I’ll be the first to admit that I’m slightly technologically challenged. So, when my trusty rusty phone of 3 years was giving me serious problems, I decided it was time for an upgrade. Problem? I couldn’t take the videos off of my phone without losing the audio on them for some reason. This meant that my memory was full ALL. THE. TIME. Want to take a picture? Well, you better delete a picture first. It was time to move on. After 7 years with the same cell company, T Mobile, I thought I could get a great deal on a great new phone with a smooth transition. No problem, right? Wrong. So completely, unbelievably wrong. Let me share my journey with you for two reasons: 1.) So that you don’t repeat my mistakes and 2.) Because Customer AND User Experiences are so so so important. Companies fail because of bad customer experiences and bad user experiences. Don’t be a failed company.
It started off nice enough. I went online, because these things are so simple and convenient now, to order my new phone. I went through the process, picked out my phone, picked out my plan, chose the bells and whistles, and proceeded to checkout. They sent me an electronic signature to sign in my email. Done. Time to checkout. Checkout. Check…Out. Check…. Why isn’t it letting me check out?! After 20 minutes on hold and talking to a few different people, it appears that their online system was going whacky on this particular day. The very nice woman on the phone said that she had no clue what the problem was, but that she would figure it out and get back to me in a few hours and call me back by 5pm that day. Awesome, great, wonderful. I had hope. My friends, it was false hope.
So, at about 11am the next day I decided to call back. Sit on hold. Explain my situation again. Receive zero answers. Then I was told that they couldn’t cancel my order or make a new one, so online ordering wasn’t going to work for me. I’d have to go into a store. I should probably mention that this would prove difficult because of the fact that I’d just given birth and also had a antsy two year old that had some strange aversion to waiting in a T Mobile store for 4+ hours. Not sure what her problem is…. Weird. Definitely my favorite past time.
Despite this, I went to the store. I chose my bells and whistles. I spent over an hour going through the process. Listening to sales pitches for extra things I didn’t want. Arguing my way out of an extra $10/mth fee that I wouldn’t have had to pay if I ordered online.
“Well, we’re required to charge the extra $10 for the data plan when you order in store.”
“I didn’t want to order in store – online wasn’t working so they asked me to come in.”
“There’s nothing I can do.”
“Well, I’m not paying it – so there must be something.”
“Okay, I waived it.”
*Gee, thanks.*
After an hour and a half of this, plus a hungry baby, plus a screaming toddler –they didn’t have my phone in the store. Could they have it delivered to my house? No. You’ll have to go to this other store on the other side of town.
This, folks, is what 7 years of loyal patronage gets you… A giant headache.
In case you’re wondering, I did go to that other store that same day (night at this point), because I am a crazy person. Also because I realized that the only one that would help me in this situation was myself. T Mobile wasn’t going above and beyond for anyone.
Stay tuned for what happened next, and also to find out about my user experience once I received this long awaited new phone. In the meantime, share your customer experience fails with me below!
