Sprint loses another million customers

[Tosspot]

My phone is three years old.  I shouldn't have to call support.  The last time I did they told me I needed to turn my phone off at night.  Pretty lame solution.

I shouldn't need to replace a phone after three years.

I've actually never seen anyone keep a cell phone that long. Longest I've ever gotten out of a cell phone was two years. Most of the time because they break.

[Maitre D]

Most people don't know that these cell firms lease space on others' networks.  I know that Verizon leases a ton of space on Sprint's network in the Western 1/2 of the nation. 



A dropped call doesn't necessarily mean it was your phone company dropping it.  Maybe it was your counterpart who's network dropped it.

[NDTeve]

Can't you also take your phone in to get updated with the new towers? 3 years is an eternity in the telecommunications business.

[en08]

I honestly don't see why people rag on Sprint so much. True, I've only had it for about two or three weeks, but I like it alot. Sprint is the largest company in KC, and if it were to go under, thousands of people in the metro would lose their jobs and our economy would cripple. Not to mention all those people who are Sprint Executives that have made Johnson County such a glut of affluence and money would suddenly either move or become bankrupt and parts of South Johnson County, once one of the most affluent areas in the country, might resemble El Paseo or Troost.

[Maitre D]

Not to mention all those people who are Sprint Executives that have made Johnson County such a glut of affluence and money would suddenly either move or become bankrupt and parts of South Johnson County, once one of the most affluent areas in the country, might resemble El Paseo or Troost.

Hi Michael.

[LenexatoKCMO]

The denial on this thread sounds just like the sort of corporate culture that keeps making these problems worse and worse - "anyone who doesn't think our service is the greatest must be a fool . . . no need to change anything here".  Changing cell phone providers can be an expensive, time consuming, pain in the ass - millions of customers a quarter wouldn't go through all of that if they were just ignorant doofuses experiencing imaginary problems.  The only way they reverse that churn is to publicly ackowlege the need to make support priority #1 and push a marketing campaign to highlight how they are making the support superior. 

[Midtownkid]

I would hate to see Sprint go under to...but SOJOCO going under?  Sure!  I'd love for the affluence to move back northeast into KCMO (not leave all together).  I'm sure it will end up happening sometime in the next 50 years

[GuyInLenexa]

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=s

It looks like Sprint's stock mad a historic slump today.  It actually dropped below $2.00 a share today.
I think some years ago when I worked there it was around $74.00.
Another dollar drop, it may be taken off the exchange.

[Tunnel]

Does anyone know whatever happened to Sprint's plan to buy a 737 from a Chinese airline to shuttle employees between VA and Kansas City?  I think the Biz Journal article said they actually did buy it (this was a year or two ago).  Anyway, I was hoping to see it taking off from the downtown airport while I sit here at work.  Of course, maybe they would use the New Century airport, or whatever it's called, in Gardner.

Back on topic, I'm sure Sprint has made improvements in customer service, as they claim.  But network effect business environments can be slow to respond.  They'll need years of consistant quality to drive the "dropped call" stories out of people's recent memories.

As for people who applaud the demise of south JoCo... well, those people are high strung enough.  The last thing we all need is for them to be running around looking for new jobs, living off credit cards.

[lock+load]

The denial on this thread sounds just like the sort of corporate culture that keeps making these problems worse and worse - "anyone who doesn't think our service is the greatest must be a fool . . . no need to change anything here".  Changing cell phone providers can be an expensive, time consuming, pain in the ass - millions of customers a quarter wouldn't go through all of that if they were just ignorant doofuses experiencing imaginary problems.  The only way they reverse that churn is to publicly ackowlege the need to make support priority #1 and push a marketing campaign to highlight how they are making the support superior. 

Great post.  No matter how good your product is, if your customer service sucks you'll have a hard time keeping and acquiring new customers. 

[LenexatoKCMO]

The thing that gets me is the response that we hear everytime they announce bad performace statistics - cut more spending/staff in customer support.  Its like a feedback loop - Step 1) loose customers/money due to bad support, Step 2) announce layoffs and cutbacks in support, Step 3) repeat.  If ever they actually responded to bad news by announcing that they were going to reinvest in support and increase support staffing, I might consider an investment. 

[WSPanic]

The denial on this thread sounds just like the sort of corporate culture that keeps making these problems worse and worse - "anyone who doesn't think our service is the greatest must be a fool . . . no need to change anything here".  Changing cell phone providers can be an expensive, time consuming, pain in the ass - millions of customers a quarter wouldn't go through all of that if they were just ignorant doofuses experiencing imaginary problems.  The only way they reverse that churn is to publicly ackowlege the need to make support priority #1 and push a marketing campaign to highlight how they are making the support superior. 

So, anyone with anything positive to say about Sprint is in denial? I didn't see anyone call anyone else a fool.

And, I don't know about you, but whenever someone "publicly acknowledges the need to fix support" - I know they are more interested in perception than reality. Just fix the damn support and people will noticed. Looks like several people on here have noticed a recent difference in support - are they all in denial too?

[LenexatoKCMO]

Looks like several people on here have noticed a recent difference in support - are they all in denial too?

Probably not - and recent surveys suggest at least modest improvement as well.  But when churn has gotten to this point, are anecdotal stories of improvement and modest survey increases going to be dramatic enough to stemp the tide?  I would think they are to the point where timprovements need to be very visible with lots of attention focused on them. 

[staubio]

Probably not - and recent surveys suggest at least modest improvement as well.  But when churn has gotten to this point, are anecdotal stories of improvement and modest survey increases going to be dramatic enough to stemp the tide?  I would think they are to the point where timprovements need to be very visible with lots of attention focused on them. 

Again, remember that they also own the legacy Nextel network, which is essentially dead. I'd guess that most of the defections are coming from that and are technology related. The market for the push-to-talk segment is now spread among several carriers. Without that, Nextel has no competitive advantage.

The key for me is dealing with customer service as rarely as possible. My bill pays automatically online and my phone works great. I don't need anything else.

[ignatius]

Sprint ranked highest in Southwest area in last poll.  It's also strange as MD said that Virgin Mobile consistently ranks highest in their category for network reliability and curious enough, it uses the Sprint network.  It seems those who hate Sprint will continue to even if they really did make improvements.  They simply won't give them another chance no matter how realistic the improvements are.  Support really has sucked in the past, but I don't think it does anymore.

The Nextel side won't help their image for the long term. They've got to get everyone over to CDMA or dump the network if they can find a buyer.

[Tosspot]

I know it's unpopular to say around here, but Sprint's reputation now precedes them, and it might be too late for them to recover after years of mismanagement, lack-of-focus, and internal discontent. If they've much improved since the gory days of Sprint PMS and infamously dreadful customer service, then I'm happy about that, but those at the reigns all those years prior can now be thanked for ruining the company's future by building up a reputation for incompetency, deception, and half-assery.

The situation is eerily similar to the auto industry in America. Ford and GM build far higher quality cars now than they did ten years ago, but decades of churning out a shitty product have finally sealed their fate as top bankruptcy contenders, because as I said, they built their reputation and now it'll haunt them.

[NDTeve]

Good thing Sprint is asking for a bailout though.

[en08]

I would hate to see Sprint go under to...but SOJOCO going under?  Sure!  I'd love for the affluence to move back northeast into KCMO (not leave all together).  I'm sure it will end up happening sometime in the next 50 years

As much as everyone here hates Johnson County purley on the basis that is full of subruban snobby rich housewives who cheat on their husbands with their gardeners, I must admit I am very impressed. When I get on 69-highway southbound and keep driving for miles I can see a sea of 500,000 dollar houses and upscale strip-malls and surburban development. While it may not be urban like most of you here favor, it is one of our biggest economic assets and one of the best places in the country to raise a family. I have seen few to no other major cities that have such a glut/mass of wealth in one area like Southern Johnson County has. It is very impressive. If Sprint goes under, I am afraid KC as a whole would slip into an economic DEPRESSION that might just end up making us like Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, or some other rust belt city.

[GRID]

KC has 1 million jobs...or did.

Do you really think the 12-15k jobs at Sprint are "that" important?  What is the average salary at Sprint?  Is it over 100k or something?

I think JoCo would be fine if sprint left today.  It would hurt them, but they wouldn't turn into Detroit or even suburban Detroit.

Most people that work at Sprint don't live in $400,000 homes south of 119th.  They live all over the county and metro area.

JoCo is by far the chosen area for the 1000's of higher up executives in the metro.  Most of the companies in KCMO's urban core are run by people that live in South JoCo. 

I will say it again, I have nothing against JoCo, it's a very important part of our metro.

I just can't stand how the county interacts in general with KCMO,  but now looking at some of the stupid ass shit KCMO residents do....like not building their own transit system and taking care of some of the crap that KCMO should be taking care of, electing morons into office etc, it's not hard to see why there is so much resistance to cooperation with KCMO.

I think the attitude has gotten a lot better in the past 5 years.  I don’t see near the arrogance or “I’m better than you because I live in JoCo” attitude that I used to and I think that should be noted.

It’s still there, but it’s not as bad.

I just hope that is a trend that continues…

[ignatius]

KC has 1 million jobs...or did.

Do you really think the 12-15k jobs at Sprint are "that" important?  What is the average salary at Sprint?  Is it over 100k or something?

There's much more to Sprint's presence than the actual jobs.  There are many vendors who exist in KC for the telcom industry.  There are tech branches in KC like IBM, HP, EMC, others that have entire groups dedicated to Sprint.  Between Sprint troubles and Embarq now purchased, KC may no longer be the 6th largest telcom player in the US if the jobs go with it.  This may mean a much bigger pullout of other jobs that support them and it will hurt IT shops for other KC companies if there are fewer tech vendors that have an office in town.  Many have no idea just how much impact it would have if Sprint were to completely fold.  The impact would be 2-3x or more than Sprint themselves closing shop.