My Long detailed story of dealing with Sprint Customer Service.

[woody426]

On Wednesday July 11th I left Louisville KY for Charleston South Carolina. About half way there I noticed that my Galaxy S2 would not hold a charge and was rebooting on its own. I stopped in Mount Pleasant South Carolina at a Sprint store.
I left the phone with them for an hour and when I went back I was told my battery was bad, I asked them to replace it under warranty and was told that he store did not have one. I asked them to check stores in the area and was told that they had checked and not a single store in South Carolina had a battery. I was told they would ship one to my house. I spent the next five days basically without a phone, unless it was hooked to a charger, but even then I had the reboot issue.
I arrived home on Tuesday July 17th and the battery was waiting. I installed and left it on the charger overnight. The next morning, Wednesday July 18th, I unhooked it and it showed a 100% charge on the battery. I drove to work, it’s about an hour trip, had the Wifi off, no GPS on and no Bluetooth, made no calls, sent no texts and when I got to work the battery was down to 70%, and the rebooting continued. By 10am that same day, no calls only a few texts, the battery was down to 40%. That night I charged it overnight and woke up with a battery at 100%. That morning, Thursday July 19th, I drove to work, got there and had 60%, by 11:00am it was down to 20% and the rebooting was still happening.
I called Sprint and spoke to “Lucretia” I explained the story to her, she was of no help and transferred me to “Danita” whom I explained the whole story to again and was told “that sounds like a phone issue”, she transferred me to “James” I explained the story again, “James” did a little troubleshooting and proclaimed that my phone was “bad” and needed to be replaced. He told me that since I had the insurance on my phone they could send a replacement, but he wanted me to know that if they evaluated the phone that I returned and found nothing wrong with it, I would have to pay the replacement cost for the “new” phone. I told James that I didn’t want to get “stuck” paying for a phone if some tech somewhere decided there was no issue with the phone I returned. “James” agreed it could be an issue and suggested I visit my nearest Sprint store to have the phone evaluated.
I told “James” that I and a couple of my coworkers had had bad experiences at that Sprint store, he asked me to explain so I gave him this example. I had been having various issues with my previous phone, an HTC EVO 3D, I had it at that store FIVE times, each time it was the same story, a technician would bring my phone out to me and say the following “I didn’t work on your phone, the tech that did isn’t here right now but here’s what they found” it was like they were reading from a script every time they said it, then they would tell me there was nothing wrong with the phone and send me on my way. On the fifth trip to the store they finally identified and issue with the phone and told me I needed a replacement. “James” was not pleased with the prospect of that happening so he put his Supervisor “Brandy” on the phone; I explained the entire scenario again. “Brandy” assured me that I would be get good service at the store and that since “James” had already done the troubleshooting and created an “E ticket” with the information, the store would find the same issue and all would be well. “Brandy” even gave me her call back number and said to call her directly if the store said there was nothing wrong with the phone.
I relented and agreed to take the phone to the store for evaluation. I dropped it off around 11:20am EST, as I was handing to the person at the counter it rebooted on its own. I was told they would need the phone for two hours; I left and went back to my office. I returned at 4:15pm EST and the phone was not ready. I waited an additional forty one minutes and the phone was brought out to me, and the standard response was given “I didn’t work on your phone, the tech that did is not here, but here is what we found” I was told that Samsung had pushed an update to the phone called “Ice cream sandwich”, and the update had “corrupted” the phone, they had to do a “hard reset” on the phone and it was fine now. The tech that handed the phone to me pointed out that it had a 100% charge on the battery; I checked the battery as he was explaining the issue and I stopped him exactly three minutes into the explanation to show him that the battery had already dropped to 90%, he looked down at his shoes and groaned. He said he would “attempt” to order me a new phone, I explained to him that I was leaving Louisville KY on Friday the 20th to drive to Charleston South Carolina and that I needed a phone that I could trust.
The tech explained to me that there was no way they could replace the phone in the store, it just wasn’t possible. I left the store and drove twenty one miles to my office; I did not use the phone in any way, when I got to my office the battery was at 65%. When I got to my office I called the number that “Brandy” had given me, it was actually not “Brandy’s” number it was “Byron’s” number, I left a message and waited for a call back. I wound leaving six messages on that line between the hours of 6:30pm Thursday July 19th and 10:00am July 20th. I never got a reply from “Brandy/Byron” so I called Sprint tech support again from my office, I got through to “Harrison”, he had me explain the whole story again, and then explained that this was a “technical issue” and I needed tech support. “Harrison” transferred me to “Patricia”, who had me explain the whole story again, and then she proceeded to trouble shoot the phone for me. “Patricia” had me check for updates then had me turn the phone off while she “refreshed” the phone (her exact words) when I turned the phone back on I still had the same issues, battery visually draining and the phone rebooting. “Patricia” told me I needed to take the phone to the local store and “they would replace it” I reminded her that I had indeed already been there and they told me that they could not give me a new phone. “Patricia” told me she would call the store on my behalf and make all the arrangements. I told her calling the store would be futile as they do not answer their phone, she assured me they would answer and asked me to hold. I was on hold exactly three minutes and thirty five seconds when “Patricia” came back on the line. She said “they must not be open yet, no one answered” I explained that it was now 10:55am and that the store had opened at 10:00am. She tried them again; I was on hold for eight minutes and thirty nine seconds, when she came back on the line she said “they didn’t answer”. AGAIN I explained to her that they do not answer their phone. “Patricia” then suggested that she call the next closest “corporate” store, I told her which store that was and explained that they as well do not answer their phone. We repeated the entire process with me holding a total fourteen minutes and twenty four seconds spread out over two attempts to contact the other store, of course they did not answer.
“Patricia” escalated me to “Gilbert”, now let me stop here and say that “Gilbert” was without a doubt the kindest, most caring Sprint representative that I have ever spoken to, he took ownership of the issue and made every effort possible to try to get me a replacement phone. Unfortunately “Gilbert” could only do what Sprint would allow him to do and after a while we realized there was no way possible that I was going to get a replacement phone before I was scheduled to leave for my trip. I told “Gilbert” that it looked like I was going to have to buy a “pay as you go” phone and use that for my trip. I thought about that for a minute and then decided that if that was my only option, maybe I should just buy out my Sprint account and port my number over to a different carrier so I could get a new phone that worked, that day.
“Gilbert” transferred me to “David” to see how much it was to buy out my contract. At this point I had been on the phone with Sprint for about two and a half hours, I had four people in my office listening to this on speaker phone (I handle customer service issues for my company and we were using this as a “don’t do what they are doing” type of training event). “David” was without a doubt the rudest most unhelpful person I spoke to during this entire event, he told me I wasn’t using the phone properly, this was after Sprint’s own tech support had TWICE identified issues with the phone. “David” explained that I needed to download “Advanced Task Killer” and that would take care of my battery issues, this brought an audible laugh from the group gathered in my office. “David” basically explained to me that I could buy out my contract for the full early termination fee and asked if there was anything else he could help me with. I said no, and I stated that in fact he had been of no help whatsoever, “David” asked in I would like a “callback” from his supervisor; I said yes I would like that very much and that was the end of our conversation.
At this point it was too late in the day to begin the process of porting over so I went to local retailer and purchased a “pay as you go” phone and some minutes then started my trip. I kept my Sprint phone plugged into the charger and Saturday between reboots I saw I had a voice mail; it was “Nancy” with Sprint calling for a follow up. I called her back, from my “pay as you go” phone and she had me repeat the entire story from the beginning, I believe this was the seventh time I had repeated the story, “Nancy” apologized for the inconvenience and basically told me that there was nothing she could do for me. I asked if it were possible for Sprint to wave the early termination fee so that I could go with a carrier who would provide with a functioning phone and she said they could not do that.
At this point I assume all I can do is buy out the contract and move on. If nothing else, this little adventure will be a great training aid for my customer service associates as a “How not to handle a customer issue”.
I truly think I have made a true goodwill effort to make my relationship with Sprint work, I have made countless trips to the store in the last few months, paid for the privilege to get an early upgrade from my Evo 3D that also was having issues, paid for this Galaxy S2, paid for a new car charger after I was told that the “aftermarket” chargers were “crap”, that visit to the store cost me around $400.00. I think it is time for Sprint to step up and allow me to leave and waive my early termination fee.

The story continues……… I sent all of the above information to Dan at sprint dot com and I actually got a response, mind it wasn’t from Mr. Hesse but from one of his loyal minion but a response none the less. I spoke to delightful young lady who identified herself as “Joan” she listened intently to my issues and was very apologetic for the lack of customer service I had received. She had me adjust some of the settings on my phone so that it would not roam and would only use Sprint towers. This is a copy of HER email to me documenting what we discussed/did:
Dear Mr. XXXXXXXXXX,

Thank you for contacting Dan at Sprint dot com. I appreciate the opportunity
to speak to you today regarding the issues you have encountered with
your Samsung Galaxy S II and your customer service experience. I
understand and apologize for your frustration.

Our first priority is to provide outstanding customer service with
every interaction. Your feedback regarding your experience is appreciated
and will be forwarded for further review and used to support our
continuing improvement effort.

I understand that your Galaxy S II has been replaced twice and that
the current device is constantly going into roam mode as well as the
battery is not holding a charge more than four hours. I explained that your
phone is constantly searching for the strongest signal and roaming
even when you have a good Sprint signal if another carrier has a stronger
signal and the constant searching is draining your battery. We
walked through the process of setting your device to Sprint network only and
you will monitor it for performance and battery life for 24 hours. I
will call you again on Thursday, 8/9/12, after 5:30 PM EST as
requested for a status update. I understand that you were told by a Sprint
service and repair representative that you should not allow the
software update to ice cream sandwich to download and I will be happy to
investigate that advise as well. I will also investigate the Sprint
network performance in the area of your home and work locations.

You advised me that you were blocked from the Sprint forum due to
content and that your post was a duplicate of your e-mail to
Dan at sprint dot com I partnered with Ieda in technical support to
investigate why you were blocked and Ieda advised that a case has
been created to allow you back on the forum.

At the end of our conversation you confirmed that there are no
outstanding billing, equipment or coverage concerns at this time that
have not been addressed. I can also be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX from
11:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST, Monday through Friday.

Thank you for choosing Sprint. We value your business and appreciate
the opportunity to address your concerns.

Sincerely,
Joan XXXXXXX

Before we go on let me explain that “Ieda” (pronounced EYE-EEDA) was supposed to contact me and explain why I was banned from the Sprint Community forums located at Sprint dot com. I will go into that issue in a bit.
I tried the settings that “Joan” suggested and got no better service, she kept her word and called back the next day, below s HER email to me describing our conversation:
Thank you for contacting Dan at sprint dot com . I appreciate the
opportunity to speak to you again today regarding the issues you have encountered
with your Samsung Galaxy S II and Sprint network coverage. I
understand and apologize for your inconvenience.

You advised me that you have your Galaxy S II set to Sprint only
network but you continue to get roaming icons and your battery was full at
the beginning of the day but only had a 20 % charge at 11:00 AM. I made
an appointment for you to take the device to the Sprint service and
repair location at 215 Hurstbourne Pkwy, Ste 111, in Louisville, KY on
Friday, 8/10/12, at 4:45 PM EST. Your confirmation number is NL679N52. As
discussed, I will partner with the manager of that location to ensure
that you receive great customer service. I will also convey your
wish to have a different model phone if yours must be replaced but I did
clarify that I cannot guarantee the outcome of that request. I will
call you again to follow up on Saturday, 8/11/12, between 11:00
AM-3:00PM EST as agreed.

We also discussed the Sprint network performance in your area and I
explained that a voice capacity upgrade was completed in May, 2012.
Your quality of service for May was 95.5%; June, 97.8%; July, 96.8%.
Another voice capacity upgrade is scheduled for the end of August,
2012 and an EVDO capacity upgrade in December, 2012.

At the end of our conversation you confirmed that there are no
outstanding billing, equipment or coverage concerns at this time that
have not been addressed. I can also be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX from
11:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST, Monday through Friday.

Thank you for choosing Sprint. We value your business and appreciate
the opportunity to address your concerns.

Sincerely,
Joan

As you can see she set up an appointment for me to once again travel to a local Sprint Corporate store to have the phone evaluated. I thought about this for a while and then I sent her the following email:
Joan
I want to thank you for taking the time to respond to my issues. You
have been helpful, cordial and encouraging throughout our
conversations,I truly hope you can say the same about your interactions with me. On
a side note, I still have not heard from "Ieda" or anyone else about
restoring my access to the Sprint community forums, as you recall she
assured both you and I that she was on the problem and someone would
be contacting me about the issue, yet another missed opportunity for
Sprint to follow through on a customer service promise, at least you yourself
can bear witness to this particular example.

I have had a few hours to think about our last conversation regarding
my phone and my appointment today for 4:45pm EST at the Sprint store
located at 215 Hurstbourne Pkwy Ste 111, in Louisville KY. As I
explained to you last night this is my final trip to a Sprint store, I
think if you take a look at the email notes below, and if possible
review the store records, you will have to agree that I have made a
true good-faith effort to make my business relationship with Sprint work.
At this time, having spent a few hours thinking about the situation, I
have decided I want my phone replaced with a different model altogether. I
understand that you can’t speak for your own corporate stores, and
cannot guarantee that they your own corporate store would be willing to
replace my phone with anything other than what I currently have and even then
would only do so if they deem my current device to be defective.
I would like to take a moment to explain to you just how have come to
this decision, I base it on two contributing factors:

1. If you add up the mileage I have driven back and forth to the
various Sprint corporate stores along with the vacation time that I
have had to use in order to leave work to make these trips, I have invested
$532.12 in this effort, combine that with the money I paid for the
"privilege" of an early upgrade and the initial cost of the Galaxy S2
that I currently have and add in the car charger that I was told I
needed in order to "keep my battery functioning properly", that brings
us to around $900.00, not to mention the $69.88 I paid for the Cricket
"pay as you go" phone and the $55.00 service card so I could use the
Cricket phone on my trip to South Carolina. The way I see it I am
well over $1000.00 in to this exercise and I STILL have to make another
trip to a Sprint Corporate store to let them evaluate the phone once again.

2. I printed out my story along with this entire email exchange and
shared it with the man I work for, I handle customer service for a
company that manufactures industrial plastic fittings and valves for
use around the world, as I am typing this I am looking out my office
window at an assortment of cubicles where sixty one of my associates handle
customer service complaints from around the world. I asked my boss,
the third generation owner of the company, what he thought of my trials
and tribulations with Sprint. His response was prophetic, "First and
foremost if I EVER get a detailed email like that about OUR customer
service YOU will be looking for a job.You have let these people
make you jump through hoops, it’s time to stop, draw the line and make
a stand". I have worked for the man for twenty seven years and he has
never given me bad advice.

Joan, I will keep my appointment at the store today as planned. If I
leave there with anything other than a compatible device from another
manufacturer I will have no choice but to port my number over to
another carrier, I have priced plans and equipment with both AT&T and
T-Mobile,yes I will be giving up unlimited data and will be paying more for
service but at this point I see it as my only viable option, I think
the suggestion I received from customer service “buy a phone on Craigslist” is absolutely ridiculous . I would ask Sprint to consider
waving the ETF if it becomes necessary for me to port over to another
carrier. I understand that Sprint has policies in place and I DID
agree to pay an ETF if I chose to end my business relationship with Sprint
before the end of my contract, but keep in mind I agreed to those
terms based on the assumption of good coverage and reliable equipment, at
this time I have neither.

Once again Joan, I appreciate your professionalism and your efforts
throughout our interactions, I sincerely hope that I at no time have
come across as rude or demanding, that was certainly not my intent.


“Joan” replied to that email with this:
Dear Mr. XXXXXXXXX,

Thank you for your e-mail reply to Dan at sprint dot com . I appreciate the
opportunity to speak to you again today regarding the issues you have
encountered with your Samsung Galaxy S II. I understand and apologize
for the frustration you have experienced.

As discussed, I have spoken to the manager of the Sprint service and
repair location at 215 Hurstbourne Pkwy Ste 111 in Louisville, KY,
Brian XXXXXX, who is committed to providing great customer service. I will
call you again on Saturday, 8/11/12, between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM EST
as requested to follow up on your visit.

You had advised me that you have not yet received a call back
regarding the removal of your post to the Sprint forum and subsequent restriction.
I have sent an e-mail requesting a status update to the representative
that we had partnered with regarding this issue.

At the end of our conversation you confirmed that there are no
outstanding billing, equipment or coverage concerns at this time that
have not been addressed. I can also be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX from
11:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST, Monday through Friday.

Thank you for choosing Sprint. We value your business and appreciate
the opportunity to address your concerns.

Sincerely,
Joan XXXXXXXX
So I drive to the Sprint store and when I get there the manager “Brian” is far too busy to talk to me, so I discuss the issue with “Bryce”, “Bryce” goes into the back to talk to “Brian” and when he comes out he informs me that they can exchange the phone for the exact same model but nothing else can be done for me. They did not even look at the phone I had. So yet again I had driven all the way to the Sprint store and nothing was accomplished.
I drive back to my office and when I get there I get a call from “Janeedra” with Sprint, she is calling to talk to me about being “removed” from the Sprint community forums. Now allow me to explain this, I posted the original story of my trials and tribulations with Sprint customer service IN the Sprint customer service forum located at Sprint dot com. SOMEONE there took offense at my posting and banned me from using the forums. This is what “Janeedra” is calling me about, she introduces herself and, as I am prone to do, I start taking notes. Before long I can’t actually believe what I am hearing so I motion for four of MY CSR’s to come into my office, I have them sit down and I put “Janeedra” on speaker phone, I begin to question her and these are the bullet points I, and the four other people in the room get from her:
Sprint does not host or administer the forums on Sprint dot com ?
Sprint employees are NOT permitted to use the forums at Sprint dot com
There is no one she can forward me to so that I can discuss the issue.
Any Sprint employee caught using the forum at Sprint dot com would be terminated.
Since Sprint does not host or administer the forums at Sprint dot com she cannot tell who banned or why I was banned.
During this conversation I am sitting at my desk with the Sprint Community forums opened, I am looking at admins identified as Sprint employees, I see that the forum is hosted on Sprint dot com. I let “Janeedra” know that I have been working with “Joan” from the CEO’s office and that I will be forwarding the transcript of our conversation to her, this peaks “Janeedra’s” interest and she agrees to check into the issue further.
Saturday August 11th “Joan calls me back to discuss my Friday trip to the Sprint store, I fill her in on the waste of my time and my conversation with “Janeedra” she asks that I download the ICS ( Ice Cream Sandwich) update and try that on my phone, I agree to give it a try. Below is HER email to me regarding this conversation:

Dear Mr. XXXXXXXX,

Thank you for your e-mail reply to Dan at sprint dot com . I appreciate the
opportunity to speak to you again today to follow up on your visit to
Sprint service and repair with your Samsung Galaxy S II. I understand
and apologize for the frustration you have experienced.

I understand that you were advised at the Sprint service and repair
location that a replacement device would be another Galaxy S II and you
declined. As discussed, you will download the ice cream sandwich
software update and monitor the performance. I will call you again on
Monday, 8/13/12, after 1:00 PM EST as requested to follow up.

We also discussed your conversation with a Sprint representative
regarding the customer service forum at Sprint dot com. I will also
investigate questions related to that conversation.

At the end of our conversation you confirmed that there are no
outstanding billing, equipment or coverage concerns at this time that
have not been addressed. I can also be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX and my
normal office hours are from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST, Monday through
Friday.

Thank you for choosing Sprint. We value your business and appreciate
the opportunity to address your concerns.

Sincerely,
Joan XXXXXX
I needed my phone Saturday, so I waited till Sunday night on the 12th to install the update. I get up Monday morning, take the phone off charge and I begin taking screenshots of the battery draining. Everything on the phone is off, no Wifi, no Bluetooth, no GPS no nadda. When I get to work I begin to chart the progress of my battery, I was averaging a .18% drop every minute with all features off,
That’s some MAJOR drain on the battery, some if not most users of the Sprint iteration of the Galaxy S2 are experiencing the same battery issues after installing the ICS update, I know four people personally that are fighting the same battle. The chart above is kind of telling, peak battery drain occurs during rush hour and lunch time, hmmmm.
Monday August 13th at 12:00pm on the dot, I get a call from “Janeedra”, she has made a miraculous epiphany! Sprint does in fact host AND administrate the Sprint Community forums located at Sprint dot com not only that but Sprint employees DO use the forum and do post on the forum. She apologizes for her confusion during our previous conversation and assures me she is on the case. “Janedra” tells me she is going to speak with the administrator and see about getting me reinstated, she tells me it may take a while. I’m old and feeble so I set myself a reminder in my Outlook calendar to call “Janeedra” every Monday morning for the next six months or until I am reinstated.
Monday August 13th at 6:30pm “Joan” calls me to discuss the latest information I sent her regarding my phone. She asks that I make ANOTHER trip to the Sprint store to have my phone replaced AGAIN with another Galaxy S2. At this point I am a beaten man; I agree to let them replace the phone AGAIN and am scheduled to go have this done on Friday August 17th.

[100South]

Cool story bro...

[woody426]

Cool, but 100% factual. The even "cooler" part is, I offered to PAY for another phone, all I asked was for them to take the brick I have back and let me buy a replacement at the two year agreement/subsidized price, NOPE cant do it, cant make it happen. I was told to look on Craigslist for a functioning phone, WOW

[woody426]

Tuesday August 14th 12:00pm, The saga continues, “Janeedra” calls me to let me know that she now knows why I was banned from the Sprint community forums. She tells me I was banned for posting an insulting, demeaning response to another forum members post. I asked her to explain, she read a post that was contributed to my user name, this post did not sound familiar to me at all so I took a look at the forum page that I have bookmarked, clicked on my user name and found all of “my” posts. The post that got me banned was not made by “me”. Yes it was posted with my user name but it wasn’t done by me. It’s kind of fishy that they have had since last Friday to come up with a reason as to why I was banned and they just now came up with THIS post:
“Oh, I'm sorry. Allow me to explain. You see the question is implied, it requires the reader to use cognitive thought and to formulate a positive or negative comment based on the own evperiences with the company in question, I'll attempt to make it even easier for you specifically. You should read the statement, of have someone read it to you, then turn off your TV and your Ipod, then think real hard about what what YOUR opinion is then, with the help of a mentor, sit down and formulate a response, it could be "yes Woody your right" or no Woody thats dumb your wrong. Bit it your response is anything like " I hate new socks because I get lent between my toes, you should rethink that, reread the cat in the haat and then reconsider your stance. If any of that was too complicates send me a private message and I will respond with subtitled pictures to make it easier for you.”
I can honestly say I did not post that. What it boils down to is I made an administrator on the site mad with my honest commentary about Sprint and they banned me. They assumed like most other people that I would disappear in to the vapor, wrong assumption, I love to argue. I escalated my complaint to the office of the CEO and pressed the issue. The admin was backed into a corner and had no choice but put up a fake post using my account. The whole thing makes my skin crawl.
Tuesday August 14th 12:30pm. Ironically not more than ten minutes after I get off the phone with “Janeedra” I get a call from “Joan”. I explain the whole “Janeedra” conversation to “Joan” and it all falls on deaf ears, “Sprint reserves the right to ban any forum member at any time for any reason”, yeah yeah, we have all read a TOS agreement before. I point out to her that I am on the forum right as we speak and I read some FAR more inflammatory posts than mine from people that had not been banned and she had not response other than to repeat the TOS quote.
I tell “Joan” to cancel my Friday appointment to get a THIRD Galaxy S2 and I tell her that I will just take the original advice from Sprint tech services and buy a phone off of Craigslist, ride out my contract till the ETF drops down and then port over. She says she’s sorry to hear that and asks if there is anything else she can do for me. I say no, you have done all your willing to do and since I can’t go any higher than you I guess we’re done, Sprint wins, you guys have beaten me down you guys win. “Joan” then tells me that I can ask to be escalated to her management team, I say “but wait, last Friday you told me I was dealing with the office of the CEO and couldn’t go any higher?” she brushed that off and asked if I would like to set up call with her Management Team, I said I would love to do just that. So as we stand, I am supposed to hear from her Management Team tomorrow Wednesday August 15th sometime between 4 & 8pm.

[Cellenator]

Woody you should like a pain in the ***, it's not that I don't believe your story but the fact you admitted you love to argue combined with the amount of time wasted posting here tells me I wouldn't want to deal with you either. It me it seems at this point like some fun game to you.

[rafster]

Woody you should like a pain in the ***, it's not that I don't believe your story but the fact you admitted you love to argue combined with the amount of time wasted posting here tells me I wouldn't want to deal with you either. It me it seems at this point like some fun game to you.

I don't see it that way. I think sometimes to get through the red tape that is placed there to get actually helped with the issue at hand, you have to be kind of like that with all of the cell phone providers... it's sad... but true...

We pay these providers a lot of money each month for good service and especially good customer service. We might have good service, but usually customer service is lacking.....

[Cellenator]

I don't see it that way. I think sometimes to get through the red tape that is placed there to get actually helped with the issue at hand, you have to be kind of like that with all of the cell phone providers... it's sad... but true...

We pay these providers a lot of money each month for good service and especially good customer service. We might have good service, but usually customer service is lacking.....

Maybe at times we do need the Woody's of this world to cut through some red tape. My question is what red tape are we talking about here? Besides his rambling on and on about how he got kicked off a forum and every detail pertaining to every conversation with Sprint, the story is about a phone that needs to be replaced and sprint offered to do so. What will make Woody happy? ...to finally finagle a new S3 from them?

[rafster]

No, I think he's fed up with not getting any help with his problem with his S2.....

[YOUNG HOV 718]

i hope the op doesnt expect anyone to read this novel he just wrote..

[Cellenator]

i hope the op doesnt expect anyone to read this novel he just wrote..

Lol some how it captured me he writes well

[rafster]

It's actually an interesting read. It's very detailed. Maybe too detailed... But a little info never hurt anyone.... right?

[jdrestless]

It's actually an interesting read. It's very detailed. Maybe too detailed... But a little info never hurt anyone.... right?

Right, actually can be useful when I contact them for their crappy coverage recently.

Sent from my PG86100 using HowardForums

[woody426]

Maybe at times we do need the Woody's of this world to cut through some red tape. My question is what red tape are we talking about here? Besides his rambling on and on about how he got kicked off a forum and every detail pertaining to every conversation with Sprint, the story is about a phone that needs to be replaced and sprint offered to do so. What will make Woody happy? ...to finally finagle a new S3 from them?

First, thank you for taking the time to read the post, I know it rambles a bit and my ability to hold a readers attention is certainly not on par with the great literary minds of our day. Yes, I do love to argue, when I say that what I mean is I love to discuss political views, world events etc etc, which do occasionally lead to "arguing", I'll go one step further, if I feel that I am have been "wronged" or am not getting the services I pay for, then YES I am going to stand up for myself, if that's wrong then so be it. I think the "red tape" is obvious, when I am asked as a customer of Sprint to make multiple, and by multiple I mean nine, trips to the Sprint store to take car of defective equipment, I call that red tape. When I have to make AND receive countless calls to and from Sprint to take care of a hardware problem that they themselves acknowledge, I call that red tape. As far as "finagling a new S3 from them" read the post I have offered to pay for one, know I think at a minimum they should sell it to me for the two year agreement and restart my contract from the date of sale, is that too much to ask for? apparently it is. In regard to the forum, that was just an annoyance until the "offensive" post was made by the forum moderator using my account, THAT was just creepy and really made the hair on my arm stand up, and to be honest I know which moderator it was and why he did it. As far as wasting time posting here, I'm really sorry you feel that way, I certainly don't see it that way. I keep a simple word document open and when I deal with Sprint customer service I call my CS leadership team into my office, I put the phone on speaker and I just type a transcript of the conversation as my associates take notes on how Sprint handles their customer service. Then, we compare notes and discuss Sprint's techniques versus the way we handle customer service. I'm a 6S black belt and I like to use my dealings with Sprint as training for my CSR's as a how NOT to address a customers issues, we actually have a Point Kaizen event after each interaction with Sprint to reiterate to our team that this is NOT what we want for our customers.
So you see, to me this whole process is a very useful tool.
Lets be honest, it boils down to this, Sprint CANT or WONT give/allow me to purchase a functioning phone at a reduced price, period, end of sentence. Why is that important to know? well from a customer service stand point they need to evaluate each and every complaint based on its own merits, there is a certain portion of the population that is NEVER going to be happy with your product no matter what, whether it be cell phones or widgets they are going to complain. There is another portion of the population that is NEVER going to complain, their usually meek and don't want to be confrontational. Then there is the percentage that I fall in, they expect you to provide a service or product equal to or greater than the merchantable value of the product.
I know, I'm rambling, just hang in there.
When a customer complains about your product/service you have two responsibilities, FIRST you need to evaluate the complaint and define if it is a legitimate problem, we do this by asking questions, the level of detail in the responses can usually lead you to the validity of the complaint, hence the great level of detail I put into all of my responses with Sprint. Second, you need to USE the information you are given, meaning if there is a problem and your own store/technical service department has indeed identified the problem you need to give feedback to the proper departments.
In the case I have presented, it would be imperative that Sprint give feedback to their customer service representatives and let them know they have dropped the ball, they would need to give feedback to their customer, Samsung and let them know that there is a problem with their product/ICS update. Has Sprint done any of this, I hope so, but in my dealings with them it seems likely that they have not.
What would make Woody happy? Any one of the following:
1. Allow me to purchase a NEW replacement device at the two year agreement price and reset my two contract from the date of that purchase.
2. Allow me to exit this particular contract, return my equipment and only pay half of the ETF. I say "this particular contract" because I have another account with sprint that has my wife and kids on it with five lines and to date none of them have had hardware issues.

Are either of those scenarios asking too much ? From my twenty seven years as director of Corporate Customer Service for the company I work for the answer is no.
In fact if this were MY customer and he had provided me with this much detail in regard to his issue with MY product/service, I would ask him what device he wanted and have it shipped to his home free of charge. THEN I would go to work fixing my customer service department. But that's just me and the company I work for, what do we know, the company has only been in business since 1904 and has had a return on investment every year for the last eighty three years, what could we possibly know about customer service.

[woody426]

I don't see it that way. I think sometimes to get through the red tape that is placed there to get actually helped with the issue at hand, you have to be kind of like that with all of the cell phone providers... it's sad... but true...

We pay these providers a lot of money each month for good service and especially good customer service. We might have good service, but usually customer service is lacking.....

I agree completely, and you will note I haven't complained about coverage, I get good coverage any time I need to make a call or send a text I can. My only issues are with hardware and customer service.

[woody426]

No, I think he's fed up with not getting any help with his problem with his S2.....

Thank you, you have hit the nail on the head.