I think I figured out why Sprint CEO is always walking around New York, looking in diners, and taking taxis. He’s looking for his lost customers. The black and white is because he’s sad.
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♫ He’s so Ronery…. so Ronery… ♪
How do you look a diner?
They all wanted TrapCall.com service and can’t wait for it to get out of beta
poor boomer. He’ll be a butler or sad clown soon anyway. I hope he has six months of living expenses saved up.
I love those ad’s. They’re so marketing 101. The current fad in marketing is “putting a face to the faceless company.” This is usually accomplished by taking the CEO and trotting them out in front of the camera, as if to say “hey look, we have humans that work for us. See! See!”
Some companies can do it well, like when Mr. Ford Jr. used to talk about the heritage of his families cars, or when the mildly retarded S.E Johnson descendant stands on a pile of trash talking about how it magically becomes windex.
Sprint however does not. I imagine their marketing meeting went something like this:
“our customers are leaving in droves, we need a new campaign to bring them back.”
“How about we fix our push to talk, or hire better customer service reps.”
“No way, let’s just stick our CEO out to shill for our products.” (hi fives)
The thing that I just don’t get is that he’s actually a turn off for their products. He speaks with such disdain, it’s as if right after shooting the commercial his first assistant rushes over and rips the disgusting “device,” out of his hand, while his second assistant holds his bottle of Evian. And what’s with calling a phone a “device.” Does he not understand the majority of us still use them to make phone calls? Not only does he waste 30 seconds of my life trying to redefine what I call a phone, he then acts like he’s doing me a favor by charging me $100 a month for services I can easily get with my highly portable laptop for much much less.
@Binaryslyder: I beg to differ on those Bill Ford, Jr. ads. At a time when his company was putting out some of the worst products in its history, they needed more than just pointing out that “my granddad invented the model t a long time ago!”
Next he’s going to try and portray himself as an ordinary ♂guy♂ by wearing Snuggiesâ„¢ and telling you exactly how much a gallon of milk costs.
@Blueskylaw: With milk prices these days, can you not afford the unlimited plan?
Well, he won’t have to look very far for me.
I’m a lifer. With SERO + perks, who can resist his irresistible charm?
@gatewaytoheaven: Hear hear. Not only am I part of a large SERO plan that covers my extended family, but I am also the one lucky fool who is actually saving even more money due a longstanding error in Sprint’s billing system (about which I probably shouldn’t elaborate). That particular bonus is in jeopardy of being “corrected” every time I replace my handset, but since I usually get a technician who merely shrugs and issues a manual override, it’s still in effect after nearly two years. My most recent support call was the scariest, since the rep noticed the discrepancy and wanted to fix it, but eventually gave up when the billing system stubbornly demanded that things stay broken in my favor. It was as if I was in the Federal Witness Protection Program or something. So, as long as that gravy train keeps rolling, I will stave off my desire for an iPhone.
Hey, a CEO who connects with common people. I can’t knock that.
I managed to get that 25% family and friends of a certain employer discount that was posted in the Morning deals post a month back. I get so much bang for my buck I can not justify thinking about another carrier. Plus I live in NY, so service is not an issue.
I’m still convinced that Dan Hesse is actually George Pataki, which is really why he’s walking around NYC.
This guy just oozes condescension. I don’t know why, but I feel patronized just watching these commercials.
This is what happens when you use CDMA, unlike the REST OF THE GODDAMNED COUNTRY.
@Addicted To Chocohol:
AT&T and T-Mobile are the rest of the country? I don’t think so… Try adding 83 million verizon customers to that mix who use CDMA.
@Addicted To Chocohol:
I think that this idiot meant to say world. Somehow, I don’t think international service has anything to do with Sprint’s issues. Idiot.
@Addicted To Chocohol: Last I checked there were over 474 million CDMA users worldwide. Obviously no where near as many as GSM (2.5 billion +) but not too shabby.
[www.cdg.org]
@scooby2: Poor iDen users never make the list. *hugs his Nextel*
@ViperBorg – Facebook is the new AOL.: And this is one of the things that has seriously crippled Sprint since the merger. Nextel has been an afterthought and non-focus of the company. Sure they’ve given it a few “token” promotions and whatnot, but in watching most of the Sprint ads you’d never even know Nextel still existed.
@dragonfire81:
“And this is one of the things that has seriously crippled Sprint since the merger. Nextel has been an afterthought and non-focus of the company.”
True, and sad, considering the crazy amount of money the average Nextel subscriber paid prior to that hamfisted merger.
im also a sero sprint’er for life
@Palak Desai: I’m guessing Sprint will not let sero users get the Palm Pre. I’m just praying they do not require the SEP.
“all by myself…don’t want to be…all by myself, anymore…”
I think these are pretty good ads, however the problem with sprint is not their services, but their crappy billing system. They will make mistake on every single billing cycle and their reps has no authorization to correct any of it.
I agree those ads are very good. We can joke about it all we want, but the truth is Dan Hesse has done a commendable job turning the company around. I’ve noticed a significant improvement in their customer service – both over the phone and in stores. The Consumerist hotline they set up works incredibly well.
Unfortunately, it’s going to take time for them to get rid of their poor reputation. 80% of the people I talk to still think Sprint has poor reception and customer service. Of course, most of them reconsider when I tell them how little I pay each month =)
@Eric1285: My boss was having a lot of problems with our Nextel Account, mostly from what must be astonishingly high turnover among low-level account reps.
I suggested the Consumerist Hotline.
It worked so well, I think I might be getting a raise (and a new blackberry)!
Thanks Consumerist Hotline.
@lockdog: I called the sprint consumerist hotline, and made $4000 by working at home!
Thanks consumerist hotline!
Whether or not the ads are effective, they just lost me to AT&T yesterday.
Well there about to loose me as well. I have had a moto q since 2007 and they refuse to support a window mobile 6 update! Even when all of the other carriers have had it since June of 2007! And then when I go to complain at DAN@sprint.com I get different answers. The last time I tried they said too bad there is nothing we can do. I just wanted a discount on a new phone for being screwed over for the past two years. I do not think they actually care about the customer’s and their products, as long as they lock you in for two years sprint is happy. I also just learned yesterday that I could get a new phone rebate free from best buy which would help but its too little to late! Sprint’s last option for customer support has been less then pleasant because it proves what was stated above.
I’m a customer for life because of SERO. Where else can you pay $30 a month and get pretty much unlimited everything? Sprint’s Customer Service is horrible however (they mixed up my identity with someone else when I opened my account) and if it wasn’t for the price, I would definitely have looked elsewhere.
Does anyone else turn off the sound for the Sprint adverts?
The color, style and his age makes it look like an advert for medication… “Like me, do you have problems with urinary hesitancy, incontinence or discomfort? If so, why not ask your doctor about ‘Sprint’? It’s a prostate treatment that can help give you back your freedom to walk around in cities and ride taxis all day long…”
@PhoebeRhea: My god that was hilarious.. I read the Consumerist MOSTLY for the comments… But yeah with SERO im a sprint lifer.
Sprint loses customers because they do not value their time. Most of their customer reps are in other countries. it usually takes me 30-60 minutes to reach a rep in USA. I’ve only done business with 2 reps outside of the USA – 1. asked me for social security # right off the bat before any assistance can be started, and 2. mis-programmed phone during activation causing it to freeze up and shut down. 16 hours of my time were then spent on resolving this issue…part of that was resolving the 2nd replacement LG Rumor that started having issues after a few days. So, bottom line….Sprint had me do the administrative work of trying to resolve an issue caused by a foreign worker without paying me for my time.
Here are some things you can do if poor customer service asks for your wasted time to resolve issues…… Contact executives at phone #’s listed on people.yahoo.com or call John Batalia at 914-407-7225. He is the SVP of Customer Service. Most other executives can be reached at #’s already provided on this site. Most Sprint executives are from Kansas.
Sprint is sending many US jobs overseas. When you call customer service, it takes over an hour to get a US Rep. In my 2 experiences with non-USA Reps, one asked me for my full social security #, the other misprogrammed the activation of a new phone causing it to stop functioning completely. After wasting more than 15 hours of my time dealing with correcting the new phone issue, Sprint refused (at first very insistently) to credit my air time spent calling corporate offices to address the issue.
I appreciate the phone #’s for Sprint executives on this site. For better results, look up the executives and board members on people.yahoo.com . Respond to my comment and I can post some of the dozens of Sprint executive contacts that I was given by Sprint reps or found on Yahoo.
How many people have had to deal with unacceptable forms of customer service that have abused your time? What do you think about asking companies to compensate you for your wasted time? I think that if more customers asked for this whenever they get the run around, this BS would not happen so often. Companies today don’t care about our time. They are like machines who would spend $100 to save $2 as long as it didn’t require too much exception for certain situations or other extra effort. Any other ideas?