I
must update you on this subject because it's truly an epic tale of customer service and/or lack thereof. I warn you that this will be long. If you're having trouble sleeping, this should do it for you.
On June 8th, I called my wireless provider, who shall remain anonymous to everyone that doesn't know that only one provider has the iPhone, to talk this over in the manner prescribed by my friend, host, and honorary pesky little brother, Boi.
I told them that I need a new phone. Mine has very sketchy service and is thoroughly unreliable. I'm not eligible for an upgrade until September 22, but I have to have a phone before then. After getting nowhere with the first representative, I asked to be transferred to the retention department. The first representative (who sounded like some sweet little old lady) came back on and repeated my options and said that there was no point in speaking directly to the retention department unless I was going to cancel my service. I told little lady to transfer me--if I couldn't get an iPhone from them, I would go on the family plan with my family and buy an iTouch and their company would lose a customer that has been with them for 10 years.
I was connected very quickly with another older lady. Barbara (names have not been changed because no one ever really knows these people anyway) bent over backwards to find me a loophole, but in the end she told me a few things in frustration: 1) Apple has their hands tied on what they can do (whatever--Apple has great customer service, and my provider has other ways of working something out) 2) I shouldn't get an iPhone because my service provider can't insure them (this is true, but the iPhone has an Apple warranty like everything else they make), and 3) the release of the new iPhone 3GS might help me out.
This third item was the tasty one--without upgrade eligibility, I would have to pay $399 for the 8GB and $499 for the 16GB. (After September 22, it would drop to $199 and $299.) She said that with the release of the 3GS on June 19th, things would probably change. She asked if I would like a phone call from the retention department on that date. I said yes, and she said they would call me at 3:00 p.m.
At 9 a.m. today (June 19) I received the following text message: "To see the iphone (sic) 3g prices you are eligible for (sic again) please visit
www.wireless.yourcrappyprovider.com and log in to you online account--view Upgrade Options. Thank you."
Not only was it non-helpful, badly constructed, and impersonal, but the text message link didn't even work correctly from my phone. I was pisssssssed.
At 3 p.m., after 6 attempts to get a signal in a large town/small city in Alabama, I got a representative from the retention department on the line. He started out by telling me that he didn't think he could help me because I wasn't eligible for an upgrade until November. I said, "
...two weeks ago I was eligible for an upgrade in September!"
He checked again. I said, "September 22nd!"
He checked again. He confirmed this, put me on hold and came back with good news.
He told me that I could get the 3G 8GB for $99, the 3G 16GB for $199 and the 3GS 16GB for $299. I repeated those back to him. (Notice that they are in easy-to-remember increments of $100.) I said, "Two weeks ago I could get the 3G 8GB for $399 and now I can get the 3GS 16GB for $299, which is $100 less? Are you sure?" (Once again, I was pointing out these easy-to-remember numbers.)
He said, "Yes! Isn't that amazing? Just stop by a Best Buy, Apple Store, or wireless retail store and pick it up."
I said, "Today? I can do that today? There's a Best Buy on my way home--I can really get it there?"
He said, "Yes! And if you have any trouble, you have them call me and confirm this. I'm putting a note on your account, but they shouldn't have any trouble with it." I got his name (Brian) and thanked him.
It occurred to me that the release of the new phone might be messy (and that I wanted a new one since I could get it for less that I thought the old one would be) so I called ahead. My local Best Buy was sold out. I stopped by the Great Mall of Georgia (the huge building that we use to keep the Gwinnett County people from raiding Hall County and giving us tax money) to behold the ridiculous line outside the Apple Store.
To make a long story longer, an employee at the Best Buy Mobile store, located just beside my end of the line outside the Apple Store, took pity on me and called over to another store and found me a phone. I went dashing madly to Gwinnett Place, stood in a shorter line, and was told by the precious little salesdude that it was $399 for the phone. (This was after he realized that the previous customer was undercharged $200 because of a screw-up with the wireless provider.)
I was ready. I said, "No, no...My wireless provider said to call if there was a problem. I'm paying $299 for this phone."
No problem. Jeff got on TWO phones to find me a customer service person. After only 33 minutes of being in purgatory, we spoke to Conrad. He said, "The prices you were given this afternoon are only good at our wireless retail stores."
I said, "That's not what he said. He told me to go to Best Buy, Apple or the wireless retail store. I specifically confirmed Best Buy with him."
He put me on hold to find out if I could get it at my local wireless retail store, even though it was almost 10 p.m. by then. While I was on hold, cute little Jeff scribbled me a note: "Get him to put a supervisor on and get them to give you a $100 credit by confirming your recorded conversation this afternoon. That way you can buy the phone here [since they held it for me] and pay the price they quoted you."
Conrad came back and confirmed that the retail store was closed. After only another 20 minutes, he put his supervisor on. Over the next 15 minutes, with 2 Best Buy employees listening and confirming her insanity, she quoted me THREE conflicting sets of prices on the phones, denied that I was eligible for an upgrade, insisted that none of my calls were ever recorded, and showed complete disregard for the approximately $12,000 I've spent since becoming their customer.
I pointed out to this spit-for-brains woman that in addition to the customer with the price snafu before me, another one had left the store after that with his Crackberry still in hand because of problems with our provider, and that I was about to leave with no iPhone and plans to change providers. I was also going to make an appointment with my psychiatrist since she obviously thought I was too nuts to remember the prices and stores I was given only a few hours earlier.
She made my Best Buy Boys so mad that they took down my name, number and all that jazz so that THEY could call my provider and complain in the morning. (They stayed at the store with me until 10:30. It closes at 9:00. I taught Jeff how to play from chord charts while I was on hold after he found out I'm a musician.) Infuriating.
It was another hour-long drive home, so I decided, just for kicks and giggles, to call the provider again to see if I could get yet another conflicting story. I got a sweet little guy named Jason on the line. He gave me similar (but still different!) prices and I explained that despite the polite and courteous service he had given me I wanted to speak to a manager. He (politely) asked me to describe my complaint so he could get one on the phone. After I'd been on hold more than his estimated 2-3 minutes, he came back on to apologize for the delay.
Kelsey the Resolution Manager came on the line and patiently listened while I gave her the ENTIRE story. She apologized profusely and confirmed that the price for the 3GS 16GB was $399 and that there was nothing she could do about that. I pointed out that not only was the provider going to lose my business, but that Apple was losing money, too. I watched $800 in sales go out the window in 2 hours, not counting the charges for the service. I told her that at this point I simply wanted to be treated with a bit of dignity. She apologized again and told me that she believed that the problem should have been resolved June 8th and that no one should have even asked me to wait until today. She begged for a minute to put me on hold, and she came back after that minute.
She told me that I was a customer in excellent standing and that she was embarrassed by all the trouble and inconvenience I'd been through. I'd been on the phone with them for almost 4 hours at this point and had driven 75 miles out of my way in addition to keeping the Best Buy Boys at work so late. She pointed out that I had been more than patient with her and had given her an accurate account down to the names, dates, and times that she had listed on my account. (She also confirmed that ALL of the calls were recorded and could be retrieved; the other lady had lied to me outright.) She said that my request for a $100 credit was more than reasonable, so she had credited my account with $200. She asked if she could call me tomorrow at 4:00 to be sure that I had my phone.
There is still customer service in the world! Hooray!
(I'm going to take cute little Jeff a Fake Book to work on. He deserves a prize.)
and no i do not pay for her phones. Her dad does
