Sprint: The Provider That Won't Go Away

Our columnist tries to cancel his cellular service but the bills keep coming, an ordeal that adds to Sprint Nextel's record of service complaints

by Spencer E. Ante

It was an Aug. 2 letter threatening to report me to collection agencies that pushed me over the edge. After seven years of being a mostly satisfied Sprint Nextel (S) customer, two months earlier I had switched to Verizon Wireless. Since Sprint merged with Nextel in 2005, I had begun to notice a decline in network coverage. I got fed up with an increasing number of dropped calls and busy signals, and when someone began using my phone number illegally in May, I decided it was time to break up with Sprint.

But Sprint refuses to let me go. Since changing service providers, I have tried on three occasions to cancel my service. Over six weeks, I have spent about 10 hours on the phone with Sprint customer service representatives, repeatedly explaining my predicament. And yet Sprint refuses to cancel my contract and continues to charge me for service. "It seems they never have these glitches on the front end when they sign you up," says Russ Haven, legislative counsel for the New York Public Interest Research Group.

As a journalist covering technology, I had long known of service complaints against Sprint, but now I have experienced many of these frustrations firsthand. My tale reflects the troubles engulfing Sprint, and raises concerns over how soon the wireless carrier may emerge from its slump. In the second quarter, Sprint reported a 95% dive in profit as sales growth slowed and costs increased. One of the few glimmers of hope: Sprint attracted 373,000 new customers in the period, reversing three quarters of losses—though it continues to lag rivals AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless, which added 1.5 million customers and 1.3 million customers, respectively.

Churn Rate

Much of the improvement Sprint Nextel did experience emanated from a reduction in what the industry calls churn, or the average percentage of customers who disconnect service each month. On the conference call discussing results, Sprint Nextel boasted about its ability to keep customers longer. Sprint's churn decreased to just over 2%, compared with 2.1% a year ago and 2.3% in the preceding quarter.

Good news, perhaps. But throughout my ordeal, I couldn't help but wonder how many subscribers were in my predicament? How much of the improvement in churn—a closely watched performance measurement—was the result of deliberate delaying by Sprint?

Other companies have gotten into hot water for making it hard for customers to cancel service. On July 11, Time Warner's (TWX) America Online agreed to pay $3 million as part of a settlement with 48 states and the District of Columbia to resolve complaints that the online service provider made it extraordinarily difficult to cancel service. AOL customer service reps were paid bonuses of up to $3,000 if they convinced customers not to terminate the service. The agreement requires AOL to give refunds to consumers who can show that AOL billed them after a cancellation attempt. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called AOL's practices "outlandish and underhanded."

Jerry Adriano, Sprint's vice-president of customer experience, denies that the company is dragging its feet in processing cancellations. But he said the process of moving Sprint customers to the Nextel billing system hindered its ability to "perform certain transactions" for a short period. When asked if Sprint uses financial incentives to encourage service reps to keep customers on the books, Adriano said, "All companies have retention departments." And while I uncovered no indication Sprint is systematically delaying cancellations, I became all too familiar with a maddening bureaucracy that made it impossible for me to exit Sprint's subscriber rolls.

Cancellation Follies

Adriano said little to instill confidence in Sprint's attention to customer complaints. When I explained my situation, he did not take responsibility. Nor did he apologize for what I consider repeated mistakes and false promises. When I expressed shock at his lack of sympathy, Adriano replied, "It is not what we want to have happened."