Sprint Nextel still cleaning up merger mess, buys another affiliate
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jun 13th 2007 2:00PM
posted Jun 13th 2007 2:00PM
Amazingly, Sprint's still trying to keep pace with scrappy regional affiliates miffed in the aftermath of its merger with Nextel; in many cases, the clear-cut violations of the non-compete clauses in place with the regionals have left the company with no option but to buy them. Latest in the affiliate roundup is Northern PCS Services in a deal valued at $312.5 million, ending the war of words (and lawyers) that presumably would've ended with an even larger payout for the affiliate after years of drawn-out courtroom proceedings. Though Sprint's gotta feel good about putting another looming drama behind them, iPCS is still out there lying in wait; no indication yet on whether Sprint's feeling a buyout there, too. Look for the Northern deal to close in Q3.
I worked for iPCS for a while...it seems that sprint is waiting to buy them out due to the fact that the majority of the iPCS network is in need of some major upgrading. At least in the midwest it is. Not to mention iPCS has no real intentions of upgrading the network to EVDO, or so it seems. Which means Sprint is going to have to not only pay for iPCS, but also dum a ton of $$$ into upgrades.
Spring seems to be bleeding money left and right... I wonder if they are going to make it ;-) Maybe they are next after AMP'd ;-)
I hope sprint make it, they have the most affordable dataplan
Sprint customer service is one of the worst I've ever encountered. Their customer service reps will purposely hang up on you, erase customer service call records, refuse to correct problems, make unauthorized changes to your account (e.g., change you from a 1000 minute plan to a 500 minute plan without your authorization), will tell you one thing during one call and something else the next call. Sprint customer service reps are rude, obnoxious, discourteous. They'll refuse to transfer you a supervisor when you request it. The fact that you have the date, time, and name of a service representative, and even the state where the call center is located (the representatives often refuse to provide you with their operator I.D. number, or the city & state, or I.D. number of the call center) that you spoke to makes no difference to them when it comes to errors they make. The service reps demand to know for what reason you are requesting a supervisor---AFTER you've already told them that you're dissatisfied with their service and you want to speak with a supervisor. How many ways can a customer service representative be rude and discourteous? That's how many ways, and then some, that Sprint's service reps treat their customers. How many ways can Sprint screw up your account, give you wrong information, have service reps that flat-out lie? That's how many ways, and then some, that Sprint screws up your accounts. You cannot get a supervisor who is willing to correct problems. You cannot get a departmental manager, above the line supervisor. Any complaints you wish to escalate must be in writing only, and go directly to their trash-can files in their corporate offices. You can't get a live person to resolve a customer complaint---not even in their Sprint Centers---if you go to a Sprint center to get a problem corrected, the personnel there will hand you a phone and say "call the toll-free number". Even when a Sprint Center employee tries to help you by talking to their own customer service reps, their own customer service reps will be as rude, discourteous, and dismissive to their employee as they are to the customer. From what I can tell when I've researched Sprint, their V.P.'s in charge of Customer Service are too busy congratulating themselves for boosting their own pay, and keeping their heads in the sand over their lousy customer service, to pay attention to the lousy customer service their call centers provide. Sprint customer service is as bad as they come, and is worst than Bank of America's. So, if you're considering a phone with Sprint, then my suggestion is to RUN in the opposite direction as fast as possible. Or you'll regret it in a very short time!!!
They'll make it if they dump their CEO, replace half of their managers, and completely outsource their customer "care" department, which was recently ranked at the bottom of a national U.S. customer service survey by Money Magazine/CNN. Sprint is near the only company in wireless who can do so bad (actually BLEED customers when all of the other majors are adding customers hand over fist) and not make any management changes... Their answer for everything is layoffs.
Enjoy your cheap data plan while it lasts. You get what you pay for (heaven forbid you have to actually call Sprint "care" to request any changes to your account or question your bill... Like me, you'll probably be hung up on 5 times, put on hold for 90 minutes, and never get any real service until you talk to the 6th or 7th "care" rep).
Whatever happens to them they will have earned it. They can still turn it around if they wise up fast.
Should have bought Alltel instead :\
In my area you're lucky if you could get any service at all with either Sprint OR Nextel. If it's revenue/subscribers they're after they better start improving their coverage asap... and increasing their debt load isn't the way to go at it!
Never realized any of this was going on. Guess I should stray away from Engadget more often. I have never had a problem with Sprint, and I have been a customer for over five years. My plan is still 29.99 with 300 anytime, night and weekends at 7 PM. I think its from three or four years ago. I have never, ever had problems with Sprint customer service, I usually wait to call until the evening hours though.
Sorry about the other's experiences, but I am totally loyal to Sprint and have never had a problem. I bet there are many other like me out there.
Dear Johnsie776
When I first signed up with Sprint, which was 3 years ago, my first phone was an LG. The LG did not have good reception so, instead of ranting & raving about how crappy Sprint service is, I did a little research online. I realized that you can have a good company, with a bad phone. Meaning that the phone, is not as compatible, as other phone, with the respective cellphone service.
I hear it all the time, Verizon is crap, Sprint is garbage etc...
My advice, would be to enter phoneScoop.com web site. Look for a phone that you like and read the comments made on these phones by people who have or had this particular phone. You will notice that certain flaws the phone may have, usually come up repeatedly. I would then make the decision, on wether I should buy it or not.
Many people buy phones, based on how cute the phone looks. It may have a lot of features and look nice however, does it really work, when you need it?
My personal experience, with Sprint. I bought my first phone, an LG, as mentioned above. I then went with Sanyo phones and I currently have a Sanyo MM75OO. At my job, I work 2 floors, underground and I am the only employee, with Sprint and also, the only one who receives and makes calls. 2 dropped calls, in a year, so far.
Note: In the past, there were 2 employees, with Sprint service however, they could not make any calls or receive calls, from the same location, as I would.
My 2 cents...Thanks
I must admit I have never posted on a site like this before, but Sprint/Nextel brought me to it. I could not agree more with the customer service complaints which are posted here and other places on the web. Perhaps Sprint/nextel believes it is big enough to ignore customers and get away with it, but no company is.
I had been a satisfied cistomer for over three years. I needed to upgrade my phone, and after Spint merged with Nextel we kept getting solicitations in our bill to upgrade our phone through Sprint. After the phones were sent they told us in order to activate them we had to cancel the Nextel contract and they would not let us out of the new contract if we could not get service. At that point we decided not to risk loosing what service we had and we returned the phone via FEDEX.
Got a signed receipt and yet Nextel continued to insist that we pay for the phones even though they had been returned. They kept saying they would not credit us until they had been put back in inventory. They harrassed us, threatened to disconnect service even though I continued to pay the service charges , but not the equipment fees. After 4 months of abuse and nightmarish treatment at the hands of the "customer care" and billing departments, the charges disappeared (not the interest on them) and we got an email which assured us that no change had been made to our contracts and they reverted to the original dates. My husband was so upset with his treatment that as soon as the charges were removed he switched to another carrier and guess what...we got charged the early cancellation fee ($200.00).
A company with some much disregard for the people who pay them does not deserve to continue in business. As soon as I get this next round of nonsense taken care of I will switch carriers too. Who needs to pay money to be abused!!!