Bloodletting Continues As Sprint Cuts 4,000 Jobs

Source: Information Week

The company also plans to eliminate more than 4,000 third-party distribution points and resellers and about 125 Sprint retail stores.

By W. David Gardner
InformationWeek
January 18, 2008 10:30 AM


Faced with a continuing loss of subscribers, Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) said Friday that it will eliminate 4,000 jobs and trim the number of its company stores and third-party distribution points.

Anticipating "continued downward pressure on subscriber trends, revenues, and profitability in 2008," the company said it plans to eliminate more than 4,000 third-party distribution points and resellers. About 125 Sprint retail stores are also slated for closure, the company said.

The company added that it lost nearly 700,000 monthly plan subscribers, although it picked up subscribers through its wholesale channels.

The cuts represented the most decisive action by the company since it hired new chief executive Dan Hesse last month. Hesse still faces some major issues including whether to move the firm's headquarters back to Kansas from suburban Washington, D.C., and whether to cut back or jettison its projected $5 billion investment in WiMax.



Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205901062

On the one hand, it'll be nice not to have those Sprint salesmen at their kiosks in malls saying "Hello, how are you, have you heard about Sprint's great new dialing plan?"

But now, they'll be everywhere on the street saying, "Hello, how are you, can you give me a dollar? My job is gone and I can't get another one."

The problem is that everyone will be saying the same thing, including you and I, and these guys will at least have experience being annoying and making requests that won't come true.

and is deteriorating on an ongoing basis.

They are also pissing off their Nextel customers, who are their most profitable as a matter of policy.

Horrifyingly bad service of an epic scale.

:sarcasm:

The customer service sucks, but thats nothing new with any cell company. I have a really cheap plan too.

I have no complaints.

I travel a lot and find the Verizon Wireless Network more reliable. They cost more but I think they provide better customer service and have a better network.

WTF is the merger of Sprint and Nextel? Nextel had a niche market for the blue collar workers that used the push to talk feature. How does that work with Sprint culture crappy network and crappy customer service. I used to have Sprint but I am not going back and happy with Verizon Wireless. They do cost more but in the end have better network with better customer service.

The surge is working!