Santa, please save Sprint Nextel

Sprint Responds: Thanks, Sue -- we appreciate your holiday wishes and, believe me, we are working extra hard to make them come true. Yes, we've been losing subscribers, but some of the key causes of that -- network troubles, customer care issues and marketing -- have now been fixed really well. Both our networks are operating at their best-ever metrics, our customer care is improving to the point that customers aren't calling us for help nearly as much as they once did, and we can save money by reducing the number of vendor care centers we use. Also, I'm sure you noticed we are much more prevalent in the marketplace now with memorable ads, great phones, a value offer and data offerings that are clearing better than the competition. So, we know what it takes to get back on top and in the quarters ahead we hope to continue that progress and outsmart any Grinch. -- James Fisher, Sprint's communications group

Wishful thinking, but it's Christmas:

1. Sprint's trying play ball in several games - no focus. And there are rumours of another game - LTE? How's that square with WiMax?

2. iPhone is a mobile Internet proof of concept - users consume lost of data. Why not try and match it or make it better?

3. Why Clear Max ? read Andy Seybold's summation on the front page.

Merry Christmas to all

Dear Santa,

1. I wish my sprint phone would work where they said it would work when I signed up on they two binding contract with no out clause when the stinking thing can't get or keep a signal while I am within eye sight of their cell tower.
2. I wish the whole world was not going down the preverbal toilet while the people responsible for this mess get a gargantuan bailout by our congress.
3. I wish that the current and future generations could have looked forward better lives than their parents.
4. I wish my Dodge RAM 1500 got the gas mileage that was on the window sticker and not the 9mpg/8mpg it actually gets.
5. I wish I could have afforded to buy Barak Obama's senate seat.
6. I wish I had all the money back I have lost in my retirement account because I'd buy lottery tickets with it instead.
7. I wish I had listened to my grandparents when they went on and on about what they did during the great depression to get by.
8. I wish good honest people ran for office.
9. I was our government had not let all our jobs get off shored over the last 40 years.
10. I wish for a tenth ring to be added to hell for corporate executives, politicians, lobbyists, and lawyers.

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”

That is, if you are Clearwire, T-Mobile, Verizon and ATT.

Let’s go take a peek and see what’s under the tree….

Well here is a nice gift.

TO: Clearwire
FROM: The Sprint Xohm team

Here’s 49% ownership of our one market, WiMax network. Please take good care of it. It took our team of thousands, 2 full years to build it. P.S. Needs backhaul and paying customers
Oh look, here’s another nice package.

TO: Verizon and ATT
FROM: Sprint

Since you guys both have new Blackberries (Bold, Storm) out for the Christmas holidays and ATT has the amazing iPhone and the best we at Sprint could do is give away old models that no one wants, here’s 500k of our highest ARPU customers for the both of you. All you have to do to keep them is to get their bill correct every month and make sure your Customer Care reps can read, write and speak English. And besides, the fewer customers we have on our network, the better it seems to perform.

I think this is the last gift under the tree.

TO: T-Mobile
FROM: Sprint

We’re not sure what you guys are doing right, but we’re going to give you 250k of our highest ARPU customers anyway just because we don’t understand how to operate and manage a wireless company.
Well here’s another gift under the tree (I almost missed this one)

TO: Sprint Employees
FROM: Sprint Executives

Due to the continued gross mismanagement of our company, the outdated, top down, draconian management style of our Board of Directors and Executives we give to you, the 8th annual 2009, pink slips.

Yes Sue there is a Santa Claus, but even Santa can't fix Sprint! Mr. Fisher leaves out some rather poignent points in his diatribute. There are a lot of things that have to occur before Sprint can get turned around and a lot of questions to be answered that are hopefully being asked by their board of directors. Things like the one billion dollar ETF law suit. The Two employee commissions class action lawsuits, the Illinois Supreme Court Judgement that says Sprint must divest themselves of owning, operating and maintaining the Nextel IDEN network in the IPCS territory (a multi state territory I might add.) The upcoming law suit with IPCS regarding the sale of WIMAX in their territory. The fact that Moody's just rated their bonds as Junk Status. The upcoming massive layoffs (for the third time since the merger) which, along with the commissions that they were cheated out of in the aforementioned class action suits, is destroying morale at this company. The sale of Nextel that did not happen because nobody wanted it. The fact that they were once again rated the worst in customer service by Consumer Reports. The fact that their CFO implies that there will not be any network expansion in 2009 due to cost cutting manuevers. The fact that they lost out on the Federal Government's most lucrative contract last year. The fact that (I am liberally paraphrasing here) there was a report earler this year that the senior executives in Sprint were paid among the highest in the US. (I can't exactly remember how that article went but it had a lot to do with the huge golden parachute paid out to Forsee.) The fact that the value of their stock has declined in excess of 80% for the year. (It is down more than 12% just today as I write this!) The fact that many of their best sales reps have been lured away by the competition due to the terrible culture at Sprint, and are now actively luring away the customers that they built relationships with! The fact that they have lost around 3 million customers this year alone and have the highest churn in the industry. The list could go on and on but I think my point is adaquately presented. Mr. Fisher it is not the Grinch that is stealing your Christmas, it is the inept management, lack of board direction and corporate greed at the expense of Sprint employees that is killing your company rapidly. While there may be a Santa Sue, if there is I am pretty certain that the Sprint senior leadership will end up with coal in their stockings. They won't mind though as their multi million dollar packages will help ease the pain as they spend their holidays contemplating how many more lives they can ruin with their layoffs and inept business decisions.

I smell weakness in the air, and it smells good. As good as chestnuts roasting on an opnen fire. Ho-ho-ho

Sprint should look at the landline population of about 137M people. About 15 % churned last year and most of them just start using cellular phone. 65% of the cellular minutes are nowadays spent at home or at the office and these are the very easy target for landline replacement by porting landline numbers to Sprint wireless number for $10 a month family plan or special Sprint landline replacement initiative program.

Twas the week before Christmas
And in the back room;
The execs were all gathered
To Spread Christmas gloom

Pink slips they were printing
on the printer with care;
Thousands of lives
would be, disrupted with flair;

Hesse was watching
Some black and white ad
While ruining thousands of lives
But not feeling bad;

Like Forsee before him
and whoever would follow;
His huge golden chute
made life easy to swallow;

Bad news galore
and more on the way;
Didn't bring down his spirits
or affect his huge pay;

Lives ruined in a heartbeat
didn't dampen his style;
For his bonus was coming
In just a short while;

Millions in pay
didn't step on his pride;
Or prevent him from taking
Employees for a ride;

Merry Christmas he said
and if you didn't get pink;
Another year you must suffer
with the company stink;

No increases for you
as my staff is inept;
no bonuses either
though ours will be kept;

Merry Christmas he says
in a black and white ad;
I've got simply everything
that you wish you had;

And I heard him exclaim
as he waved to the mass
if you don't like it
you can just kiss my ...

ExNext, you are spot on!!

Sprint corp is the poster child of failed outsourcing AND Insourcing models; IT, Customer Care. Now in their infinite wisdom, they are considering outsourcing their network staff. What a joke. Do these people learn from their mistakes? Monkeys do.

Same ol, Same ol at Sprint, year after year, after year. Hire, fire, outsource, insource, layoff. Hire, fire, outsource, insource, layoff Hire, fire, outsource, insource, layoff.

Ho Hum,.....Yawn.......zzzz...zzzz....zzzz

You can call Sprint and have a tech go out and view the tower. Obviously it's not operating right. Also try a PRL update. If Sprint isn't working in your area niether will Verizon. Maybe something is wrong with your phone, or your just telling a holiday fib.

Dear Sue and All:
Thanks for this post.
My comment is that I wish Santa the fastest and affordable 3G, 4G, 5G, etc. wireless network so that I can work faster, I can shop faster and safer, I can play my games faster, any time, anyhere, in a seamless and ubiquitous way. Then I can save money working more at home, staying closer to my family, improving my work productivity, leaving the car at the garage and polluting less the environment. I have this as a dream and I hope Sant can help me on this so that I can survive in this worldwide economic turmoil.

My Best Seasons Greetings to All.

Jose Roberto M. Kamikawa
jrmk@uol.com.br
Visit my profile @ www.linkedin.com\in\josekamikawa

In his farewell speech at West Point, before he crossed the river, General Douglas MacArthur urged cadets to exercise, “Duty, Honor, and Country.” Sadly, many of America’s CEOs and board directors, today, do not practice these basic, moral principles. Rather, they have descended into a flaming pit of moral corruptions. They award themselves with enormous, undeserving riches, at the expense of others…employees, communities, shareholders, and creditors. Shareholders need to unite, and rid our corporations of the spreading moral decay and rot that infests executive suites and boardrooms. If your blood is boiling and you want to halt the contagion, examine United Shareholders of America.

I've had Sprint for about five years now and have had nothing but outstanding service, coverage and handset selection from them. I hear horror stories from friends about customer service at AT&T and Verizon.

Sprint is in a deep hole. i think Mr. Hesse is trying his best to save it, but what about the rumor upcoming jobs layoffs, what is sprint going to do with iDEN network. on the Wimax side, i think Sprint did not want to do Wimax so it gave it to Clearwire because i think Sprint is going LTE just like VZW and AT&T. With this slowing economy i think the task is going to be very difficult for Sprint but doable. We have to wait and see.

Santa can only do so much folks... It is true coal is due for alot of naughty adults that have made such disappointing decisions and performed many a bad action over this and many other years it seems. The world has spun out in greed over the past many years...and money - yes the note the Fed. Reserve lets us borrow - has been the evil apple of the past many years. As with every up swing on a roller coaster there is a down side... let us hope that lessons are learned and we see an uplift in 2009 - minus the greed and attitude of the me world we have been experiencing. As for Sprint, it has historically been a hire, fire, layoff, spin for many years - even in the years before nextel. The ivory tower in Overland Park was created by Sprint Corp. and deceit was in the land of Oz way before Nextel. My heart goes out to those that have been on the Sprint roller coaster and the Nextel folks that were thrown into the mix after merger. In my opinion it will take a tearing down of the old and a start of a new -- to cleanse the karma of Sprint -- new name, new HQ, new board. Maybe Phoenix Rising Communications - with true leadership and a happy kingdom --- living happy ever after -- The government could use a new Federal Pen. possibly it could purchase the Overland Park campus.... aka jail!

Sprint can go to hell as far as I'm concerned. Just save Nextel.

Sue should have asked Santa to save Nextel, which is actually worth saving. Sprint isn't worth the cost to dig the pit in which to bury the carcass.

Yes, I am a legacy Nextel customer that used to be 110% satisfied with the former Nextel, now a forced Sprint-Nextel customer that despises Sprint 120%.

If I could have full control of the Sprint-Nextel BOD and executive staff for a mere 24 hours, I could help Sprint-Nextel far, far more than the past three years of Forsee+Hesse. And I would do it for free.

The problem with Sprint is that they generally treat their employees like shit. Unhappy employees = unhappy customers.

Susan, If you want Sprint saved, you must appeal to a much higher authority. Try prayer. Their reputation among customers is shot and without a good reputation your done. Customers will continue to leave.

Sue;

As you can kind of pick up from the feedback here, most people do not want Sprint to be saved. Nextel was a wonderful company, but when it merged with Sprint the staff got shafted, the product line deteriorated very badly, the advertising became non existant and the network and customer service went down the drain. Sprint is a rally bad company to work for and the senior management has no clue how badly the employees hate it there. I was lucky enough to get out just before the economy went into the tank. Many of my friends were not. I had to watch grown men (with tears in their eyes) see their careers ruined by the heartless culture that Sprint brought to the company after the merger. All of us were told that it would be a merger of equals, but that was a joke. If you were legacy Nextel then you were pretty much worthless in the Sprint culture. At Nextel we made money, we had stock options and bonuses, we got pay increases, we had holiday parties, we felt appreciated and felt like we were a vital part of that companies success. That all evaporated the moment the merger became finalized. Customers are unhappy, employees are unhappy, customer service went down the tubes to become the worst in the industry, the network performance as perceived by the customers degraded significantly and the lawsuits became (and still are) rediculous. It was almost as if attorneys were standing in line to have a crack at filing a suit against us. Great managers were replaced with politically corect managers that would sing the Sprint song but did not have a clue as to how to run the business. I was not pipped out, laid off, or let go. I elected to leave because it got to the point were I hated my job so badly that I did not want to go to work anymore. The stress was terrible and it had never been that way at Nextel. I took a 10K cut in pay to leave that company and I and my family feel that it was the best decision I had made in years. In hindsite the only thing I would change is how long it took me to make that decision. I should have done it much sooner!

Many of my friends are still at Sprint. I hear from them quite often (we do lunches together on occassion etc.) and they all complain about how bad it is there and how they do not see any sign of improvement on the horizon. The trouble is within as well as outside of the company. Sure the lawsuits etc., are tough and competition is getting pretty rough as well, but when you have a huge group of employees that no longer believe in the company then you have some pretty serious problems that will be difficult to overcome.

Dan Heese seems like a pretty sincere guy and I do believe that he has put together a decent senior staff. But what he does not understand is that the largest percentage of the issue lies in the Sales Manager to Director arena. They are the ones that are abusing their power, failing to motivate, are demeaning to their staff and in general making Sprint a horrible place to work. That is where the changes need to take place. Until they do (and then begin to retain some of their most valuable employees) Sprint will continue to fail in my opinion until such time that it is too late for it to recover.

Let me conclude with my own real life example. When I turned in my notice I gave them 3 weeks notice as I felt that I owed them that. I really loved working for Nextel and felt a lingering sense of obligation. I figured that with the three weeks notice I could assist them in wrapping up any outstanding projects and training my replacement. They were so angry that a tenured employee like me would leave (and would tell them the truth as to why I was leaving which was because I could not stand the arrogant witch that I reported to) that instead of keeping me on for 3 weeks they asked for my computer, badge, TCard and PCard and escorted me to the door right then. After 10 years of devoted service I was not even allowed the time to tell my friends goodbye. This is the culture at Sprint.

My general feeling is that the financial and credit situation in America needs to calm down. May be in late 2009 in to early 2010 things could get better for Sprint. They should focus on getting new handsets like the number 1 and 2 cellular company. It is not that easy - The first two have deep pockets. Every which way you turn these guys are introducing new phones. The Iphone is making it difficult for Sprint to turn its self around too...I have looked at their plans and brochures. Hands down or up - Sprint has the best plans and give you more than the competition for a reasonable price. Guys do a comparison. Get an AT&T and Verizon brochure. You will see for yourself. I don't think I can say it better. People say their phones are junk. I wouldn't say so. If that is the problem Sprint should better phones. Lay off with the outsourcing, make your employees and customers happy, keep improving customer service and stay on course with WIMAX. I heard also that Sprint was getting rid of customer that are not credit worthy customers. The competition loves to hear that. Less for you, more for them. Big mistake in the climate we are in now. Work with these low end customers too... I think this should help Sprint a lot. Last but not least - Pray!!! You guys tell me. Happy Holidays!!!

I'm a 14-year Sprint employee. The majority of US and international legacy Sprint AND Nextel salespeople I work with - selling to global businesses - are equally tenured and COMPLETELY committed to providing the best wireline + wireless + converged services at the lowest price possible. We turn ourselves (and Product + Finance) inside out for our customers! I'm proud of the expertise I've developed and that I've facilitated in those I advise. Our seasoned teams continue to craft innovative, winning solutions to save customers $ in tough times, in spite of fierce competition + current credit crunch.
None of my cohorts in sales, mktg, finance or network elected to take a recent buyout offer even tho we all share the same fear about the economy and our industry's wild rides.
One post herein referenced 'terrible' culture problems in Sprint's sales manager-director arena:but in 14 years, as a very keen observer, I could count on one hand the number of managers I've known who did not show respect for employees.
Best wishes to all for 2009!

I'm a 14-year Sprint employee. The majority of US and international legacy Sprint AND Nextel salespeople I work with - selling to global businesses - are equally tenured and COMPLETELY committed to providing the best wireline + wireless + converged services at the lowest price possible. We turn ourselves (and Product + Finance) inside out for our customers! I'm proud of the expertise I've developed and that I've facilitated in those I advise. Our seasoned teams continue to craft innovative, winning solutions to save customers $ in tough times, in spite of fierce competition + current credit crunch.
None of my cohorts in sales, mktg, finance or network elected to take a recent buyout offer even tho we all share the same fear about the economy and our industry's wild rides.
One post herein referenced 'terrible' culture problems in Sprint's sales manager-director arena:but in 14 years, as a very keen observer, I could count on one hand the number of managers I've known who did not show respect for employees.
Best wishes to all for 2009!

Sprint is certainly not a perfect place to work...but I would be willing to bet you can find disgruntled or overly optimiztic employees within any carrier. Likely the biggest issue at heart with Sprint was the merging of Nextel. Was a bad deal for both companies. Separate Sprint had a chance and with proper investment in network iDEN had a chance...now both are faltering. Been a bumpy ride and 2009 looks to have same ups and downs.

I work for Sprint and it's a great place to work. I know times are tough, so where ever you work, you expect some bums and stress from it. Even though there is a layoff next year, Sprint always give good benefits for layoff. I am not worried about it, and if it happens, I will still use Sprint as my cellphone provider.