Sprint really does care

[tavella]

I've been a Sprint customer for almost 5 years and a few months back, I called retentions since I hated my Q and asked for an 8830 since I was shopping around for a cheaper phone. They gave it to me for $300, not bad IMO. Send in my rebate card and all was good. I started having problems with the Blackberry 8830 and I was sent three replacements because they assumed there was a problem with the phone. My EVDO connection would keep dropping which turns out to be a RIM CDMA programming issue but that's another topic. I had sent back all three of the replacement phones and asked for a Mogul as a replacement. I was issued an order number on a Monday and called back that Friday to find out where my phone was. I was told they cancelled the order because too many phones had been sent out. I explained that a level two tech support (who documented the replacement requests) requested this and the lady with the smart attitude told me that they allow one replacement within the 30 days. I told her I had received the same phone so how could this be counted. In the mean time, I received a post card saying I wasn't elegible for the rebate since I hadn't had my prior phone for two years... Well I got mad, and ported all five lines to VZW and sent the last phone bac. After a week of their bad signal and higher prices, I called retentions to get reactivated. Had to get a new account since my billing cycle expired etc... Got my Mogul and it was not a good experience.. I had a BB8830 sent as a replacemenet.

I called about my $300 refund for the phone I had sent back and I was told I was owed nothing after my ETF's were waived. I went back and forth with eCare six or seven times, retentions about five, and finally had it. I emailed EVERY corporate officer I could find on their website. I figured out 9 of the 13 email addresses including Paul Saehl (sp) who responded to me directly apologizing for the level of service I received and that my issue would be resolved that day. I was also thanked for letting him know how bad the service level has been and thanked me for returning to the comapny. I received a call that afternoon from a corporate rep who actually listened to me, reviewed my account and credited me for the Mogul and the BB8830!!! I was wowed since I just got two phones for free. He told me they knew there were problems with the Mogul and to hold on to it and try it again when they pushed the new firmware or just hold on to it. My Fiancee caught the BB fever and took my 8830. All of a sudden, a $200 check from the refund center came my way. I did what any good person would do, cash it, went to Sprint, got another 8830 for $300 since my new account was automatically elegible for $150 upgrades on all lines since I took my old phones and had them reactivated. I received an additional $100 rebate on that phone. Thanks to Sprint, I now have three free phones.

[Romeo8Juliet]

Congrats. Always good to hear of the positive CS times.

[michaelvanle]

Honestly, stuff like this is why Spring is losing money...

[tavella]

Sprint is loosing money because of poor management, poor product support, poor customer service, and poor financial managment systems (P2K, Ensemble, etc). While my story is an exception to the rule, I did nothing out of the ordinary to obtain these credits. All I wanted was my $300 back for my purchase of the 8830 on my P2K account. The representative in corporate made the offer to credit me for the Mogul and the replacement 8830 on my Ensemble account when I came back after a week. I give Sprint well over $250 a month for five lines of service, Power Vision Plans, texting, and more. I don't call them every month looking for credits that are not owed, I don't try to convert each line to a SERO account, I don't abuse the $10 credit for purchases over the phone, I don't even dial *2 when a call is dropped. I do call every month when their billing system continues to make errors, such as a $75 charge for casual data usage while I have a Power Vision and PAM attachment on that line (Still on going for four months now). I do call when activation fees all of a sudden appear even when I haven't changed a phone, I do call when my phone stops operating for hours on end for no apparent reason. I have spent countless hours on the phone with this company trying to work through my issues instead of taking a $0.10 increase to text messaging fees and try to defect to another company because of some legal loophole in the contract. While I think the current business plan is quite harsh towards the employees, I believe in the long run it's what Sprint needs to do in order to pull themselves out of the hole they are in. I also believe WiMax needs to be put on hold until they can fix their current issues instead of adding to the pile. While I realize that there is a huge financial gain that can come from this new service, it will take YEARS before Sprint even turns a profit on the service. Being first doesn't mean being the best. Look at the Atari Jaguar, the first 64 bit gaming system, where is it now? Gone. Just one example.

[michaelvanle]

Problem is not with you, it's just that Sprint be handing a lot of handsets out for cheap lately. It all adds up.

[Pucky69]

Me. I am now a happy user of a sprint htc touch. I love this thing... And after all the temporary credits expire I will still have a 50 credit on my account after they charge me for the touch. The truth here is...Sprint knows they are in trouble and they are trying to do anything possible to keep around customers...(Been with S/n since 99.)

[Silent Majority]

See, the problem with Sprint is the customer service and its true. Look at this situation. If the customer service had been spot on in the first place Sprint would not have been in a position to have to give out those phones and all those credits.

[PokerFace23]

how is it customer service's fault in this case? they did their job CORRECT (yes i'm surprised too)

the op calls in says they dont like their phone. they get it courtesy swapped out one time. (Q to BB). BB craps out on him and for whatever reason he CALLS to get them replaced 3 times (maybe he couldnt go to a repair center, or advance exchange store, who knows).

he then, and i quote, requested a Mogul to be exchanged for the BB. tech support said OK (who gave them this power to approve exchanges?) and customer care said no they could not, they don't have the power, either.

i'm glad he got it worked out eventually, but in this case CS is NOT to blame.

[Silent Majority]

he then, and i quote, requested a Mogul to be exchanged for the BB. tech support said OK (who gave them this power to approve exchanges?) and customer care said no they could not, they don't have the power, either.

i'm glad he got it worked out eventually, but in this case CS is NOT to blame.

Let me stop you right there. Its right in there. They either should have kept up their end of the deal or not agreed to send the Mogul.

[rebelx]

it's good to see someone succeed from Sprint Hell. I'm still trying to work out of it.

[Imajika]

I would love to know what tech told you that they would switch out phones and 'added notes to your account' approving the swap.

I work in tier 2 technical support and we ARE NOT ALLOWED to make those kinds of changes and we have no authority to approve such requests.

When someone calls me and tells me they want a different model of phone because the current one sucks, I tell them they need to speak with customer care about it. I tell them that I cannot make any promises but they need to talk to customer care and see what can be done. I explain that *I* cannot make such changes or approvals for them.

The only thing I can do is stay on the line and conference in customer care and explain the situation and that the customer would like a different phone and they wanted to discuss their options. I then tell customer care about any tech support/defective device issues the customer was having (if any) and then I let customer care take over and I butt out.

So I apologize that the tech support agent gave you misleading information. :(

[PokerFace23]

Let me stop you right there. Its right in there. They either should have kept up their end of the deal or not agreed to send the Mogul.

it's all a he-said she-said game from this point. like *I* said, who all of a sudden gave TECH SUPPORT the power to approve exchanges?

that's what im trying to point out. CS still is not to blame in this case.

I say blame the people that made his 3 Blackberries.