I have a genuine dislike for the mobile world. Everything from screwed up data plans to contract lock-in. They all drive me crazy and today was no different as I struggled to replace my LG flip phone. This post has both good and really suckie parts to it but first a little background.
The Background
Up until 19 months ago I didn’t own any type of cellphone but thanks to a deal from Telus (one of Canada’s big three mobile providers) that made the whole process painless and was willing to work with me I found myself the owner of a LG 8600.
Everything was fine up until the other day, which was 7 months past the warranty period, when it started messing up to the point it wasn’t usable. Finally today I decided to over come my dread of dealing with customer service and see about getting the phone replaced.
The Good
Right off the bat I want to give a big shout-out to the Telus technical support guy (sorry can’t remember your name) and to Maureen in customer services in Calgary. If your co-workers are anything like you then Telus is in good hands. I was very impressed and happy with the service that I got from both departments and really had nothing to do with the suckie part of my experience today.
I will say though that even though Maureen did an excellent job the idea that I still have to pay a $100.00 to upgrade in order to get my phone replaced; not to mention that I would be in a whole new 3 year contract as part of the deal, was more than a little irritating. Don’t get me wrong I understand the need for the contracts, especially when you are paying $0 for the phone. It’s just the idea that I had to pay to upgrade because I was still locked into the first 3 year contract for a phone that no longer works reliably that grated me the wrong way.
On the whole though my experience with Telus the company was more than satisfactory unfortunately though after getting off the phone with Maureen I then had to go and get my replacement phone. It was downhill from there on.
The phone I wanted:
The Suckie
It was 92° outside today and to get to the Telus store at the mall involved a 40 minute walk across town (no I don’t own a car) which really isn’t that bad after all the doctor recommends a good daily walk as exercise for my heart problems. But still 92° is a bit on the warm side for a long walk both ways however I was getting all geeky over the idea of having a new phone to play with.
The one thing that I didn’t realize was that there were in fact two Telus dealer outlets in the mall but neither of them are Telus company stores – which would have probably made things a little better – maybe.
So I go into the Telus (the dealer) store and tell the disinterested lady behind the counter that I had been directed there to pick up the replacement (upgraded) mobile phone that Maureen and I had made arrangements for. Only it turns out that they don’t have any of the LG New Chocolate in stock and that they wold have to order it in special.
I could however go over to the other Telus dealer in the mall which was in fact the Black’s camera store and see if they could help me out.
Gee, how can you tell this isn’t going to end well.
So I go over to the Black’s store and go through the whole story again about getting my replacement phone where upon the guy I was dealing with told me that even if they carried the LG New Chocolate they couldn’t help me because they didn’t do replacements – they were just a dealer. If I was getting a replacement phone I would have to go through the other Telus store and have them order it in.
With that information in hand I head back over to the other Telus store and explain to them that the Black’s Telus salesperson couldn’t do replacements and besides they didn’t have a LG New Chocolate – in fact they didn’t even carry them. At this point the disinterested lady explained to me that it wasn’t a replacement that I was getting but rather an upgrade and that the Black’s version of Telus should be able to do that.
At this point I was getting a little exasperated and just wanted a phone. So I ask the lady if they had anything that was comparable to the LG New Chocolate that I could get. Turns out I couldn’t have gotten any phone other than one of the few smartphones they had … they had just placed their order for the next week and were sold out of any of the phones that might have fit the bill.
However if I went back to the Black’s version of Telus and explained that this was an upgrade with a new 3-year term contract they should be able to help me out.
Ya, that worked out well. I will say this though, the young man tried his best to help me out but in the end he couldn’t because he was dealer and as such couldn’t get the information that he apparently needed in order to set me up with anything but a smartphone.
As I headed back to the Telus branded store I began to wonder if I should have been so hasty to cut off the Bell Mobility salesperson when they cold-called the other night.
Once I get there I ask once more about ordering in the LG New Chocolate but the look on the one lady’s face made me ask her if it was actually that good of a phone at which point she told me that her head office (not Telus but the dealer head office) wouldn’t even let her order it and that really the Samsung Advance was a much better phone.
So I decided to ask a couple of technical questions like what OS the phone used – to which she replied that she didn’t know and that no-one had ever asked that question before. With trepidation I asked about apps or widgets to which she answered no even though the little sticker under the phone said otherwise.
By this point though I really didn’t care any more. I just wanted a freaking phone and so asked her to order in the Samsung Advance even though it was half the phone that the possibly crappy LG New Chocolate was. I didn’t care anymore.
The phone I ended up with – hopefully
After thoughts
At any time I probably could have walked out with a smartphone and be done with the whole mess and I am sure that most of you would have done that. the problem is that I don’t live in a fun tech world where I can afford to plop down a couple hundred and pay a higher monthly voice and data fee. I do however live in a real world where my wife and I deal with a strict budget and even the upgrade fee that Telus wanted gave me pause before agreeing to the new phone.
Sure it would be nice to have a spanking new smartphone but I’ll just have to hang on and hopefully once the Windows Phone 7 hits the market and gets the new OS and handset bugs worked out I’ll be in that position. In the meantime I get to be satisfied with half the phone that I actually wanted.
Just to be clear though this isn’t a problem with Telus per se but rather a failing of the dealer network that they use to sell their mobility solutions – especially in small towns.
Related posts:
