Sprint PCS: Who Smells The Stink?
Written: Oct 19 '03 (Updated Oct 20 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Local Coverage: |
 |
|
| Plan Flexibility: |
 |
|
| Customer Service: |
|
|
|
Pros: None.
Cons: Long hold times, bad customer service, no interest in customer retention.
The Bottom Line: There is better on the market: Better customer service, better plans, and better coverage. Why choose Sprint PCS when you can get better?
|
|
|
| mookiekong's Full Review: General Reviews of Sprint Customer Service |
One never knows if the grass is greener on the other side of the hill until they actually roam over there and take a gander. I have not used my Sprint PCS phone in a little over a year now, but it has been active with my fiancee who was using it. I am currently with T-Mobile and have been enjoying their service and customer service. But, recently I have experienced the ultimate high and low in customer service within days of each other.
Experiencing the Greener Grass...
T-Mobile by far offers the best customer service, it is the greener pastures. Sprint PCS is the dirt pastures with bugs and weeds, they are the pits. Recently, when my T-Mobile phone developed a strange buzzing noise, I called T-Mobile to see what they could do about it. After waiting less than five minutes (I have yet to wait more than five minutes for a CSR at T-Mobile) I was in touch with a CSR. The CSR was lively, friendly and genuinely cared about my phone and service.
They promptly walked me through some troubleshooting techniques and then offered to send me a replacement free of charge (no shipping costs to me whatsoever) by USPS three-to-five day shipping. The order was put in wrong accidently because the computer system was down at the time I called. So the wrong phone arrived, that's OK because when I called T-Mobile back they quickly acknowledged their mistake and they paid for UPS Next Day shipment of the correct phone to me (normally a $15 charge). Now that is what I call customer service.
...and the Dirt Field
On the other side of the hill is Sprint PCS. The contract under my name was about to end, so my fiancee and I put in a call to Sprint PCS to see what they could offer us as a new rate plan since our old one was so out of date and expensive. All we were asking for was something competitive to the T-Mobile plan that I was on: 600 minutes and unlimited nights and weekends for $39.99 a month. After telling Claire that I wanted a real person and not some automated machine, I waited for at least 20 minutes for a CSR to pick up -- all the while having an recording tell me that my call would be taken in the order in which it was received and that the wait queue would be under five minutes. The Customer Service Representative (if that service they supply is actually a “service”) said he could not do anything for me. He offered me what was up on the website.
Now, I am not a one year customer with Sprint PCS. I have been a customer since 1998 and for five years I have paid my bills on time and been a good customer. I was not asking for them to give me some outrageous pricing scheme like all these other “retention plans” that I have heard people getting. I was just asking them if they wanted my business, then they would have to supply something competitive to what the market was offering. In that cold way, the CSR told me again, no he could not do it. He talked to his supervisor and it was not possible. So, at that point I told him thanks, but no thanks on the new plan (and new two-year agreement) and that I would think about it before I continued on with their service on a month-to-month basis.
Moving On...
So, my fiancee and I went to T-Mobile to look for FamilyTime plans. These are plans with shared minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. Just the thing that we needed since we talk with each other a lot on our cell phones.
Now, we looked and our agreement (“contract”) with Sprint PCS ends on October 24, 2003. So we were standing there at the T-Mobile booth talking about it. The contract was going to end in less than a week, so lets go ahead and get the FamilyPlan for her and we'll cancel the service with Sprint PCS afterwards. After spending a few minutes talking with the T-Mobile rep, we went ahead and did it. He set us all up (including waiving the $35 activation fee for her line).
Later on that night, I was all grins as I started dialing Sprint PCS's customer service line (and dreading talking to that idiotic Claire!) We were going to get rid of Sprint PCS and be happy with our new service. I got a very bland and uninterested CSR. I told her that I wanted to cancel the service once the contract was up. She offered me a very laughable retention plan at this point to which I almost blurted out where she could stick it: She offered me “emergency phone” service at $10 a month for 50 minutes. That was all she could offer? Not that I was looking for a retention plan at that point, but it would have been nice if Sprint PCS actually cared enough to try to retain a long time customer! I refused the “emergency phone” plan and told her to cancel my account on October 24. She blandly told me that I could not do that and that I would incur a $150 early cancellation charge if I had the service stopped after the contract ended. What?
...Kinda Moving On
She told me that she looked in my account and it says that my billing cycle starts on the 22nd of each month, therefore I would be inside a month of service when the agreement would be “fulfilled.” And because of this, it would be considered an early termination and I would have to incur the $150 charge.
So, I was a little annoyed now, what could I do, I asked her. She replied in a dull manner that I would have to go through one more cycle before I could cancel service with them and that would cost me whatever the monthly cost was. I told her fine, that is better than incurring that early termination fee. So that was it. After November 22nd, 2003 I will be rid of this terrible company who does not seem to care about retaining their customers or even offering something competitive to what the market is offering.
We Get More Now
The Sprint PCS phone is now being used only to burn off the remaining minutes for next month (used at home). Otherwise my fiancee and I are now getting more from T-Mobile. T-Mobile's customer service is exponentially better than Sprint PCS's. I have also had experience with Metro PCS's customer service and they were also much better than Sprint PCS customer service.
When a company is as disinterested with retaining a long time customer like myself, do you think they would be interested in taking care of a new customer like you? Avoid Sprint PCS, they could care less about their customers from the way they treated me. Why sign up for an expensive service with bad customer service when you can either get awesome coverage at the same price with Verizon or just plain get more for your dollar with T-Mobile?
Just to make a point here is a pricing comparison for what we are now getting with T-Mobile compared to what Sprint PCS would have charged us for the same thing.
T-Mobile FamilyTime Basic Plan is $49.99/mo for two lines with 400 minutes shared, plus $2.99/mo per line for Internet access and 300 text messages.
Sprint PCS offers Add-A-Phone at $25/mo on any plans $45/mo or above. So a similar plan at Sprint PCS costs $45/mo for one line, $25/mo for the second line, and $15 for PCS Vision.
So, in the end it would cost me $55.97/mo for service at T-Mobile while costing $100/mo for similar service at Sprint PCS. Thanks, but no thanks.
And anyways, do you trust a company who's spokesperson is a man in a black trenchcoat?
I do not recommend anyone sign up for Sprint PCS.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 35.00
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
mookiekong
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: San Jose, CA, USA
Reviews written: 68
Trusted by: 25 members
About Me:
Current Mookie Obsession: Apple iPhone 8GB and Fedora 8.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.