Cricket Wireless offering $5 credit to those affected by last week’s service outage

Cricket Last week’s unexpected Cricket Wireless service outage was a hot topic, for a number of reasons: Those affected by the off-line incident – which lasted as long as 17+ hours for some – were burning with rage at having their lives disrupted for the better part of a day. In addition, the topic itself was on fire with our post receiving a staggering 766 reader comments. It’s also probably a safe guess to assume that Cricket’s own customer service lines were lit up with untold scores of customers giving them heat over the headache-inducing horror.Today a user named “marhere” took to Slick Deals posting a possible sigh of relief for those with good grief:Cricket Wireless had service outage on 06/03/16. Just had chat with customer service. They credited the account with $25 as “Manager Courtesy Credit”. We had 5 lines in the account.Prepaidphonenews.com then picked up the story, and found that Cricket Wireless is indeed offering the refund. Specifically:Earlier, Cricket announced they will be giving a $5 Manager Courtesy Credit to customers affected by the service disruption. If you were one of those who experienced the 14-hour outage, you can get a $5 credit on your account; or up to $25 for 5 lines.All you have to do is get in touch with Cricket’s customer service so they can arrange the credit. You may also send an email to support@creditwireless.zendesk.com so you won’t have to make a call. Some users who have gotten in touch through email reported that they were able to receive the credit but had to wait one to two hours for a reply from Cricket.Curiously, a visit to Cricket’s website makes no mention of this proverbial extended olive branch, something that one might otherwise expect to find on the front page with a banner near the top reading “Attention: Customers affected by last week’s outage” or something of that nature. Even more incredulously, its Twitter feed doesn’t have any details, either.Cricket’s customer service portal page can be found here:Contact Cricket WirelessThe sound of silence Shutterstock While it seems Cricket is keen on making a monetary apology to those customers who experienced problems with service, there are two important topics to address:(1) Why was the service out? It has been almost an entire week since the incident and yet no update or explanation has been made public. This puts both Cricket, and its owner – AT&T – in a rather concerning position. Customers using the pre-paid carrier have put their trust in its service and (AT&T’s) network, and chances are high that for those affected by the outage, that trust has been severely damaged. While some may have only experienced mild inconveniences, or none at all, other people may have had severe problems to contend with relating to their job, their family, or even their safety, health and well-being. The lack of forthcoming updates certainly will not bode well for those soured by the situation.(2) The other issue is if a $5 Manager Courtesy Credit is sufficient enough compensation to calm down customers. Given the lower-cost nature of a pre-paid wireless carrier in the first place, $5 could actually be seen as too generous given that the service outage was not even a full day. For those who experienced major interruptions in their life or livelihood however, the amount might be inconsequential compared to the trouble incurred. It will thus be of particular interest to judge the reactions people have to this offer, though the fact that Cricket doesn’t seem to be widely publicizing the refund at the moment raises the issue of how many will actually know about the offer to begin with.Wrap UpAt the end of the day – or perhaps the start of yours – those customers who had trouble using Cricket’s service last week can get some credit to their account. What do you think though? Is the offering enough to make up for the problem? Are you upset about the lack of transparency in this matter? What do you think ultimately caused the major outage? Leave a comment below and sound off.

Cricket Wireless offering $5 credit to those affected by last week’s service outage