Sprint customer service experience

I have to give a shout-out for the wonderful customer service experience I recently received from Sprint. I recently returned the telephone I'm using as part of my participation in the Sprint Ambassador Program. I sent the phone back on Saturday, July 1 and expected it to take over a week due to the July 4th holiday. The brand-new phone was sent to me via FedEx on Monday, July 10th.

When I attempted to first use it, I discovered it had not been activated. My first phone was already activated when I received it so I thought this was curious. I called the customer service number that is dedicated to supporting Ambassador Program participants. After some researching, we discovered that my phone number was accidentally cancelled! What was amazing to me is that the customer service rep, Pam, took down my telephone number and called me back to re-activate my phone.

In this age of questionable customer service (i.e., Dell), I was gratified to see a company actually have their reps be an ally of a customer, rather than an antagonist. This is especially gratifying as I am testing this service free and am not a Sprint customer!

I returned my phone!

On Saturday I returned my Samsung A920 phone that I am testing as part of the Sprint Ambassador program. I've lately been having problems with it. When I make or receive a phone call, I cannot hear the other person very well. It almost sounds like they're whispering.

I wrote Sprint and they gave me a telephone number to call. I got through to the representative and made arrangements to return the phone and they are to ship me a replacement phone shortly. I mailed the phone back on Saturday so I'm assuming they received the phone on Wednesday (because of the July 4th holiday). Hopefully I'll receive it before the end of the week.

I like the phone a lot. I like downloading music, checking sports scores, reading news and so forth, but if it cannot fulfill it's main function, then it's useless.

I bought a Samsung Bluetooth headset on eBay so I'm anxious to try it out on the replacement phone.

Sprint Ambassador Program update

It's been a long time since I've checked in and I wanted to provide a quick update on the Sprint cell phone service that I am testing. As background, I was sent a Samsung A920 cell phone with free membership in the Sprint Power Vision Network. I currently have a "regular" Motorola cell phone from Verizon Wireless so having access to a multimedia phone is a lot of fun. The phone is very intuitive...I've rarely needed to use the handbook that came with the phone. ( I guess it's "guy thing.")

What has been fun for me is the ability to download somgs in WMA format from Sprint's music service to play on my phone. An added (and cool) benefit is that in addition to the songs being stored on the phone, I can also download them to my computer. The songs normally cost $2.50 (I get them free right now), but you get the song on your phone and your computer.

The only negaitve experience I've had is using the camera. The photo quality -- at just over 1 megapixel (compared to my 6 megapixel digital camera) -- are inferior; but that was expected. Storing the pictures on my computer is not intuitive. I finally figured it out, but it took some time. Again, I have a regular (non-camera) phone so the learning curve for me was steep.

More later..........

I received my phone!

Just a quick note that I received my Samsung A920 cell phone from Sprint on Thursday. I had a chance on Friday and Saturday to play around with it. I'll report more in another day or two.

Sprint Ambassador invitation

This afternoon I received an e-mail from Sprint inviting me to participate in a 6-month test of their Sprint Power Vision Network. The reason I was chosen, according to the message, is because of my blog! Now how cool is that? Here's most of the text of the e-mail:

The Sprint Ambassador Team recently visited http://sscornelius.blogspot.com and wants to invite you to participate in our Ambassador Program.

The Sprint Ambassador Program is all about exploring our latest products and services and allows you to give direct feedback to Sprint. We recently launched the Sprint Power Vision (SM) Network and want to provide you with the full experience, at no charge. Sprint Power Vision Network enables customers to download data at faster speeds and experience new data products.

So what's the deal? As a qualified participant, we will send you one Sprint Power Vision phone and provide you with six months of all-access service (at no charge). You'll have access to the Sprint Music Store(SM) live TV broadcasts, gaming and more. Yes, you will also have unlimited free calling and data service. It's a pretty good deal and all we ask for in return is your candid feedback (you decide how much and how often).

Register at: http://ambassador.sprint.com/

A quick search reveals that many other bloggers have received this same offer.

Sprint states they want -- but will not require -- my feedback on the service. Although it is not mentioned in the invitation, I'm sure Sprint is hoping those who participate will speak kindly about their service experience in their weblogs. This is actually pretty smart of Sprint -- empowering bloggers with a free offer in hopes of generating a positive blogospheric buzz.

I went on the site to check the terms and conditions. My invitation does not guarantee participation in the program. I will be put into "queue for consideration." If accepted, the free trial period is good for six months and does not go past September 30, 2006. After six months, I keep the phone without any charge. If I wish to continue the service, I have to pay a $36 activation fee and then enter into one of their 1- or 2-year service contracts.

I'm tempted to do this. I currently have a Verizon family plan, but it's hard to pass up a free offer, especially for a geeky-sounding service such as this. The free phone is a Samsung A920 phone.

Assuming I'm accepted, I'll report back on my experience.

Update: I received an e-mail Thursday afternoon saying that I have been accepted and will receive my Samsung A920 phone in 2-4 weeks. Yay!