I blogged yesterday about what is now referred to as the "Sprint 1000" marketing blunder, where Sprint in a very rude and inhumane way announced to 1,000 of its fully paid-up, not delinquent existing and loyal customers - who all had had problems with their service, but who Sprint felt were calling too many times, that their contracts are cancelled.

Since that story, I wrote my Open Letter to Sprint Nextel top management. That Open Letter has been kindly referenced on many blogs. Readers among us, please feel free to blog about this story and reference that Open Letter if you would like to link to our take on the story.

But now for some updates. This is a PR nightmare that is really going badly for Sprint Nextel.

SPRINT NEXTEL IS WORST

First some background. Sprint Nextel is regularly rated very poorly for its customer service. But how bad, I was surprised to find that this spring in MSN Money's survey of worst customer satisfaction in America, Sprint Nextel came out on "top". Notice not only as the worst telecoms provider in America, the worst COMPANY in America. This was on May 3, 2007. Oh. And how bad are they? They are 33% worse than the number two company on that shameful list, they are the worst company in America by a country mile. If Customer are from Venus and Companies are from Mars. Sprint Nextel is so far beyond, they are from Pluto, a rock not even classified as a planet anymore.

But it does get worse as we all can tell, this is a train-wreck happening before our eyes. Two months ago, in a spine-chilling prelude to the Sprint 1000 disaster, MSN Money wrote in that article in May:

"Are you surprised by the results?  I’m not.  Go ahead and do a blog search on “Sprint Customer Service”.  You’ll find dozens upon dozens of horror stories.  Hmmm, do you think Sprint cares?  What has their media people been up to?  Are they even tuned into the internet?  Well, it does seem like the company is addressing their customer service issues which have stemmed from the merge with Nextel.  According to a Sprint spokeswoman, one example of progress is a three-page bill versus the previous six pages in addition to a "Buzz About Wireless" forum where you can post your issues and connect with other Sprint customers. That’s all fine and dandy, but can you fix your customers' issues when they call you with a problem?"

We now know the answer, and that is no. Sprint Nextel won't fix your problems if you call to complain. They shoot you like a US Vice President, "in the face" as comedian Jon Stewart of the Daily Show would say. Or do the next-best thing, in a pure Drumsfeldian move - they disconnect you. Permanently.

"WORKING TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE"

Well, at least the CEO Gary Forsee is on the job. In May he was quoted in promising to work on customer service.  As Xchange Online reported on 13 June, "Gary Forsee, Sprint’s chairman and CEO, told investors in early May that the company is working to... improve its customer service."

And straight from the Rumsfeld/Cheney playbook: Say one thing, smile, do the exact opposite. This is what CEO Forsee meant when he said they are "working to improve its customer service." Yeah. Stiffle all who complain. That should cut down on the reported number of complaints? Where is my shotgun, I have some more messengers to kill...

RETURNING IRAQ ARMY VETS TOSSED ALSO OUT

But yes, this is a bad bad bad story. Lets move to the next revellation. There are more who were tossed out. Current actively serving American soldiers. Yes. Heroes. Sprint Nextel also decided to disconnect people who use their roaming "too much."  So first, Sprint sells you a service which has roaming. Then it gives you a map showing where the roaming works. But if you use that service they marketed and sold to you, then they disconnect you. And how? This is nasty.. 

Yes. Sprint Nextel excellence in customer service again. They also cancelled the phones of 200 army users for roaming too much. But get this - this is in America, within Sprint Nextel's OWN coverage map - according to their own info, that is a not-roaming area, they are "covered". So this is a SPRINT NEXTEL technology failure. But not fix the failure, punish the customer. That is the motto. What is the place where 200 soldiers might converge and Sprint Nextel can't guess it might need occasional telecoms traffic? (I hate this, I love that place, a beautiful fortress, I've debated at tournaments held there, what competent network planner fails to notice their network drops calls at an army base which is also a historical monument and a major tourist destination? why is Sprint Nextel this incompetent?) ... West Point Military Academy, that is where, as reported in Consumerist. Since this disaster broke, Sprint Nextel has had the guts to apologise and reinstate.

ENGAGEMENT? OR DIS-ENGAGEMENT

Oh boy. Then from closer to home with us at Communities Dominate. When we started to write about the story, our good friend David Cushman over at Faster Future blog points out that if a customer in good standing complains, that is NEVER a bad thing. Something is wrong with YOU if you cannot fix those issues (I'll get back to this later). The point we discussed with David was - that this is actually the diametrically opposite of our philosophy, of engagement marketing. This is DIS-engagement marketing. This is "shut up or you will be terminated". I am the decider. You shut up. No wonder Sprint CEO is good buddies with US President Bush, he serves on one of Bush's panels advising the President. Great. If America's worst customer service company - by a huge margin - promises to improve customer service and then fires bunches of customers, I think this is the kind of advice the current President Bush does not need. His approval rankings are bad enough as it is.

FORREST GUMP CALLS TO FIX PROBLEM WITH HIS PHONE

And it gets worse. Our friend Russell Buckely at Mobhappy has written about the probability that some of these "Sprint 1000" customers are actually of low mental ability. Obviously not all. But think about it. 54 million subscribers on Sprint Nextel's network. It will have hundreds of thousands of customers who are of very modest IQ's, think Forrest Gump. Still capable of surviving in society, not "insane" but just of very modest mental ability. Then think - these too will want, and get, mobile phones. Some will have problems with them. Sprint Nextel has enabled something on the phone, suddenly it does something different than before, this can be frightening. It can easily result in a reason to call back and again and again. The customer service reps - who by the way are now in India, as Sprint Nextel's CEO's plans to improve customer service of course meant that the calling center had to be moved to India, with their different accents and linguistic idioms no doubt helping American customers of the worst customer service company feel better served? But I digress. Imagine Forrest Gump. He has a problem, he calls the calling center, and it doesn't seem to get solved.

For you and me, it will be solved. We can understand what the guy (perhaps excepting for some heavy accent) is saying but someone of low mental ability. I'm very sure that in that set of the Sprint 1000 there are a few, a dozen, maybe a hundred, who seem like annoying customers, but in reality are mentally simple, and don't really understand easily, and that is why they call back. Or perhaps someone with Altzheimers, forgot that the issue was resolved, calls back again. And again. And again. Now. EVERYBODY has some of these customers. They mean no harm. It is a cost of doing business. But what happens, if a few of these get found out. A concerned brother or sister of a simple person, or perhaps the son or daughter of an Altzheimer patient finds the abusive letter by Sprint Nextel, and decides to talk to 60 Minutes.

Like Russell Buckley wrote this is a very realistic problem and raises a whole new can of ethical worms - if that story breaks on 60 Minutes or another such TV show, that is a totally different order of magnitude of a PR nightmare.

THIS IS THE WORST PART

But I have one last bit of sad news to report. This goes to the heart of the story. Yesterday Sprint Nextel spokeswoman Roni Singleton was quoted in the Boston Globe defending her employer and saying Spring Nextel is not apologising. But read carefully what she was quoted as saying:

"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 40 to 50 calls a month to customer service. 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.

Lets de-construct that. Take the last sentence. Roni Singleton admits, there was an internal review of customers who called 40-50 times per month. And Roni Singleton is sure that these customers who were terminated, their cases involved matters that had been resolved.

STOP

Sprint Nextel has thousands MORE of customers calling 40-50 times per month? And these 1000 who had been terminated were of the kind where the matter "had been resolved" So there are several thousands - if not tens of thousands of American mobile phone owners, with so bad service experience, that Sprint Nextel legitimately admits they HAVE LEGITIMATE REASON TO CALL 40 to 50 times per month - and the problems for these thousands more are STILL NOT RESOLVED today.

This company then decides to "innovate in customer service" by terminating those Sprint 1000 who complained, who Sprint thinks, their issues had been resolved.

How dare they? Not until ALL cases of lingering complaints that last for many months, having utterly frustrated American customers calling 40-50 times per month, have been resolved. If Sprint Nextel fully well knows there are thousands of customers who legitimately call to complain, because Sprint Nextel can't fix their problems, then what right do they have to decide these Sprint 1000 were calling too much?

Anyone out there reading, thinking these are whining customers who "bitch and moan" who complain day in and day out - do read that carefully, and observe. Sprint Nextel admits, they have thousands of customers who get so bad service, that they have LEGITIMATE REASON to call the calling center to complain 40 to 50 times per month for many months. No. Now we cannot justify this firing in any way.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD

If Sprint Nextel is the worst customer service company, its CEO promises Sprint Nextel investors he will make customer service better, and then rather than get all problems resolved they make matters worse time and again, this is a nasty story that needs to be told and not forgotten.

Please spread the word. And please do reference my Open Letter to Sprint Nextel. Obviously if they had any brains at all, they'd issue the apology now and be done with this. They did that for the army guys already, so what is keeping them? I find no sympathy for a company which comes out worst in customer service and then does all this.

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Tomi T Ahonen is a bestselling author and independent consultant in the emerging areas of next generation wireless who lectures at Oxford University and is seen annually at about 20 telecoms/IT conferences on six continents. His expertise includes the business, applications, services, partnering and marketing of wireless technologies. Tomi provides advanced wireless service marketing plan workshops and business case audits for operators/carriers; new service creation workshops; and value chain analysis for content providers and assists global media, IT and telecoms companies on their transitions to a digitally converged world.

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