Experience with Sprint Customer Service

[digitalslacker]

I'm a believer that if you are going to post poor customer service experiences on the Internet then you also need to be prepared post the good experiences too.

I switched from VZW Thunderbolt to a Sprint Nexus S 4G yesterday. I love the phone. It's exactly the Pure Google experience I was looking for and have been trying to get by hacking the hell outa every Android phone I have owned and there have been many.

But much to my sadness I just don't get Sprint service at home. The area is pretty good on coverage but my house is just situated in a location with 1 bar of coverage at best and that's only the case up stairs by a window.

I gave it about 24 hours of use and decided that a phone really isn't worth it if it can't make calls reliably. I decided that I would bite the bullet and go back to VZW. But before I did that it seemed fair to me that giving Sprint a chance to make things right is only fair. So I called them up.

I fully expected to get the whole line about "we're always expanding our network" or hit xzy to "update your roaming" blah blah blah. None of that. The rep immediately suggested a femoto cell for free and overnighted it too also for free.

Has to be one of the best, no nonsense, customer service experiences I have ever had. They went straight to the solution without wasting my time trying xyz and troubleshooting method.

I'll probably be porting my wife's VZW line over now too when her contract expires.

Good on them for doing the right thing the first time and making it as painless for me as possible.

Just thought I would share! Now it's off to the Android Central Store to buy accessories since I'm keeping the phone!

 

[dcshobby]

Very good to hear that. Luckily, retentions is able to send out the Airave, femtocell, for free for customers that don't get good signal in their home. I'm sure it has kept many customers from canceling and will in the future as long as they acknowledge the lack of coverage in a customer's home and continue to send out the Airave for FREE to produce a good signal in and around the home.

Thanks for sharing your positive experience. Also, in the future Sprint is implementing their network vision plan which is to replace all their current cell sites with new multi-mode base stations with new antennas and radios. One can hope this will improve their existing coverage with current phones but they will also be selling new phones later this year that support 800MHz in the SMR band where nextel spectrum is now. This will hopefully improve the situation as well.

Also, don't forget to submit the $125 credit for porting in a number to Sprint. The offer ends June 23.

sprint.com/switchtosprint

 

[piaband]

You learned a valuable lesson today. Listen good.

If you EVER want something done with sprint, you call the retentions department. Just follow the prompts as if you were canceling service.

Anyone else is a complete jerk and will give you the run around. Trust me.

PS::The airave is very nice. Had it at my last place Full bars throughout the whole house.. Didnt need it in my new house though.

 

[automatous]

My mother had the exact same issue with Sprint coverage in her new home and she received an Airrave after calling customer service and has had no issues since.

Thanks for posting. It seems that 99% of the time people only post complaints about customer service.

 

[digitalslacker]

Very good to hear that. Luckily, retentions is able to send out the Airave, femtocell, for free for customers that don't get good signal in their home. I'm sure it has kept many customers from canceling and will in the future as long as they acknowledge the lack of coverage in a customer's home and continue to send out the Airave for FREE to produce a good signal in and around the home.

Thanks for sharing your positive experience. Also, in the future Sprint is implementing their network vision plan which is to replace all their current cell sites with new multi-mode base stations with new antennas and radios. One can hope this will improve their existing coverage with current phones but they will also be selling new phones later this year that support 800MHz in the SMR band where nextel spectrum is now. This will hopefully improve the situation as well.

Also, don't forget to submit the $125 credit for porting in a number to Sprint. The offer ends June 23.

sprint.com/switchtosprint

didn't know about that! thanks!

 

[w5cyc]

I've been with Sprint since they launched in the OKC market what has to be almost 20 years ago. I was selling phones back then, and was probably one of the first 500 customers in this market. I have had bad customer service with a lot of companies, but never with Sprint. Never felt like I needed to threaten to leave to get something done. When I've needed to be late with my payment, they've always been willing to work something out. They don't always have answers to every technical question, but I've never felt blown off, either.

 

[JewishMatt]

I'm a believer that if you are going to post poor customer service experiences on the Internet then you also need to be prepared post the good experiences too.

I switched from VZW Thunderbolt to a Sprint Nexus S 4G yesterday. I love the phone. It's exactly the Pure Google experience I was looking for and have been trying to get by hacking the hell outa every Android phone I have owned and there have been many.

But much to my sadness I just don't get Sprint service at home. The area is pretty good on coverage but my house is just situated in a location with 1 bar of coverage at best and that's only the case up stairs by a window.

I gave it about 24 hours of use and decided that a phone really isn't worth it if it can't make calls reliably. I decided that I would bite the bullet and go back to VZW. But before I did that it seemed fair to me that giving Sprint a chance to make things right is only fair. So I called them up.

I fully expected to get the whole line about "we're always expanding our network" or hit xzy to "update your roaming" blah blah blah. None of that. The rep immediately suggested a femoto cell for free and overnighted it too also for free.

Has to be one of the best, no nonsense, customer service experiences I have ever had. They went straight to the solution without wasting my time trying xyz and troubleshooting method.

I'll probably be porting my wife's VZW line over now too when her contract expires.

Good on them for doing the right thing the first time and making it as painless for me as possible.

Just thought I would share! Now it's off to the Android Central Store to buy accessories since I'm keeping the phone!

Sprint did the same for me. And I didn't even ask. They said they noticed some deadspots by my house and gave me one for free

 

[chrismc]

You learned a valuable lesson today. Listen good.

If you EVER want something done with sprint, you call the retentions department. Just follow the prompts as if you were canceling service.

Anyone else is a complete jerk and will give you the run around. Trust me.

That's not necessarily true. I have an employee referral account, which apparently entitles me to deal with employee account service instead of the normal folks. They've always been very helpful, friendly, end empowered to fix things.

 

[cq]

I totally agree with you. I have been with Verizon Wireless for 11 years. In the beginning I feel they had good customer service, but recently, that have gotten so big that they just don't seem to care.

On the other hand, the switch went so well, and the customer service was so good, that I ported the other three phones over within the first day of testing. It is nice to actually get good CS in today's day and age.

Since I still have 30 days (or 26-27 now), I am still testing out the network. That is one thing that VZW had going for it. Can anybody tell me how it compares? Especially if someone has had both Verizon and Sprint, that info would be helpful!

 

[AndroidOne]

Been a Sprint customer since Sprint PCS service began in my area about 19 years ago and don't have major issues with service or signal yet. Customer service is good, but you need to know how to use your options to get things done.

If you have an issue with your account, then regular CS will be very helpful and will strive to resolve your issues. If it is a problem with the phone itself, just tell them you have a smartphone and ask for tech support, they will transfer you and these guys usually can help out quite a bit. If your problem is more complex ask the CS to connect you with a supervisor and they usually are able to get a satisfactory resolution.

No need to make any threats to leave Sprint in order to get good service. However, if you find that the problem is not resolved and you consider necessary to cancel your account, then you will get to the retentions department... these people are able to do things most other CS dept can not do and will try as hard as possible to make things right for you, and most often than not they will.

 

[digitalslacker]

Been a Sprint customer since Sprint PCS service began in my area about 19 years ago and don't have major issues with service or signal yet. Customer service is good, but you need to know how to use your options to get things done.

If you have an issue with your account, then regular CS will be very helpful and will strive to resolve your issues. If it is a problem with the phone itself, just tell them you have a smartphone and ask for tech support, they will transfer you and these guys usually can help out quite a bit. If your problem is more complex ask the CS to connect you with a supervisor and they usually are able to get a satisfactory resolution.

No need to make any threats to leave Sprint in order to get good service. However, if you find that the problem is not resolved and you consider necessary to cancel your account, then you will get to the retentions department... these people are able to do things most other CS dept can not do and will try as hard as possible to make things right for you, and most often than not they will.

It's good to know you don't need to threaten to leave to get an acceptable resolution.
In my case it really wasn't a threat, I needed service that worked so I was prepared to leave if they couldn't make something work.

24 Hours on the Femotocell and it's perfect. Solid 3G data and voice with nothing dropped. Very clear audio. I get full bars downstairs where the femotocell is located and 2-3 bars upstairs.

All and all I can't complain and I'm keeping Sprint for the foreseeable future.

 

[uly_g]

I just had an awesome CS experience with sprint. I just recently heard that you can use the upgrade that is tied to your airave number to get a new phone, so in order to confirm this I called CS yesterday and an account services rep gave me the green light to do so. I have been interested in the nexus s but my heart is set on the Evo 3D so this news had me ecstatic. I immediately went to the local retail store and picked up my new nexus s 4g but the retail associate screwed up my account by taking the airave off and replacing it with my old evo. I called to get this straightened out but the person I spoke with said they weren't supposed to use my airave upgrade for a phone and that in order to get my airave back on my account I needed to return the phone. I immediately replied to the CS email sent from my earlier conversation with the rep that gave me the green light and when I woke up today, I got an email back from her apologizing for what happened and that she had put the airave back onto my account along with the free credit I had! I was honestly ready to be a sprint hater but the outcome of my experience has kept me loyal and happy!