The Final (?) Sprint, Dan Hesse and I Update

So, in fairness to all parties below is the most recent response I received from Sprint along with my reply (links to earlier posts here, here and here):

First from Sprint:

Dear David Title,

Thank you for your reply.

First of all I apologize for the inconvenience caused due to incorrect email forwarded to you.

I would like to inform you that it is not possible that the mail should be processed by our CEO because there are thousands of mail we have received.

However, be assure that every email is processed and checked by CEO.

If you have any other issue, please write back to me we will be glad to assist you.

Thank you for emailing us.  Have a great day!

Richard P
E-care
Sprint

Then my final reply:

Dear Dan,

As you might be able to see from the below emails, your employees are really struggling with their grammar in these emails.  Would you ever send a business letter to a customer with blatant grammatical mistakes?  I don’t think so.  Why is an email any different?  It reflects very poorly on your company.

Now it’s fine if you need to pass this along to someone else so that I get a real answer, but I don’t understand why you would make such a big deal out of publicizing your email if if was just a way to goad us into this type of exchange with some faceless rep.

The fact that you get thousands of emails is not my fault.  You put your email on national TV.  I’m sure you knew what would happen.  What was the thinking?  It’s the equivalent of a bait-and-switch and that’s not good business.

As it stands now, I am feeling cheated, lied to and generally let down by Sprint and by you, Dan.  Not the way I want to feel about my cellular provider.

David Title
SprintPCS# 917-687-3048

I have a feeling this might be the end of it, although a helpful reader sent along an alternate and more official looking email for Dan Hesse and I might just give it a shot.  If you want to try to get a personal response from Dan here are the emails I have:

Dan@Sprint.com

Daniel.R.Hesse@sprint.com (thanks Joost Schuur!)

Sprint & Dan Hesse Update 2

So, after receiving my somewhat personal note from someone supposedly in Dan Hesse’s office (see post) I decided to push a little deeper.  Here is a transcript of the last few emails:

I wrote: 

Dear Sherod,

Yeah, but it is Dan Hesse’s email in the ad and I asked, specifically, if HEanswered his own emails.  So, the answer is actually NO.  Seems deceptiveand wrong-headed to publicize your CEO’s email only to use it as a way tosucker customers into emailing with automatons and “someone in his office.”

Seriously thinking about a switch to Verizon.

- David Title 

SprintPCS since 1997 (but maybe not much longer) 

3 Hours Later I Got This:

Dear Sherod,

Thank you for emailing Sprint.  I apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced due to delay in answering the query.The query response will take a week time to respond.  In this time customers may make a comment or ask questions in the body of the email.

Thank you again for contacting Sprint.  We appreciate your patience.

Sincerely,

Jasmine K.

Sprint 

I Replied:

Dear Jasmine,

Clearly, nobody has read my emails as my name is David.  Sherod is the last Sprint representative to send me an email (see below).  This email has poor grammar and makes me wonder just who Sprint is outsourcing their work to these days.

Dan, if you are following these emails I beg you to step in and give me a reason to remain a SprintPCS customer.  This sort of exchange does not inspire confidence.Also, keep in mind, I wouldn’t have even bothered contacting you in the first place if you hadn’t put your personal email at the end of your TV commercial.

Sincerely,

David TitleSprint

PCS # 917-687-3048

(I also decided to cc Seth Godin at this point, just for kicks.  He replied with a gracious “ha”).

So far no response from Sprint… 

Sprint Responds Fast

Not sure if it was my Twitter complaint or my blog post but I did get a second response from (sort of) Dan Hesse:

“Dear Mr. Title,

I am happy to answer YES to your question . Any emails sent to dan@sprint.com will be answered someone in his office. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. We thank you again for your continued service with Sprint. 

Sincerely,

Sherod Williams

Sprint”       

 Well, that’s not quite what I was asking.   If I’d wanted “someone in his office” that would be fine.  But I asked if he, personally, responded to the emails.  I mean, it is his email address…. 

Sprint Ad = Fail

Well, it certainly hasn’t been a good year for Sprint.  They’re hoping to get some traction with their all-in-one pricing and have released a new TV spot featuring their CEO, Dan Hesse, letting us all know about it.

At the end of the spot they post Dan’s email – dan@sprint.com (it’s good to be the king).  Having been a SprintPCS customer since 1997 (I fear change?) I thought I would drop Dan a line.  I headed my email “press inquiry” and asked if he responded to these messages personally or if this was a just a bullshit way to get my email address for future spamming.  Here was the response:

Thank you for taking the time to write to me. There are a lot of exciting changes going on here at Sprint. To really revolutionize wireless as we know it, we need your input. It’s so important that we hear from the people out there who are using our phones every day so we can provide the best service.

I would like to take the time to read your email carefully and respond. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to check out the details of our new Simply Everything plan at www.sprint.com/everything. A representative from my office will be contacting you in about a week.

Thanks again,

Dan Hesse

CEO Sprint

What a complete missed opportunity for Sprint.  Why the hell even bother posting his email address?  If this is what they think makes people feel like they’re open and communicating this is another big FAIL for the Sprint team.