Working for Sprint Pcs

I joined Sprint Pcs in the early part of the month of January 1999 and I worked for them for a period of about a year and a half.Getting into Sprint Pcs was not very difficult for me because I had some connections there.They do have a very strict background check procedure though that takes some time before you can begin working with them.I knew a few people at Sprint Pcs who had worked with me at Circuit City and some had important positions at the company.Jay Freshchi(I hope I got the name right was a district manager at the company).The interview that I did before being hired was conducted an the store in Baltimore inner harbor.That location was fully staffed so I could not be hired there.There was going to be a new location in a place called Columbia,Maryland.The store would be located in an old shopping center called Dobbin shopping center.I was interviewed by Brian Pierce who was the assistant manager at the Baltimore store and he was going to maintain the same position at the Columbia Dobbin Shopping center store.
The interview procedure was quite lengthy but it was not unpleasant.The only surprise for me during the interview process was that the person who was going to be the manager at the Baltimore store during my interview but choose not to take to me at the time.He just had one question and that was whether I planned on staying with Sprint Pcs for a while.
After the initial interview a background check is conducted and later on the company send me a kit to go to a lab in Wheaton to conduct a drug test.Once I got to this level I knew that I would get the job because that was the final huddle before you are send an offer letter.I did get the offer letter sometime in December and it was a pretty good offer and I was schedule to start work in the early part of January 1999

The initial staff
The initial staff at the Columbia store consisted of me,Eric Tambe,a Nigerian called Clement Oshin was going to be the manager of the store.Brian Pierce was going to be the Assistant manager.Pierce had the most knowledge about Sprint Pcs at the time.He had been with the company since its inception as Sprint Spectrum.I was surprised that he was not going to be the manager,that they were going to put an African-American in front of him in the store.He did not complain though and he spend most of the time training all of us.There was also Danny Chou who was from South Korea,a 19 year old with a big mouth.There was Heather Moore and Jason.So in total there was seven of us in the store.A manager,an assistant manager,a technician/warehouse guy and four sales persons to begin with.
The first few weeks at work consisted of on the job training and selling to make some money for myself.The training was done mainly by Brian Pierce and Jason who was the lead sales person.The role of the lead sales person is to make money for himself to begin with and assist the rest of the sales staff when the manager and assistant manager are not around.Jason had been around with the company during its early days as Sprint Spectrum.

How we got paid
The pay structure consisted of an hourly rated of 12 dollars.This is when you put in the regular 40hours of work.We got paid overtime for hours worked in the week over 40.The overtime pay was time and the half.On holidays if you were scheduled to work the rate goes to double.The hourly rated itself was so good that in some two weeks of work my regular salary which is the hourly rate came to around 1200 dollars after taxes.This was better than my two weeks of commission pay at Circuit City during most of the year.The next part of the pay structure was the commission.We got paid a commission for selling rate plans and accessories for the cellphones.The rate plans ranged from 29.99 to 199.99.The most popular rate plan that we sold was the 49.99 rate plan.Each month we were given a number of telephones as our target to sell.If you go past that number something called an accelerator kicks in.What the accelerator does is that it automatically starts paying you at a much higher rate for each telephone that you sell pass your target.A typical good month for me consisted of a gross pay of close to 6500 dollars a month.For the first year that I worked for Sprint Pcs my gross salary came to 65,000 dollars which is the most money that I have made in a year period.The next year I was on pace to make around 50,000 before I left the company to join AT@T wireless.

Other benefits.
We got a health plan benefit that the company paid for.This was for the basic service.If you wanted more then you got to pay additional for it.I did get to use the health benefit while at Sprint Pcs because I had to remove a growth on the back of my head.The doctors had to do it twice and the company paid for everything.We were also offered dental health care.You could go get your teeth clean and get some surgical work done on the expense of the company.I believed that I had some work done on my teeth during this period and the company paid for the part that was non-cosmetic.
There was also a stock purchase plan that you could take advantage of.The company allowed you to purchase stock at a discount during each quarter and brokerage house Charles Schwab was responsible for taking care of the stock transactions.I believe that I made quite a bit of money buying Sprint Pcs stock and selling it quarterly.

Training.
The official training that I got while at Sprint Pcs took consisted of about a week of classes.The training involved the learning of a new software that the company used to sell,program and set up services for the customers.I had gotten a head start on this in the store but the training went into more details and by the time that the classes were over the minor details that you were missing in the store all fell into place.During the course of the year there were other training sessions organized by the company during periods when new products were introduced.

The Merger with Mci WorldCom.
Towards the second part of the year 1999 Sprint Pcs and Mci Worldcom made a joined announcement that both companies are going to merge.The news of the merger was hailed by wall street as the stocks of both companies headed upwards in a hurry.I believe Sprint Pcs stock when from about 65 to like 130 and there was a stock split.Personally the news about the merger did not mean a lot to me at the time it was announced.That was because I had not been with a company that when through a merger and so the consequences like job loss and closing down of some stores did not register at the time.The merger did not go through though because of anti-trust regulations from the security and exchange commission.The merger of the two giants was deemed to be a threat to free competition.

Dealing with the customers.
For the most part the customers that we got in the Columbia part of town were pretty educated and nice people.They came into the store,we explained to them what we offered and they pretty much made a buying decision on the spot.Selling the phones and services was relatively straightforward because of our sales experience and the tools that the company provided us to carry on with our job.One of the problems that we faced came from the coverage area that Sprint Pcs offered.If you listen to the advertisements that the company ran Sprint Pcs was hailed as a nationwide digital coverage service.This was true to an extend.All of the major cities had coverage.The problem was when you ventured into rural areas.There,the coverage was light to put it mildly.The company tried to tackle the problem by selling dual band phones that allowed you to automatically switch into Cingular wireless coverage area and you pay a roaming charge.For the most part though the customers did not want to pay anything extra so you took your chances that they would stay within the coverage area of the company.We did get complains also about drop calls.This one was major.You are in the middle of a conversation in the Beltway or any other highway and your signals just goes off.The call drops.The company also worked had to fix the problem.At the time that I worked for Sprint Pcs,if I had to rate the wireless companies in terms of coverage I would say the first was Verizon Wireless,next AT@T wireless and then Sprint Pcs.Our marketing strategy was working though because the service was popular and we were selling a ton of telephones.

The Migration Period
Sprint Pcs started out as Sprint Spectrum around the 1995 period and they were mainly based in the East Coast of the United States.They used a technology called GSM for their services.GSM service is popular in the rest of the World but at the time that Sprint introduced it the technology was not used by most of the cellular telephone companies.After about three years of playing around with GSM Sprint the mother company of Sprint Spectrum decided to built an all digital nationwide network based on TDMA technology.The company was going to be called Sprint Pcs and it would be run as a separate entity.It would sell mainly wireless services and it would have its own tracking stock.So when I joined the new company they had customers who were using the GSM network and some that were using the new TDMA network.The companies vision was clear though,push the new TDMA technology but do not send away customers that insisted on buying a GSM telephone.This all changed about the mid-point of 1999 when the company decided to do away with the GSM network and moved everybody to the TDMA network.The process of transferring customers to the new network was called migration.
The company anticipated and rightly that there was going to be a huge rush of traffic into the stores and they took some steps to take care of the rush.The first step was to hire some temporary help.We got about a total of ten temporary workers during this period.The next was to get security into the stores.In our location we got Maryland police officers who were putting in the extra hours as part of a part time job.The officers were lively people and we had a lot of fun during the period that they were in the store.From sports stories telling to jokes,the officers were up to the task.They were also armed, although we did not get the type of trouble that needed them to use their firearms.

Why I left Sprint Pcs.
Looking back now I wonder why I left Sprint Pcs to join AT@T wireless.Both companies sell the same type of products and the pay scale is about the same.I believe one of the reasons that I left is that the amount of money that I made during the first year working for Sprint Pcs could not be duplicated in the second year.The very good first year made us the employees think that what we made in that initial year could be duplicated year in year out.When reality set in we started looking for alternate places to work.Most of us ended up working for AT@T wireless at one point or the other.At the time that I left though I was happy to be joining a new company.The year and the half that I spent with Sprint Pcs turned out to be so much fun in terms of what I did on the job and how much fun I was having out of work with all the money that Sprint Pcs was paying me.

The incidents
The first one involved me and co-worker Danny Chou.The district manager had set a budget for both of us to sell 35 cellphones during our initial month of hire.This seemed like a lot for a new hire but as they would find out Danny and I had sold cellphones in our prior companies and we just destroyed the target.We ended up selling about 60 cellphone each and the accelerated that the company had in place was going to give us paychecks of about 6000k for our first month of work.The District manager came and said that because we were both new employees the accelerator did not apply to us.Our paychecks were cut down to the 3000k range.We were both bitter about the whole affair but there was nothing that we could do about it.
The second one occurred during the period that we were migrating customers from the GSM to the TDMA system.A couple,male and female worked into the store and after some discussion with them,I convinced them to switch to the new system.A gave them two telephones for free.I believe that they were the qualcomm dual band telephones.The next day they showed up in the store and complained to my store manager that they were somehow misled into making the buying decision.The matter did not end there.A report was made to the district manager at the time,a guy that I can only name as Charles.Somehow he discussed with my store manager and they came to the conclusion that both phones that I sold should be returned.Also they said that I should write a letter explaining what really happen.That was not the end of the matter.They wanted the letter to include an apology to the couple.When my store manager was explaining this to me I thought that he was joking.A letter of apology to customers for selling them cellphones.That is what we are paid to do.I did write a letter but I told my store manager that I letter of apology was out of the question.I knew that I did not do anything wrong, so I was not afraid of any consequences.That is how the matter ended.
The next incident took place also during the period of migration.This one did not involve me but it did involve a co-worker who latter came on board.Name was Jeff and he ended up going out with a customers daughter who was real young.The girl was hired I believe as part of the extra staff that we needed during the period of conversion.Jeff did not see anything wrong in what he did and at the time the rest of us just looked at it as a minor distraction by the young man.I do not think that the matter got to the high level management of the company because Jeff was never reprimanded for his deed.The fun part was that he had a beautiful fiance at the time and they did end up getting married.I did get to meet the young lady after the incident in the Columbia shopping center after the incident and she seemed quite fine.
The other incident occurred at the job site but the origin of everything took place out of work.What happened is I was heading to work and while on I-95,I got a call from my manager saying that I should stay home and not show up for work.That sounded real strange so I just continued heading to work.I reached the parking lot,parked my car and just before I got into the entrance of the store I was stopped by two men,one of them flashed an official police batch and motioned me into a car.They said that they are just being nice and did not want to create a scene.I followed their instructions and accompanied them into their car and they proceeded to lay some handcuffs on me.We drove to one of the police stations in Columbia where I got the chance to talked to one of the officers who started given me some information.I would later on be transferred to the police station in Rockville during a Friday and would spend the weekend lock-up before I could talk to the people in Rockville Civil court.The tough part was spending time in jail.It is not pleasant at all and you really get to value your liberty.The cause of the problem is that I have been issued a traffic violation ticket about two years earlier and in the course of moving from one apartment to another I did not get a court notice to appear before a judge.A bench warrant was thus issued for my arrest and somehow they located me at the Columbia store.The whole incident was an embarrassment because all my co-workers knew about it and some high level management.I do not think that my relationship with my store manager was the same after this incident.When I ended up leaving the company this incident, I would say was one of the reasons for my looking for a new work environment.

Some of the characters.
In each company that you work at there has to be some characters and Jeff was definitely one of them.The guy was in his early thirties but still trap in a youthful mentality.His love affair with cars was just amazing.He got hired from Circuit city where he was a sales manager and he came to the company with his red flashy car.It was a sports car with the doors removed so that you needed a remote control to get into the vehicle.At one time he was trying to sell the car and I believed he ended up test driving during a period of about a month close to 12 different cars before he settled on one.Then there was Jessie.Jessie worked in the customer service section of the company and she was a good story teller.She was married at the time to a pastor and she had four boys that she talked about all the time.
There was Danny Chou.Danny Chou was around 18 years old when he got hired and he had a habit of recking his automobiles.You had to get into a car with this guy to see how he drives around I-95.Danny would end up quitting before the year was over and returned to South Korea shortly after.That is the story that we got from the sisters who usually came into the store.Danny was fun though if you needed to get good food.He knew where all the good restaurants were around the Columbia,Maryland area and during launch break all you had to do is grap him and he was willing to go.
There was a guy called Dave that transferred from the store in Laurel.Dave could sell very well and had been with the company since its inception as Sprint Spectrum.I had a minor argument with him the first time that he step foot on the sales floor.He was trying to seize one of my customers right in-front of me.We got into a shouting match and I believe that was the first time that I ever got into a shouting match with one of my co-workers.Dave though was noted for something else.Hitting on female customers.Originally from one of the Islands,he would sell you a telephone,then on hit on you.He would hit on all races of women.African-American,White,mixed,you name it.Some of the women were already in relationship and a few of them let him know about it.The complains started coming in,gradually at first and escalated latter on to the point that the company gave him the option to resign which he accepted.

A typical week during my time at Sprint Pcs

A typical week for me would include showing up for work during days that I was scheduled to work.We had a morning shift and a night shift and the days that I was schedule to work during the morning shift I would try and get in some exercise after work.The exercise consist of playing pick-up soccer.After playing I would come home, take a shower and I would just be full of energy.Then it would be time to get cruise in town for some fun.I did meet somebody that we had a relationship for a while and we used to meet at least once week.The periods that my energy level was real high I would add in a Wednesdays meeting and this is probably the most fun that I have ever had in a relationship period.I used to go to the nightclub while working for Sprint Pcs.The club was the old DC live that was located on 9th street in NW Washington DC.The club life was okay especially after we had received those big bonus paychecks.The club life though included just once a week.The work itself in the store consisted of selling phones and services to customer and I knew how to do this.We sold a lot of cellphones and services.There were times though that you just had a bad day and things moved pretty slow.Or at times is just seems as if nobody wants to buy a cellphone.There were days like that and what you had to do is just stay we stick in there with the tough times and the day would be over before you notice it.
Some other benefits.
The company did give a sky-box ticket at one time to the Assistant sales manager who was going to take her daughter to watch the Baltimore Ravens play the Titans from Tennessee on a regular season game.She came in on a Sunday and decided to give up the ticket.I opted for it and called up a female friend of mine and we headed to downtown Baltimore.The Sky-box area is quite fun.There is everything available for you.As much shrimps as you can eat.All type of drinks and various kinds of foodstuff.You get to see the game from the best part of the stadium.
We got free breakfast each time that there was a staff meeting on early Saturday.We would just assembly in one of the restaurants around the area and hold the meeting right there while we eat.There were gift certificates that the company distributed to us for meeting certain sales targets.The certificates range from about 25 dollars to 50 dollars.There were usually distributed during the sales staff meetings.