Will Sprint go bankrupt?
 

I know some of you worked there.

What's their main problems? Bad service?

Their stock has tanked. http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=S

Year-over-year operating income is down 69 percent. They're expected to lose another 1.2 million subscribers (out of 53.8M) this quarter, about the same amount it lost in all of 2007. He said it could lose even more customers in the second quarter.

So yeah, I'd say it's a strong possibility.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/te...059ae9c5a5e%0A

I've heard they're going to the new technology and stocking up on tin cans and string.

no, Hesse seems to actually care about turning this thing around and not just getting all the bonus money he can *cough cough Forsee cough cough Esrey cough cough*

yes i do and have worked at Sprint a while. if Hesse didn’t seem legit on changing things and getting the company to succeed then the answer is yes. Just like the wheel on wheel of fortune says. BANKRUPT

as for the stock price..it can drop all it wants. the lower it gets the cheaper it is to buy and the bigger the gains when everything gets turned around.

everyone wants to bag on sprint but what is overlooked is that Hesse is actualy discussing its issues instead of making excuses and not fixing them. trust me he knows we have a CS issue as well as a churn issue for starters. knowing where you need to go is half the battle after all.

http://www.lumpen.com/events/popup/GIJoesFiday_8pm.jpg

Some person advised buying their stock because it's so low.

I said wait a sec....... they might go bankrupt!

From what I have read, the problem is that their subscribers are fleeing.

The organization constantly being in flux probably doesn't help either.

A site I looked at the other day had them rated at "Sell" unless I'm mistaken

poor leadership didnt help us much either.

Contrarian risk takers who think the stock wont go down further and only has upside.

Bad customer service

Bad signal, in their home city (KC) nonetheless. That's why I switched to Verizon.

Sprint is a bad combo of poor coverage/technology and arrogant, lazy customer service. Other than that, it's a great company to do business with. I left them as soon as I possibly could after seriving my 2 year contract/sentence.

Ditto this. I was losing calls in my living room, for ****s sake.

Buy on the margin 110 share cash it out then when the price goes down buy 110 shares returned and keep the profit.

LMAO


I've been told by a couple of employees there was a time when Sprints service wouldn't work on their campus.

Never did the options.

Can rephrase it in english? haha.

When I first switched from verizon to sprint I hated them, but I have to say in the last year they have really improved. I have had them for three years, and I have seen better customer service and support already. They messed up my bill one time, and they promptly changed it when I called in. I had difficulties getting service in areas of my home when I first started, but for some reason I now have much better reception in those areas where I used to not be able to get a signal. Additionally, I pay 44 dollars for unlimited texts, unlimited picture msgs, 600 minutes, and high speed internet on my phone. I am a happer camper with sprint now.

I used to have Nextel, and never had a dropped call. One of Sprint's fine customer service reps, I think it was either Lucy or Sandy from Bangladesh, talked me in to switching to their state-of-the-art hybrid phones. SHe did a poor job of explaining that what the hybrid phones do is use Sprints PCS network and Nextel's direct connect feature.

Of course, the Sprint coverage, even here in a well populated area, is the absolute worst of all carriers here. I can't even use my phone a home without having a call dropped, and there's a freaking Nextel tower right out of the back of my property.

ANd also, every damned time I do anything to my account, they make me extend my contract for 2 FREAKING YEARS!!

Needless to say, my contract and my time with SPrint will expire in August.

Yep, I had to go outside on the front porch to talk on my phone when I had Sprint in KC.

ya know guys i dont mind the bagging on Sprint b/c they do have issues but for everyone who is hell bent on seeing them go belly up just think what thats going to do to KC. :harumph:

we appear to have good leadership finally and that’s what is needed to make progress. Rome wasn’t built in a day, if anyone can turn Sprint around Hesse can. if for one reason only he WANTS to do so. before anyone asks no i don’t feel that Forsee gave a rats :cuss: about the companies. both Sprint AND Nextel. in the end may they fail? sure that’s a risk of business. but i feel the main issue is that for the past 6 - 10 years everyone’s been classically conditioned to automatically hate sprint. all i ask is that when (if) things turn around then you take notice. again as with being with Sprint over 7 years im use to walking out in public and getting stones tossed at me for A) classic JoCo customer service (meaning crappy) and B) coverage issues. it comes with the territory, as long as i am with Sprint i will however continue to support it to the best of my ability even though my job has no bearing shape or form on customer service and or coverage.

long live Sprint, i hope for the best .... now lets all chug! :toast:

p.s. no im not trying to do a WPI-esk pimp up speech, im just givign my honest opinion on the subject :) cant hate me for that right? i mean afterall i at LEAST hate CP :thumb:

I don't think anyone wants to see Sprint tank, we are just expressing our opinions on why Sprint is losing millions of customers every year, thus partially causing growing losses.

I was on the Sprint network and had too many dropped calls, so I switched to the Nextel network. Much better. Any Nextel users notice intereference with speakers? Their CS needs drastic improvment.

They are awful and if they do go belly up it's because they found building a prison and an arena more important than building a business with decent products and service.

Well, if they go under they can just get bought by Ma Bell.

When you lay-off half of America, it's pretty hard to find customers.

Sprint's ad campaign should be,

"Can you hea.... dammit. [redial] Can you he... MOTHER ****ER.... [redial] Sorry about that, I have Sprint PCS, Piece of Crap Service. Can you h... " [call Verizen to switch to America's best network.]

:toast: i can live with that thanks man

I had Sprint PCS for 8 years straight until late last year. Never changed carriers at all.

Finally switched to T-Mobile.

I just got frustrated with poor customer service, poorly made phones, phone calls constantly getting dropped and numerous billing mistakes over the years.

Its just been a gradual decline for them since the early 2000's. Maybe they will bounce back? But for now, they have been lapped by the other carriers.

so is anybody gonna buy some sprint stock at $6???? I need to do a little research, but I'm thinking about it.

yep bought when it dipped into the 5's

Talk to me when it goes under 3.

Bowser, were cool and all b/c your the "king of koopa" but i can say that i strongly doubt it gets that low. it took 9/11 to get it that low last time. the company simply has too many assets to be in any real trouble. once they fix there customer service, continue to beef up the network, churn will fix itself and Sprint can truly begin to play catch up.

from someone who made over 15k easily off when it was 3 something...im not taking my chances as is with it this low. on the other hand..given the current and plausible state of the economy i would belief that given a deep enough recession and possible depression that anything is possible. which of course is good and bad news. again i point to my thread regarding 200 oil :deevee:

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showt...=181458&page=2

Sarcasm, my friend. Learn it, live it, love it. If Sprint's stock got under 3, they would be gobbled up by one of the other providers, I'm betting.

And your other thread is just flat depressing.

I sold mine at $24.00

I understand the stock concern but so I am clear on this - you guys are discussing the wireless portion, yes?

I work for a CLEC and we have recently entered into a partnership with Sprint for some backbone data stuff; Sprint is doing some good things to gain business back on that end, with business customers anyway. It's bringing them loads of cash back from the customers they lost to us, heh. Honestly that will help them out in the end as well, it's time they used it.

As far as their wireless goes, I couldn't take it anymore and went with Cingular/AT&T; Sprint's Customer Care was probably the worst I've experienced as well, and I had call dropping issues also.

sold mine when it topped at 27 :) regardless good job man

i know, thats why i called you the king of koopa :) im just playing LMAO

this is the lowest it's gotten in 20 years.

I like Sprint. I have a plan that allows 1000 minutes in Cal and Nevada, plus unlimited anytime minutes for $45/mo. I don't travel outside of Cal and Nevada often and when I do we use my wife's cell as we usually are travelling together then.

The only thing close in price is T-Mobile and their coverage is very poor around here. I get better service than a few other carriers as well. They also have service in Bart under the downtown stations where others don't.

I sold mine at $50 a few years ago. **** this stock. If I recall it was 2001-2 or something, I then bought some Apple at like $13... Woo hoo.

good job

Ditto. Sprint customer service has ALWAYS met my needs when I called in. I've gotten plenty of stupid, non chalant, mfers, but it always gets taken care of when I spell it out for them. They've also compensated me for my time calling them before. I got a $40 service credit, I've gotten a free month of service. Bottom line, Sprint has always taken care of me, and I get a 30% discount. I'm not going anywhere.

If I switched, this would be why. It's ****ing attrocious.

I guess I'm on of the lucky few that has never had a problem with the service. I know their customer service blows, but I pretty much only use the basic functions and change phones about every 2 years, so it's not that big of a deal for me.

I did read somewhere last week that their bond rating was about to go to junk. That can't be a good sign.

my sister in law is a customer service trainer at sprint, maybe she needs to train her workers better? hope they dont go down the tubes, she might have to move in with me !!!!

I think they have less money left than your casino cash. What a horrid operation they run.

Dave

Check prices post 9/11 back when PCS and FON were split (thats why the history doesnt look as bad b/c its not taking the split into consideration). trust me its been well below 6 bucks :) IMHO that spells opportunity

LMAO REP .. i mean hey thats the company i work for ya know ;) LMAO

Bastards laid my dad off after 29 1/2 yrs of service in which he took 8 days of sick leave. He was 5 months away for being fully vested and eligible for retirement. Private sector sucks for security anymore.

Sorry to hear about your dad, he didn't get a severance or anything did he?

All phone companies have poor customer service. That's the price of being in an industry that is in a constant price war.

And another thing about that is, I never deal with my phone company's customer service people. I'm a pretty big boy, I can pay the bill on their website and search knowledge bases for answers to questions and everything else.

I also heard someone say once when I worked there that he thought upwards of 90% of reception problems were due to the handset and not the coverage.

Personally I never had coverage issues in KC when I was with them.

in old world sprint you were 100% vested after 5 years which your father would of had in spades. as for the 5 months do you mean as in having enough total work years to be able to retire?

im sorry to hear that in the past the company did such things. the good news is he would have received an income for over a year do to them laying him off. id get into the specifics of the exact formula but im sure that id get in trouble. regardless when you have that meany years under yuor belt, theres a good and bad to getting the boot.

That's very true for the CONSUMER side of the business.

In the B2B sector, it's a much different story. Good customer service wins alot of deals, because the services themselves are a commodity. Sprint used to be one of the Big 3. But the customer service is SO bad that their corporate customer base is leaving in droves.

I barely even see them in competitive situations anymore, and my market is 2.5 hours from their corporate HQ.

I am a Sprint customer and love it. I have yet to have problems and I can't beat the $15 a month I pay on my future mother-in-laws plan (she is a worker there). All of that said I have no problems with their customer service... not any more with Cingular/AT&T anyway. Customer service is always crap and that is how it always is.

I have heard a rumor though that T-Mobile is looking to buy Sprint though. Not sure the truth of that being it is coming from my fiancee (a T-Mobile employee).

For what it is worth, my fiance still uses Sprint has her service because she can getter a better plan there than with the employee plan at T-Mobile.

Nextel customer converted to Sprint. No issues after getting phones activated from Internet purchase.

First off, thank you.
I didn't really ask him about it, he did get something but it wasn't nearly as much as he should have gotten. I believe that is why they let him go when they did.

The hardest part was how hard he took it. He told me the one day that it was like "loosing a family member" because he had dedicated so much time and effort into his job. We moved from PA to OP, KS for his job and then they kicked him to the curb. It was REALLY hard on him.

Companies suck ass, it's too bad a hard working loyal guy like your dad had to go down like that. My gf's dad recently got released in a company he was with for over 20 years, because they "needed to get younger" he is 52 and was making 100k+ salary. The guy that fired him was 15 years younger than him. Kinda sucks and he is trying to work something out for a severance and he was near retirement too. Alot of time invested in the job as well, traveling etc and being away from family. Just treated him like an old dog and said gtfo. Where is the loyalty i swear? Rich wigs like the Sprint President or VP i heard got a huge severance for being released well over a million easy.

Goodluck to your father, hopefully good things will happen for him, there needs to be more people like him doing their job.

QFT

p.s. whats your PSN name Oz?

Be honest with you i haven't even gotten on or played a single game yet. I have a few BR movies though.

But my ID is Shizzy2001 so add it if you wish.

Once i start getting games expect me to be on there alot more. Hopefully real soon!:)

will do

sorry for the temp post hijack :) :toast:

The problem with Sprint has been arrogant leadership. Essrey was a joke. Forsee started off good then screwed the pooch badly. Hesse seems to talk the kind of talk that needs to be talked but we will see how well he walks the walk. Starting in 2001 Sprint was doing "reorganizations" every year. That is stupid in and of itself. The last few years we have just laid people off. But the problem is not the workers nor the size of the workforce. The problem is obvious, just watch the tv commercials. Verizon and AT&T actually pimp their service. Sprint has depressing commercials that are focused on a small group of people who use PDA's. The only problem with that and the problem Forsee refused to aknowledge was that MOST cell phone users don't have, want nor give a damn about being able to answer an e-mail on a $250 -$600 PDA when they can send text messages from their $19.99 phone just as easy.

I hope so. Bastards deserve it the way they treat their customers.

Pet, do you work for Sprint? if so wht dept? if you do you had better tell me that your MGMT. if not YOU HAD BETTER LIE TO ME. thats what this company needs #1 leadership (Hesse should do good) and #2 MGMT who gets it.

Well unfortunately I am not in managment. I will say I along with every other employee have been screaming about the customer service for years and years. Essrey simply did not care. He was rich and above everyone else and he made sure you knew it. I think Foresee just got lost. But the corporate culture at Sprint is and very badly needs to change. Customer service starts at the top. So if the guy in charge don't give a shit it is hard to get everyone else too. I love my job and I think Sprint is the best provider, best network and best technology. They just don't know wtf to do with it. Too many bean counters got so fixated on quick fixes that it hurt the company even more. Sprint needs to start a marketing campaign that tells people "we've heard you and we are making things so good you will never want to be with anyone else but Sprint." Instead I get some depressing music while some lady sits on an airplane or some guy goes along the people-0mover in an airport. BRING BACK THE TRENCHCOAT GUY!

QFT

indeed man!!! im a fellow Sprint'r, and a bud of mine has a boble head of that guy on his desk.. i crack up every time!

Sprint needs to give me my damn $80 refund

What $80 refund?

My gf bought a phone from them like month's ago and i paid for it of course and they said an $80 refund on the phone would be sent within 6 weeks but never got it. We got online to check the status awhile after and it said it wasn't eligible or some crap. So just last week i got in touch with an old friend and she said she would look into since she worked for sprint and so do her sisters. All i kept hearing was that it took awhile to get them, im working on about 8 months now.:shake:
I bought her a black samsung thin ass phone from their store in liberty.

How do you like working at sprint guys?

That's just it. Look at the other company's commercials....one has the family sitting around talking in text lingo which is just too funny. The other has "can you hear me now?" and look at how much support you get when you come to us.

Sprint: depressing music, depressing scenes, dark, dreary and unappealing to most cell phone users.

And I have nto taken 1 marketing class in my life so if I can get that then someone's ass at the top better ****ing figure it out!

Alot of companies have dumbasses at top unfortunetly. Makes me wonder how some people get the positions they do

i like it to be honest, however after 7 years im beginning to feel like going to college FULLTIME for the past 4 years and now starting my MBA isnt appreciated. the company overall had treated me well..thats why ive been here 7 years.

i kinda like that commercial with the guy who has the awesome beard and the mini clones.

Actually I love my job. The downfall is when all the higher ups start trying to fix things themsevles instead of listening to their employees and customers. Sprint suffers from "if it's not my idea it's a bad one" when it comes to the executives. They go too much for what looks good on paper and disregard the reality of it all. That is changing finally and I think Hesse is leading the way. The new philosophy is "give people less reasons to call customer service". I think that is great! That means providing accurate billing statements and "hooking people up" when shit goes wrong.

I have never seen anyone dump a company for screwing up on their bill when the company apologized and "hooked them up" with free minutes or whatever. No one will walk away if you make up for your screw up. I think our former executivies never understood that. I hope the ones still here do get it.

QFT its all about the STI and "options" :(

Oz, was your issue a mail in one? i know that the mail in rebates can take a long time :(

Well that is good news to hear, hopefully they think customers first and treat employees decently in the process and listen. The Only way the company will stay a success.

I've had sprint for over 7 years, and don't think I'd ever switch them for another company. First, I love supporting KC business since I grew up there.

Their billing issues sometimes have been a pain- but for me it's been pretty minimal, and not a big gripe.

You aren't required to sign up for a new contract anytime you change something. The big problem with Sprint CS is:

1st they outsourced to India and the people there couldn't help you with what you needed.
2nd: Poor training:

I frequent a Sprint message board, so I know whats going on and deals, etc. For years now, when I call in, if the person I 1st talk to is clueless or isn't understanding what I'm asking for or about, I simply hang up and get another rep. I know that's frustrating and absurd, but I've gotten some really awesome customer service and people working there that actually care and are willing to go the extra mile to satisfy me as a customer.

It sucks that all CS can't be like this, but the reality is that I can't think of any company off the top of my head that my customer service is always great. Actually, I just thought of one, Nordstrom's.

I have 3 lines of service with 1400 shared minutes, unlimited texting, free roaming, power vision, pcs to pcs, and insurance, with my nights starting at 6pm on all three lines. I pay right around $78 a month TOTAL.

I couldn't even come close to getting that deal on another carrier. My service in Chicago is great. It does boggle my mind that they have spotty service areas in KC- their hometown. My parents house is 3-4 miles away from the Sprint Campus, and is probably the only place I've ever had trouble getting service inside. I talked to a Tech Rep one time about it and he said that due to the topography of the area it was a grey area that could only be fixed by adding more towers. Not sure why, but I at least appreciate that he explained it to me.

I think Sprints network is great, and their EV-DO speed is top notch. Plus, they'll be rolling out phones with WiMax at some point later this year...

I had T-mobile for 6 months a long time ago, and the service was so bad that I could only walk 1/2 way into a grocery store before the signal completely cut out. I got out of my contract and back on sprint!

I hope they turn it around, b/c I like Sprint, and am willing to cut them some slack on the customer service in the hopes they can fix it.

Oh we were supposed to get an $80 rebate sometime after i bought my gf's phone and the sales lady said shed submit it but we never got it. Its been over 8 months now. I had my friend that works at sprint submit our info and i guess someone will call my gf's phone within a week about it. I just want my moola back! :grr: the phone isnt worth $160....

Damn that sucks...

I assume you moved onto better things now

i know that its the companies job to fulfill there part of the agreement but if i were you i would call *2 and talk to a CSR instead of hoping they will call you back. that way you can stress to a manager WHAT WENT WRONG thus giving you a bad customer experience. customer feedback is paramount my friend. if it wasnt for that id also attempt to assist but MGRS need to know this stuff so they can learn to fix it.