Is Sprint ever aware of tower problems?

*shrug* When my local tower went down due to flooding about a year ago all I did was call the Network Operations Center directly and told them the site ID # and location and that it was not working. They said they would send someone out and sure enough about an hour later I see a Sprint pickup truck driving up the hill to the site. Half hour later it was working again.

 

I would agree in saying that they do not know when a site goes down. There was a point in which a local site was 100% off for about 2 weeks, and they had no idea. They refused to send someone out to fix it and blamed it on my phone.

 

Remember that Sprint customer service & tech support has no connections to the RF dept. so therefore they know nothing about towers being down. A trouble ticket will not help with a tower being down unless it's escalated 3 times (which is very unlikely but not impossible to happen) to get to the local level.

 

Exactly. They would swear on their mothers that the site was just fine and I was crazy.

 

It really depends on how well staffed your local field operations is. Many nationwide are short staffed (This really is for all carriers too, not just Sprint).

It's really hard to find technicians willing to dedicate what it takes to maintain the networks in the capacity that the public is expecting/demanding. Some technicians like myself will keep the alarm pages up all day so the second a site goes ____ up we know and can act on it. Others wait until the get the email notification about the alarm. Also the issue could be known but out of the control of the carrier. We've had sites where T1's go down because of a LEC issue and they don't get it fixed for a few days.

Next time you call customer service ask them to submit a Clarify ticket for the issue.

 

It isn't the RF Department. It is Network Operations. AS someone else mentioned, it isn't always the cell equipment. The op's department absolutely knows when something is down, even the T1. Actualyl getting it fixed is another issue.

I know Cingular customer service can issue a ticket to operations...but I don't know the level of attention it gets coming from that group. Sprint just doens't give a sh!t about their customer service, IMO.

 

That's what I meant to say. But to my knowledge there is no trouble ticket with Sprint that can go to network operations in a timely manner. Not saying it's impossible but it would have to be escalated to the local level first and that could take 3 or 4 days.

 

wats the number for Network Ops

 

Network ops phone number: 1-888-859-1400

 

But they'll refer you to customer service for coverage and connectivity issues.

 

Normally yes. However on the two times I've called them I actually was able to convince them that a tower was down by providing them the site ID # and address. They even called me back to let me know they had fixed it (which they did).

 

When you called, did you ask for a person or a department, or did you just tell them that you wanted to report a tower outage?

 

There are, I get them quite often. I don't know when the customer actually submitted the complaints but I get tickets asking me to check voice or EVDO coverage at specific locations.

 

All I said was that I was calling to report a tower outage. They asked me who I was and how I knew there was an outage. So I told them and it worked.

 

Yeah but most of the time it will never actually reach the local level unless the customer is persisent enough to keep it going. I remember it took me over a week and 3 call backs before I got it to the local RF dept. Even then they just tell you that they couldn't duplicate the problem and end up closing the ticket. It's really hard to prove your case to Sprint and you'd probably have better luck winning the lottery.

 

We get a few a week to research and report back on but I honestly couldn't tell you how persistant these customers were to get the ticket opened. Most complaints though are about reception inside the house which we can't verify. If it works from the street it's good to go. More often than not the problem is with the customers handset and not the system though I have found a few actual site problems from those tickets also, ones that haven't set off an alarm yet.

 

Well I had to be very persistent in order to get my case looked into. In fact it's very difficult to even convince them to open a trouble ticket for a coverage problem to begin with. I suspect that they would have to have a number of complaints from the same area before they would consider making any alterations of a tower or PN offset. One person calling in is not enough.

 

Interesting how you say it is difficult to open trouble tickets regarding coverage/tower problems with Sprint because it is very difficult to do at Verizon too...maybe it's the CDMA carriers all together.

 

That's a totally different scenario. Most customers don't call in requesting PN offset changes. The tickets we get come from one customer typically with a request that we call the customer upon completion of the ticket. These are normally for coverage/dropped call issues.

 

Yeah they try to give you the runaround as much as they can before they will actually open a legit trouble ticket with a number. I guess it really depends on who you get at customer service/tech support and how willing they are to help. Knowing exactly what to say is also an advantage.

 

But what can they really do about a dropped call issue? In the past 8 years I've opened a number of trouble tickets for various coverage/dropped call issues and I always get the same response at the end. "We're sorry we were unable to duplicate the problem"

 

That's exactly it, what can we do about it? Nothing! It's impossible to replicate the exact scenario that the user encountered the problem in.

 

Right. My intention of submitting the tickets was mainly just to get a complaint on record so that maybe if they got enough complaints they would consider adding a new tower or something.

 

That is true but it's really funny when you know more than the rep you are talking to, lol.

 

yeah.....its funny cuz some of the reps for certain companies know less than we do and most people on the national level cust care don't know much technical stuff......that pretty much ends when you get to the tech support department......they usually know what they are talking about........i know Boost is like that sometimes........they didn't know the difference between Calltones and the actual ringtones......

 

Thus maybe the reason one group is called Customer Service and one is called Tech Support? Com'on guys you're being quite hard on the customer service reps. Don't expect a low level CSR to know what a PN offset is. Describe your problem in terms they can understand and you'll get a lot farther than throwing out terms and information that is above their head. If you're having coverage issues simply state that you'd like to open a ticket regarding coverage. Don't say Gamma sector on tower 233 is having trouble as the CSR will likely not know what you're talking about.

Just say you need a ticket opened and be persistant about it. If the first one doesn't want to do it, ask for a supervisor and just move up the chain.

 

Speaking for myself, I have never tried to throw around technical terms with a customer service rep. I didn't start doing that until I actually got a call back on my ticket from one of the local RF people in Irvine. He was surprised when i starting talking about how PN offset 081 was not handing off to 363 when driving up a certain road and as a result was dropping calls. First thing he asked was how I knew so much about this and if I had worked in the industry.

 

yeah my friends who arent as into this as much are always weirded out.......

one of the things im really good at is if people tell me the area code and prefix of a number in my are i can usually tell them if its mobile or if its landline and what company its from.....

theyre like why arent you working at the telephone company???

lol