Disconnected: Sprint Boots Customers for Complaining

Disconnected: Sprint Boots Customers for Complaining
Frequent Whiners Told to Take Their Cell Phone Account Down the Street

I saw this on Good Morning America today. Here's the web link.

1,000 customers were sent a Dear John letter for excessive complaining. In some cases, according to the article, “’there were a small number that had been calling us over a period of six to 12 months, sometimes 300 times a month,’ Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton told ABCNEWS.com”

For those dumped, early termination fees were waived, any balances were set to zero, and customers were given a month to find a new carrier before service is shut off.

One woman said her calls were due a recurring billing error. She had to call several times because she kept getting transferred and was frequently hung up on. I only know one person who has Sprint (most of my friends have AT&T/Cingular, as do I) and he agrees that their customer service is horrible. It’s too bad because their actual cell service is pretty good. But god help you if you have a problem.

Judging from the comments on ABC’s forum, it seems that most of the Sprint customers have to call so often because their seemingly-simple problems remain unresolved. I’ve got to say this sounds like a really bad business move on Sprint’s part, but I also have to say that anyone who has to call 300 times a month should just switch carriers. Like with any bad breakup, I think Sprint is doing these 1,000 customers a favor. I say, “Good riddance”.

It's a poorly kept secret that in any business there are customers that you wish you didn't have. I remember a story about Best Buy having a database of their customers ranking them on where they fell on the scale of "good customer" to "bad customer." I don't remember the details, but I think it basically said that the high value customers got more attention and the low value customers, who were actually a drain on the company's finances, got a different level of service.

Some of those booted customers were probably total morons who deserved to be on that list. I'm sure there are some who just got caught on the wrong side of a stats sheet too.

Personally speaking, there are customers that I simply can't afford to take because I'll end up in debt as a result of taking their money. I've had people who demand constant meetings, but totally freak out when those meeting get excessive and I asked to be compensated for my time. I can't very well afford to spend 8 free hours meeting with someone on a website that should take 20 hours to build and yet there are people who think that demanding this of me is acceptable.

I know that customer service isn't what it used to be, but customers have to own up to their side of the equation too. In many businesses, the margins are so razor thin and the competition is so vicious that there is simply no room for people who demand to be king, but want to pay like a peasant.

It's true that some customers are dumb, but if Sprint is really having billing issues, for example, they need to fix that. If they don't care about their customers, they should at least care about their shareholders. I wonder what they think about this.

They covered this story on an NPR radio program yesterday and they had an even funnier story that's similar to the Sprint sending the Dear John letter story. They didn't name the company that did this, but some computer company got so completely frustrated with this 96 year old man who kept calling and calling and calling them. It was his first computer and he couldn't figure out how to use it. They finally bought a brand new computer from a competing company for this guy, shipped it to him along with a new customer support number to call for his proud new machine.

what makes me angry is their billing department is probably bigger than their customer service.

Sprint regular customer service is equally terrible. I am past my renewal date and they are showering me with offers: $100 for re-upping, 10% off every subsequent bill, etc.... I have two phones and they have different anniversary dates on record because one phone was getting too many wrong numbers and we changed the number. This causes a problem when getting new phones as they don't consideer the second phone eligible. I explained probably twenty times to customer service, in store employees, and the renewal department (which has the most flexibility), that BOTH lines were opened at the same time on one account and we only got one phone for each line of service. Their reply is they can't do anything about it because of the computer. If they didn't have the best plan for my level of service, I would be long gone.

I have probably been on hold for hours. My favorite is when the line drops and you lose the person you just explained this all too. You can never find them and they can't call you back for some reason.

But they are so helpful when you sign up. I have had Verizon, Cingular and the old ATT. All had bad customer service in India and Mexico or someplace where they say "can't help you" pretty well. Buyer BEWARE.