they just put a new VP in charge of that area, and changed the name to Customer Experience, so they may have blown their wad on cosmetic changes, unfortunately. SignaturePaul Miner > So I go to a store and sign up. There's your first problem. Why didn't you sign up on-line? SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in news:444d557f$0$1560 $742ec2ed@news.sonic.net: >> So I go to a store and sign up. > > There's your first problem. Why didn't you sign up on-line? I tried to sign up online. I couldn't figure out how to transfer my number from Cingular over. So, I call and sign up on their 800 number. The CRS told me they had been having a lot of complaints about this from others. So, he takes care of everything for me. Except, they then proceed to charge me for a phone I could have gotten for free on the website. So, what should have been a free phone ended up costing $54. But on the bright side, I went to their online CS and got a $32 credit issued to my account. Now if they will only get my wife's phone to her, so we can cancel our Cingular account. SignatureLarry Scott ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If you will live like no one else, Later you can live like no one else. Dave Ramsey >> So I go to a store and sign up. > > There's your first problem. Why didn't you sign up on-line? Maybe because I was stupid enough to assume that, like other wireless companies, you could walk into a branded, corporate store and the sales reps would not only be motivated to sell you something, but have a minimum level of knowledge to set up the account. Maybe not PERFECTLY set it up, but at least get things to a point where it's not irrevocably FUBAR. Further, I guess I also stupidly assumed that customer service would have a minimum knowledge level to assist customers whose accounts were wrecked by incompetence. Seems every other wireless company can do that... even Cingular. And Sprint even managed to do this for the seven years that I was a customer with them previously. Stupid me for thinking CS *might* get bad, but customer satisfaction and market forces would prevent things from becoming downright dysfunctional. You're absolutely right. Stupid, stupid me for thinking that Sprint was a company worthy of actually getting a second chance. Fortunately, no harm done: I'm within my 14 day trial and didn't port my number. Their P.O.S. MM-A900 is going back, and I'll be sticking with a competent company. Clearly, the $40 a month savings isn't worth the time I wasted trying to get this working. Oh well. SignatureE-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. > $25.00 Phone as modem Power Vision add-on (as listed on the web site) URL please? The brochures I got from the store has PAM as 39.99 special offer. I pointed at it and told the rep this is what I want while buying my PPC 7600. Todd W. >> $25.00 Phone as modem Power Vision add-on (as listed on the web site) > > URL please? Steps needed, and screenshots, are right here: http://www.howardforums.com/showpost.php?p=7085100&postcount=6 SignatureE-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. The most knowledgeable reps are in the "Customer Retention" devision. Amazing how quickly my problems were resolved when I asked that my service be canceled. > The most knowledgeable reps are in the "Customer Retention" devision. > Amazing how quickly my problems were resolved when I asked that my > service be canceled. On hold for cancellations now. SignatureE-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. > Oh, one funny exchange I had with one rep, after she realized the issue > to be way over her head: [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Me: "I'll gladly speak up, but I'm actually talking to you on my > landline phone, so I'm not sure how I can be breaking up." LOL, I think I got the same person! And I was calling them from the landline at work. Hung up, and called back, and got someone with a very thick accent. I said I had recently upgraded my plan, and someone there incorrectly entered it as a shared plan, which it wasn't. Her response was "you want to share a plan?" I said no, it is NOT a shared plan, your rep set it up that way when he changed my plan, and it isn't supposed to be a share plan. She asked why I upgraded my plan, and I said it was to include the unlimited roaming. She said "you want to set up roaming?" I said NO, I changed plans so roaming is included, but my problem is that they had me set up with a shared account, and it is NOT shared. She said again "you want to set up shared plan?" I finally said, give me to another rep. She said "but first I have to solve your problem." Then SHE started in on the bad connection/can't hear you spiel, so I just hung up, called back again and got a very nice person who fixed my account. I still believe Sprint (and not just their PCS, but their local landline service) has the absolute worst CS of any company I've dealt with. I have never had a change made in any part of my service that went right the first time, they always manage to screw something up, either with the billing or with the service itself. However, on the upside, their cellular coverage is the best for my current area and circumstances, I seldom get a dropped call, and it is rare when I need to call CS. This wasn't the case with other cell companies I've had. So I stick with the Sprint for cellular service for that reason. |
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