do you hate your cell phone carrier?

Sprint ditches customers who complain too much
from yahoo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp, which recently launched an advertising campaign to attract new customers, is disconnecting more than 1,000 subscribers for calling its customer service lines too often and making what the company called unreasonable requests.

The No. 3 U.S. wireless provider with 53 million customers said on Monday it started sending service termination letters on June 25. Sprint said the cancellations involved 1,000 to 1,200 customers who had called the company about 40,000 times a month in total.

"These customers were calling to a degree that we felt was excessive," said Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton, adding the company needed to cull its customer base to improve services.

"In some cases they were calling customer care hundreds of times a month for a period of six to 12 months on the same issues even after we felt those issues had been resolved," she said.

Singleton, noting that mass cancellation letters were not routine, said this call volume was 40 to 50 times more than average customer monthly calls. She would not say how often customers can call before being deemed too demanding.

The company also declined to say what percentage of monthly service calls the 40,000 figure represented.

Singleton said some of the cancellations involved customers who repeatedly asked for information about other people's accounts.

Sprint waived final balances on canceled accounts and gave customers 30 days to transfer their phone numbers to other wireless providers, she said.

"We're working very hard to improve customer service. That's our number one priority," Singleton said.

The termination letters started going out days before Sprint kicked off a nationwide "Sprint Ahead" ad campaign on July 1. Sprint's customer growth has disappointed investors for several quarters after its marketing message was criticized as being confusing and it had network problems after its 2005 purchase of Nextel.

Providers AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, were quick to point out differences between their policies and Sprint's, saying they very rarely cancel services.

AT&T, the U.S. wireless service with the greatest number of subscribers, sometimes cancels or restricts services for customers for "excessive data or voice roaming on other carriers' networks," according to spokesman Mark Siegel, who said competitors had similar policies.

Tom Pica, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless which is second to AT&T by number of customers, said his company sometimes cancels services for callers who are "extremely abusive" to its customer service representatives. But, he said, this would be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Sprint shares were down 32 cents at $21.55 on the New York Stock Exchange early Monday afternoon.

this is very interesting to me since my carrier is sprint. great article, thanks.

Not being in the States, I have no idea what Sprint is (is it affiliated to any mobile phone companies in the UK?)

I sometimes wonder who my carrier is. It went from ATT to Cingular to ATT. For some reason, the actual service was best when it was Cingular. The speed of the network makes the IPhone service questionable, although you can pick up wireless with it. I would not recommend ATT here in MN based on an article I read comparing speed and dropped calls. It may vary by location.

Seriously though: Think twice before buying the iphone. You are locked in for 2 years to a questionable service that has changed management twice in the last few years.

Jackie T

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Originally Posted by Jackie T.

I sometimes wonder who my carrier is. It went from ATT to Cingular to ATT. For some reason, the actual service was best when it was Cingular. The speed of the network makes the IPhone service questionable, although you can pick up wireless with it. I would not recommend ATT here in MN based on an article I read comparing speed and dropped calls. It may vary by location.

Seriously though: Think twice before buying the iphone. You are locked in for 2 years to a questionable service that has changed management twice in the last few years.

Jackie T

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I have cingular still and it is by far the best carrier that ive encountered so far.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shiki

I have cingular still and it is by far the best carrier that ive encountered so far.

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It was pretty good when I was out in PA. In terms of network speed, though, I would check comparisons in a given location. You are still billed by Cingular? Mine has switched twice now.

Jackie T

I've really had no problems with Amp'd Mobile, other than getting someone from Customer Service on the phone with me...I've seriously been on hold for 45 minutes once...it was absolutely ridiculous...Dropped calls, and such really haven't been a problem for me.

I've really had no problems with Amp'd Mobile, other than getting someone from Customer Service on the phone with me...I've seriously been on hold for 45 minutes once...it was absolutely ridiculous...Dropped calls, and such really haven't been a problem for me.

I've been really happy with my carrier, Vodafone, until last week. I was trying to put credit on my account via visa online, and apparently I can't use my credit card, because the card number is already registered for use with another account. The other account is my partner's account. We have a joint visa, and both cards have the same number, but different names printed on them. Calling their service centre was no help whatsoever as they simply told us they can't do anything about it - and repeated requests to have access to my account added to his haven't gone anywhere.

Yea, i hate mine, Blue wireless. It has sucky coverage and you cant get wallpapers and ringtones. :/

sorry for the double post, my internet was acting up last night and I couldn't get into the edit page to delete the other one.