I'm in the process of shutting down my mail forwarding service in Texas, which requires me to contact everyone and anyone who mails me at that address. All that's pretty much been done but there are a few cats and dogs I forgot... one of them being Sprint. When I first switched my cell service over to Sprint these many years ago I still entertained notions of getting back on the road at some point so I gave the Sprint folks my Texas address. They're still billing me at that address, so we placed a call to their customer service center in Bangalore.
That was the first irritant, given the guy on the other end of the line was nearly unintelligible due to (a) his accent and (b) the poor quality of the connection, which is to say cross-talk and background noise. Sprint is a fucking PHONE company, so the connection quality is inexcusable. And Sprint is a US company, so outsourcing/offshoring their call center is also inexcusable. More so on the second rather than the first, actually.
The second irritant... not counting the 20-plus minute wait to get to a live human... was the rep telling me he was unable to verify my address as it didn't show up in his reference, what ever the Hell THAT was. We went back and forth for a few moments, him telling me "this is a problem" and me responding with "but it's not MY problem, it's YOUR problem" and variations on that theme. I finally asked to speak to a supervisor and three minutes later the guy... same guy... came back on-line to tell me everything was cool.
The THIRD irritant is me going to Sprint's web site to try... repeat TRY... to validate the address change took effect. I finally gave up on their web site after 15 minutes of abortive tries to access my account (fail), set up a new account (fail), and go through their registration process, which Sprint assured me was successful via a text message to my phone. Well, it fucking WASN'T successful because I still CANNOT ACCESS MY ACCOUNT.
Exchange "Verizon" for "Sprint" in your post, and you pretty much duplicate my experiences. Pissed me off so much that I completely gave up on cell phones. Haven't had one since winter '09 and DO NOT regret it at all.
ReplyDeleteSprint sucks. T-Mobile sucks less, so I went with that. I got the cheapest plan available, cheapest phone available (free). I told them I didn't want a camera phone. Sorry Sir, they don't make phones without a camera anymore.
ReplyDeleteWhich gets me to thinking maybe I should aim that camera at my Hitler poster, so the NSA can have something to do...
"Sprint is a fucking PHONE company, so the connection quality is inexcusable."
ReplyDeleteGee, Buck, get off the fence and decide how you really feel :)
I agree with Inno. I have Verizon...but the other choices around here sucked also.
ReplyDeleteMan, seems like a million 270 thousand suck posts on their product would get the attention of somebody in this organization. I have Verizon service which is pretty fair most everywhere... except in my own home:-(.
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea of outsourcing to another country when the company is based in the U.S. - just hits me far too close to home.
ReplyDeleteI work for Travelers - generally speaking a good to great company to work for, which is saying something these days.
However they have outsourced SO much stuff to India and we have watched good people - AMERICANS - loose their jobs to this. It's painful each and every time it happens.
I'd love to be able to thumb my nose at Travelers and get another job with a company that doesn't outsource. Except that such a company no longer exists.
Sad.
Agreed! These off shore service people are a joke! I think the worst was a Bosnian that just barely knew much English. I threw some good old American slang at him which totally confused the issue!
ReplyDeleteThe corporations that use these people could care less, it's all about the bottom line!
Well, I've been with AT&T since I went wireless. And, I worked at a Sprint support contractor for a while.
ReplyDeleteI could not be happier with AT&T. Seriously...no complaints. When I was working at the Sprint support place in Shreveport, I discovered that our facility here is truly bitchin'! There is something like a 90+% first call resolution & customer satisfaction rating here.
In fact, little Tucker's mom (my nephew's wife) works there, and is a pro at solving Sprint problems. This facility, as I understand it has shifted to Advanced Technical Support only now, handling the really tough technical issues. Now, don't quote me, but I think that the regular Customer Care (billing, address change, plan change stuff) is done mostly in the Philippines...and I understand not very well.
I know Sprint is the only game in town for ya'...if I'm remembering right.
AT&T...good.
I feel the same as you and Kris about outsourcing. That sucks worse than the outsourced "service".
ReplyDeleteTo Dapper Dan: We dropped AT&T and went to Verizon, because the AT&T service was "pretty fair most everywhere" -- except in our house. Verizon's been ok in our house -- so far. Go figure.
Inno: I haven't had a land-line since '99, the year I went on the road. My cell phone is an essential part o' my life... I couldn't give it up and I'm kinda amazed that you have.
ReplyDeleteAnon: I used to have the cheapest phone possible, as well. But then I broke down last year (or was it this year?) and got a smartphone. I love the damned thing but I don't much like my carrier. That said, I have service everywhere and haven't experienced any dropped calls.
Lou: I'm working on tryin' to be less wishy-washy. It's hard.
ss: My other choices around here are two local providers, little Mom and Pop kinda outfits. I wanted a national carrier due to my unrealized goal of hitting the road again.
Dan: Agreed on yer "Sprint should pay attention" thang. And it sucks to have bad service in your house!!
I'd love to be able to thumb my nose at Travelers and get another job with a company that doesn't outsource. Except that such a company no longer exists.
Well, there's outsourcing, and then there's offshoring. I worked for EDS, a company that made its bones through IT outsourcing so I have to defend that practice. I don't think EDS did any offshoring, though... at least not while I was with 'em. Things might have changed. But I hear ya.
Ed: Paying attention to the bottom line is a good thing, generally speaking. But there is a limit.
Andy: The reason I switched to Sprint is AT&T invited me to leave (I had AT&T service when I arrived in P-Ville from SFO). Shorter: they cancelled my contract because they had no presence here on the High Plains and ALL my minutes were roaming minutes, i.e., they were losing money on me. And you're right: Sprint is the only National game in town, although I hear Verizon recently established a presence here.
Red: See my previous on outsourcing. That IS interesting that one provider works in your home while another doesn't. I thought they all pretty much used the same cell towers.
I don't think I knew that Sprint was still around. We're on AT&T, too, and service is usually ok except during big gatherings (of which we have many), in certain spots in the house (but we often attribute that to the ghosts), and in certain cell holes on US 65 in northern Louisiana (but I wouldn't want to live there either, so I can't blame them).
ReplyDeleteMoogie: I'm actually surprised ANYONE would want to live in northern LA. ;-)
ReplyDeleteHey Buck, I heard that...
ReplyDeleteDon't make me come back there! ;)