This is Round 28 in our Worst Company in America contest, Sprint vs Hewlett Packard. Vote which sucks more, inside…
Here’s what our readers said when they nominated these two companies:
Sprint:
“Thank God I got away…”
“always messes up my billing whenever I make any kind of adjustment to my plan. This usually takes months to fix and many calls to their CSRs.”
“have almost all of their customer service/tech support lines outsourced out of the U.S…often out of the hemisphere altogether.”
“(actually telling their customers to use a competitor!)”
“My drummer has Sprint and his phone is often screwed up, making scheduling rehearsals difficult. “
“service blows and they reupped my contract without asking. Where’s the class action lawsuit?”
“I successfully escaped about two years ago after being with them for over 10 years. I feel like a VIP with Verizon Wireless after Sprint’s horrible service.”
Hewlett Packard
“for moving tech support to India!”
“They will be rising to the top of the bottom very shortly.”
STILL OPEN FOR VOTING:
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American Airlines vs Blockbuster
Time Warner Cable vs Radioshack
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Wal-Mart vs TJMaxx
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eBay/Paypal vs COX
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MTV vs TransUnion
CompUSA vs DirecTV
Target vs Best Buy
Allstate vs Verizon
DeBeers vs 1800 flowers
Starbucks vs United Airlines
Exxon vs Crocs
Google Vs Sony
Ticketmaster vs Wachovia
Facebook vs The American Arbitration Association
Comcast vs Menu Foods
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I had an HP computer that was a complete POS a few years ago and the one printer I had of theirs didn’t hold up so well either. That said, I’ve heard so many horror stories about Sprint that despite my never using them, I can’t vote against them.
Sprint had found numerous ways to screw me over when I was with them–up until they renewed my contract without my permission (which took away a discount I had with them for being military). Screw you Sprint, AT&T treats me far better than y’all ever did.
My HP printer, scanner and software never let me down (at least until age took their toll on them).
I like my HP. Why doesn’t like HP?
i don’t buy consumer-class pc’s, but i’ve worked on a few, so i can understand the hate for hp. my only advice – buy business-class. hp’s business class pc’s are top-notch. & yes, their printers are expensive as hell (business lasers & such), but they are workhorses. i made the mistake of adding a few brothers to the mix at work – talk about a shitty printer that guzzles toner!
sprint otoh…well, come on. have they gotten a customer bill right yet this year?
Sprint vs. HP? Not even close.
Every encounter I’ve had with Sprint Customer “Service” has been negative. Used them as a LD provider 20 years ago; gave up after three or four months of having them change access codes without warning. Tried again a few years later when I had a Sprint-USAA co-branded calling card. The one time I tried to get a question answered about a bill resulted in me cutting the card up and mailing it back. About 5 years ago, my kid purchased a Sprint cellphone plan, decided it wasn’t working as desired, and returned it within the 14 day grace period. Took two letters and a threat of small claims action to get the deposit refunded.
It’ll be a cold day in Hades before any telecomms service labeled “Sprint” is used in this household.
I own an HP computer that is still merrily running quite well after 6 years, so I can’t really vote for them.
I don’t have Sprint either, so I guess I’ll sit this vote out.
Sprint. ‘Nuff said.
can somebody definitively explain what is morally objectable about moving tech support to india?
Hey vote for Sprint, they really suck.
I work for HP, they’re really a company that strives to do the right thing. Maybe it doesn’t always seem that way, but with any major corporation, shit happens. I’m not bullshitting either, if they really sucked I’d say it.
@frank26080115:
1. Americans lose good jobs to people in India paid a fraction of what the Americans are paid & the Indians haven’t the faintest idea of how to solve the problem.
2. The Indians can barely be understood & don’t understand us.
3. The real reason that HP, Dell & AT&T have moved their tech support to India is that the Indians are so incompetent at their jobs that the buyers of those products won’t call for tech support anymore thus saving HP, Dell & AT&T an even bigger amount of money.
4. Indians aren’t covered by US privacy laws.
That means that your personal financial info could be stolen & you have no recourse to sue anyone!
HP, by far. I still have bad memories from a compaq laptop with horrible design flaws; but more than that, the seedy ways they try to squeeze money out of people (mainly, with their ink) are downright disgusting.
I mean, making ink expire after such a date, whether it’s still good or not? Overcharging by an amount that makes gasoline look like tap water? It’s just horrible.
Sprint, on the other hand, I’ve been with for years, and had no major problems. My phones have been longer lasting than most people I know, the customer service has been plenty good, and the service is reliable. It might just be because I’m in KC, near their main offices, though– and because I’ve never had to make any major changes to my plan that would lead to contract/policy hell, but overall I’ve been very happy with their service. My only complaint would be a small one; they are somewhat overpriced, but not terribly so.
Sprint. I’ve actually been with Sprint for about six years, mainly because I get a discount on my bill as a perk of a job I had, well, about six years ago. The problems I’ve had with them have been pretty minor in the long run, but a real pain in the ass in the short run. For instance, they have a spending limit on your account; when you’ve exceeded your minutes and reach your spending limit, your service is disconnected. Without warning. This has happened to me at least twice, when I’ve been traveling and find myself in roaming areas for extensive periods of time. Even an automated text would be nice, Sprint!
And since I’ve had no problems with HP aside from those evil “paper jam” printer errors (thereisnoeffingpaperjam!), it’s Sprint all the way, baby.
Years ago – I think this was in the early 1990s, we had Sprint long distance. I called customer service because there were dozens of little $1 charges on there that I didn’t call. Now, some years before that (mid-80s)I and some friends of mine were teenage hackers who “bounced” through legitimate phone numbers, also no doubt leaving a little trail of $1 long distance bills, to eventually get to a point where you could make a long distance call and not pay for it. I doubt this can be done nowadays, but back then it could. So when these little fees to numbers of people I had never heard of showed up on my own bill, I knew exactly what it was. So I called customer service and complained someone was “bouncing” on through my account in this manner and the service rep told me there was no such thing as I was describing, and refused to credit my account – and his manager said the same thing. When this went on for 3 months, we canceled our long distance account with Spring, because every time I called I got the same idiotic answer – even after I explained to one manager, finally, how to do it! Clearly they were idiots then I don’t see that they’ve improved any since.
I refuse to vote on any of these. After seeing the results of Menu Foods Vs Comcast and Ticketmaster vs Wachovia, it’s pretty obvious that people value petty entertainment over being humane and ethical.
Yeah, I really don’t mind either one of the co’s. Don’t use either one, never have. But, being an Apple fanboy, I’ll choose HP.
Sorry guys, have to stay loyal to the family.
Um…HP and Apple don’t really compete that much. HP tends to cater more to corporate IT and such.
Voted Sprint, because honestly, HP hasn’t done much that I would really consider “evil.” If you have to call tech support in the first place I don’t feel much sympathy. Sprint took a company with in credible customer service (Nextel) and made it one of the worst in the country. Nice job.
Sprint.
Until recently I had no problem with them. I’m in a rural area, and my reception is questionable sometimes, but so are all the other carriers here. Our network is still 1xRTT, but the only carrier who isn’t is Verizon, and they’re insanely expensive for the same plan. It’s irritating, especially since Sprint has promised us EVDO upgrades for two years now and has completely failed to deliver.
The straw, though, was that Sprint has been calling me over and over and over trying to sell me new phone/new contract. The people are nice enough about it, but I’ve asked them over and over to stop freakin’ bugging me to buy a new phone. I’ve told them I’m not getting a new phone until they go EVDO. They’re all very nice, all promise me I’ll never get another call, and I usually get another one in a week or two, lather, rinse, repeat. So that’s two things now that they’ve promised me that they can’t deliver on. In the grand scheme of things, I suppose they’re minor quibbles, but it all adds up to Sprint promises not being worth the time it took to get them.
I worked for Sprint, so I know how bad they really are. I quit after a year working for them. I was put on written warning for not hitting my quota of new sales. I guess all the customers that I saved for them that were spending hundreds of dollars a month just didn’t matter to them. Or the fact that in every other performance metric I scored in the top percent (customer satisfaction, accessory sales, upgrades, renewals, lowest number of cancellations, etc.). I was often sidled with doing the manager’s job because he would hide in the back room from irate customers or would leave early all the time. I’m good at diffusing situations and good at problem solving, so I would end up fixing mistakes made by other reps all the time. When they put me on written warning, I told them that they could put me on written warning all they want because I refuse to do anything that I find morally reprehensible (such as adding 3 lines to an old lady’s account when she’s on a fixed income, telling people they can’t keep their phone numbers when they upgrade so the have to add on another line to get a phone cheaper, etc.). The funniest part of all this is that after I left, they called me to offer me a job training their staff on customer service. Glad they see value in keeping their customers happy now(not!)!
HP makes exceptional printers. 9 years and still going strong on my laser printer. I wouldn’t buy any other brand. No way could I vote for them.
HP is turning around after Firorina. Give ‘em a chance.