Measured Against Reality

Monday, October 09, 2006

Sprint Customer Service

I recently got a new phone, the “Blade”, (Sprint’s Razr), and in the process of playing with it I was trying to find out how to set uploaded media as ringtones. I became pretty sure that I couldn’t, and so I wanted to see if Sprint would take requests to add good ones for download (the defaults are all pretty bad, and I’m not interested in any that they have right now). I contacted Customer Service, with what I thought was a very simple request. It follows:

Is there any way to request ringtones? None of the songs I'd like to have as ringtones are available. Also, is there any way to set songs that are in media as ringtones on the A-900? I've looked, and it doesn't seem to be possible, which is quite disappointing as there's not nearly enough memory for the phone to be a decent MP3 player, nullifying the point of being able to put songs on it at all. (Also, the A-900's main competitor, the Razr, is capable of doing this).


The response I got was:

Thank you for contacting Sprint together with Nextel. I will be happy to assist you regarding ringers.

There are two ways to download games, ringers, or screen savers to your PCS phone.

The first is through the Sprint website:

1. Log on to "http://www.sprint.com", select My PCS Wireless in the Manage accounts drop down.
2. Enter your PCS Phone Number and password and click 'Log in'
3. Click on the 'Content Catalog' hyperlink under the section 'Get Games, Ringers, Screen Savers and More ' to search for the game, ringer, or screen saver
4. Click on the desired feature and select the 'Buy it now' button
5. The item will be saved in your 'Content Manager' but not on your handset
6. Use your PCS Vision device to access the Web
7. Select 'My Content Manager' from the drop down menu on the Vision home page
8. Find the item that was purchased and scroll to the bottom and select 'Download'
9. The item will now be saved to your PCS Vision device in the Downloads' menu.

The second way is through the PCS Vision Phone:

1. Use your PCS Vision device to access the Web
2. Select the category of the item you wish to download and select 'Go'
3. Search for your item and select it
4. Select 'Buy' to purchase the item
5. Select 'Download'
6. The item will now be saved to your PCS Vision device in the Downloads' menu.

Thank you for contacting us, and we look forward to serving you.

Miller
E-Care
Sprint together with Nextel
"Where our customers come first!"


I thought, “Well, that’s fair. I suppose that most people who contact them don’t bother to search their site and FAQs for this stuff. I’ll just make my question absolutely clear. So I sent this reply:

I knew that. I was asking if I request downloads that aren't currently available in the catalog.


I got this the next day:

Thank you for replying back.

You can download any ringers which are available on the Sprint website or your content catalog.

Further, to set songs as ringtones, on your phone, please check the userguide of your phone.

Thank you for contacting us, and we look forward to serving you.

Miller
E-Care
Sprint together with Nextel
"Where our customers come first!"


At this point, I am rather frustrated. I could not think of any way to articulate my question any more clearly, and it was starting to seem that this person was either not reading my E-mails or simply an idiot. I responded, being as polite and clear as I could manage:

I know that. Is there a way to request new tones. As in, ones you don't currently offer. If you don't do that, it's fine, please just say so instead of telling me something I already know twice.


The next day I received:

Dear Stuart,

Thank you for replying back.

I have forwarded your valuable feedback to the appropriate department so that immediate necessary actions can be taken against it and better customer service could be provided to our customers.

Thank you for contacting us, and we look forward to serving you.

Miller
E-Care
Sprint together with Nextel
"Where our customers come first!"


It’s been a few weeks, and haven’t gotten any more replies.

I don’t think my question was that difficult; I don’t think it should have been hard to answer. But I find it very ironic that their footer says “Where our customers come first”, yet they can’t even be bothered to read, comprehend, and answer a simple question. I guess that’s just how cell phone companies operate.

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4 Comments:

  • Does it have bluetooth?

    If so, you can just drop an mp3 on it and select is as ringtone.

    If not, then you're probably screwed.

    By Blogger Nicholas E Coutis, at 8:05 PM, October 09, 2006  

  • Seems like they have Eliza on the other end or perhaps the responder has a bunch of templated response messages.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:14 AM, October 10, 2006  

  • I work for customer care. I think the best answer is buyer beware. On your vision browser their are plenty of links that can get you ringers to download, just search google using your phone. Beware of those damn premium companies, they drive me nuts at work. You can also try making your own ringtones and posting to a web site you create (make sure it can be downloaded and usable) then just browse and download on your phone.

    Again beware of these premium companies offering ringtones, they'll sign you up for a fee billed monthly.

    By Blogger Rebel Edge, at 8:25 PM, November 24, 2006  

  • Thanks for sharing your knowledge

    By Anonymous Data Recovery Software, at 2:59 AM, October 12, 2011  

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