All I know is that i just renewed my plan this week and didn't have to give sprint my balls for the first time in 8 years. It was a great feeling.

Plus i doubled my minutes and paid the same. I know there are a lot of Sprint haters out there, but I haven't really had any problems with them.

And my signal since the tower sell seems to have gotten better in my city, Springfield Missouri area, than before. Odd, I know, can't explain that one...

with the consumerist executive customer service line I never have any problems with sprint anymore :D

Sprint Cell Phones
Online Only Prices and Rebates.
The Smarter Way to Buy Sprint
Sprint.LetsTalk.com

Seriously? On the very page that discusses how terrible Sprint is, there is an ad? How eff-ed up is that? I've noticed that several other times, not to mention ads for sub-prime loans on the same page as the horrors are recounted...

Has Sprint improved? I strongly doubt it.
In my experience with them they have been deceptive and downright rude. I don't think they lost too many of those customers on purpose.
I was with Sprint for a number of years and even after their last ditch offer of a 3 month billing credit I would not stay. They are losing customers because they refuse to serve and bill them properly.

I've had to "fire" a few customers before, so I can see how this is good for Sprint in the long-term. However, I can't imagine "firing" 2.8 million of them!

I have had Sprint for over 5 years, and I would give them an "F" on improvements so far. I'm still considering defecting to one of the others in December when my contract is up.

This is not a far out idea, companies have been doing this for years. The insurance co. that compares rates with other companies does this to get rid of certain customers.

Can't believe he had the temerity to say that. Good riddance, I say. I've been much happier with Verizon and now Cingular/AT&T. Screw Sprint

I live in Kansas City. Sprint is based out of a nearby KC suburb. I should be able to get good reception when I'm 10 miles from corporate headquarters. I couldn't, so I churned over to AT&T. Best thing Sprint can hope for is a buyout from another telecom, either that or Chapter 11.

My wife and I are on one of those crazy good deal SERO plans. I've given her express directions to NEVER call Sprint to complain for fear that they'll just cancel us. So...mission accomplished.

@max-hiding-in-the-forrest32: ads, what ads? i love adblock :)

besides, if that was a google ad, consumerist.com had no control over the content, as google just picks up on keywords in the page and displays what it thinks are relevant ads.

My wife had to file a complaint with the BBB to get Sprint to send her a bill. She would call; sometimes multiple times in a month to be told, "Your account is set up to receive invoices online only." She would tell them, "Make them mail the invoices to me; I don't even have the internet. They should never have set it up that way." Well this went on for over a year, and she filed a complaint with the BBB. Sprint sent her a bill that one time, then stopped. It is ridiculous. They need to go out of business for the betterment of the world.

so what sprint is saying is that if they don't like you, they will provide you with crappy service until you go away? wow, that's incredibly rude.

"We did it knowingly," he said. "We are interested in quality, not quantity"

Wow..talk about the missing the clue bus Mr. Hesse!

Doesn't he even remotely understand that when people have a bad experience, they tell 10 of their friends ?

So, Sprint wants "Quality" customers. How about you stop treating any and all of your customers like crap and maybe, just maybe you can stop the churn ?

Yes, I know it sounds like a simple solution but it does appear to escape Mr. Hesse and the dumbass executives at Sprint.

I can't wait to see the headline that announces that Sprint is no longer in the Cellphone business.

I had Nextel and was dismayed when Sprint took over. I suffered some signal quality issues at first. But those have been resolved. The last couple times I've had to call them they have been reasonable and helpful. The last time was when I purchased my wife a Mogul on e-Bay and called to activate it. The call took around 30 minutes, but the CSR was very helpful and apologetic for the length of time. I even mentioned the length of the call affecting his metrics, he said they didn't worry about call durations like they did before.

@Dansc29625: Ditto. And while I'm well aware of the practice, what an ineloquent way of saying it, Hesse

Lost me 7 years ago when they withdrew $500 from my checking account for a $50 bill, applied it to the account of someone else, told me they had no record of the transaction, then shut my phone off for non payment. Took 11 weeks to get my money back with the help of my attorney. The ineptitude of the two dozen or so CSR's along with a crippled customer account system turned me off to them forever. To this day I continue to try to steer people away from Sprint when the opportunity arises.

@dmolavi: It doesn't matter how it ended up there, it is just crazy that it did end up there...ahh...and people worry about computers taking over the world!

Aren't those about the same number of people who joined AT&T for the iPhone?

I currently have sprint and my contract is up in sept. I doubt that I'll be continuing my contract with them.

you know what an accountant does when they're getting in on the years and want to cut down their workload? Double their rates. Half of their customers quit, they make the same amount, and then the following year they double their rates again.

"We are interested in quality, not quantity."

That's ironic. That's the same thing that former Spring customers say.

i miss my Sprint coverage... but I love staring at my I Am Rich app on my iPhone, even if no one can reach me because I have no bars...

We just renewed again and got a great deal on our plan. Basically paying the same as before but getting a couple hundred extra minutes (1000), unlimited texting & web for me, and a Blackberry data plan for my wife. $80 a month.

And as far as customer service goes, for us at least, we've never had a bad experience with them. But there's been very few times we've had to call in for anything other than contract renewals.

I will give it to Sprint for at least admitting it. Some people(customers) just sap company resources through endless trivial complaints and attempts to get credits. An average phone call to customer service probably costs the business anywhere from $5-10 and that can quickly add up if it's some whiner complaining 40 times that he was out on the boondocks and dropped a call.

On the other hand there are always customers with legitimate problems....

I had two different FCC complaints sustained against Sprint for a total of over $2500, both for billing fraud and both within the past 3 years. Before finally moving to another carrier, my bill was wrong every month. Every. Single. Month. We spent hours and hours on the phone just trying to get the bill corrected, not to mention the other frequent issues such as sudden unauthorized changes in service plans and poor coverage issues.

I've never had any major issues with them in the 5+ years I've been a customer. I'm not really happy with their pretty crappy selection of phones they offer and the few good ones they have are fairly pricey. My other issue is that they want me to change my plan to the more expensive everything plan to get an Instinct. If I had any other plan other than the SERO plan, I would understand, but to pay more for the exact some thing is the only thing keeping me from making the change. Hell, the SERO plan is what is keeping from making a change in my cell provider.

For the most part Sprint has always been good to me.
But then again I know how to talk to customer service and treat them like a person, nobody want to be yelled at.

But cense using the "hotline" it's been the most pleasant customer service experiences I've EVER had with ANY company. EVER!

I can't stand Sprint. My phone roams like there's no tomorrow and it drops my calls when I'm in my apartment. There's only one spot where I get a good connection, and I have to sit there whenever I'm on the phone. Other than that, I have no problems with them.

Sprint's customer service through phone calls has improved for me. What I can't understand is their lack of face to face customer service. I went into a sprint store recently and had an issue with their service. I asked for a regional or district number to send a registered letter for the complaint I had and the store manager couldn't give me one. He couldn't comprehend that I didn't WANT anything from him to fix the situation and just wanted to send in a registered complaint so he told me he was done with me, I could leave the store, and he got up to leave.

I consider myself a great customer for sprint considering I pay my bills on time, and it's this kind of crap that will make me jump ship without thinking twice if it happens again.

I've had more trouble with the Sprint Store than with Sprint the service provider. My one recent experience with their incompetence was after I did the online customer service chat and then got a text message from Sprint a few days later.

Sprint, texting a Sprint consumer, made their text message too long to display. They put so much header/reference number information at the front of the message that I literally got only the first word or two of the message.

But hey, I had a reference number, right? Right? Turns out that when you call them and ask "what did this text message say?", they can't help you. "Oh, come on: a 20-digit reference number HAS to be there for the express purpose of digging this message out of the system, right? Why else would it be there?" Nope. They sent me a text message composed entirely of USELESS "reference" information, without consideration of their own text message length limits, from a computer system that can't figure out what they sent me.

There's competence in action.

I paid my bills on time and didn't even complain when the extended my contract out 2 years by changing my service through their web site. This is just spin, and blatantly incorrect. Looks like lies even come from the executives.

I'll say this....someone gave me an iPhone so I had to switch from Sprint to ATT. SPrint network is FAR superior; I never had dropped calls EVER in 10 years with Sprint, where it happens daily on ATT. SPrint service was WAY cheaper as well, and for internet, my TREO was much faster than the 3G. Thus far I think iPhone sucks, and ATT sucks. If Sprint would pay my ETF, I'd go back to them. (And I did have a few billing problems with Sprint, but they always resolved them...I do hate their website though).

@jenl1625: You were speaking with a rep who was not well trained. I know the Sprint systems, I'm a former call center CSR.

While they may not have been able to resend the exact same message they would at least be able to tell you what it was about and send a similarily worded copy. The messages are auto generated by the system, the exact text doesn't show in your acccount, but the reason for the message does.

Oh and I might add the biggest problem with the phone support is reps who either don't know their jobs well enough or who don't care enough to to a decent job of it.

Call centers are rough places to work.

Sprint's network still sucks - their biggest problem by far. That said, I'm paying $3/month (plus minutes) for service on a prepaid plan, so I'm still on the Sprint network.

I think Sprint provides a fairly good service for the price they ask, but then again I'm another SERO user. I heard they recently dismantled that option, so if I have to change my plan when my contract is up, well... GOODBYE Sprint!

Sprint has been a great carrier for over the last 2 years for me. Don't blame Sprint for individuals at non corporate stores who suck at their jobs.

As far as trying to get rid of customers. It makes sense. We do the same kinda thing when we get customers that really suck.

Sprint lost me a few years ago after sending me three phones that either didn't work at all or were still in the system as registered to someone else. Then they told me that they were canceling my replacement insurance because I'd had to replace too many phones. Well yeah. When you send me something that doesn't work, it needs to be replaced.

In short, they can suck it. Let them go hang out with Jack Dawson.

@lodleader: sprint sucks. they mess up our bill all the time. adding charges that have no real bearing and charging taxes up the ass in places we've never been. I'd love to cancel and go to Verizon but my family is all on Sprint so we get free mobile-to-mobile calls.

Their customer service is horrible. Aside from the obvious (and frustrating!) miscommunication involving trying to decipher eastern indian accents, it takes an average of 3 calls just to have them credit our account with something that THEY did wrong. I work in downtown Denver and my reception is so inconsistent - even outside the building - that it makes me want to scream.

This CEO needs to go back to Ethical Business Practices 101 and try to keep customers instead of driving away those he already has while trying to get new customers. Which, by the way, are people who might slip up occasionally and not pay their bills anyway. Is this guy high??

Sprint ripped my family off years ago printing up maps showing they had signal when their towers were many miles away. Then they charged my mother $200 to cancel her contract, despite there being no service anywhere near our house, her office, my school, etc etc. She refused to pay it and Sprint sent her to collections. So now I tell everyone I know not to use Sprint, and I tell them why. They treat their customers like scum.

according to the coverage maps, the following seems to be the ranking:

1. Verizon seems to be the best overall
Verizon Coverage Map

2. ATT has great coverage in the east, not as good in the west
ATT Map

3. Sprint seems ok, but not as good as either of the above.
Sprint Map

@Greeper: It's all about where you live. You can't speak for overall nationwide coverage based on your own limited experience.

I'm a Sprint customer on a $35 a month SERO plan. In Settle there is always a strong signal. (in downtown and the north suburbs) As long as I can keep the $35/mo deal, I'll be sticking with Sprint.

Unless the next iPhone can be implanted in my head, or enable me to fly or something.

I actually wrote a success story to the Consumerist a few months back about getting out of my Sprint contract without an ETF. At the same time, I tried to highlight how great the Sprint quality and customer service was, I just didn't get reception where I moved.

I realize I might have been in the minority, but after years of paying bills on time, they seemed to try to make my situation easier than the horror stories I have read on this site.

@Mike626: Er, *Seattle* --Settle was a Freudian slip. :)

Any customer service issue I have with Sprint - and there have been a few - I now take straight to the Executive Customer Service number. They've asked me, "Have you used this number before?" and I always tell the truth and say "yes - because you consistently solve my problems when regular CSRs cannot or will not." They are always happy to take care of things quickly and efficiently. It feels kind of like cheating, but if their regular CSRs were like this all the time, I'd be a Sprint evangelist.

I'm fed up with Sprint's "Improved" billing system. Used to be able to get my bill online within 12 hours of when the minutes rolled over. Now it takes over a week, and of course, the due date to pay hasn't changed. And, since I'm on an unlimited texting plan, they don't feel that telling me how many texts I've actually used is a detail I'd be interested in.

Contract's up in November. You'd better believe I'm switching.

i'm no big fan of sprint. i was ready to leave them after many years of putting up with billing errors and poor customer service. my mind was made up. i read a post in consumerist about loyalty discounts, so when i called to drop the ax, i knew i might be able to turn the tables and ask for something in return for staying. sure enough, the guy in retentions made me an offer i couldn't refuse: significantly more minutes and texts and a lower bill-- with no contract renewal. that was 4 months ago. since then i've had no reason to complain. i have to give it to them, they really cleaned up their act and won me back. i'll stick with sprint until the other shoe drops.

No Sprint loses customers over stupid stuff. My blackberry stopped working one day, black screen just plain dead. I had handset insurance on the device. So they say they will order a replacement that was due in the next day. Well day after day no replacements (ahmm insert REFURBISHED units here).This is a business line so I had no choice after 3 days but to port my number to a new carrier. They refused to set me up on a loaner phone. So 12 days later after frustration they just grab a new retail blackberry off the shelf. Guess what Sprint you lost me as a customer over that stupid move.