It feels like déjà vu.
Warning: Long, boring screed on poor customer service, horrible automated phone systems and sundry other spleen ventings with an unlikely happy ending.
Having finally bought a house I was hoping to make internet shopping and shipping much easier than the constant crap you put up with as an apartment dweller. As usual, I was mistaken.
GF and I ordered new cell-phones. Hers is ancient and mine is, well, mine's fine, but if I'm going to get a new shared minutes plan that doesn't utilize the dual mode capability of my current big and lunky Siemens phone, then I want something smaller...
We seriously considered Verizon because their network has better service coverage (in our area it’s hands down the best), but their plans weren’t as generous (they charge for detail billing? WTF is that about?), and their customer service reputation is dismal. And since I’ve had good experiences with AT&T, and because their plans are definitely more generous, we went to the AT&T store. Unfortunately, their phones we want there are $200 each.
I figure, I can do better. I have a “foundation number” as part of their National Business Ordering system through my job, surely I can get a better deal. So I called. After all the discounts, the phones are actually more expensive if I use the NBO thing (with no other discernable benefit). That’s brilliant. Scratch that idea.
So I check online. Low and behold, I find a nifty website that not only sells the phones for a quite reasonable $49.99 each, but also has rebates the worth $100 each meaning in the end we net $100. Imagine that. All we have to do is sign a two year agreement with AT&T (something we were already willing to do anyway). So we’ve gone from unreasonable (AT&T direct) to to-good-to-be-true (myrateplan.com).
So we ordered these some sleek little motorola flip camera/mp3 player/whoseewhatsits that also function as phones!
And naturally, several days later there was some confusion and they don’t process the order right away and I have to call them back. (My cell phone account still bills to my PO Box and since the new phones were to bill to my home address that just messed everything up.) We get that straightened and finally the order ships via UPS.
They were delivered Wednesday. Or at least UPS thinks they were. And they very well may have been delivered somewhere, just not to my address. When I called UPS Wednesday to ask why their website claimed to have them delivered when in fact I still had nothing, they explained that I’d had to wait until tomorrow (Thursday) to see the actual delivery address. (And I am supposed to believe that their shipping databases includes every vital statistic about every shipment EXCEPT the actual ship-to address. Yeah, Riiiiiight. Apparently it’s not just their people who are stupid, but their systems too.)
So Thursday morning I called UPS. And as is their normal customer service MO, they were useless. To fully exploit their uselessness, they initiated a "Tracer Investigation". This tracer can take 1-8 business days (worst-case resolution date 10/25). They advised me to call InPhonic (The REAL company behind "MyRatePlan.com") and advise them of the lost package.
So I called InPhonic. It took several attempts to get through their automated phone mail jail. It's one of those insufferably stupid systems that insists you enter your order number only so the rep who finally answers can then ask you for the same number again. (Before the day was over I’d memorized that 9 digit number.) After several minutes of aggravating button pounding, I finally got through to Karesa (sp?). She was very, very good (as a rep) but in the end unable to provide me with the result I wanted - which was simply to send new phones right away, and preferable with someone other than ups. Instead, she too initiated a tracer. Their tracer only takes 24-48 business hours, but listening closely I caught her saying it was dependent upon the results of the UPS tracer (which takes 1-8 business days). I explained that that REALLY meant that I could be potentially waiting until 10/27 then before I they could make a decision about anything. She agreed but insisted that they couldn’t do anything until she got the results of the tracer. I said that I'd placed the order 10/4, that this had already taken too long and was looking to take even longer. She agreed. Then I suggested I just wanted to cancel the whole sale. She started to protest and explained that we didn't know where the phones were yet. I explained that I didn't really give a rat's ass where the phones were - it was between them and UPS to figure out where the phones are. Both InPhonic and UPS have tracers flying back meanwhile, I, the customer, have exactly nothing. I asked her if she thought I was being unreasonable. She agreed that I wasn't. Then I asked to speak to her supervisor. He never did take the call, but told her we could cancel the sale, and they would refund my money (the initial $100) at the conclusion of the tracers and be done with it all, but first I had to call AT&T to cancel the plan…
So I called AT&T and naturally they too have an impenetrable phone mail jail system. At this point I no longer had any patience for the moronic phone systems. Surely businesses must know that an irate customer only becomes more irate more you make him jump through hoops to talk to a live human, yet they still insist on these infernal systems. Anyway, with AT&T I've found after entering your number, if you just hold the ‘0’ button, it detects that your not in the mood to push buttons and connects you. After getting through I explained the whole bit to the rep. He tried to salvage the whole thing until he realized that regardless of how this resolved in the end he’d have to cancel this plan anyway, so he did. Unfortunately, AT&T's system is such that it will still generate a bill, which I will get, that I will have to call them back to be credited for. (And he promised they would credit the entire thing, no problem.)
So, ladies and gentlemen, what have we learned from this situation?
Well, number 1, UPS sucks. But we already knew that. As for InPhonic, well I really can’t really bash them too much. Their phone systems suck, but so do most others. The original rep who took my order was given my existing AT&T account number, which should have resolved our initial problem, but he didn’t record it for whatever reason. The second rep, Karesa was good, but she was limited by their policies in this case which are designed to protect themselves and thus screw the customer. At any rate, they could have done a better job with customer retention, instead they just folded like cheap suit when I said I was done. Then again, my guess is that they just don’t care.
And finally AT&T - How did they do? Well, I have been an AT&T mobile customer for 4 years. We’ve had our issues during that time, but they have consistently provided very good customer service. And as I was writing this it occurred to me that perhaps I should just call them back and see if I couldn’t “work a deal.” It was either that, or I was going to Verizon when my plan current AT&T contract expired (next week). I already knew I could get a decent deal on comparable phones.
So last night I spent over an hour on the phone with AT&T, but in the end I got what I considered a fair deal. The new phones should be here Monday, and they’re coming FedEx…
Just to recap, UPS sucks, AT&T delivers (with proding) and InPhonic (myrateplan.com) – Well, let’s just say you get what you pay for…
Posted by Clancy at October 15, 2004 11:29 AM