Sprint announces massive layoffs, store closings amid subscriber defection
New Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse appears to have inherited a company bleeding subscribers by the thousands, and will now officially be dropping the ax on 4,000 employees and 125 retail locations. Amid the loss of 639,000 postpaid customers in the fourth quarter, Sprint will be cutting a total of 6.7% of its work force (following the 5,000 layoffs last year) and 8% of company-owned brick-and-mortar stores, while remaining mute on other rumors that it will consolidate its headquarters in Kansas. Sprint Nextel shares are down $2.89, or nearly 25%, at the time of this writing.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David R. @ Jan 23rd 2008 1:33PM
damn you sprint! now i gotta find a new job.
RoddyRod @ Feb 3rd 2008 4:13PM
I'm a nextel/sprint customer, and was out of contract, was about to leave b/c of crappy reception, frustating walkietalkie, etc.
I tried the LG rumor on the sero plan, and absolutely love it. The call quality was better than Verison. BUT... make no mistake, w/o the plan I was gone, and even then, I spent "quality" time with cust.service. No problem, I have learn to lower my expectations with Sprint.
And to tell the truth, the other cell companies aren't a bag of flowers either, just Sprint was so bad.
Unfortunately my eyes are bad and my fingers are big, so I want to get the HTC Mogel, but I'm saying to my self, do I really want to go through the hassle. The answer is yes, I'll try it one more time, because I am realistic about Sprint.
This is NOT a complete dump on Sprint's cust. service, because they were really trying hard to help me. One call took about 30mins, but the rep. stayed with me, every 2 minutes would considerately, apologetically (almost sympathetically) would let me know that they were "working" on my problem. A for attitude.
That is something ADAM and DAVIDR and SOME others at Sprint just don't get!
And guys, don't take ALL your frustrations out on the lowly rep (no matter what country they are from).
Sprints departments are TOTALLY DISCONNECTED FROM EACH OTHER!!!! Even though they all have access to your info. You have to give your name and password abot 20 times to each NEW rep.
COME ON!
Activation, billing, return/refunds don't have a clue or need top secret clearence to refund $10.
Their business system is very complicated, and I KNOW THAT THE ONES WORKING ON COMMISSION TO SELL THE PHONES/SERVICE INTENTIONALLY MISLEAD OR DON'T TELL THE WHOLE THING KNOWING THAT ONCE THE SALE IS MADE ITS SOMEONE ELSES PROBLEM!
Sorry for being long winded, but maybe it will help someone in there decision on Sprint, but 635,000 to leave in one quarter? COME ON SPRINT! It's your business plan/approach/SYSTEM thats KILLING YOU!
sprintemployee @ Mar 7th 2008 8:41PM
Sprint's Customer Service is bad. Sprint has financial problems and leadership problems. They treat their customers and employees horribly. They are not fair to the employees (cheating them out of sales bonuses, overtime, messing up quality scores, and job performance reports). They are unfair to the customers (some customer get credit adjustments, some don't). They make promises, scam, and lie to people. They hire the worst individuals as Team Managers, Quality Assurance Specialists, Operations Managers, Sales Managers, and Human Resources. They hire friends and personal family members. If you say anything about this, you are fired.
johnpmorton @ Jan 18th 2008 12:08PM
What this company needs to do is improve its customer service! I have had Sprint for almost two years - as soon as my contract expires I'll be jumping ship. I like the good call quality and fast and cheap evdo mobile web, but I cringe every time I have to talk to their customer service. From thirty plus minute hold times to getting customer service people I have a hard time communicating with, to being told a different story by several different Sprint employees. My main gripe is this; when I bought my current phone (moto Q) I was told it had GPS built in...I had not read this, but was excited to discover that Sprint Navigation was among the options I could select...As you may have guessed, no navigation through Sprint at all, I had to buy a BT GPS and get service through Telenav (excellent service though)...But, the experience left me hungry for a phone with built in GPS. When the new Centro came out, I checked on line and several reviews said it had built in GPS, then I checked the Sprint web site and sure enough I could purchase the phone and add Sprint Navigation as an option! I was a little nervous though, considering what happened the last time, so I went to a Sprint store to discover the truth for myself - NO NAVIGATION!!! It left me wondering if it is a scam they pull or if they just really have no clue; I have come to believe the latter is true. Long story short, they may count on losing my business!
Robert O'Sullivan @ Jan 18th 2008 12:59PM
Ummm... perhaps it's because SPRINT SUCKS? They overcharge for EVERYTHING! I had Sprint once. Yeah, that lasted a few months before I got sick of them and switched over to T-Mobile, which I have been EXCEEDINGLY happy with ever since!
BlackwaterPark @ Jan 18th 2008 1:25PM
We have 5 phones on Sprint, including my Mogul. We have a good deal but that was only after spending hours on the phone, finally getting to "retentions". The magic words are, "cancel my account".
I'm very happy with the EVDO and I've never had a dropped call.
Otherwise, Sprint's website is horribly slow and buggy - typical outsourced crap.
Customer service is fair at best. If you can get to someone who A) speaks English and B) has a clue, it's not bad. Otherwise, you find yourself literally yelling at them until you say the magic words (see above).
I pay for Power Vision, which is supposed to include Sprint TV, but their flagship phone, the Mogul, isn't supported (yes, I'm aware of the hacked CABs).
All the US telcos suck. They cripple phones, lock you in, and laugh all the way to the bank. That Sprint may go under is not a good thing as it will reduce competition in the market. I hope they turn it around if for no other reason.
cliff @ Jan 18th 2008 1:41PM
Sprint is definately the best price performer (with corporate discounts, etc.), but the billing system WAS one of the worst I've ever seen. I had to call and call and call. Now I have great service for four people and no hassles at all.
You have to be thick skinned. If money was not a concern I'd move but it'd cost me at least $50 more a month for the data traffic, etc. AT&T couldn't even get data to the IPhone in their own store. And, Verison costs about 2 times what I now pay.
Whenever you change ANYTHING at Sprint your bill will be screwed up for two months minimum. But, if you finally get to someone who knows what they are doing it's great.
I hate to see them go under.
trainwrecka @ Jan 18th 2008 1:33PM
1 word: iPhone --- I have 5 family members with iPhones. All left Sprint for it.
youngcalihottie @ Jan 19th 2008 5:08AM
i also know many people who left sprint for the iphone. i think sprint's lack of decent phones really made them the biggest target for iphone churn. they must've been hit the hardest
Nate BeMiller @ Jan 18th 2008 1:45PM
i left because of their abysmal customer service. i will never go back. if you want to talk to dumb, rude people who don't care about the customer (after being on hold for an hour), by all means, sign up with sprint.
ZombieEatsShark @ Jan 18th 2008 2:00PM
I've been a Sprint customer for 10 years and have thought long and hard about jumping ship lately. The big problem for me is their handset selection: Sprint just doesn't get the good phones until other carriers have had them for months or even years. Witness the Pearl, for example. The phones and plans are all deceptively priced (the "$99" Centro is a good example), although that may be a problem endemic to all US carriers. In addition, Sprint's website sucks BIG TIME, often doesn't work properly (try upgrading your plan or phone, for a good example).
At the end of the day, Sprint's strenght is its EVDO network, which is really nice and fast. Is it enough to get me to stay wheen they have such an anemic lineup of phones? Not sure yet.
The carrier that will really change up the game is the one that opens up its network, unlocks its phones, drops the byzantine plan/package list, and generally treats its customers as assets rather than liabilities. Sprint, are you listening?
sean @ Jan 18th 2008 2:15PM
Honestly, I've had nothing but Sprint phones since the mid-90s and never had any major issue with them, my service always seems to work at home and when I travel. Yes, every time I change my plan (I have 4 phones on a family plan), I know my next bill will be wrong, but it always gets resolved with a little patience. I've heard the same complaint from friends on carriers as well. CS isn't great, although I always get a follow up survey call so I can rate CS, I don't think they're getting the results back to the right people. Most of the people I speak with directly do seem to trying to do their job well. I also control a corporate account with Sprint for 120 lines, CS for that is pretty good but may be handled by a different group. The problem with Sprint is that there is no excitement about them, thier phones are pretty standard and lackluster, they never seem to get the good exclusives and they don't have any must have phones for the younger set (like tmobile has the sidekick, at&t has the iPhone), although my 12 year old loves her Rumor. The whole Nextel intregration really taxed them as well.
sasiki @ Jan 18th 2008 2:19PM
We give Sprint / Nextel almost $6,000 month for 120 phones and 16 data cards. We resigned our contract in September with new rate plans and combined a few accounts into one. Still 4 months later, our bill is a royal mess. We had a conference call scheduled on Monday morning to try and get the bill straightened out . Four Sprint reps were supposed to come. Only 1 showed up. The rest opted to stay at their office and come in via conference call. I wouldn't doubt it if Sprint lost our 120 lines come contract time in September. We'll go to either Alltel or AT&T.
wickedpheonix @ Jan 18th 2008 4:50PM
US Telco market is seriously overcrowded with too much crap from all the carriers. The essential part to ANY business is to make yourself stand out - Sprint's strength is in its data network. If I were in charge of such a thing, I'd probably split off the data part of the company and work towards a merge of the handset part with Verizon. That way, Sprint can work on marketing, etc it's data network - which is pretty damn good. The fact that they're going to be the first major US network up with 4G really helps them too, so they need to work on Xohm awareness and on selling the Xohm network to consumers and hardware companies.
DP @ Jan 18th 2008 5:58PM
Another one bites the dust... Sprint is taking it mighty hard. A year ago their stock price was over twenty dollars. Today it closed about 8 dollars. Yikes...
Harp @ Jan 28th 2008 10:35AM
Count me among the people who're paying the fees to jump ship. It's actually cheaper for me to pay the $175 to cancel my account and buy a new Blackberry elsewhere than it is to pay the full cost to upgrade with Sprint. Beyond that, they've regularly screwed up my bill, refused to ever set it right, and customer service either blames me or tells me they can't / won't do anything about it. The Customer Retention folks who've called don't know what to do about the billing problems, and even with their incentives, it's *still* cheaper to terminate my contract and go elsewhere.
adam @ Jan 18th 2008 9:11PM
OK, first lets get one thing clear, its not the customer service that sucks, its the sh!tty customers that b!tch eveytime their bill is messed up casue they asked for 300 text and their 14 daughter cant stop texting and ends up having $200+ in overages and then call in and say,"i asked for unlimited....i guess the hindu bastard didnt understand a word i said....". i have one thing to say to that, you can only kick a dead horse so many times...the lies dont work we get tired of hearing them and its old...SO! in closing, if you dont want internet(or PCS DATA) charges, then have it BLOCKED!!!! if you have childern between the ages of 11 and 18 get unlimited text or block it!!!! dont lie to us, we have ALL the info we need to know if youre lying or not....so maybe we cant say it to you but we are thinking it....So when the customers grow up and stop trying to get everything for free then thats when our customer service will improve.....
OH! and by the way, I work for a Sprint call center, so please do me a favor.....if you call in to b!tch about your bill, 1) look at it first before you call us...and 2) blame your kids for your high bill, not us....we dont use your phones.... THANKS!!!
Jason @ Jan 18th 2008 10:45PM
hmmm... After reading this post I'm starting to see why the big defection...dude you gotta chill
David R. @ Jan 23rd 2008 1:42PM
i agree with you, LOOK AT YOUR BILL, and if you said unlimited we would know. WE ARE NOT STUPID PEOPLE. Exspecially when you call about like the 5th or even 17th month bill complaining about your texts and what not when its something you should of called about on the first month bill.
I work for sprint, and i can tell you, we are not asses, its yall with your dumb questions when its clearly outlined on your bill or your online account, whats going on.
like he said, grow up.
and if thats the case, then add the vison pack and forget about all that mess.
Paul @ Jan 18th 2008 11:54PM
Weird I had sprint for 5 years. Call were clear. I didnt even mind customer service thought I rarely called. I left for ATT because sprint phones suck. They are gettings better but they have had YEARS of horrible handsets.
Now im with ATT!!! oddly I find the coverage / call quality much worse. And there data coverage is terrible. My building is 3G some days. some days EDGE only. The price premium for ATT that buys me reduced/inconsistent data coverage annoys me.
If sprint made a phone I wanted id switch back.
johnny hates waiting @ Jan 21st 2008 2:25AM
I have been with sprint for years, the best prices but customer service is just plain stupid. When the 3g iphone comes out with the SDK and exchange support we will be leaving too. Sprint too bad, you had some good phones but were just too slow and now have no excuse for such lousy customer serivce.
crashoverride @ Jan 22nd 2008 10:34AM
I had six lines and tons of data and left mid-contract for VZW. I spent 30 hours on the phone with CS over lost phone numbers in porting, billing issues and loss of service issues (IE-once a week, everyone's texting and/or data service shut off). If I have to spend 30 hours fighting with you in less than two months, it is just not worth it. The service/network was exceptional, but the customer service and billing nightmares made it not worth a dime and just frustrating. Outsourced people who try to help but cannot understand and do not have the ability to help you even when they do understand. They write a "trouble ticket for people you cannot talk to and you never hear back till you call and threaten to cancel!
I doubt that WIMAX can save Sprint, as they can't help but ruin it, as they cannot provide competent service to anyone. My friend's have large business accounts and are consistently mis-billed, month after month.
In short, their customer service and billing will drag the thing down to oblivion. There is little hope, even with XOHM.
crashoverride @ Jan 22nd 2008 10:42AM
Oh, and was for that angry Adam post above, I can read my bill and my texting and data were unlimited, so grow up. Most of us who have left were professionals that spent over $600-$6000 a month on bills total, so that doesn't float. We aren't people with text-happy teenie-boppers. Besides, every company has people that call in with stupid user issues, like teens that over-text. But, every company doesn't have over six hundred THOUSAND customers leave in one financial quarter. Your lack of intelligence and plain bitterness about this situation reveals much of what has killed Sprint. Glad I am not a big shareholder and I sure hope that XOHM helps the people who are stuck with that stock...