jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) (08/05/90)
Maybe I'm the only one. My LD phone bill is ranges from $5-$40 a month. It was $10-50 under AT&T. I call my family once a week, and make the occasional 3-5 minute call to London to order records from Tower London. I've never had a call I didn't make show up on my bill, and I've never had line quality problems -- I've uucp'd finland quite easily, and calling London gives me a better quality line than calling my mom in Louisiana. When I was laid off with an hour's notice (ah, the joys of contracting :-), the Sprint accounting/billing people were understanding and didn't disconnect me even though I couldn't make my payments for a few months. (Just thought I'd try to balance the numerous I-hate-Sprint messages. :-) J. Eric Townsend -- University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120 Internet: jet@uh.edu Bitnet: jet@UHOU Skate UNIX(r) [Moderator's Note: Actually, there are lots of satisfied Sprint customers, but like in so many transactions, the satisfied customers are never heard from. PT]
John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com> (08/05/90)
"J. Eric Townsend" <jet@karazm.math.uh.edu> writes: > I've never had a call I didn't make show up on my bill, and I've never > had line quality problems -- I've uucp'd Finland quite easily, and > calling London gives me a better quality line than calling my mom in > Louisiana. When I was laid off with an hour's notice (ah, the joys of > contracting :-), the Sprint accounting/billing people were > understanding and didn't disconnect me even though I couldn't make my > payments for a few months. > (Just thought I'd try to balance the numerous I-hate-Sprint messages. :-) It's not really so much a matter of Sprint bashing. If that were the case, I would never even bothered to give them a try. I am the first to support a deserving underdog and really resent our largest corporations strong-arming and bullying their way through the marketplace. If there would be any way around AT&T, I would be the first through the door. But not only did my little trial end in failure, it appears that the company has no desire to meet me half way to correct the situation. Everyone has problems from time to time; even AT&T. But when I had similar problems on AT&T, the response was phenomenal and the people that I dealt with truly acted as though my account was the most important one they had at the moment. Technicians actually called my modem line (I saw it go off hook) and called the other end as well. They reported back that the levels were OK so they were going to look into the matter further. The problem was corrected within 48 hours. Sprint on the other hand virtually ignored me for three days and it was only when I became a pest that they even bothered to wave me off with, "we have determined the problem to be in your equipment." Every converstion with a Sprint person ended with, "we certainly appreciate your business". Actions, however, speak louder than words. What I heard was, "use our lines the way they are and don't make trouble." Most assuredly, there are satisfied Sprint customers. If that wasn't true, they would be out of business right now, not just losing money. I am also convinced that there are areas in the country that get superior service from Sprint. This, however, is not one of them. IMHO this a major mistake on their part since the Silicon Valley probably is responsible for a disproportionate share of data communications. Being unusable for data somewhat limits Sprint's merchantability. But the thrust here is not that Sprint has problems. Everyone has problems. It's what are they willing to do, down to the individual level, to solve them? > [Moderator's Note: Actually, there are lots of satisfied Sprint > customers, but like in so many transactions, the satisfied customers > are never heard from. PT] And unfortunately in business, it isn't the satisfied customers but the unsatisfied ones that you need to worry about the most. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
Jim Gottlieb <jimmy@icjapan.info.com> (08/07/90)
In article <10467@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com> writes: >But the thrust here is not that Sprint has problems. Everyone has >problems. It's what are they willing to do, down to the individual >level, to solve them? An oft-stated line in my company is: "AT&T is still the only REAL long distance company." We have circuits (both T1 and analog) from AT&T, Sprint, and Telesphere. As John mentioned above, the AT&T's superiority really shines when it comes to needed repairs. The people at AT&T's service department are technically-qualified people who act professionally and work quickly to get the problem at hand repaired. They issue a ticket number, and at any time we can call back and get a status update. This is often not necessary however, as AT&T's people call us and keep us informed. The problem is usually repaired rather quickly. Other carriers' service is a joke. Telesphere's switch personnel go home at 5 p.m., and any after-hours repair requires that the local switchperson be paged and drive in to the office. Sprint is little better. The people you talk to in the service department are no more knowledgable than the customer service reps (they may be the same). They will often tell us, "I'm sorry. That switch is unattended until Monday morning. We won't be able to fix [your T-1] until then." We don't accept answers like that in a 24-hour business like ours, but the fact that they try to get away with it tells a lot. In fact, ever getting to speak with a technically-minded person is near impossible. If your business relies on communications circuits that work, it is worth whatever extra that AT&T charges. I have many complaints about AT&T too, but in this area, they have no equals or even close competitors.