An e-mail addressed to Sprint's customer service department

[GlennCase]

We have been with your company for approximately 5 years for cell phone service. The customer service has gotten progressively worse and worse with time. Saying that I am not happy is a serious understatement.

Your company has me literally looking forward to saving up enough money to cancel our cell contract, in the same way that some people would save money excitedly for a family vacation! I don't wish to give Sprint another penny more of my money than is absolutely necessary at this point.

The most RECENT conflict of information regards our admittedly overdue bill. I actually apologize on our behalf for being late with our payment. We have not been going out of our way to be late, but things come up when you are on a limited budget like we are.

What I DO expect, however, is that you will keep true to your word! My wife made a $50 payment yesterday, and was told that making a $60 payment today, and paying the remaining $199 on August 15th, would ensure that our phones would be turned back within 4 hours. That was at 2pm PST today. It is currently 8 hours later. Our phones are still off. Calling your customer service center did not resolve this.

In fact, I wish I had taken the name of the Sprint representative I just spoke to. It could not have been more obvious that she was reading from a script, and that the apologies for the conflicting information we keep receiving were blatently disingenuous.

There is absolutely nothing that you can do at this point that is going to make me place faith in your customer service department as it sits. We have had conflicting stories from them one too many times.

If there is still a real person that exists within your company that isn't bound to a script, I would certainly like to recieve a reply with a genuine explination of why your company can not keep it's facts straight when it comes to your billing department.

The upshot of not having use of cell phones for a while, is that we won't be giving you an opportunity to change the amount due any more than you have on several occasions.

The day when I am done doing business with your company will be a joyous day for me, but I have to save up for it, as you won't allow people to cancel the contract without paying the penalty and the bill in full.

I can't afford it yet, but believe me... I will be working on it.

Just in case you aren't clear what I expect of you at this point, let me clarify:

1. A GENUINE, NON FORM-LETTER apology for lying to us earlier today.

2. An acknowledgement that maybe it's time to look into either better training for your customer service people, or an investigation into how the company can improve in this area.

Sincerely,

Glenn Case

[Kamakura]

Good letter Glen, though I doubt it will do any good, or get the requested result.

In the UK quite a few of the large companies (Banks, Electricity, Gas etc) have moved their customer services departments to... India!
It is cheaper, better for company profits, and supposedly better for customers too.
When I phone my bank I am speaking to someone in Delhi. Which is not a problem per se, unless I want to go and speak to them face to face.

The supermarket buys apples from a farm not 20 miles from where I live. The get sent to Poland to be graded, back to a distribution warehouse in Scotland, and then finally back to the supermarket not 20 miles from where I live... Total MADNESS!

Globalization sucks, as does most large business.

[the Jazz]

On that subject...

[Jim of Seattle]

There was a link to a video here, but because of Heather's spyware problem, I removed it.

Sorry!!!

[chucky]

And I hope you have all seen
this.

having seen that piece of sheer genius, i will now die a happy man.

[c hack]

I have a virgin mobile phone. I cost me $60 for the phone (sure, it's ghetto), and 25 cents a minute. Sounds expensive, but there's no contract. And since I almost never use it, it runs about $5 a month. I definitely recommend it. There might even be better no-contract deals out there (like T-Mobile, or something like that).

[Heather. Redmon.]

And I hope you have all seen this.

Well, I would sincerely like to thank Jim of Seattle from the bottom of my heart. After clicking on his wonderful link, I now have f*cking Spyware infesting my computer. I am very angry. I can't even use my computer without a million f*cking pop ups well, popping up. Phil ran a spyware sweep last night, but it didn't get everything. I'm using his computer to write this. He will try again when he gets home, but I have to wait.

I advise Jim to remove his post with this dangerous link. Until he does, I advise everyone not to click on it unless they want to run the risk of getting taken over by spyware too.

Angry!

[HeuristicsInc]

are you using i.e. ? i suggest avoiding that thing.
i've had good success with removing spyware with the program called adaware... free download.
then again, using mozilla i don't get much spyware.
-bill

[Jim of Seattle]

And I hope you have all seen this.

Well, I would sincerely like to thank Jim of Seattle from the bottom of my heart. After clicking on his wonderful link, I now have f*cking Spyware infesting my computer. I am very angry. I can't even use my computer without a million f*cking pop ups well, popping up. Phil ran a spyware sweep last night, but it didn't get everything. I'm using his computer to write this. He will try again when he gets home, but I have to wait.

I advise Jim to remove his post with this dangerous link. Until he does, I advise everyone not to click on it unless they want to run the risk of getting taken over by spyware too.

Angry!

Link removed. Very sorry, Heather! I didn't know. My anti-virus software works in the background without my knowing when it's removing things. I had no idea.

[c hack]

Also, Firefox is good. (Also, Macs (obviously).)

[Heather. Redmon.]

Thanks for removing the link Jim. We'll get all the crap offa my computer and I think I will switch to Firefox, that's what Phil uses and he likes it. Thanks for the advice.

[starfinger]

Glenn,

Have you sent anybody a physical letter? We did that with Verizon a couple years ago, and they fixed our problem very fast. Good luck finding somebody important's name on the Sprint website, though.

-craig

[GlennCase]

Thanks for all of the suggestions, folks.

So far I have gotten 2 automated responses from Sprint. We will see where it goes from there. If I don't get a good response, the written letter might not be a bad idea, Craig.

ROCK!

Glenn (DR FUNK)

[Justincombustion]

Those bastards (or in the spirit of SF Boston: "Bahh-studs") screwed me over too. My phone battery died and they don't make them anymore. Huh? It's a phone THEY sold me...so I had to buy a whole new phone-and lost all my numbers in the old one, since no batteries exist in all of the world for that old phone now.

[blue]

me too.

(spyware-free!)

http://bluelang.blogspot.com/2005/07/lo ... ssist.html

[GlennCase]

The response I got this evening:

Dear Glenn,

First, I want to sincerely apologize for the time taken to adequately
respond to your concerns. I realize that you have been greatly
inconvenienced by this situation. This is unacceptable and is not what
we want you to expect from us.

I don't blame you for being upset, and I do apologize profusely for all
of the mistakes and delays, which contributed to this very unfortunate
series of encounters. It is our intent to treat you with courtesy,
respect, and understanding and to provide the highest quality of
service
in all areas.

Also, I would like to apologize for all the inconvenience and
difficulties you have faced while trying to resolve the issues. Be
assured that this is not the indicative of the service we strive to
provide to our customers. Your business has utmost importance to us
and we are committed to serve you to the best of our abilities.

I will forward your concern about improving our customer service to the
appropriate department. We value our customers opinions and
perceptions,
and we thank you for your input.

We know your time is valuable and appreciate your patience. We are
actively adding personnel and resources to assist in handling our
customers more quickly. It is our goal that in the coming months you
will notice a much more pleasant experience with our customer service.

Thank you for your continued support. We value your feedback and look
forward to serving you for years to come.

Shannon C.
Sprint Business eCare

[HeuristicsInc]

didn't actually say much of anything, did they...
-bill

[deshead]

I don't blame you for being upset

Jesus, that's pretty condescending. I'd call her on it.

And FWIW, I'd guess everything after "Also, I would like to apologize ..." was pre-written. (Which, if true, is kind of a sad statement on the company.)

Glenn, you should write them a nice song.

[GlennCase]

Glenn, you should write them a nice song.

That's not a bad idea. Maybe that will be on the "Get Glenn and Rachael to Boston" CD.

I am only offering it for 2 more days, ladies and gentlemen! I won't be selling it after August 11th, because that is when we would need to fly out.

Right now it is looking like a lot of people will be getting their money back. But I am absolutely NOT giving up until Thursday comes and goes.

http://glenncase.songhole.org

ROCK!

Glenn (DR FUNK)

[Justincombustion]

Tell me what title you wanna use for the anti-Sprint song, and I'll do one too. Together, with our combined powers...We shall bring them to their knees!!!!

[Jim of Seattle]

I don't know, I thought it was kind of a nice letter. She probably wasn't empowered to actually do anything yet, but she seemed like she was trying to be pretty contrite hidden there among all the rhetoric.

You should read Paul Rosa's book Idiot Letters, where he sends stupid letters to big corporations and publishes their responses. Pretty hilarious. I know a lot of people have made a name for themsleves doing that since then, but his was the first and funniest.

[erik]

I don't blame you for being upset

Jesus, that's pretty condescending. I'd call her on it.

Gah, what do you want them to say, if not "You have every right to be upset"?