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I may have gotten a sprint worker in big trouble

Barfighter

Newbie
Oct 17, 2009
43
0
I will try to make this as precise and concise as possible....but probably wont be able to...here goes..

The headset jack has gotten progressively worse over the last month. Unplug headphones, phone thinks they are still plugged in. Call comes in you do not hear phone ring. I know the headset toggle. I do not always remember to use it nor should I have too.

This weekend I missed about 6 business calls because I forgot I wore the headphones friday night.

Enough is enough I am going into sprint.

Lady behind the counter says,"Thats funny mine is starting to do the same thing".
She sends me to a "corporate" store about 3 miles away to see the tech department.
Lady behind the desk there says,"I personally have taken in about 6 of these phones for this very reason, give us about 20 minutes with your phone and we will solve the problem". She also stated that tech has never been able to "fix" this problem they have always issued a new phone.

They take my phone, I Go to lunch.

Upon returning she informs me that they were unable to duplicate the problem so there is nothing they can do and handed me my phone..........I am still calm but now my tone gets a tad firmer.

I ask to speak to her boss......He is not here, I am the boss.We exchange "pleasantries" for a few minutes

I inform her that I will not leave until issue is resolved.....She does not believe me....I do not leave. She again informs me she can do nothing....I again inform her I ain't leaving.We exchange more "pleasantries" for a few more minutes.

I am not yelling but speaking loud enough that those around me no what my problem is. Everyone of them cannot believe what is happening. One gentleman says ,"You are being a lot calmer than me, I would have thrown the phone against the wall by now"....

I am still thinking you can catch more fly's with sugar than you can vinegar, I stay calm....for now.

I tell her I need to speak to someone about terminating my contract. She points to another part of the store and says,"You can do that right over there".....

**** it.....I am using vinegar....

She walks away......I remember.....Long press on the "2" gets me customer service on my phone....I contact customer service on my phone tell them basically everything above (except for the part about the vinegar). She says'"Please stay with me I PROMISE we will get this matter resolved".

I am put on hold...

While on hold "The boss" comes back to the desk....This is where I decide to use vinegar instead of sugar....I say, a little louder and a lot firmer,"Do you realize I am doing your job right now?". Her smirk has gotten bigger as she thinks I will walk out after customer service backs her up.....Here is where it gets good.."how so" she responds. "By making this phone call, By going out of the way to keep a customer. You are the one that should be doing this not me!"....Man am I glad my wife stayed in the car for this.

Customer service comes back on the line and wants to talk to there "tech" guru. I am told she is not available at this time it will be a few minutes. Then she says and I quote,"Besides when shes done talking to our tech person she is going to tell you exactly what I told you, there is nothing we can do about your phone".

Tech girl finally comes out...Remember the smirk I spoke of earlier,Tech girls is bigger.
We got this guy....So they think...

I hand Tech girl my phone and she is now talking to customer service...
Her smirk is slowly turning into an "Oh Shit, I am in trouble" look....She is now responding with, "Yes mam's" at a rapid pace. She hands me my phone back and hangs her head and walks off.

"Boss Lady" is still standing behind the counter in front of me.

Customer service lady asks me to get a pen and a piece of paper to take down the tracking number FOR MY NEW PHONE! She is very sorry about the way this was handled and said that Sprint valued me as a customer and did not want to lose my business and a new phone should be at my doorstep in no more than 3 days..

I am smiling.....Boss lady has also suddenly lost her ability to "smirk".

Customer service says you will be contacted to give a survey about only the LAST person that helped you. She emphasized again that it was only about the LAST person to help you.....I said well what about the lady behind the desk that i am looking at and is listening to me talk to you right now......Write her name down she tells me as there is a part at the end of the survey to talk about that......She sees me writing her name down and showing off my pearly whites....

Thank you very much for YOUR help YOU have been very helpful.....Sprint takes these surveys very seriously and reads all of them, so tell them every thing that happened she says. I will do that and again Thank you so much for your help....I hang up...Look up at boss lady (By the way she is maybe 22 and Tech girl is 20 at best).....I smile and say they are sending me a new phone and I have your name for the survey....She says nothing....

I walk out get in the car and my wife is asleep (It has been close to an hour by now)....How did it go she asks....Oh fine, No problems at all. I will have a new phone in about 3 days....

From there we drove up to spend the afternoon in the snow.

Thanks for letting me vent a bit.
 
Good to hear that you will get a new phone. Her problem was that she should have called customer service and tried to get you an authorization for a new phone, not you. These 20 year olds these days think they know everything, not willing to try their hardest at work. Its all about the hours and paycheck for these workers, no pride and good hearted service. i would have taken the time and maximal effort to try to get you a new phone if this issue was occuring even though duplication of the issue was unable to be performed at the location.
Things aren't always black and white in regards to all situations, there are sometimes ways to work around stuff, just need to find it.

My story happened at a sprint store too, not a lifestyle wireless but dedicated sprint store.

This other customer in her teen years had locked her phone with a password on the HTC hero and forgotten the password. The guy said he couldn't do anything but to hard reset the device. But the thing was that he did not know how to reset the device. The customer service guy i was talking to knew how to do it but hadn't had practice. Well both of them tried the three button push and failed. I then said, "cold i try it and show you how to do it?"
They handed me the phone and in a few seconds i got the phone to the screen for the hard reset.

Both of these individuals were in their mid 20's.... take pride in your work and take the time to know the product you are selling.
I worked at a bank and if i didn't know something, i will take the time to research it and reply back to the customer in a timely manner. People these days lack customer service, they just don't care.
 
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yup sprint CS has gotten much much better in the lest year bro. i was able to get a airave box for free and no bill just by calling to their account division. i had a personal rep from sprint take care of my TWO touch PRO2 (returned during the 30 day trial for issues) still showing up on my account. he took care of that and gave me an additional discount for the issues... they are great bro.. your story is great... you should be a poster child...
 
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I have had nothing but great experience with my local Sprint corporate store. The manager even took my number and let me leave to give me the 50.00 credit to my account when best buy put the Hero on sale during my 30 day period. They replaced a coke bathed Mogul with a Touch Pro for upgrade cost before I was eligible for an upgrade because I was leaving town before they could ship a refurb Mogul to me, credited my account 100 for a rebate that was denied because the manager overheard me joke about the denied rebate, and more. I can't imagine an experience like the one you described. I have even gone to another corporate store that is closer to my office for repairs and been treated well, another that was close to where I was shopping and had lost my Touch Pro stylus where they gave me two for free. I have never had any issues with the stores.

I also haven't had any issues with phone support. I was out of town when someone hacked my pin, deactivated my phone, and activated another phone my number all over the phone. I was in Princeton, NJ on site doing a deployment for a client, and had to have my phone working. The CS rep stayed with me through: no service in the building, battery dying and had to find a car charger, re-provisioning even though I was using a custom ROM, and called back two hours later to make sure everything was working.

Sounds like your experience sucked. I am glad I haven't had any like that!
 
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yup sprint CS has gotten much much better in the lest year bro. i was able to get a airave box for free and no bill just by calling to their account division. i had a personal rep from sprint take care of my TWO touch PRO2 (returned during the 30 day trial for issues) still showing up on my account. he took care of that and gave me an additional discount for the issues... they are great bro.. your story is great... you should be a poster child...

All in a days work...
 
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I have had nothing but great experience with my local Sprint corporate store. The manager even took my number and let me leave to give me the 50.00 credit to my account when best buy put the Hero on sale during my 30 day period. They replaced a coke bathed Mogul with a Touch Pro for upgrade cost before I was eligible for an upgrade because I was leaving town before they could ship a refurb Mogul to me, credited my account 100 for a rebate that was denied because the manager overheard me joke about the denied rebate, and more. I can't imagine an experience like the one you described. I have even gone to another corporate store that is closer to my office for repairs and been treated well, another that was close to where I was shopping and had lost my Touch Pro stylus where they gave me two for free. I have never had any issues with the stores.

I also haven't had any issues with phone support. I was out of town when someone hacked my pin, deactivated my phone, and activated another phone my number all over the phone. I was in Princeton, NJ on site doing a deployment for a client, and had to have my phone working. The CS rep stayed with me through: no service in the building, battery dying and had to find a car charger, re-provisioning even though I was using a custom ROM, and called back two hours later to make sure everything was working.

Sounds like your experience sucked. I am glad I haven't had any like that!

The first store I went to (non corporate) is where I purchased the phone. These guys are wonderful an bend over backwards for me every time I go in. The corporate store I was sent too that is another story that is not the first time I have left feeling ,lets say, not to special.....When I was told by the first store where I needed to go my first thought was, there is going to be a fight.
 
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I am going to play devils advocate here but reading that story to me you seemed like you were really smug and pushy. If you have been a valued sprint customer for a while; you would know that typically customer service has more power than reps in a sprint store. They really just seem to be liaisons to the public.

One thing that bothers me is just because you are a customer of a company does not entitle you to get what you want always. If you were within your 30 days you could have just swapped it otherwise, next time spare that girl you intimidation and call customer service or HTC (manufacturers warranty).

I doubt the in store rep was reprimanded at all. Management is completely different as well as job functions.
 
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Which is fine, I am not disputing that, but the level of entitlement of the OP just really bothered me. It is just how his post came across.

[rant]

Entitlement, He just either committed himself to two years of service with this company, or spent $500 on a phone, either way, he is the consumer and needed to be taken care of. Smug, entitled or otherwise, a true professional customer service rep would have simply taken it with a grain of salt, done his or her job, and made sure that the customer left satisfied. The way I see it, he was entitled, to a working phone, no matter what his attitude was.

Two posts on the forums an you are already judging someone who simply came here to vent to fellow Hero users, some of which have wither had similar problems with their phones, or similar experiences with CS @ Sprint. Off to a great start there.


You are either a Sprint CS rep who got their panties in a bunch, or a Troll, either way, you are out of line.

[/rant]
 
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I am going to play devils advocate here but reading that story to me you seemed like you were really smug and pushy. If you have been a valued sprint customer for a while; you would know that typically customer service has more power than reps in a sprint store. They really just seem to be liaisons to the public.

One thing that bothers me is just because you are a customer of a company does not entitle you to get what you want always. If you were within your 30 days you could have just swapped it otherwise, next time spare that girl you intimidation and call customer service or HTC (manufacturers warranty).

I doubt the in store rep was reprimanded at all. Management is completely different as well as job functions.

Did you read the post? Do you not know what the phrase means,"You can catch more flies with sugar than you can vinegar". I myself am self employed and have been for close to 20 years and deal with my customers everyday. I am not one who walks into an establishment and wants to pick a fight because I think someone owes me something. I am a paying customer who, as the other posts above mine said, have just signed a 2 year contract and paid a lot of money for a phone that after 2 months does not work right. Then to walk into the store and have them basically say, "Sorry buddy you are stuck with the phone and we are not going to do anything about it".
My line of work requires that I wear ear protection so I wear earbud style head phones and put the ear protection over them (I work with around loud equipment all day) I need a reliable jack for my headphones and this phone as has been documented has a cheap headphone jack. Today alone I had to make 4 return calls to customers that could not here me w/ my head set on I would unplug and still nothing. The only thing that works is turning the phone off.
The other posts above mine say everything else I would like to say to you.
I can't wait until you have a product, be it a phone or whatever, that you pay good hard earned money for it stops working and the company you invest in will not help you....Come back after that happens and tell me how you handled it and I will follow your lead....Have a great day.
 
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This is the very reason, Young Adults shouldn't be running a store, whether it be retail, toy's r us, whatever it may be. They have no clue what they are doing and straight out of high school, and probably don't even have a management degree none to less.

Trust me I've worked in retail the past 2 job's and the one currently is a clothing retail store. Its funny seeing them shit a brick when shit hits the fan, because they don't know what they're doing. I find it funny that some companys make these young adults in management positions even if they're just an assisant manager, because they're taking management class'es in college etc. If you ask me that doesn't mean they're are qualified for that position yet.
 
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