Roudi's dashboard

Just a note on Sprint's customer service - one of the ways they're trying to improve is moving their outsourced centers to higher-quality, dedicated customer service providers in Canada. Nextel has had several outsourced centers in Canada with a stellar track record, and Sprint has taken notice.

The merger with Nextel seemed like a good idea at the time, I'm sure. Both providers had a different customer base: Sprint had many general consumers, and Nextel catered to businesses. From a corporate standpoint, a merger that increases your customer base without crossover is a no-brainer.

The implementation of that merger, however, hasn't proven to be a benefit in all cases.

Sprint and Nextel use incompatible networks. CDMA and iDEN are two very different technologies. Since the merger, Sprint has pursued the idea of a Hybrid device, using CDMA for it's voice and data services, and iDEN for walkie-talkie/direct connect. So far that's been met with a lot of complication: high battery drain in the devices when not receiving coverage from both networks, lack of a smartphone in the lineup, and lack of an affordable consumer model. Plus, implementing Hybrid phones in the billing system is a true headache.

Speaking of the billing system, this is one area where the merger will eventually have a positive effect. Sprint and Nextel each had their own billing systems, with Nextel's easily being the superior platform. Sprint has been in the process of converting its millions of accounts from it's legacy billing platform into the Nextel system, resulting in a universal platform that will make customer service so much easier. The conversion process itself can result in some hiccups and inconveniences, and to those affected by an account conversion issue, I apologize. In the long run, it will make things so much better.

Things with Sprint are awfully hectic right now, between the drive to seriously improve our level of customer service, to migrate accounts into the unified platform, and testing new technologies. A year from now, I expect Sprint will be a very different, vastly improved wireless provider.

I'd like to apologize for both the sales rep you dealt with (who sold you on a plan that wasn't available in your area) and the cancellation rep (who apparently intended to commit fraud to get you to avoid cancellation). This kind of behaviour is utterly unacceptable at Sprint.

It's been a month since you reported this issue. Could you provide a follow-up on what you've done since then? If you're still with Sprint, there's a chance I can help.