Comments on: Sprint Prepares for Launch of Palm Pre With Massive Layoffs

By: Weekend Update, 1.31.09 | Beth Callaghan | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:47:56 +0000

[...] in that race, if it’s upheld. And as if Palm doesn’t have enough to worry about, Sprint (S)–its exclusive carrier for the Pre–is rumored to be preparing to lay off 14 percent [...]

By: Econalypto, Redux [Digital Daily] | LinkTouch

Econalypto, Redux [Digital Daily] | LinkTouch — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:02:46 +0000

[...] Sprint contributing another 8,000 or so employees to the next Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemploymen…, this seems like a fine time to pay respects to those who’ve gone before them. And there are [...]

By: Econalypto, Redux | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Econalypto, Redux | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:00:43 +0000

By: Nick Toren

Nick Toren — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:09:45 +0000

I live in an area of Los Angeles and my Sprint service in my apartment stinks! Even bought a Sanyo phone because of supposed good antennas. Have tolerated subsequent bad reception for a couple years and used the home phone when I lose a cell call. Now I want to get rid of the home phone and rely only on cell phones (my wife and I each have one). She’s on Verizon and has no troubles in our apartment. Went to the local Sprint store and asked each salesperson to borrow a phone, leave a credit card, drivers’ license, return in 10 minutes. Just wanted to make sure reception hadn’t improved with newer phones. Five employees all said no. Now this is their personal phone, I can understand the reluctance. But isn’t this a company that is hemorrhaging customers? I’m not interested in signing up for a new plan and if unsatisfied, returning the phone within 30 days.
Alternatively, how about some more towers in my urban area? I’m not in the boonies, or even the suburbs. I live in a city of around 100,000 people, no buildings taller than 3 stories within a 5 block radius. Am I asking too much of a company that is in trouble?

By: Sean Doherty

Sean Doherty — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:47:29 +0000

Sean Doherty from Sprint here. Just wanted to add a couple points of clarification – While some internal support functions at Sprint will see significant cuts, our Sprint customer care organization will see very few. We do plan to reduce the use of some outside vendor call centers in 2009 — but that is because we are receiving fewer calls to care and those operators are not needed.

All last year we worked to fix the problems that caused people to call us: we have a Simply Everything billing plan that eliminates surprises in your bill; we have a Ready Now program in stores in which we set up your phone for you and teach you how to use it before you leave the store; we have a simplified online customer care system; we follow up with customers by phone shortly after they start service to confirm everything is ok. Calls to Customer Care are decreasing, and first call resolution metrics are improving steadily. Executive escalations were at an all-time low in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Other metrics are improving as well. We have received the highest ranking for the last two quarters from Pali Research in its outside test of customer care quality. We’ve also gotten kudos on our network improvements from J.D. Power and most recently we won Gizmodo’s 3G data test.

That’s not to say the loss of 8,000 employees will not impact the business. We’ll likely do less — fewer HR programs, less real estate management, maybe even less communication — but we’re not going to sacrifice the great improvements we’ve made in serving our customers.

By: Richard Meyer

Richard Meyer — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:03:29 +0000

In an age where customers are begging to engage brands it’s unthinkable that most companies are both laying off people and that they “are sick and tired” of hearing about social media. Does Sprint think that they can increase their customer service amid layoffs? It just shows that their loyalties are to the balance sheet first and customers will continue to get the shaft of poor service

By: sprint layoffs | Super - Adda

sprint layoffs | Super - Adda — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:52:42 +0000

[...] Sprint Prepares for Launch of Palm Pre With Massive Layoffs – All Things D Blogs [...]

By: Robert Elliott

Robert Elliott — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:25:16 +0000

As a briefly employed outsourced sprint customer service rep, this is par for the course. They change the rules for their reps constantly, and then punish them for errors. The rules have changed 3 times in a day. If they would let their outsourced companies do their jobs well, this wouldn’t be needed.

On the plus side, at least Sprint wants it’s service to consistently suck no matter who you talk to. Consistence is something to commend at least.

By: Sprint Prepares for Launch of Palm Pre With Massive Layoffs [Digital Daily] | heave-ho.org

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:05:00 +0000

[...] Originally posted here: Sprint Prepares for Launch of Palm Pre With Massive Layoffs [Digital Daily] [...]

By: Miles long

Miles long — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:03:35 +0000

Let’s hope its only exclusive on Sprint for 3 months and they can get it on VZW asap!