Posts Tagged ‘Dan Hesse’

Sprint will finally change course and start prorating early termination fees, company CEO Dan Hesse said this week, adding that the prorated fee could take effect as early as December, CNET News reports.

“Sprint has been the lone holdout of the major carriers in trimming ETFs as customers near the end of their two-year contract. T-Mobile started prorating fees in June following the lead of Verizon Wireless and AT&T.”

Carriers point to early termination fees as the only way they can hedge and recoup costs against the heavy discounts they offer up front with new cell phones. At the same time, by the time you’re one year into a two year contract, you’ve already paid for far more than the cost of the subsidy in monthly fees.

RCR Wireless News is reporting that Sprint’s luck may be changing: according to a recent survey by Pali Research, Sprint ranked first in customer service response time, a “significant statement for a carrier that has been raked over the coals in past customer service surveys.”

Some numbers quoted from the report:

- Sprint Nextel answered more than 91% of calls in 30 seconds or less for the third quarter, which is up from 68 percent (Q1) and 52 percent (Q2).

- The carrier answered 99% of calls in two minutes or less, compared to 84% during first quarter testing.

“We believe Sprint is making tangible progress in improving churn, but Q3 gross additions in the CDMA business could be affected by the launch of the iPhone and a reduction in commissions,” the report said. Nonetheless, this has to be welcome news for Sprint CEO Dan Hesse.

Could Sprint be finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel? MocoNews reports that according to a recent J.D. Power and Associates study, Sprint tied for first place in best customer service in the Southwest, after nearly two and a half years of coming in dead last.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said in the report that the carrier has jettisoned 85 percent of the plan combinations it used to sell, which greatly simplifies things for customers and sales reps. Hesse also acknowledged that they still have plenty of work to do, noting that an “inherent, natural skepticism” lingers around the carrier, the report said. There’s also that little problem about what to do with the Nextel network—letting it atrophy for three years hasn’t done much for its reliability or cachet among subscribers.

Sprint is on the ropes lately, judging from the increasingly bad numbers. As The New York Times reports, AT&T and Verizon, the industry’s behemoths, are recruiting Sprint customers who have grown tired of years of inattentive customer service and a lackluster array of cellphones.

Investors have also lost patience, the report said, as the company’s share price has dropped 58 percent since May 2007.

“What do you do when you hit rock bottom?” asked Roger Entner, a senior vice president at IAG, a market research firm. “It’s going to take a lot to turn this company around.”

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