Customer Service

Customer service will make or break a business. Bad customer service will be talked about endlessly. I know when I've encountered bad customer service, I will tell all who will listen. Nobody likes bad customer service. If I am spending my money at a business, then you better believe that I expect and deserve good customer service. If I do not get it, I will no longer be a customer. I will not pay to be mistreated by any one. That makes no sense at all. I thrive on good customer service. It makes me very happy. I will become a regular customer.

Perfect example of bad versus good customer service. I have been a Sprint customer for almost 7 years now. for the most part, I have never encountered any bad customer service until now. In July, my Evo's power button stopped working. I took my phone into a Sprint store. the tech "claimed" that my Evo wasn't working properly so he ordered me a replacement phone. In the week that it took for the replacement to arrive, my Evo was working perfectly. So, when the replacement arrived, I called the 1-800 # in the box. I talk ed to a rep who told me that I could return the replacement since my original was working fine. I placed everything that was in the box into the envelope that was provided. I handed the package to my mail carrier on July 9th. A week later, I called the same 1-800# to confirm that it had been received. I talked to another rep who told me that my package was back in the warehouse. Done deal right? Wrong! Almost two months later, I had a $375.19 charge on my bill for failure to return equipment. Say what now?!? I was livid!!

Thus began my month long calls to Sprint to get the charge removed. I spoke to no less than 25 associates. None of them could give me what I wanted. none of them had any answers. I was given a credit for the inconvenience but not a credit for the replacement Evo. If my sprint bill had been a month overdue, Sprint would not have been calling me daily to pay my bill. They would've interrupted my service quickly. It took almost a month, countless hours and 25 associates before I ever received GOOD customer service. Finally, I was able to speak to Rebecca in Mobile. She is the saving grace of this story. We spoke for over an hour. She was the only associate who was able to not only locate the returned merchandise (it was still sitting in the warehouse that I returned it to) and credit my account. She was nice and professional. She exemplified a great customer service rep. She saved me from being a "former" Sprint customer. She has restored my faith back into a company that I was beyond disgusted by.

I am a customer and a consumer. I am paying my money on said company's product. I want the company to do the job it is being paid for. That is not too much to ask. I deserve, demand and expect good customer service when I am spending my money. Bad customer service has pushed me into shopping online more. There are no reps there. It's that important to me. As a customer, I feel that I should be served in kind. I think if I had to talk to another Sprint customer service rep that I would have lost all of my cool. It would not have been pretty. but, I do not like to be overcharged. Especially when I am dealing with a clearly defective Evo right now. Good customer service equals a return customer. Isn't that the whole idea of consumerism?