Sprint has terminated approximately over a thousand wireless customers nationally for excessive use of the call centers. Sprint Nextel couldn't resolve the customer's complaints so it just axed them.
The Jacksonville's WJXT TV Channel 4 reported:
Hundreds of cell phone customers are being given the boot, accused of being too high maintenance.
Sprint-Nextel is disconnecting more than 1,000 subscribers on grounds the clients call customer service too often and make "unreasonable requests."
The 1,200 people getting dropped will have to find a new carrier by the end of the month.
A Sprint representative said the average customer calls customer service less than once a month, but the 1,200 clients getting the boot call 40-50 times as often.
Sprint said whatever the complaint, it has worked to resolve it but due to the volume of calls it's obvious customers involved are not happy.
In a statement, the company said: "Rather than continue to operate in a situation that was unsatisfactory for Sprint and our subscribers, we chose to terminate our relationship with those customers to allow them to pursue other options."
This is customer service in America, circa 2007.
Fort Wayne blogger Eric Fetcho knows someone who was told to go away and stop pestering the telephone giant.
He blogged about it last week and provided this image of the termination letter at Fetchy's Bantering:
Scanned image by Eric Fetcho. Used by permission.
Note: This post was edited to clearly reflect that Mr. Fetcho's post was regarding a former customer with whom he is acquainted.
Does it strike anyone else that this is just one in a long list of things that, 20 or 30 years ago, we would have thought of as farce....but now they have come true? We have truly moved into a world beyond satire.
"Go away, customer, you are bugging me." This seems like a line from a Monty Python movie. If it wasn't, it should have been.
Posted by: Karen Goldner | July 10, 2007 at 02:31 PM
I used to date a woman who worked in the custmer service department for a cellphone company. From what she told me of the idiots who called her department, I am now convinced that some people should just not be allowed to have a phone.
This is the reason why I hope I never have to work retail. You have to be nice to people who don't deserve it. I think it could improve the manners of this country if companies decided to exclude rude people as customers.
Ed. comment: Robert, you write "...I hope I never have to work retail. You have to be nice to people who don't deserve it." Wow. You aren't going to put that in your campaign literature, are you?
Posted by: Robert Enders | July 10, 2007 at 02:44 PM
The plot coagulates. It seems a Sprint "insider" is claiming those terminated were scamming the system for free service.
http://consumerist.com/consumer/exclusives/sprint-customers-terminated-for-complaining-too-much-were-scamming-sprint-for-free-service-277026.php
Posted by: Michael Kerney | July 11, 2007 at 01:45 AM
Walk around the Auburn Wal-Mart for about 20 minutes and observe the locals on their cell phones and you will come to support Sprint's decision...and perhaps eventually embrace it.
Posted by: Jason Blosser | July 11, 2007 at 11:31 AM
Does not a business have the right to refuse service? Often competition for my business is usually from communist/socialist organizations such as Y's, the city and schools... so I bend over backwards to accomodate sometimes because of what people may be used to...
The best thing I ever did was ban 2 people from my business. They were conspiring to steal business to take to another location. One was a Wells Fargo bank teller talking about the contents of my bank account in public, and was also a godawful human being. The other just wouldn't pay anymore... He would be one of those prima donna former college/pro athlete types that seems to think that he deserves a special place in society for some odd reason, and he actually said he shouldn't have to pay because of who he (thinks) is... (He was a former college basketball player).
Businesses that drop problem customers will be able to offer improved service, or perhaps lower prices, to the remaining customers due to not having to deal with morons who are draining...
In this particular case I don't want to say Mr. Fetcho's friend is one of these cases. It's obviously a big company and it's possible the company could have misidentified a problem customer.
Posted by: Mike Harvey | July 11, 2007 at 11:33 AM
Editor,
Most people are decent. It's the small, few rude people among us who make life miserable for clerks, waiters, cashiers, etc. Businesses can improve life for their employees and customers by removing bad apples. A rude employee would be fired instantly. Why not the same for rude customers.
Posted by: Robert Enders | July 13, 2007 at 06:25 PM
The fact that Sprint is crediting their balance to ZERO and cancelling early termination fees makes it more than fair to me. I have also read other accounts that claim these customers were carefully selected, and not the "victims" they appear to be. Just remember, the time you spend on hold calling your wireless provider is made much worse by these people. According to Sprint, these customers were making 40-50 times more customer service calls than the average customer. Most were to argue billing and demand discounts and refunds.
I don't want to wait for them and I don't want to pay higher prices to support the extra service they demand.
Posted by: Pete Imwalle | July 16, 2007 at 03:09 PM