eh… fuck it.

I’ve been a customer of Sprint for about 14 years.  I’ve been there through the ups and downs, and I’ve stuck by them through the worst of their customer service.

How often do you find a company that understand this?   It tends to be the small business that recognizes it’s long time loyal customers; the big companies only pretend to care.  To Sprints credit, when I call they do take a moment to thank me for being a long time customer – Nice touch.

I had an issue recently with one of their corporate stores.  I had dust blowouts in the corners under the glass screen.  I went to the closest store; about 30min away.  The employee took my phone outback and cleaned it out.  When I received my phone back it had 2 dead pixels(the screen was clear in this section before he cleaned it).  They were closing, so I left.

Over the next two weeks I experienced some additional issues:

• Phone would slow to a crawl while going through email or calendar, etc.. (I did a full factory reset twice & ran w/o 3rd party apps, still experienced). It was not constant, but it would happen about once a day.
• Calls dropping frequently(Happened while on the phone w/ cust service manager twice, sitting in the same spot w/ full signal)
• Bluetooth randomly shutting off while on a call(Also while on w/ cust service manager).

So I called Sprint customer service and explained my problems and the service I received from that store.  She agreed they should take care of it and called the store.  When she came back on the line she advised that if I take the phone to the store and show the manager the dead pixels they will exchange the phone.  This is why I have insurance and a warranty anyhow, right?  It’s important to note that this agent was excellent. She cares about her customers and it shows.

I did just that, drove down to the store,  and spoke with the agent at the desk – He called over the assistant manager.. This is where it all turns sour.  The first words out of this clowns mouth were ‘There’s no way we could have caused that, we don’t clean a screen and do other damage like that, it must have been something you did’ …  Are you fucking kidding me?  Do I need to come over this counter and help you put your foot in your own mouth you ignorant shit?

I wasn’t going to deal with him anymore – I spoke to someone else because the manager was not there.  This kid tried to help, but he was also quite defensive, and he just didn’t seem to listen.  He brought he phone over to their repair window, I waited along the wall, out of site but within ear-shot… Even though I explained the slowness even after a hard reset he told them “He says it’s slow but I think it’s some of the apps he has on here, its something he’s doing”.

He said that they would order a new screen, replace the screen & if they didn’t experience the slowness and the other issues that they would only replace the screen. I told him I don’t want to come back multiple times for this issue, specifically this store. I’m here now, the phone is under warranty(and I pay for insurance) why can’t you just replace the phone now.  They don’t see any other issues and they can only order a new screen.

After the way I was treated by the asst. manager I did not want to have to come back to this store.  I told him forget it, if he can’t resolve it just give me the managers info & I’ll deal with them directly.  I left – From the parking lot I called Sprint customer service.  After explaining my situation I was immediately transferred to a manager.  He got on the phone and started talking and talking without a word from me.  I interrupted him at one point and gave him the real story… This guy was great at making excuses, everything is the fault of someone-else.  Not once did he seem to stop and think “How can I help this customer out?”.

I had to keep interrupting him and at one point I asked… “Are you really telling me you’d rather lose a 14year customer than take ownership of the issue and get this resolved?  His response was comical.. No of course we don’t want to lose you as a customer, but there’s nothing we can do here, it all has to be done in the stores.  The new CEO has changed things around so that all the power is in the stores, only they can replace and fix phones.

This call went on for nearly 45 minutes… It was constant excuses and me responding with “You’re customer service, you represent Sprint, right? I’m an unhappy customer with an issue and I need you to take ownership and get it resolved since your store could not..” I did not say they had to mail me a new phone – but I needed someone there to take ownership of the issue and follow through…  Finally we came to a compromise – He would enter a ticket and request that the manager from that store call me.. He was clear about one thing though: “I cannot force the manager to call you..”.  Right, so you’re telling me it’s unlikely she’ll call… No I’m just saying I’m not there so I can’t physically make her pick up the phone and call.  This is a joke, right?  Unreal.
He did say he would also email her directly and request that she called, and when my phone dropped the call twice he did call me back. I do appreciate that.

Two days later I went to a 3rd party Sprint store. It’s not a corporate store but they only sell Sprint/Nextel.  The employee was nice, professional and he listened to my issues.  He said to me: ‘I’ll take care of you and get this resolved. ‘   He spent a few minutes looking over the phone, reviewing the issues I had and then said ‘Yeah I see what you mean, I’ll get you a replacement ordered’… Simple as that.  10 minutes in the store and the issue was resolved.   This was a Saturday, my replacement phone arrived on Monday.   It was 5 days from the time I talked to the cust service manager before I received a call from the manager of the Sprint corporate store(She was full of excuses as well, I doubt the assistant manager will ever get the feedback).

Listen, I know some of you will read this and say “you’re just impatient, you’re a pain in the ass customer, stop your whining, etc”.. Had the store treated me like a valued customer I would have waited for the screen replacement and gone through the steps – Instead they called me a liar, treated me like crap and expected me to deal with it.

The employee at the 3rd party store treated me with respect, and he took the time to listen, and most importantly – he took ownership of the issue.

I will no longer give my business to the corporate store; I will drive out of my way to visit the 3rd party store and give my business to them.

I was very close to canceling everything; and maybe I should have – But this one employee made all the difference.  He didn’t do anything extraordinary; he simply treated me as a valued customer and showed me the same respect he would expect to receive.

I’m not one of those people that gets on the phone and yells at the agent, or makes a big scene.  I’ve been on that side of the line, I know what its like; but I also know how to treat a customer…