Sprint to 1,000 customers: You're fired

Bucky Badger

Bucky Badger

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DRIVERS......Better watch your complaining on the racetrack.

Sprint Nextel is hanging up on 1,000 of its cell-phone subscribers because, the company said, they complained too much.

Sprint Nextel (S, news, msgs), which ranked at the top of MSN Money's Customer Service Hall of Shame in April, apparently didn't appreciate when people called their customer-service lines to voice complaints, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. So the company told those unhappy customers to hit the road.

"The number of inquiries you have made to us . . . has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs," Sprint said in its letter.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/SprintDumpingCustomers.aspx
 
They were complaining as much as 50 times a month. The average only complains once a month.
 
Good for Sprint.

It's about cutting costs. People calling 50 times a month are clearly beyond what "help" a Sprint customer service rep can provide.
 
I would like to see an article where it say "50 times a month"

I found

The letter, which Sprint customers have posted in a variety of places on the Internet, states "we have received frequent calls from you regarding your billing or general account information." It goes on to inform customers that "the number of inquiries you have made to us [during the past year] has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your wireless needs."



Profitablity a Legitimate Concern
The letter, which Sprint customers have posted in a variety of places on the Internet, states "we have received frequent calls from you regarding your billing or general account information." It goes on to inform customers that "the number of inquiries you have made to us [during the past year] has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your wireless needs."

Clearly, Sprint has conducted some sort of segmentation analysis that has identified customers who are expensive, from a customer service point of view, and therefore unprofitable, from a bottom-line point of view, Kingstone said. As a general rule, "it's a smart business decision to eliminate unprofitable customers," she added.

The problem is that Sprint likely did not take all the steps it could or should have before this dramatic cutting of ties with established customers, Kingstone explained.

The Last Straw
The question a company like Sprint should ask itself, explained Kingstone, is whether or not this is the last straw in the customer relationship. In Sprint's case, specifically, the data shows that it probably is not.

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/58188.html

Actual letter from sprint
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ouch/sprint-dumps-needy-customers-275374.php
 
vanzetti said:
Good for Sprint.

It's about cutting costs. People calling 50 times a month are clearly beyond what "help" a Sprint customer service rep can provide.
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Forget trying to make people happy and providing good customer service...Lets just dump their AZZ:rolleyes:
 
Bucky Badger said:
Forget trying to make people happy and providing good customer service...Lets just dump their AZZ:rolleyes:
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Exactly what I was thinking. This seems like a pretty short sighted idea to me. You figure that is at least 1,000 people who will tell everybody they know that Sprint sucks and doesn't give a rip about their customers. In the age of the internet, that's a whole lot of people they can share this opinion with. On top of the bad publicity they are getting over this story coming out right now.

Personally, I have had to call Cingular quite a few times about "billing errors" I've noticed on my bill. It has happened so many times, in fact that I have to wonder if these are actually "errors" that are occurring or simply an attempt to overcharge me and hope that I don't notice the overcharge. :mad:

I wonder if Sprint is doing the same thing. :confused:
 
I'm surprised hughesnet hasn't done this.

On a good month we'll call CS 3 times. I know once we called 6 times in one month over FAP. But that's a whole lengthy post about that. (it went from false advertising to "we'll give you unlimited from 3-6 AM eastern time".
 
"I hope this isn't the death knell for Sprint," Murray added. "I'm afraid it might be."

And if any of those dumped by Sprint had any questions, the company advised them, naturally, to place a call to customer service.


Yeh right.
 
kat2220 said:
"I hope this isn't the death knell for Sprint," Murray added. "I'm afraid it might be."

And if any of those dumped by Sprint had any questions, the company advised them, naturally, to place a call to customer service.


Yeh right.
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lol.gif

DAH That is what they did to begin with.
 
I'd imagine some of those callers are like some of the whiners we have on this board. They can't ever be satisfied, regardless. Then magnify it.
 
barelypure said:
I'd imagine some of those callers are like some of the whiners we have on this board. They can't ever be satisfied, regardless. Then magnify it.
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Agreed. But I was thinking about my mother-in-law.
 
Maybe if the drivers complain too much they'll send them to F1.
 
kat2220 said:
I'm wondering how this will affect the "Sprint Cup".
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Why Kat, yer getting a lot out of that one. :)

And by the way, I finally got to see an F1 race this past weekend and what a change those cars have made in the last few years. Wouldn't you like to see Robby Gordon out there kicking some butt? :cool:
 
They are handling this in typical american big business fashion. Don't fix the problem, just make it sound like it isn't your fault.

Like on your car's passenger side mirror when it says "objects in mirror may be closer than they appear". You would think they could fix that. But no, they just slap an excuse on there and move on. ;)
 
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