John Norris’ family is drinking a lot less milk these days. He said he considers the higher prices and has cut back on his kids’ milk consumption. But between work and family obligations, he still drives almost as much as he used to.
Retail Services
What's Wrong With Sprint's Customer Service? We'll Tell Ya.
By 12.20.07
Sprint has a new CEO, and, you know, it’s a tough job being “the new guy” and being charged with turning around a poorly performing company. So we thought we’d give Dan Hesse a hand and tell him what’s wrong with their phone-based customer service, seen as being one of their major weaknesses. We asked our readers for their thoughts and they had lots of neat ideas why Sprint customer service sucks. Some of them even have worked on the call center side of Sprint; their insights are especially revealing/frightening…
Gift Idea: Buy Someone A Magnum
By 12.19.07
Tyler Colman, Ph.D., also known as Dr. Vino, suggests giving magnums this year because those huge bottles have a smaller carbon footprint due to the more favorable wine-to-glass ratio.
AT&T Doesn't Work In Area It Advertises
By 12.19.07
AT&T has a new campaign advertises how it “works in more places like,” and then lists a fictional place that’s a mashup of three cities. The ads are appearing in the tunnels and trains of Washington DC Metro, a real place, where AT&T really doesn’t work. Only Verizon works down there. Commenter XianZomby writes, “I think before ATT works on getting their wireless network in places that don’t exist, they should focus on getting their cell phones to work in places where they advertise cell phone service.”
Amazon Is Unable To Ship A Hard Drive In Proper Packaging
By 12.19.07
Amazon should take a closer look at how they’re shipping hard drives, because the current plan just isn’t working.
Morning Deals
By 12.19.07
By 12.18.07
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24% of consumers say they won’t finish shopping until December 23rd. [Consumer Reports]
By 12.18.07
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And now we pause for a bit of shopping schedenfraude: Kate Moss’ collection is now “heavily discounted” at Barney’s. Can one sustain a coke habit at 50% off? [Barney’s via Racked]
Sprint Fixes Only 53% Of Problems On First Call
By 12.18.07
Sprint customer service reps can only fix 53% of of customer problems on the first call, according to an internal company document viewed by the WSJ. In contrast, T-Mobile has a 71% first-call fix rate, despite Sprint having nearly triple the amount of CSRs. That is really bad. Why is Sprint’s customer service so bad? Do they just hire incompetent people? Are they too focused on metrics, where the most important thing is that they spend the least amount of time on a call as possible? Are the reps underpaid? What, oh, what, is at the root of this customer service conundrum?
Sprint Names New CEO
By 12.18.07
Sprint named Dan Hesse as its new CEO, replacing Gary Forsee who was effectively fired in October. Dan used to be the CEO of Embarq, which was formerly Sprint’s local telephone division. 1997-200 he was the CEO of AT&T wireless for 3 years and worked there for a total of 23 years. He left that job to join a Seattle tech startup,Terabeam, which made free-space optical transceivers for Internet access in city downtowns. So the dude is has got some chops. Will his combination of experience and innovation be just what Sprint needs to staunch its subscriber base hemorrhaging? According to this Bloomberg article, Hesse helped slow profit bleeding at Embarq by closing call centers and creating service packages. In Sprint’s case, however, he needs to open more call centers. We shall see.
Macy's Website Asks You To "Wait Here A Few Moments While Other Shoppers Finish Up"
By 12.18.07
Mike
We like the “wait in line” style of the message. It’s a good way to remind people who shop online to avoid crowds that they’ve managed to fail in that regard.
"Injected Pork Water" Is Completely Out Of Control At Kroger
By 12.18.07
“At our local supermarket chain (Kroger), it is now impossible to buy any fresh pork product (except sausage and bacon, but what’s in them is a whole other story) that has not been “enhanced” by the injection of “up to 15%” of some kind of saltwater solution. Pork chops, pork loin, everything. And now chicken is getting this way, too – it is getting harder and harder to find any fresh chicken that has not been injected with “up to 15% chicken broth.” Even bone-in legs and thighs, now. When did this happen?“
Best Buy: Open Box Items Cost $30 More Because Of "Policy"
By 12.18.07
We get quite a few photos of funny open box “mistakes,” but this is the first one that came with a complaint.
Morning Deals
By 12.18.07
Tmobile Executive Resolutions Fax Number
By 12.17.07
If regular Tmobile customer service fails ya, you could always try faxing their executive resolution team. It might do you as much good as faxing the local Chinese store, but hey, it pays to dream.
Dollar Parity Results In Piles Of Clothes Discarded By Canadian Shoppers
By 12.17.07
Canadians are heading to the U.S. to do their shopping—and are leaving their old clothes behind in order to avoid paying a duty when they cross back into Canada.
Tmobile: Pay $239 For Calls You Didn't Make To Africa
By 12.17.07
Mike had his phone stolen and $239 in fraudulent calls made to Africa on November 4th, and even though he reported the charges on November 5th, Tmobile says he still has to pay up. Their inviolable policy is that you’re responsible for the charges up until you report the phone as stolen. Mike recorded his failed attempts to get Tmobile to credit his account.
