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Only The Strong Survive

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Posts posted by Only The Strong Survive

  2. Posted · Report reply

    Anyone who hasn't been paying attention should be terrified of the Colts right now. They're only getting healthier and, despite the loss of Freeney, have a murderous defense. Manning is on. They're missing their best pass rusher and best WR and they're fucking people up.

     

    Yes, well considering I'm an Oakland fan, now I'm terrified... thanks.

     

  5. Posted · Report reply

    Mecca is exactly right. Steve Austin was extremely pissed at Jarrett for his comments and totally buried him in the process. He was on the short list with Owen Hart as guys Austin refused to work with. I know that Russo intended to put him in the main event on several occassions until to have it shot down by Austin. That's why Jarrett jumped ship the second his contract expired. He saw that he was never going to get a fair shake in the company.

     

    Did Austin not want to work with Owen because of the Summerslam incident that nearly killed him?

  7. Posted · Report reply

    Here's a follow-up article... a lot of the same stuff but still interesting.

     

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    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070710/ap_on_...nated_customers

     

    Sprint Nextel defends cutting customers

     

    By DAVID TWIDDY, AP Business Writer 2 hours, 28 minutes ago

     

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Sprint Nextel Corp. isn't apologizing for its decision to ax customers it determined were calling customer service too often.

     

    The nation's third-largest wireless provider sent letters to about 1,000 subscribers June 29, saying the company's records showed they had made frequent calls for help with questions about billing and other account information.

     

    "While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time had led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs," the letters said.

     

    The customers were told their service agreements were being terminated, they wouldn't owe anything on their final bill, and the company would waive early termination fees. They also were told to switch to another wireless provider by July 30 if they want to keep their phone number.

     

    In debate on the Internet, Sprint's move has attracted criticism that the company is penalizing consumers for trying to get what they paid for, or that the frequent calls are more a reflection of poor customer service by Sprint itself.

     

    But Sprint officials said Monday this isn't a case of someone being flagged by a computer program, and that an internal review lasting six months to a year focused on the types of problems the callers had and what information they were seeking.

     

    "These accounts have been researched very carefully," Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton said. "We feel strongly that the decisions we made, we stand by them. These decisions weren't made lightly."

     

    Singleton said the targeted subscribers each made an average of 40 to 50 calls a month to customer service. She wouldn't say how that compared with the overall number of calls logged by the customer service department in a given month.

     

    Singleton said the review also found that the subscribers often were calling about the same problems over and over after Sprint officials felt they had resolved the issue. She said some callers were repeatedly asking for information from other customers' accounts, which customer service workers aren't allowed to divulge.

     

    "If the average person is calling less than once per month and these people are calling 40 or 50 times more, that takes away from customer service," Singleton said. "Our priority is to improve the customer experience."

     

    Officials at competitors AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless said that while they may terminate customers who are abusive toward customer service operators or violate other terms of their service agreements, they don't terminate customers because of customer service calls.

     

    "We have never severed ties with customers in a mass mailing like this," said Verizon spokeswoman Cheryl Bini Armbrecht.

     

    CIBC World Markets analyst Tim Horan said in a research note to investors that he didn't see anything alarming with Sprint's decision.

     

    "Sprint has taken a number of steps to improve the 'quality' of its customer base and we view this measure in the same light," Horan wrote.

     

    Sprint, which has about 54 million subscribers, has been trying to upgrade its customer base, tightening credit requirements and attempting to attract customers who will spend more each month on data services, such as Internet browsing, music downloads and streaming video.

     

    During the most recent quarter, the company said it gained just 600,000 new customers, while AT&T and Verizon gained 1.2 million and 1.7 million, respectively.

     

    Earlier this month, Sprint unveiled a new marketing campaign aimed at highlighting its network speed and capabilities, an attempt to distance itself from earlier marketing campaigns that were criticized as unfocused and confusing.

  9. Posted · Report reply

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070709/us_nm/sprint_dc

     

    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp, which recently launched an advertising campaign to attract new customers, is disconnecting more than 1,000 subscribers for calling its customer service lines too often and making what the company called unreasonable requests.

     

    The No. 3 U.S. wireless provider with 53 million customers said on Monday it started sending service termination letters on June 25. Sprint said the cancellations involved 1,000 to 1,200 customers who had called the company about 40,000 times a month in total.

     

    "These customers were calling to a degree that we felt was excessive," said Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton, adding the company needed to cull its customer base to improve services.

     

    "In some cases they were calling customer care hundreds of times a month for a period of six to 12 months on the same issues even after we felt those issues had been resolved," she said.

     

    Singleton, noting that mass cancellation letters were not routine, said this call volume was 40 to 50 times more than average customer monthly calls. She would not say how often customers can call before being deemed too demanding.

     

    The company also declined to say what percentage of monthly service calls the 40,000 figure represented.

     

    Singleton said some of the cancellations involved customers who repeatedly asked for information about other people's accounts.

     

    Sprint waived final balances on canceled accounts and gave customers 30 days to transfer their phone numbers to other wireless providers, she said.

     

    "We're working very hard to improve customer service. That's our number one priority," Singleton said.

     

    The termination letters started going out days before Sprint kicked off a nationwide "Sprint Ahead" ad campaign on July 1. Sprint's customer growth has disappointed investors for several quarters after its marketing message was criticized as being confusing and it had network problems after its 2005 purchase of Nextel.

     

    Providers AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, were quick to point out differences between their policies and Sprint's, saying they very rarely cancel services.

     

    AT&T, the U.S. wireless service with the greatest number of subscribers, sometimes cancels or restricts services for customers for "excessive data or voice roaming on other carriers' networks," according to spokesman Mark Siegel, who said competitors had similar policies.

     

    Tom Pica, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless which is second to AT&T by number of customers, said his company sometimes cancels services for callers who are "extremely abusive" to its customer service representatives. But, he said, this would be handled on a case-by-case basis.

     

    Sprint shares were down 32 cents at $21.55 on the New York Stock Exchange early Monday afternoon.

     

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    I see the point, but at the same time, for the crazy rates these companies charge, it's only fair that the customers should be 100% satisified, even if some of them can become a huge pain to deal with.

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