By now most of you have probably seen, heard of, or in fact own a G1 the new phone from HTCxGooglexT-Mobile. I preordered mine the day they were announced and received it this past Mon night. The phone is fantastic, over all I am very, very happy with the phone itself. I can not say the same about the Lake City T-Mobile store staff and their handling of the one issue I have had with the phone.
I got excited, even bought some music through the Amazon MP3 application and loaded some pictures on to the phone using the included USB cable. When I would look for the songs or the pictures they would only be there occasionally. Sometimes I would get a "No Pictures" message, or when I went looking for my music it would say "No SD Card".
I called T-Mobile and was connected to PDA Support, and received help from a girl who's name I can't remember. She was helpful, profesional, and suggested swapping MicroSD cards first to try and figure out if it was a hardware problem or if it was a bad card. She suggested I go to the store and talk to them about it and see what they could do for me in regards to a card exchange.
I went to the Lake City T-Mobile store here in Seattle, Washington and spoke first to a young lady who I presume is new to the company. She did her best to answer my questions and what she didn't know she would ask a co-worker or her manager. They told me I wasn't the first person to experience the issue and that so far the only thing they had tried was a card exchange.
While waiting for her manager to finish up with another customer I was asked when I got the phone I explained that I had preordered the phone the same day they had announced it. She told me I was lucky because some people who waited to pre-order were stuck and have to wait for a delivery date of Nov 11th and that they had phones in stock at the store. So in this case preordering was a mistake for those folks. The manager told her to grab me a new sd card and after she said that she didn't know where they were, the manager asked another employee to show her where to find them. They brought out the card and told me to give it a shot, and that if it fixed my problem great, and that if it didn't we could just swap phones as I am well within the 14 day "Buyers Remorse" guarantee. I took off, figuring that things would either be fixed with the new card, and if not the next day I'd get it squared away. Of course I wouldn't be writing this if that were true. Instead maybe this would just be a glowing review of a great phone.
That night I had the same issue happen, throughout the evening I had checked out the Music folder to see if the problem was fixed. Now of course I had lost the music I had paid for as part of the SD card swap and although that is irritating I could deal. Then before bed, I got it. Checked Music and got "No SD Card" and no photos when I checked Pictures. So I figured, the next day I would swing by and get the phone exchanged and be done with this for good.
So I stop in to the Lake City T-Mobile Store again, and speak with an employee about swapping phones. This guy is the one who helped the new girl find the MicroSD Card for me the day before. After explaining the situation he says no problem and pulls up my account. I had brought in my original packaging, and everything that came with it. He asked me for my receipt and I explained that I didn't have one, that since I ordered online I was never given a paper receipt. He tells me that he can't do an in-store exchange for a phone bought over the Internet and I say they had told me the day before that they could and that the girl that helped me was actually working with another customer. He goes and talks to her and I see her turn to look at me and then say "He never told me that he had purchased the phone online". This of course was not true as we had discussed my purchasing my phone online and how I was lucky to not be a preorder customer waiting until the 11th to get my phone. I could understand "Sorry I am new and wasn't aware that your having bought it online would be an issue" but instead she boldly lied to me, inferring that I was in fact the one being dishonest. The guy came back and said she was unaware of how I got my phone, and I told him that was not correct. I had mentioned to him that I had talked to this girl (the new girl) the day before and also the manager. So he asked what the manager looked like that I had spoken to, I told him and he called the manager. The manager said that she had never said that they could switch the phone at the store when the day before she seemed to have considered it and then decided to start with just the card swap.
The SD card they had given me in fact had very clearly private photos of a man, who I assume is the cards previous owner on it. I would certainly be smart enough to erase the pics on a card before handing it back over to T-Mobile, BUT I would also think that T-Mobile should be a bit more professional in what cards they are handing out to their customers and check the content of the used cards they hand out. What if these objectionable pictures had been on a MicroSD card for my niece?
I raised my voice a bit, and said I needed to speak with the managers boss and he said he didn't even know who that would be (bullshit). So I told him that I was going to need his business card, and his managers name and her upcoming schedule so that I could discuss this with her again. He handed me his card, with the name Michelle written on it and explained that she would be in Mon. I let him know that Michelle would be hearing from me.
I left the store and called PDA Support again, this time speaking with a guy named Lucas. Lucas was very helpful, he understood the frustration I might having having paid over $150 bucks a month for the last year on my bill as well as $300.00 for a phone that does not work, and was the first person throughout this dilemma that really did do a great job. He explained that it was clear it was a hardware issue, and that at the store level they couldn't swap my phone if it was purchased online with out "pulling some major strings". At the end of the call with Lucas my options are to send my phone back to T-Mobile now (as I can't let the 14 day "Buyers Remorse" expire, although I fail to see how a defective phone should have to fall under buyers remorse.) and wait until the 11th for the online store to have them back in stock before seeing a replacement or to go into the store and pay up front for an additional phone and then I can send back the faulty phone. Neither of these is acceptable. I have worked in the corporate world for years, I understand red tape. I have worked in tech support, and so I know what it is like to only be able to do so much to help a person you are dealing with on the phone but what I think T-Mobile is REALLY missing here is that at the end of the day all the people involved in this ordeal answer the phone by saying "T-Mobile" and they all represent the same company. Only the PDA phone support department did that with integrity and with customer service in mind. I come away from this in essence being told that the thousands of dollars I have spent with them are of no importance, my choosing to keep two lines with them is insignificant to them, and that they really just can't stand behind their flagship phone, one that they are in essence gambling their success on.
I was told they would credit my account for the price of the faulty phone if I opted to return it through UPS and buy a new one at the store, and that they would even credit me the ten dollars I will pay for shipping. Are you kidding me? Those are no concessions at all, this is the BARE minimum. Since when is the bare minimum the offer we make to our clients and customers. I know I wouldn't have a job if that is the best I could offer, and at the very least I would not have any customers if that was the all I could do.
I intend to call Michelle on Monday when she is back in the office. I just thought that the 18,000 plus folks that have visited this little blog of ours might find this sort of a story interesting. I know that the money I spend with T-Mobile is insignificant to them BUT not to me, and that I certainly won't (nor is it my goal to) put them out of business. I just think that "the customer is always an asshole" is funny when Ben Affleck says it in Mallrats, but isn't as funny when your cell phone company takes it on as their Mission Statement. The beauty of the Internet is that allows us to have a voice and I felt it appropriate to make mine heard.
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