Working for Sprint was a mixed bag.
On one hand, I got to work with some amazing people. Like Jacob Martinez and Jason Calhoun, both technicians of the highest order. Both people who love their job and do it right. People who I see have a high standard of ethics.
But, unfortunately, not everyone in Sprint has the same love or desire to help the customer as they do, starting with the management. Some managers decide to take a Starbucks break whenever things get rough, or head over to the tanning beds. Or even pretend the customers aren't there, and that no one can see them. Meanwhile, their store becomes less about the customer, and more about the sales men and women that can get to the sales that pay, or score, the most.
What is lost in the rush to make money is ultimately the primary reason people keep coming back to a subscription service - service!
If your in store support is terrible, and your network is being overhauled, people are not going to be happy! Not to mention, the sales reps that are there to help - the ones still there to trouble shoot the issues instead of just shooing the customer away - are left in the dust. So Sprint will fill in the gaps will new hires, with no experience, who know nothing about the phones or past issues, so long as they can learn the game.
But don't worry, Sprint / Soft-bank cares nothing about it's employees anyway.
This is the same company that denied me baby bonding time. Made me work the rest of the entire month, which, I ended up #3 in the District in composite score and that was missing 1 selling day because of my son being born. Could have won a T.V. that month, oh well. I got something way better.
This is the same company that denied me my religion holidays because the iPhone was going to launch the next day. I had requested the date months in advance via outlook as management requested, but only right before launch was I put on the schedule against my request. When I asked why, I was threatened with not working Black Friday, the busiest selling day of the year. When I complained to my District Manager, he claimed he never heard of such an issue.
This is the same company that has a Regional Manager who makes the entire Southern California region wear black - which is trivial unless you consider we live in a Desert! With temperatures last summer reaching 115 degrees where I worked! You still have to walk to and from the buildings Jay Butt.
If this company cared about the bottom line for itself, it would care about the bottom line for it's employees.
In a very telling display of incompetence, Sprint last year unveiled a new compensation package for employees. Instead of in the old days where they told lower management what is going to happen, they sprung it upon us. So what they got, they got.
The same District Manager who was oblivious to my issues, stated in a District meeting one day, that they were lowering the maximum payout for Activations. Activations, are new lines of service that are started - no matter what the device. This is the holy grail of Sprint. New lines of service drive revenue and so they incentivize it the most. They lowered it from it's old 2.0 payout, to 1.8, and then asked us, who even hit the 2.0 payout last year more than once?
Two people raised their hands. Myself and one other gentleman who, and I love him, but is a known "cherry picker." In fact, he even has a song written about it from another former employee that many of the old time employees from the area still laugh at because we know it's true. I won't share it, but it's hillarious.
The point is, I did it honestly. I did it with respect for my customers. I didn't, as my manager told me to do one day, rip someone off. I don't do that.
But that is the culture that is promoted within Sprint. A culture of contempt.
It's not everyone, so don't get me wrong, but there are some real smucks.
When the new plans were released I said sticking to unlimited was a bad idea because people care about price and service first. Why choose Sprint when I can walk into Verizon and get better service, for less? It was staggering just how much less they were (and I built excel spread sheets to break down prices for my customers, so I know a thing or two about comparison pricing).
Sprint, with it's current mindset and plans, just can't compete.
It's not ironic that they are hemorrhaging customers.
.
Anyway, so Sprint, as a name, looks done. Too many bad memories, perhaps?
CNBC: If Sprint and T-Mobile merge, the new company will ditch the name ‘Sprint’
http://bgr.com/2014/06/16/sprint-t-mobile-acquisition-details/
Well Sprint, it was nice knowing you, and thanks for all the fish.
