Which phone giant will taste your fury? Did FiOS burn down your house? Did Sprint’s wandering CEO step on your toes?
It’s #20 Sprint VS #13 Verizon.
This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2009 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers, and seeded according to number of nominations. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america. Download the bracket here.
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There Is Still Time To Submit Your Worst Company In America Nominations
Ohh nice matchup. Though I am tempted to vote verizon because of [xkcd.com] and because they charged me 50 bucks for a supposedly free phone [switch and bait], I think Sprint is worse. Sure Verizon has its moments, but Sprint seems to suck all around. Of the first round matchup, this is most likely to be an upset (sheer # of verizon subscribers who have a bone to pick). Lets see
*kicks back and grabs a drink*
@Lucifer_Cat:
I’ve used both companies in the past and they have reprehensible customer service, but only Verizon continued to charge me for 6 months for internet service even after I had cancelled the account, moved out of the apartment, and sent them a certified letter demanding they stop billing me.
@Lucifer_Cat (Does Not Tweet): I don’t know why you would vote for Sprint here. It seems you are voting on perception only. If any wireless company stiffed me the way they did you I would have to vote for them not the one with the image problem. I have had Sprint Wireless for ten years now and have never had an issue that was not taken care of. I know not everyone can say that but it is true in my case. I know use the HTC Touch Pro and it is an awesome phone. I have never used an Iphone but it cannot be any better. Plus the 3G is great on this phone. I have, currently, Verizon for a home phone and I cannot say their customer service is stellar. I had a second phone I wanted to disconnect and it took forever. How hard is it to turn off a phone line? It was almost as bad as trying to disconnect AOL service in the past.
I have no experience with either, looks like they both get a buy week from me.
@jscott73: So you will go out and buy them both this week?
@Radi0logy: Yes I will need to use their services for a week before I can vote, fine you caught me I used the wrong word, at least I didn’t say “meant to be mistaken”
@jscott73: Did you ever read “Eats, Shoots and Leaves”? I’m kind of like that, probably because my mother was an English teacher. Ignore me
@Radi0logy: Lynne Truss doesn’t want you to use that smiley.
@tonalanswer: I know! I’m so torn on that issue, because I feel like emoticons, if at least moderately underused, do SUCH a great job of displaying emotion that otherwise might be lost on a casual reader. Now you have me wondering if I used too many commas in that sentence… Oh well, I’m at best a casual observer.
@jscott73: I think you meant to be mistaken about the definition of a “bye”
@jscott73: I’m going to toss-up vote on this one, but at least it is finally a decent match up.
Come on. While Sprint has had it’s issues, they are limited. Verizon lured people into FIOS by promising them new TV’s years ago, that still has not followed up on it. I get pushy door-to-door sales people from Verizon for fios every week.
Sprint is annoying, but harmless.
@Yankees368: But they are offering FIOS. That more than makes up for their issues.
@Yankees368: The sales people may be pushy, but FiOS is worth it.
@HFC: Ditto that. We had salespeople knocking for months after we switched to FIOS – the five seconds to took to shoo away each one was worth the service we get. (We actually got the free TV, too; if I were still waiting for the TV, I’d consider filing a small claims court suit for the value of the TV.)
Many of my friends who have Sprint have dropped calls, poor customer service, or both. Verizon customers typically don’t have these pesky issues here.
I was chatting on the phone to one of my friends who’s a Sprint customer a few days ago, and I could barely hear her… she had to hang up for fear that her call would be dropped. Yet she stays with Sprint for the $99/month unlimited everything. She uses her smartphone for work… which reminds me, what good is a smartphone if you can’t use it?
@MFfan310: “she had to hang up for fear that her call would be dropped”
Is it just me or is this illogical, like quitting your job for fear you might be fired.
I’ve used Sprint for going on five years now and I’m very happy with the service (most reliable I’ve had so far in SW Colorado), they roam fine on other networks so I don’t see the benefit of Verizon “for the awesome network” — I get the Verizon benefit with Sprint anyway.
Furthermore, its hands-down a much better deal. We pay less than our friends’ two-phone family plan and have 50% more minutes, unlimited text, and unlimited data on our smartphones. What’s not to like?
Go Sprint!
Sprint gives me my awesome $30 a month Sero plan with unlimited data and the ability to tether to my EEE. Verizon was unable to do anything (except try to trick me into a new contract) to keep me as customer. Easy choice here I think.
@rhpot1991: How did you set up your tether? I have sero too but haven’t been able to get this one figured out?
@camman68: I have a Mogul which runs Windows Mobile (yuck
). There are some free ways of doing it but reliability sucks. I use this: [wmwifirouter.com]
Will let you share out wifi from your phone like a router, or hook up with usb/bluetooth. Worked with Ubuntu Intrepid out of the box, surprised me. They offer a free trial as well.
Am I the only one who thinks it would be awesome if the Verizon Guy ran into Dan Hess while he was walking in a commercial? The mixture of color and black and white just make me giggle.
I like Verizon most of the time. When I talk to the linemen and techs I always get intelligent guys who know what they are doing. The CSRs are usually pretty dumb, though but most are pleasant.
Sprint I’ve had no dealings with so this is a no-vote for me.
*I’m a phone tech
i dumped sprint in favor of verizon 5 years ago.
Verizon isn’t much better.
(it’s going to be a close race)
Verizon is worse. At least you can talk to Sprint, if you know the right person. Verizon has a “screw you” attitude.
@The_Legend: I’ve had Verizon for years, and any issue I had was resolved very quickly without any pestering.
I had an issue with Verizon DSL some years ago. They oversubscribed the local DSLAM and didn’t give it enough bandwidth, so every evening when enough people came home and started using it, the service would slow to a crawl. It took *three months* for an engineer to acknowledge the problem.
Switched to cable internet and never looked back.
I voted for Sprint because they can’t even seem to get what little they are doing done right. Verizon, as large and widespread as they are, sells decent phones and leaves you alone as long as you don’t cause problems. And every time I’ve needed to get something fixed on my plan, I’ve been able to get a good CSR, even though it takes a long time and repeated tries. Eventually, when I do get a person, it gets resolved.
Frankly Sprint has been good to me. Theres no beating an older SERO plan, and customer service has been mostly acceptable. I came from Verizon, they sucked hard. Honestly I think most people will vote Sprint just because other people shout “Sprint sucks!!”, without any firsthand knowledge.
Finally a excellent versus. Never used verizon, but love my SERO plan so I guess I have to vote for verizon.
I easily voted for Sprint. However, as an Alltel customer the last two years, I’ll soon learn about Verizon. Alltel is almost as bad as Sprint, in terms of sneaky sales practices and bad customer service, so we’ll see which way the company gets pulled now that Alltel and Verizon are one company making really big promises about future products and services.
If you’re on a SERO plan there is nothing that compares to sprint. Not sure they’d be my first choice at regular price, but the network has been better in the Chicago area than ATT in my experience.
Sprint killed the SERO plan just as I was ready to jump. The price increase was enough to make me willing to pay more for an iPhone instead.
It’s a minor thing, to be sure; but since it’s the only interaction I’ve had with either company, that’s the winning vote.
Ugh, I DESPISE Verizon. They came to set up out business DSL line about 5 years ago. They made an installation error and now every time we receive or send a fax our internet gets cut off for 2 minutes. We’ve called them several times about this but they refuse to fix it. They did sent a technician a couple of times but they did absolutely nothing. Every time we call now they say there’s nothing wrong.
Sprint on the other hand has been fantastic to me with the SERO plan. Customer service has been great – they recently refunded a late charge on my bill just because I asked.
Verizon, not becuase FIOS burned down my house but because its not here yet.
This is a hard matchup for me. I have Verizon Wireless and have been with them for years with no troubles or problems whatsoever. I get service in a lot of places where no one else does (D.C.’s Metro for example) and I’m generally happy.
However, Verizon’s home phone service gave me nothing but trouble for three years while I had to use them and their monopoly just to get a phone to my home (I had dial-up internet, or I might have passed entirely). And I’ve heard precious little that is good to say about Fios.
But then there’s Sprint, who have somehow bought the soul of my workplace and I’m constantly being told I should hawk their service to unsuspecting customers for things, not to mention that the system rarely works as advertised.
I can’t say I like either company, really. But I went with Sprint this time.
I’ve got them both right now. (personal and work phones) and it’s a tough call.
I’m going to have to go with Sprint, though. I have almost no coverage at my house, and I have been forced to ask that when I’m on call that they call my home phone first.
Verizon scares me because they can’t seem to do math..
Also they put an ETF on my dad’s old “contract” with them after it had expired and he didn’t get a new phone.. It’s still on his credit report.
It makes me angry because an ETF is supposed to cover the subsidy of a new phone with a discount.. but if there was no new phone there should be no need whatsoever for an ETF.
My issue with Sprint is that they jerked my parents around after their house was destroyed by a tornado. Sprint provided their home phone service. I had to call them so many times and each time they wouldn’t understand that we couldn’t forward the phone from the house BECAUSE THERE WAS NO HOUSE.
Gotta vote Sprint on this one since I’m an Alltel customer who is pleased that Verizon adopted MyCircle. I don’t have personal experience with Sprint, but my cousin does. Dropped calls left and right.
Verizon actively cripples features on the phones they sell so you have to pay for their subscription services. For example, they disable the navigation features on the Blackberry so you have to pay for their monthly navigation package. They cripple some of the bluetooth functions so you can’t put ring tones on your phone, so you have to buy theirs.
This is an easy vote.
“Did Sprint’s wandering CEO step on your toes?”
Oh, The Consumerist… You say that these commercials were horrible, but when you keep joking like this, it makes me feel bad that they’re no longer on air. When you said the whole thing about looking for customers in diners and how the b&w was because he’s sad, I loved watching the commercials with that in mind.
I will nearly always vote Verizon on these because of the time they turned me over to collections AFTER I’d paid my ETF and cancelled my service.
Sprint, by a long shot. After constantly switching the due date on the bill, we finally canceled when the contract was up. They sent us a bill for $0.00. We called, confirmed everything was square. One month later, here comes the collection notice for $15.86.
I used to have Sprint, they didn’t give me any issues other than coverage.
I have Verizon for my cell and I used to have them for a land line. I have also dealt with their business dsl tech support for various companies I’ve worked with. Their Cell customer service started out horrible and in my opinion, with the issues I’ve had, have gotten much better.
The one bill service they have (myverizon or something like that) is garbage, mainly because they have 3+ different companies trying to talk to each other when none of them seem to want to have anything to do with each other. It took 2 months for it to get set up, then when I cancelled the land line, they cancelled my onebill which meant I had to set up the auto pay again. Problem is that no one tells you that. I complained and they removed any late fees after waiting on the phone for a few hours and escalating 3 times. Verizon gets my vote for this, but the cell side seems to be improving, they’re one and done in my book.
I’ve had Verizon for years.
Excellent reception (My old Nextel wouldn’t get access anytime I was indoors).
Repair centers are often crowded but I rarely get anything other than quality tech support.
My one negative experience involved a stolen phone where the thief used it to call Bermuda ($300 worth of long distance). Verizon was able to reverse these fraudulant calls but only after 3 months and several followup calls to remove late charges/penalties.
I have a Sprint cell phone (Centro), so in an effort to rationalize my possibly stupid decision, I voted Verizon.
Sprint’s pricing schemes make sense… The first mobile company to actually make sense… $99 for everything…
Verizon is $99 for everythign… plus $10 for text messaging… plus $10 for data…
Sprint’s been awesome to me and the signal has been great, both in San Jose and in San Diego, where I’m at now. Voted for Verizon.
4 Years strong with VZW here. Sprint’s PTT phones are for the gangsta inside. Also, they market their crap in movies that are garbage as well.
Verizon. Right before Katrina hit, I canceled my Verizon service and paid them of (or so I thought). Katrina comes and NOLA residents are without mail service for several weeks. During this time period Verizon sends me another “final” bill for $60. I never get it. I don’t have their service anymore, I have no idea Verizon is trying to bill me. Without any further attempt to contact me they charge it off as a bad debt and report it to Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. I pull one of my free credit reports and discover it. They “agree” to take my check to settle the debt and remove the charge off. The supervisor I talked to made it sound like they were doing me a big favor. A couple months later it still shows up on one of my credit reports, so I dispute it. The upshot was that it stayed on my report, but was shown as paid, with an asterisk noting that it was due to a natural disaster. I’ve had Sprint (Nextel) since then. They treat me like a God compared to Verizon.
I’m a customer of both & a coin toss determined that Verizon got my vote.
I’m not a Verizon lover but c’mon, they’re up against Sprint. This should be a no brainer!
I voted for Verizon just because I hate made-up names.
Verizon sucks so bad it alters space/time.
I’ve had Verizon forever and so far, am pleased with the service I’ve gotten. The last time I went in to the Verizon store in town, the manager spent probably an hour and a half with me tailoring my current plan to my family’s needs, and finding a phone that I wanted. OTOH, my experiences with Sprint have been less than a pleasure so they got my vote right away.
Great service from Sprint for 7 years
with no contract. No experience w/Verizon.
No vote.
From Peter S in LA
Good question. These two are both pretty bad; but the vote goes to Sprint for not being able to issue a correct bill for eight months in a row. To their credit, every time I got one of these bills and called (always at least 20 minutes on the phone), the CSR du jour was always able to fix it, and in some cases, took some more off for the hassle factor. Also: recently I’ve been getting spam text messages, which of course I am billed for. When I called to find out how to stop this, I was told that Sprint had sold some numbers to telemarketers, and short of turning off text messages, they have no way to stop this. Nice going Sprint; you so deserve this award.
Sprint, because Verizon hasn’t screwed me over for some needed utilities in today’s world. Although I am disappointed in both for impeding technological advancement. Look at those Japanese phones and internet speeds!
I’ve used both for cell phone service. Verizon doesn’t seem to cause any trouble for me. Sprint, on the other hand was just awful. Do they contract their customer service reps from prisons? Because that’s how it seemed to me when I had the misfortune of needing their customer services.
I left Sprint years ago because they were so terrible (terrible reception, terrible and rude and lying customer service). Verizon is more expensive, but they have provided the service that they promised me for the past 4 years. Sprint is by FAR much worse.
@polymer girl:
I have had similar experiences. I have Verizon DSL and not only have they so far promised not to rat me out to The Man, download/upload speeds are just peachy.
Plus, Verizon is at least partially unionized, whereas Sprint is not. That’s more than a few points in my book. I vote Sprint on this one.
No vote from me, interested to see how it shakes out
Vanno predicts Sprint (#410) over Verizon (#222).
Verizon was mean to me once. I did not randomly call Africa.
Second CSR fixed it but the first one treated me like a liar. Thus, I vote for Verizon. Fair? No. But, son, no one said life was fair.
No experience with either one. I’ll pick Verizon because their ads are more annoying.
Verizon is absolutey cutting edge, leading the way, blowing other companies out of the water when it comes to hidden charges and screwing you out of your money. I can’t believe the numbers involved here. $180 if you don’t want service any more? Are you kidding me. I would rather spend all day at the DMV than have to resolve something with Verizon. It’s really that bad. I’ve never used Sprint for anything but I can’t imagine how it could be any worse.
I’ve worked for both in the past. I voted for Sprint. In my dealings with both companies (which was only with wireless phones), I’ve found that about 5% of the CSRs at Sprint are helpful and polite, whereas at Verizon about 98% are helpful and polite. Sprint CSRs also have a nasty habit of hanging up on you, even if you’re one of their colleagues…