Sprint Commercial

[lbcardoni]

Is the band playing in the Sprint commercial Mates of State?

[ggw]

This ad?
 
 http://www2.sprint.com/mr/cda_pkDetail.do?id=1980

[lbcardoni]

No, this one web page

[vansmack]

Originally posted by The Parkers are dead:
  No, this one web page

That's at&t, not Sprint.

[Celeste]

Meanwhile, at Sprint...

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Celeste:
  Meanwhile, at Sprint...

I talked to Venerable about this earlier in the week.  I thinks it's a brilliant move on Sprint's part.  Those people who call that often are scammers and are costing me money.  I say drop them!
 
 I do find it interesting that MSN cut this part of the AP report out:
 
   

Singleton said the targeted subscribers each made an average of 40 to 50 calls a month to customer service. She wouldn't say how that compared with the overall number of calls logged by the customer service department in a given month.
 
 Singleton said the review also found that the subscribers often were calling about the same problems over and over after Sprint officials felt they had resolved the issue. She said some callers were repeatedly asking for information from other customers' accounts, which customer service workers aren't allowed to divulge.
 
 "If the average person is calling less than once per month and these people are calling 40 or 50 times more, that takes away from customer service," Singleton said. "Our priority is to improve the customer experience."

[Celeste]

It certainly is interesting! Why would MSN not include that info...it's as if they are trying to affect stock prices, though who knows whether they have the influence to do that.
 
 You know, you always hear about "the customer is always right" and stuff, so it's an unusual business move to drop/fire customers. I guess it shows that they're doing well enough to do so, although 1000 customers is not that many if you think of how huge the company is.
 
 Who the hell has time to call customer service 40-50 times a month, anyway? Probably professional "scammers" like you say.

[vansmack]

Here's the full AP Report as printed by the Tribune (courtesy of Venerable):
 
 SprintNextel drops needy customers
 
 Associated Press
 Published July 10, 2007, 7:15 AM CDT
 
 Sprint Nextel Corp. isn't apologizing for its decision to ax customers it determined were calling customer service too often.
 
 The nation's third-largest wireless provider sent letters to about 1,000 subscribers June 29, saying the company's records showed they had made frequent calls for help with questions about billing and other account information.
 
 "While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time had led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs," the letters said.
 
 The customers were told their service agreements were being terminated, they wouldn't owe anything on their final bill, and the company would waive early termination fees. They also were told to switch to another wireless provider by July 30 if they want to keep their phone number.
 
 In debate on the Internet, Sprint's move has attracted criticism that the company is penalizing consumers for trying to get what they paid for, or that the frequent calls are more a reflection of poor customer service by Sprint itself.
 
 But Sprint officials said Monday this isn't a case of someone being flagged by a computer program, and that an internal review lasting six months to a year focused on the types of problems the callers had and what information they were seeking.
 
 "These accounts have been researched very carefully," Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton said. "We feel strongly that the decisions we made, we stand by them. These decisions weren't made lightly."
 
 Singleton said the targeted subscribers each made an average of 40 to 50 calls a month to customer service. She wouldn't say how that compared with the overall number of calls logged by the customer service department in a given month.
 
 Singleton said the review also found that the subscribers often were calling about the same problems over and over after Sprint officials felt they had resolved the issue. She said some callers were repeatedly asking for information from other customers' accounts, which customer service workers aren't allowed to divulge.
 
 "If the average person is calling less than once per month and these people are calling 40 or 50 times more, that takes away from customer service," Singleton said. "Our priority is to improve the customer experience."
 
 Officials at competitors AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless said that while they may terminate customers who are abusive toward customer service operators or violate other terms of their service agreements, they don't terminate customers because of customer service calls.
 
 "We have never severed ties with customers in a mass mailing like this," said Verizon spokeswoman Cheryl Bini Armbrecht.
 
 CIBC World Markets analyst Tim Horan said in a research note to investors that he didn't see anything alarming with Sprint's decision.
 
 "Sprint has taken a number of steps to improve the 'quality' of its customer base and we view this measure in the same light," Horan wrote.
 
 Sprint, which has about 54 million subscribers, has been trying to upgrade its customer base, tightening credit requirements and attempting to attract customers who will spend more each month on data services, such as Internet browsing, music downloads and streaming video.
 
 During the most recent quarter, the company said it gained just 600,000 new customers, while AT&T and Verizon gained 1.2 million and 1.7 million, respectively.
 
 Earlier this month, Sprint unveiled a new marketing campaign aimed at highlighting its network speed and capabilities, an attempt to distance itself from earlier marketing campaigns that were criticized as unfocused and confusing.
 
 
 Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
 http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-070710sprintnextel,0,734816.story?coll=chi-bizfront-hed

[bikerchickdc]

Originally posted by Celeste:
 
 
 You know, you always hear about "the customer is always right" and stuff, so it's an unusual business move to drop/fire customers. I guess it shows that they're doing well enough to do so, although 1000 customers is not that many if you think of how huge the company is.
 
 

Some customers, you just can't satisfy and the company ends up losing LOTS of money on them.  I'm all for customers getting fired--- I wish my employer would fire one customer in particular.  I think it's great to see a company, ANY company, finally say "at some point you can cause me more stress and expense than the revenue you generate is worth."

[Venerable Bede]

but see (i really can't stand that guy from TURN, or anyone from there; oops, i probably shouldn't be saying that)-
 
 Watchdog wants tough message sent to Sprint
 
 By James S. Granelli
 Times Staff Writer
 Published July 12, 2007
 
 Cellphone companies are notorious for socking customers with hefty fees if they want to get out of their contracts early. Now, some people believe Sprint Nextel Corp. ought to get a taste of its own medicine.
 
 Sprint's decision to dismiss 1,100 customers for complaining too much prompted Mindy Bockstein, chairwoman of New York's Consumer Protection Board, to ask the company Wednesday to pay $200 in termination fees to each of the customers.
 
 "If someone adheres to a contract and pays for service that carries a termination fee for quitting, it should be a two-way street," she said.
 
 Sprint, the nation's third-largest cellphone carrier, believes that it already has provided adequate compensation: waiving its $175 termination fee and the customers' final monthly bills.
 
 "We just felt we couldn't serve them anymore," spokesman William K. White said. "And we thought that letting them go to another carrier would make them happier. If they continue to call us after six months, they're clearly not happy."
 
 Among those whose contracts were severed, White said, were people who called repeatedly to seek credits, to ask for phone records on another person's account and to get new handsets because the previous four or five didn't work. In many cases, he said, customers repeatedly called on matters that the carrier believed it had fixed or they repeatedly posed questions that the company, by law, couldn't answer.
 
 In a little over six months, the 1,100 users called the customer service line 40,000 times, White said. Sprint fields an average of one inquiry every two months from each of its 53 million customers.
 
 At the end of June, Sprint sent letters to the 1,100 customers saying the number of service calls they made "led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs."
 
 Bockstein, whose board has little regulatory authority over wireless carriers, was unsure if the compensation was sufficient.
 
 "While you may feel this action is justified by the behavior of these customers, the [state board] is concerned that ultimately these customers are not being treated fairly," she wrote to the company Wednesday.
 
 In an interview, Bockstein said, "They seem to be cherry-picking customers, and that signals a troubling trend."
 
 Neither her office nor California's Department of Consumer Affairs registered any complaints about the terminations.
 
 The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco consumer advocacy group, said Sprint should look at its policies to see what might be generating such calls. "We are concerned any time customers are getting a message from their phone company that having questions is not acceptable," said Bob Finkelstein, the group's executive director.
 
 "We would agree that customers shouldn't make nuisances of themselves," he said. "On the other hand, the high price of cellphone plans includes customer service."
 
 One customer who is being bounced isn't happy.
 
 Rene, a 29-year-old Miami resident who complained on an Internet chat site but would not give her last name, said in an interview that she was a Sprint customer for nearly eight years and signed a new two-year contract six weeks ago after buying a $400 Treo handset.
 
 She said the high number of calls attributed to her started about six months ago with a billing issue on a new plan.
 
 "The reps were nice and apologetic, but I believe that although the problem looked solved, the system â?¦ ultimately kept making errors," she said.
 
 In addition, she said, Sprint counted as separate calls every transfer for which she had to enter her number and password again and every call made after one was dropped. Sprint never returned any calls it had promised to, she said, forcing her to make more calls.
 
 White said Sprint thoroughly investigated before making its decision. The high number of calls from them, he said, affected the company's ability to serve the rest of its customers, a term in the contract that allowed the company to take the action.
 
 --
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 james.granelli@latimes.com
 
 http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/la-fi-sprint12jul12,0,7998820.story?coll=chi-bizfront-hed

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
  Watchdog wants tough message sent to Sprint
 

I love it when "Consumer Watchdog" groups become anti-business groups.  Hey, screw the millions of other customers that are footing the bill for these folks, lets use these 1,100 people to stick it to Sprint.