Is Sprint customer service really as bad as they say?

[NanoWiz]

Newbie here....
I just order a PalmOne Sprint Treo 650 which will be delivered soon. I was just wondering if Sprint's customer service is as bad as they say or is it really poor customer interactions with service reps? I currently have T-Mobile service and I have never had any problems with the service reps. Verizon and Nextel also had nice customer service.

Also, How is Sprint's coverage in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina(Charlotte)? Any info will be appreciated. Thanks

[mcurtiss1970]

They have their moments, but I never had a truly awful incident. I think they definitely are better than the rumors say,

[plane]

Had trouble in past but last 1-1/2 year no worse than anyone else, and at least they have some discretion as to specials rates, retnention and etc; try that with vzw!

[sneak16]

Yes. They are terrible. Honestly, I could not think of a worse thing to do than argue with Sprint CSRs. I mean, I would rather have my teeth drilled. Honestly.

Sprint customer service SUCKS.

[halo17x]

Individual experiences will vary.

Of course, setting the mood goes a LONG way in helping things go your way, if you know what I mean.

If you're the kind of person who handles things proffesionally, you'll be fine. Otherwise, if you scream at them before they finish saying "Hello, welcome to Sprint...", you might as well forget about your problem being solved. The proffesional aproach has always worked for me.

[quillhill]

All of my experiences with Sprint customer service reps have been pleasant. They try hard to help, usually, although like any other profession, there are a few employees I've encountered who don't seem to care as much about their job as most of their co-workers.
In my recent experience dealing with reps from T-Mo, Cingular, Sprint and Verizon, I would say that Sprint reps are far and above all but one. Typically they know their products and services well enough to have a conversation with me, but I do sometimes run into reps that I can't converse with. They are usually pretty honest with me, at least.
My best advice is to never believe anything a rep says till it's been confirmed by two other reps, especially when they're promising you something. Do your reading. Learn about the warranty and the Terms and Conditions of Service. Most answers are in black and white and you will be fine if you have an idea of what the policies are before you deal with reps. Typically, you hear horror stories (although there are exceptions) from people often due to ignorance on the customer's part, sometimes their fault, sometimes a rep's fault.

Get Lockline, especially given the phone you ordered.

As always, patience and courtesy, as in any relationship in life, works well with customer service reps. Add some knowledge and you will be fine.

[MauiMobile]

I've been with Sprint for over 5 years. In the last year, the customer service experience has improved a lot. For one thing, you don't get trapped with Claire, the automated CSR. She gives up quicker and routes you to a real person sooner.

The wait time used to be 20 + minutes in the queue. Now it's been no more than 2 minutes. I've gotten a live CSR instantaneously in the last 3 calls over the last 5 months.

The CSRs have been helpful also. It's not as bad as people say...it's not bad at all!

[MRTRIPOD]

depends who you get.

I can call and just by the sound of the voice tell if its a nice person or a ×××××.

I'll just hang up and call right back if there tone and voice to not inspire faith in me.

The person makes the experience.

AND the best thing is:

SPCS CSR's can give more freebies than other companies!

[SpineDoc]

Ive had Sprint for over 6 years and call quite a bit for different reasons. I rarely have had a bad experience, and never had any nightmares. I think Sprint CSR is very good, especially with the very non existent hold times. I do wish they were better informed about upcoming phones, but that is Sprints fault.

[dumwaldo]

i always deal with CSR's in a pleasant way. i do not yell at them and i never act as if they are personally responsible for the problems caused by the company they work for. i always try to be the type of customer that i would want to call me if i were working in customer service.

with that said sprint customer service is the worst customer service i deal with. i can not compare them to another cell carrier because i do not have any other cell carrier but compared to my cable company, gas company, electric company and every other business i deal with sprint is, by a wide margin, the worst.

here are a few tips for you.

do not call *2. if you visit http://www.sprintpcsinfo.com/ there is a link on the left titled spcs phone numbers where hatoncat keeps a listing of contact numbers. use his no claire numbers and you will get a call center in america with an actual sprint employee and not outsourced customer support.

ANYTHING a sprint rep claims to do for you MUST be checked with a follow up call to ask another rep if what was supposed to be done was actually done. as if that were not bad enough in itself you need to trick the second rep and not actually tell them what the change was supposed to be. if you tell them then they will just yes you off the phone. you need to be vauge and ask to have your entire account read back to you without ever telling them what was supposed to be changed.

nobody from sprint will ever call you back. follow up is just not something sprint CSR's do. they will tell you they will follow up but i assure you that once you hang up the phone they consider their job done and will NEVER follow up.

sprint also does a rather poor job of offering their employees training and current information. i follow the online forums and as a result i generally know more about sprint service and products than the instore representatives. i was speaking to an executive service representative the other day and he even confided in me that sometimes he checks the online forums to find out information about upcoming phones as well as when they are available. this is a customer service rep that is high enough up in the company to have a direct line number but even he can not always get information from the company itself.

i am a big fan of sprintPCS service itself and i feel that the service itself is the best you can get but the customer service is absolutely rancid.

peace out,
dumwaldo

BTW
you ordered a treo 650? whats your order confirmation number? whats your tracking number? OH YEAH telesales can not give you a tracking number when you order and they also refuse to email you one. they also do not even have order confirmation numbers and if they do give you one it will be some made up number that will mean nothing to another rep if you need to call back.

the last time i used telesales they arbitrarily changed my address information and as a result could not get bank approval for the charge. do you think they would have contacted me to let me know there is a problem? well that would make sense but i was told "we do not have any contact information for you". when i pointed out that they are my PHONE SERVICE PROVIDER and asked how they could not have my phone number the answer was dead silence for almost a full minute before i cut in and said "i guess telesales DOES have my phone number but just didn't want to use it".

i wish you the best of luck with your order because telesales is the most incompetent aspect of sprints business i have ever dealt with and IMHO telesales is the most incompetent business i have ever dealt with in my 34+ years on this planet.

get sprintpcs for the products and the services but expect the customer service to be one of the poorest experiences you will ever have.

[HazelGirl]

it really depends....it can be hit and miss. Personally, I have had an overall good experience with customer service.

[john2000]

Thanks, dumwaldo. Very well said.

[TreoSprint]

Originally posted by dumwaldo

BTW
you ordered a treo 650? whats your order confirmation number? whats your tracking number? OH YEAH telesales can not give you a tracking number when you order and they also refuse to email you one. they also do not even have order confirmation numbers and if they do give you one it will be some made up number that will mean nothing to another rep if you need to call back.

One minor correction. I ordered my T650 through TeleSales on a Saturday. The only reason they could not give me a tracking number that day is because the shipping warehouse is closed on the weekend. I was politely asked to call back on Monday for the info. I called Monday, I spoke to shipping, and had a UPS tracking number within 3 minutes. The reason TeleSales will not give you a tracking number is because they do not have it - evidently shipping maintains a separate order fulfillment database.

[dumwaldo]

Originally posted by TreoSprint
One minor correction. I ordered my T650 through TeleSales on a Saturday. The only reason they could not give me a tracking number that day is because the shipping warehouse is closed on the weekend. I was politely asked to call back on Monday for the info. I called Monday, I spoke to shipping, and had a UPS tracking number within 3 minutes. The reason TeleSales will not give you a tracking number is because they do not have it - evidently shipping maintains a separate order fulfillment database.

thats exactly why i get my tracking numbers emailed to me as soon as they are generated when i purchase from amazon, jrcomputerworld, dell and any other company i have ever done business with EXCEPT sprint telesales who refuses to send you the info and the ONLY way to get a tracking number ever is to call back at least one day later.

JMHO but telesales is very unprofessional and raises... errr. lowers? the bar of incompetence to new standards.

peace,
dumwaldo

[Halo1982]

yeah...i mean...sprint's customer service is *ok*...but when i talk to t-mobile i am completely blown away buy how their reps will go out of their way to please you. the differences between sprint and t-mobile CS are the differences between a night where you get 3 feet of snow and a day on a tropical beach.