Ad Watchdog Says Sprint Should Stop Calling Itself ‘New’ And ‘Improved’
What are those claims? Here are a few that T-Mobile cited in their complaint:
Of course, anyone who watches ads critically knows that “most improved U.S. company in customer satisfaction” probably means that company has gone from bad to merely mediocre. NAD’s analysis shows that even that isn’t true in the case of Sprint: while the company’s customer service ratings with the ACSI went up from 2008 to 2011, this figure conveniently ignores ratings since 2011. It will probably not surprise you that Sprint’s customer service rating has gone down during that period, which is conveniently left out of the statistic.
What about the claims that the network is new, though? While Sprint has been working hard to upgrade its network for the last few years, alienating current customers in the process, they’ve been upgrading it. Using words like “new” and “from the ground up” implies that Sprint tossed out the entire old network and started over from nothing. While Sprint’s LTE service has vastly improved, that doesn’t make it new.
In a statement, Sprint told NAD that it would take the group’s findings into consideration for future ads.
Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.