Guess he lost hope looking for his customers.

Good, those commercials are annoying. Of course, most commercials are annoying.

I miss the "Dr Z" ads from Chrysler. Not that it could manage to sway my opinion about their cruddy cars....

Good. Now maybe the guy can focus on his career as a CEO instead of the one where he tries to be an actor.

Yes, how about concentrating on customer service instead of walking aimlessly around like an idiot?

Probably gearing up to run a whole new slew of Pre-based ads.

Hesse gave up walking around looking for Sprint's credibility because even he knows that is is gone, poof, nadda.

I guess he figured out what "those devices" can do?

He did stop walking. Then he chose to get in his luxury, chauffeured town car instead, and rest his hands on a laptop while speaking down to us.

These commercials NEVER made me want to buy a Verizon phone... oh wait... i mean, these commercials NEVER made me want to buy a Sprint phone.

I don't know who went wrong with these commercials but no one can relate to them. They're not funny, not entertaining, and boring.

I much rather like the AT*T commercials with the mom yelling at the kids for throwing away rollover minutes, but then again... i have an AT*T phone! Go figure, guess they did the right thing.

Ben, Whats with the hate against Sprint? If your going to post near libelous statements at least back it up some how with some actual reporting.

In my experience Sprint customer service has been great because I know where to go. No matter what provider you pick try to go to a corporate store and not a franchise sales kiosk store. Also I have had no problems with their call centers and solutions have always been prompt.

I figured that once they ran the commercial where the CEO claims he'd rather spend his work day in the back of a taxi someone would decide that was enough.

I like to imagine the person on the other end of Hesse's call was his straight man foil, desperately trying to get him back to the office to steer the company and not his upstart acting career.

Assistant: "Dan, you have a meeting in twenty minutes with-"
Dan: "I'll be working from the road today."
A: "No. We talked about this, remember? You have to be here to..."
D: "Okie dokie, boss. See ya later!"
A: "Dan, No! You're the boss! Don't hang-"

@idip: I think AdAge found those commercials (the AT&T mom) ranked highest in 'most enjoyed' and 'most remembered' a week + a month after they were shown. They definitely ranked near the top.

However, I hate them. It's not their fault - I think they're done quite well. And the actors' comedic timing is great. But it feeds into a nasty trend that bugs me: AT&T doesn't have any women in its commercials who aren't 'moms'. Like those silly ones with the "bob didn't get this message so he doesn't know xxx" have all men and their hijinks, and then the mom with the dinosaur party disaster. No unattached ladies for AT&T!

/watches too much tv

@LiquidGravity: You're probably the only one. Good for you!

The stories on here about Sprint are pretty one sided. I would expect this type of reporting from MSNBC or Fox News, but not The Consumerist.

If you can post a story about T-Mobile's new discounted plans, why don't you post a story about the Sprint Everything Plus Referral Program or the Sprint Premier program ???

Try using your T-Mobile phone outside of a major city. You might lose your signal if too large a bird flies over you or you happen to sneeze.

@oneandone: I know someone who notices stuff like that. The Goodyear tire commercials irked her. It was either that all the babies were always white or there were just never any black babies. I can't remember which. But she said every other company that regularly uses babies in their ads has babies of all different colors except Goodyear.

It was weird because it seems to be true, even for TV shows: if it's cast with babies or small children the cast is usually diverse.

@LiquidGravity: Libelous? How?

@jacques: Eh, I was partial to Volkswagen holding it down on the engineering tip.

@oneandone: They're all going to hang in this hostel with the Techno Twins, Slad and Veter.

@chrisjames: The CEO of Sprint is Zander Cruise?!?!

@Rectilinear Propagation: Xander! I can't believe I spelled that wrong!

*braces for the bashing*

@LiquidGravity: Just because you have gotten good customer service from them does not invalidate the claims of millions of others.

[articles.moneycentral.msn.com]

Oh, and they spoke with their business too -- [blogs.zdnet.com]

I'd like to join in on the calls that Sprint actually seems to be taking its image seriously. I've been a customer for over 6 years and have never had a single issue with Sprint.

There've been a couple of cases even when I may have neglected to read the fine print (for instance, when a new [upgraded] plan started), and while I could have been made liable for some rather unexpected charges, they removed them always - no questions asked.

Additionally, their billing scheme seems reasonable, they offer excellent discounts, and my cell phone service has been stellar in in Southern and Northern California, as well as the East Coast.

Are there a few things Sprint could do better? Absolutely, but I generally see them a providing a superior service and value over their competition.

I doubt AT&T would be doing very well if they didn't have the exclusive iPhone contract.

@Rectilinear: You sure you don't mean Xander Crews? :)

far too close to real work.

far too close

I actually liked these ad's, they seemeed to be honest, like a conversation almost.

My experience with Sprint was unintelligable voice quality due to a low bitrate mixed with dismal and nasty representatives.

When my year was up I tried to cancel but was told that my billing started on the Saturday I bought the phone but my 12 months didn't start until Monday when they entered it into their computer. Since they didn't allow partial months I would have to pay for the 13th month and it was non-negotiable.

Obviously I'm a bigger prick than they're used to because they never did see that 13th month's money and they never saw another penny of my money.

I've been with Verizon ever since. Can you hear me now?

I like Sprint. $30/month for voice, unlimited texts, TV, and 3G internet with tether. Best mobile phone deal I ever got.

I can't believe this campaign lasted as long as it did - it was jaw-droppingly terrible.

I thought the guy was practicing his homeless skills in these dreadful commercials, in anticipation of his impending job loss...

I guess that will be next...

@Coelacanth:

It's not just the iPhone...sprint was in trouble as soon as it criticized the Android operating system by saying that it wasn't "up to par" to their standards so they never adopted it.

They are gonna end up eating their words...An open source operating system can only get better. If you don't like it sprint the source code is out there...make android work well for one of your phones and you could have saved your company's ass

The ads were fine. They just needed to introduce a hip young co-star who namedrops everything the kids like.

@oneandone: I seem to remember a commercial from AT&T with a teenage girl whining about how, due to her lack of AT&T, she would have to go to prom with the dorky guy instead of the studmuffin.

It made me sad because I look like the guy she was complaining about yet have enough good sense to avoid women like her. I feel like AT&T was basically saying every girl I ever dated did so only because said girls have crappy cell service and were unable to receive calls from the studs they desperately wanted to date.

My only regret with the whole situation is not suing AT&T frivolously for harming my ego with said commercial.