I'm starting to realize why people have a bad attitude all the time. Customer service in America is awful. These giant corporate machines are designed for efficiency but are completely clueless. I had that disastrous eBay incident that only made me angry and frustrated. Now I'm trying to switch my cell carrier to Sprint and can't seem to find anyone competent. I've spent far more time on hold than talking to people. No wonder people have a bad attitude.

I signed up for Sprint this week. I love my Sidekick and hated to leave T-Mobile, but Sprint offered me A Deal--a real good deal. After hunting and pecking around through internet message boards, I found a promo code that allowed average schmucks like me sign up for Sprint's employee rate. For $30 a month, I get 500 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends starting at seven, and data access. That's half of the 60 I'm currently paying. Sure, that's a downgrade in minutes--but the early night time should help compensate for that.

I had to get a new phone--no one could ever hear me on my Sidekick anymore. The calls kept breaking up (my bookie was very unpleased). I tried software upgrades and resets--it didn't matter. I was thinking maybe the mic started to go. But even I was having problems hearing certain sounds. All in all, it was time--I had the phone for more than two years (an eternity to this gadget geek). So I searched the internet for A Deal and decided to make the jump to Sprint. I'm getting an über-cool phone and a smaller bill. It's just a smart business move.

That being said, I'm greatly concerned with Sprint's customer service. T-Mobile was no picnic either but from what I've seen so far, their head and shoulders above the bozos at Sprint. I ordered the phone online on Monday and didn't get it until Friday. Immediately upon removal from the box, I realized the phone I ordered wasn't going to work. I had a strong suspicion of disappointment before ordering but figured an exchange would be simple.

I was wrong.

I called Sprint last night. Hold time wasn't too bad (maybe a couple of minutes) but it all went downhill from there. I spoke to a woman who tried to help me but she wanted to charge me an additional $200 to change phones.

"Why? I'm looking at your website right now and both phones are listed at $100," I told her.

She put me on hold only to return with "computer problems" and transferred me to another representative. Unfortunately, he was stricken with the same computer problem disease (either Sprint employs too many computer illiterates or they need a new infrastructure). The rep told me that I could go into a Sprint store and perform the exchange there.

I didn't sleep well last night. I was super-excited about getting my new phone. Either that or I was super-excited by a great date I had. My money is on the phone...but if the girl asks it's because of her.

The Sprint store opened at ten and I was on the road by 9:50 (hoping to beat the early crowd: last week I visited a Sprint store and sat around for 45 minutes before walking out). When I got to the store, I told the receptionist that I wanted to exchange an online purchase to which she promptly replied: "You can't do that here."

"What do you mean I can't do that here? I just spoke to someone last night in your sales department who told me I could--it was his suggestion."

"A lot of the people in customer service don't know what they're talking about."

Angry that I wasted my time and gas, I decided to get to the bottom of this. "I'm going to call customer service to straighten this out," I told her. This 19-year old princess who clearly wasn't interested in helping anyone who couldn't get her a commission check. Maybe I could get someone from the corporate office to light a fire under her ass.

A voice recording told me that I was looking at a 20-minute wait, which seemed like an awfully long time for someone with something better to do. Besides, I didn't wanna hafta wait around for something that might eventuall prove to be fruitless anyway. I decided to cover all my bases before I spent my Saturday morning inside a Sprint store.

"Before I wait too long, do you have the Moto Q in stock," I asked the princess.

"Oh no," she said.

Either she was lying or couldn't help me. In any case, I was wasting my time. I drove home while waiting on hold (thank goodness for speaker phone: if I had to hold the phone up to my ear I would have been even more irate). This is a huge problem with th world today. The corporations have no problem jerking us around. I could wait on hold for an eternity and they wouldn't care. The receptionist at work tells me all sorts of stories about how rude people are to her when they call. As much as I feel for her, it makes sense. Customers are so used to being jerked around, transferred, or put on hold, people are miserable before they pick up the phone. It's a hopeless situation 'cause there's nothing you can do about it. I've wasted far too much of my life waiting on hold. Thinking about it makes me very angry. I feel my shoulders getting tense and stress out when I think about it.

By the time a rep answered my call, I updated two pages on my website and completed a new iRANT. Unfortunately, she couldn't help me and had to transfer me to sales division. More waiting lead to another person who couldn't help me and he had to transfer me to the exchange division (which begs the question: how many idiots does it take to sell a phone?). This wasn't anything out of the ordinary--not like my eBay incident. This was a simple, run-of-the-mill exchange. I'm sure they literally get thousands of these in a day. You'd think Sprint would have a procedure for this.

The third person I spoke to must've been part deaf 'cause she kept repeating that she couldn't hear me (of course, I am buying a new phone because of that problem). She asked for my account info and put me on hold. A few minutes later my call was answered by a different person.

I was livid. Not only was I tired of telling the same tale to everyone I spoke to, I was really pissed off at the deaf girl who didn't say she was transferring me anywhere: she said she was putting me on hold. My guess is that she was just as incompetent as the previous four reps and wanted to dump me off on someone else.

Luckily, sixth time is the charm. This gal seemed to know what to do. She was friendly and informed. It took all of two minutes for her to arrange for a new phone to be sent to me. I'm supposed to get it later on in the week.

When I hung up, I saw the timer on my phone: 42 minutes, 25 seconds. During that time I spoke to four representatives and spent probably a half-hour on hold. Last night I spoke to two representatives for 21 minutes and 35 seconds. And if you include the princess, that makes seven different Sprint employees I had to talk with about one return. Total phone time is over an hour--not to mention the 15 minutes I wasted in the store. That's a whole lot of buffoonery for one standard exchange. No wonder people are unpleasant--they're tired of dealing with idiots.

© 2007 siknerd.com