I've had Sprint PCS service for a few years now, and in the interim, I've tried several others. While their service (signal strength, dropped calls) is improving, the company has grown much too quickly, and the can no longer effectively service their customers. Trying to get assistance from Customer Care would be a comedy of errors if the unknowledgeable service agents, horrible hold times, and confusing options weren't so infuriating.

For example - you can got to a third party retailer (one that sells the service, and orders the phones for you from a warehouse) and get the Sanyo 4500 (a great phone) for $9.99 if you sign a two-year service contract. You can't get this deal from the Sprint web site, from any Sprint stores, or from any national retailers (those that actually stock the phones). I ordered the phone from the warehouse, only to have the order lost, discover I was on back order with 13,000 other people, have the order lost again, and finally have it cancelled for no apparent reason. That's when I decided to call customer service.

First off, when you call, you are invariably transferred to a busy signal. When you do get through, you are transferred to an over-worked, underpaid employee that probably hates this company, too. You won't get the same answer on any issue from any two employees. Also, their computerized phone system hangs up on you repeatedly. Nothing like being on hold for an hour, finally making progress, only to be placed on hold and disconnected.

The only decent service that I've gotten from Sprint is when you go through the options to "disconnect and cancel service". That's right - threaten to take away their monthly income, and you can find the trained, professional people. Wouldn't it make sense to have these people adressing the customer service calls, and not being subjected to angry customers ready to cancel???

As noted earlier, their service in the Denver area is improving over the last several months, and as long as your phone and plan are working there aren't too many issues. Just hope and pray that you don't have any problems with your service, because their customer service is poorly trained, unresponsive, maddeningly slow, and, for the most part, completely ineffective. It seems to be a company fragmented into so many different departments that they have no idea what the other is doing. The pricing for products is completely unregulated (I had to order a replacement part, and found it for 65% less directly from the manufacturer at samsungusa.com)

Finally, it seems that Sprint is trying to replace their customer service agents with an interactive voice prompt system. Getting in touch with a human in customer service is difficult already, and they're making it worse. What happened to companies that answer questions?

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): $85