Disapointed with Sprint

[Snoman002]

Well, I hate to start this with the "I love Sprint" thread being just started, but oh well.

All in all I have been happy with Sprint, I have had some troubles but other than a couple hours (total) on the phone everything has been resolved. However, recently I have been a little put off.


I have been with Sprint since 03, with an account that is in good standing. Currently I have 3 lines, nothing special, just a Family Fair and Flexable.

My problems started when I began the process of upgrading my phones. I'm one week from upgrade time, and I figured that Sprint would be more than happy to have a current customer renue their account, and be willing to allow them to do it early, thats where I was wrong.
First stop was the local store. I walked in and said I was interested in upgrading, the clerk said that regular phones were on the right, PDA phones on the left, and in the entire 30 minutes I was in the store that was the only contact I had. Nobody asking if they can help with anything, there were 5 reps and none of them were busy. The wife was a little put off but I figure what the heck, NBD.
Next the wife chatted online, asked if there was any deals Sprint would do for us, nope. The wife then asked if we could get upgrade eliability 2 weeks early, they said nope and then promptly ended the chat. Needless to say the wife was not happy.
Then tried calling, no good, no early upgrade, no sweeteners.
Ecare, nothing, wouldnt even match Best Buys price. In fact, basically said if you can get it for that price at best buy then go there.
Stopped by another local store, and had a good (friendly) conversation with the clerk, said she could offer upgrade prices, but I would not be eligable for rebates, then said she couldnt even match another Sprint dealers (Best Buy) prices.

So here I am, a loyal sprint customer, chomping at the bit to upgrade, yet not feeling much love from Sprint. Normally I wouldnt even look around, but I decided to do some digging, come to find out I can get the phones I want, Fuze and Centro, refurbished, for cheaper at ATT than I can at Sprint, AND I can get a plan thats cheaper than my current plan. Mostly because I dont have to have data on the ATT plan.

I would hate to leave Sprint, but jesh, all I really wanted was a very slightly early upgrade and Sprint cant even offer me that.

Let me know if I'm being unreasonable, but dang, I expected a little more than what I have gotten so far.

[Peteman100]

Originally Posted by Snoman002

Well, I hate to start this with the "I love Sprint" thread being just started, but oh well.

All in all I have been happy with Sprint, I have had some troubles but other than a couple hours (total) on the phone everything has been resolved. However, recently I have been a little put off.


I have been with Sprint since 03, with an account that is in good standing. Currently I have 3 lines, nothing special, just a Family Fair and Flexable.

My problems started when I began the process of upgrading my phones. I'm one week from upgrade time, and I figured that Sprint would be more than happy to have a current customer renue their account, and be willing to allow them to do it early, thats where I was wrong.
First stop was the local store. I walked in and said I was interested in upgrading, the clerk said that regular phones were on the right, PDA phones on the left, and in the entire 30 minutes I was in the store that was the only contact I had. Nobody asking if they can help with anything, there were 5 reps and none of them were busy. The wife was a little put off but I figure what the heck, NBD.
Next the wife chatted online, asked if there was any deals Sprint would do for us, nope. The wife then asked if we could get upgrade eliability 2 weeks early, they said nope and then promptly ended the chat. Needless to say the wife was not happy.
Then tried calling, no good, no early upgrade, no sweeteners.
Ecare, nothing, wouldnt even match Best Buys price. In fact, basically said if you can get it for that price at best buy then go there.
Stopped by another local store, and had a good (friendly) conversation with the clerk, said she could offer upgrade prices, but I would not be eligable for rebates, then said she couldnt even match another Sprint dealers (Best Buy) prices.

So here I am, a loyal sprint customer, chomping at the bit to upgrade, yet not feeling much love from Sprint. Normally I wouldnt even look around, but I decided to do some digging, come to find out I can get the phones I want, Fuze and Centro, refurbished, for cheaper at ATT than I can at Sprint, AND I can get a plan thats cheaper than my current plan. Mostly because I dont have to have data on the ATT plan.

I would hate to leave Sprint, but jesh, all I really wanted was a very slightly early upgrade and Sprint cant even offer me that.

Let me know if I'm being unreasonable, but dang, I expected a little more than what I have gotten so far.

You've either had an extremely unlucky experience or you have no idea what you are doing. Call account services. Let them know you have been having trouble redeeming your handset upgrade. Tell them you have no problem signing a new 2-year agreement. They will take care of you, I promise!

[Rangerdave]

Sounds like your not at the date for your upgrade... what are you waiting for pay the full tilts price or wait, it whould tell you the date on your account online when your date its.

RD

[Snoman002]

Originally Posted by Rangerdave

Sounds like your not at the date for your upgrade... what are you waiting for pay the full tilts price or wait, it whould tell you the date on your account online when your date its.

RD

Your right, I'm not at the upgrade date, I'm one week away. I know your thinking that its only one week, whats the big deal. Really, one week isnt that big of a deal, I can wait, what gets me is that for a continued customer I expected Sprint to also think that one week was no big deal and be willing to offer me my upgrade a tiny bit early to get me to re-sign my contract. Its this general feeling of "Your not important to us, yet".

[DaPeeps]

Threaten to cancel....they will give you whatever you want.

Mention AT&T and the iphone, and you're even more likley to get their attention.

Trust me...Sprint has coddled me like a baby in its crib. They have ALWAYS taken care of me....to the point that I would never even consider leaving them.

[Snoman002]

Originally Posted by DaPeeps

...Trust me...Sprint has coddled me like a baby in its crib. They have ALWAYS taken care of me....to the point that I would never even consider leaving them.

And see thats why I'm upset. I love Sprint, I have never had a problem with them in the past, and thats whats frustrating. I'll admit, I was even c0key about having Sprint. My buddie has Verizon, and was complaining because he wanted an Omnia but didnt want to either have to buy a data plan, or have to pay full price for it, for his use of the phone it just want justifiable (we cant bring phones to work). In the end Verizon wouldnt do anything for him, meanwhile I was thinking that thats what he gets for having Verizon, Sprint would have done SOMETHING to make me as happy as I wanted to be. I was actually under the impression that Sprint would do practically anything I wanted them to do, well within reason. Now, all of a sudden, just to get my upgrade a tiny bit early, I ran into a wall.

I always pitied my friends with other carriers, I have always felt that the other carriers treated you like a numbered account, and yet my Sprint was different, they wouldnt do what was needed to keep me paying, they would go do whatever they could to keep me HAPPY. Now all of a sudden I dont have that happy feeling anymore. Thats what disapoints me, not that they didnt bend to my will, just that I didnt get the feeling that they were willing to do whatever they could to make me happy. And trust me, I dont look for much to keep me happy, heck a person on the other end of the phone just listening to me is usually all it takes.

[meatgel]

You need to separate Sprint the company from Sprint customer service reps. It's hard to do, but it helps. I have only been with Sprint for 6 months. I was with Qwest and wanted to stay on the Sprint network when Qwest went with Verizon.

Then my husband wanted to be added to the plan recently and port his number. Chat said I was only authorized 3 phones. Called and was told the same thing ...

SOOOOOO.... I asked for a supervisor. Still a no. I asked for the credit department. Transferred, but sent to the wrong department ... same customer service as before. I got a bit aggressive and finally made my way to the credit department. I explained that I was already upset from the prior conversations and sorry if I was pointing my disappointment at her ...

She added another line to my account, appologized for the problems and noted everything on my account so when we went to the store everything ran smoothly ... and it did!

I woould also like to mention that if you are looking at the Touch Pro, you minght not want to put data out of the question. It really does add to the "fun" of the Touch series of phones.

[blasphemous_prime]

Yes, you are being a bit on the unreasonable side by trying something that no wireless carrier on earth would do for any of its customers. If you would like to leave your current carrier just becuse they won't go out of their way to bypass regular guidelines, that's on you. I wouldn't bother opening up a can of worms with anyone anywhere for such a reason as it's pretty much frowned upon IMHO.

[Mutiny32]

I have an extremely hard time believing your story. Sprint is more than happy to renew your contract early. It means they have you longer. They will give you the best price they can possibly give you to keep you. It's called customer retention. Best Buy has been known to have special deals in the past that has beat Sprint, but it's not a Sprint thing and it is usually a rebate or requires a new line of service for that price. That's Best Buy's policy.

A lot of Sprint Stores aren't Sprint corporate stores run by other companies. You'll get that with any carrier. And by now, salespeople in stores know to back off unless you look like you want them to be around. Did you walk into the store with a intimidating demeanor? That would tell me that you're there strictly for business and don't bother talking to you.

As for chat support? All chat customer service in the history of chat customer service has sucked for any company, ever. No exceptions. Don't bother using it.

But I still have a hard time believing your story about them not renewing your contract early.

And it sounded like the clerk at the store that was willing to give you upgrade prices to help, but you wanted your cake and to eat it too. She said you wouldn't be eligible for rebates because she was already doing something to help you out, but she was also telling you that if you sent in for the rebate, you would automatically be rejected and would go through hell in a futile attempt to get someone to override their system that says you aren't eligible because you upgraded before you were eligible for the rebate. It's simple.

Other phone companies will do the same thing; except they will be more blunt and tell you that you are SOL.

Then you go and compare apples to oranges by saying you can get a better price by switching to another carrier with a refurbished phone.

Why is it that you can't wait two weeks to renew, get upgrade pricing, and the rebates from Sprint?

[Snoman002]

Originally Posted by blasphemous_prime

Yes, you are being a bit on the unreasonable side by trying something that no wireless carrier on earth would do for any of its customers. If you would like to leave your current carrier just becuse they won't go out of their way to bypass regular guidelines, that's on you. I wouldn't bother opening up a can of worms with anyone anywhere for such a reason as it's pretty much frowned upon IMHO.

For what? Wanting FULL upgrade eligability 2 weeks early? I'm not talking about early termination, I signed a contract and I am looking to fuflill that contract and I knew ahead of time that it would cost me to get out of it early, but thats not what I was looking for.

Mutiny32,
Its not that they wont let me renue, they will certainly do that, I'm just asking to get the same things now as I would in 2 weeks. Sure, I could wait two weeks, thats not what the big deal is about.
The reason I asked to do it now in the first place was because Best Buy had a sale on the phone my wife wanted. Now, I did ask if Sprint if they would be willing to price match, and they said no. Well ok I suppose but its unusual for a company not to price match especailly thier own retailer, but thats not really what I was looking for, I just wanted the ability to upgrade now. Thats not the issue here, just one of the pieces.
In the end I could wait two weeks, well, less than a week really. But if you think that its just two weeks and I sould wait, does not the same thing apply to Sprint? Its just a week, its not like its 8 months, and heck, they get to guarentee me for the next two years.
Oh, I dont think I was in a mood that indicated "back off" when I was in the store, maybe I could have. Having a wife walking around on crutches though would make me assume that they would try and go to her instead of making her go to them. I did lie though, I did have one interaction, one of the salesman approached me and asked me to take my 30lb daughter down from sitting on the counter since he was afraid she would break the 1" thick glass, so no problem I did, I only had her up there because she like to see the phones with me. But after I took her down he promptly turned and walked away, no other interaction even though he was already there.

In the end it wasnt the pieces, it was the general feeling of the interactions, especially ecare. In the past I have always felt like a valued customer, very very valued as a matter of fact, which is why I love sprint, but this time I felt like I would expect to feel as a Verizon customer, or an ATT customer, not what I normally feel like as a Sprint customer. And maybe its more of a fear, a fear that in Sprints current situation they will resort to customer service like the other providers have. IMO the last couple of years of customer service have been to try and convince people to come back after the years, and their stigma, of horrible customer service. But when your loosing billions and ATT is showing a profit, it could be mighty tempting to try and emulate their services.

Meatgel,
If I could use the dang thing more I would like to have data, but since I cant bring it to work thats 8-10 hours a day I couldnt use it, and most of the rest of my day is spent at home and I have Wi-Fi there. I would love to have it for traveling, its just hard to justify the cost when I would be using it very little.

In the end I could try and beat up retentions, and threaten to end my contract, but I dont want to be that guy who plays those games. I have 3 months left on contract, I'll play out those 3 months and see if I just had a bad week, and if it then comes to the point of canceling I'll see what retentions does, but I'm not going to threaten to end my contract over this, I'm only disapointed in Sprint, not upset, mad, furious, or anything else, just a little bummed.