In a world that seems to be in a race for which major corporation can have the worst customer service, it’s ironic that Sprint is one company that has actually improved. Only last year Sprint ranked as having the worst customer service of any major cell phone carrier (2008 Consumer Reports, JD Powers, et al.) They used their India call centers and automated information withholding systems to drive away literally tens of thousands of customers.

Today thought, it seems that someone in the boardroom has figured out that keeping customers is cheaper than buying them from the competition.

My family has had Sprint cell phones for a few years — we love the phone service and the calling plan, but calling customer service has always been a nightmare.

A couple months ago my son’s Palm Pre was stolen. The thief immediately started downloading movies and subscribing to cartoons before we even knew the phone was gone. Since then I have had several calls with Sprint tech support to get the replacement phone, cancel the bogus subscriptions, and credit the fraudulent charges.

In each case I have spoken to a polite, educated person, based in the US (they actually say their name and what city they are based in when they answer the phone). Each time the rep quickly understood the situation and helped make the appropriate adjustments.

Sprint still has some archaic policies — it has taken two months to get all the recurring charges stopped — but in each case the rep has been polite, professional, and never accused me of trying to steal services from the company.

Good move Sprint. I hope you get a lot of new business from this effort.

PS. Any airline executives reading this blog?