Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
Buying a mobile device these days can be a traumatic experience, even for those of us who think they have experience.
When asked about the phone-buying experience, I have generally told people to go through a company-owned retail outlet as that way they are dealing most directly with the carrier and those salespeople are most focused on the devices and services sold by that operator.
However, for my own phone-buying experiences, I have traditionally gone through a carrier’s online channel, figuring my knowledge of the space would help me sidestep any of the issues that might be encountered by those less familiar with the process. This traditionally has served me well, with but a few bobbles that have required post-sale follow-up calls.
Most recently I attempted to purchase a device through a third-party online retailer both to gather what that experience may be like as well as to take advantage of a slightly discounted price on the device. And let me just say “wow!”
Through a comedy of errors involving a delayed handset launch and number porting, all hell broke loose in my attempt to acquire a new device. A breaking loose of hell that I could only imagine would be mind boggling for an average consumer.
Let me explain: I attempted to purchase a Samsung Droid Charge device from online retailer Wirefly, which through various iterations has been a long-term player in the third-party online retail space. The company provides devices through most operators as well as operates white-label online stores for a number of retailers.
I put in the order for the device just prior to its expected launch date of late April, which at the last moment was pushed back until mid-May. How last minute? Well, thanks to the wonder of online shipment tracking my Droid Charge made it all the way to the local FedEx facility before getting yanked back, though the SIM card for the device somehow made it into my hands.
Crazy!
Wirefly did do a good job of informing me of the delay, something I had heard about previously through the usual reporter channels. No big deal and a couple extra weeks seemed like no big thing.
Eventually the device did arrive, and with a new SIM card no less, leaving me with one device and two SIM cards. Pretty sweet. I quickly went forward with the number porting and activation process and everything seemed copasetic.
However, a few months later I get a cold, automated phone call from Wirefly’s parent company Simplexity saying that I had disconnected my line and thus would have to pay a several-hundred dollar early-termination fee. What the what?!?
So, thinking I was cute, I called Simplexity using the same device that they claimed was inactive. For some reason, they did not find the humor. Or, better yet, think that the line was still active. Maybe it was my delivery?
I was told by Simplexity that their attempt to collect the commission from Verizon Wireless was denied because I had made some sort of change to my service after activation. Now, I do a lot of crazy things in my sleep, but was pretty sure I did not do anything to touch my wireless service. The representative told me that in order to avoid paying their ETF I would have to call Verizon Wireless myself to find out why they were not paying Wirefly the commission on my device.
At this point I told the representative that it was odd that I would have to be involved in a commission issue between Wirefly and Verizon Wireless. Again, they were not amused. I definitely need to work on that delivery.
So, I called up Verizon Wireless, telling the representative what the situation was and if they could go through my records to figure out if something had changed on my account since it was activated. Of course they found nothing and could not see any reason why Wirefly was not getting its commission.
Now having spent way too much time handling something that I figured was still out of my field of concern, I called Wirefly back, had to explain the situation again and was told that I needed to hang on the line as the representative conference called in someone at Verizon Wireless. Really? I needed to be involved in this?
After much back-and-forth of secret lingo between the two representatives it was discovered that because of the delay in the device being shipped and the delivery of two SIM cards, that the actual activation of my line from the ported-in number appeared to be a disconnection of the original SIM card, which was a change to the account. A perfect storm. Or so I think that is what was discovered. It was really an odd conversation with all parties leaving the call seemingly not knowing what the hell just happened.
While all of this was going on I decided to reach out to Simplexity’s PR department to figure out from that perspective if this was a common occurrence, or if I just happened to get caught in some Twilight Zone of mix ups. The PR staff told me that 21 other customers had been caught up in the same set of circumstances resulting from the device being pulled at the last minute.
(Seriously!?! I was someone one of 22 people that got snared in this calamity? I figured with those sorts of odds I should go out and pick up a lottery ticket. So I did, and did not win.)
Fair enough, I figured. Mix ups happen.
I will say that it was interesting/uncomfortable to be put in between a commission dispute between Wirefly and Verizon Wireless, though I would guess this would be a conversation both parties would like to keep behind the curtain. Also, I cannot see how a regular consumer would be able to deal with this situation, or for that matter come away from it ever wanting to deal with either company ever again.
I know that the wireless industry does have a track record of poor customer service, but I always figured that was due to consumers not willing to take in the information that the wireless industry was providing. And while I still think that is the case, this past experience does lend me to suspect that the wireless industry does have a ways to go before becoming truly consumer friendly.
Will I order a device again through a third-party channel? Not sure. This experience, though filled with issues that are not likely to happen again, has turned me sour on that channel. And I will also be a bit hesitant to recommend such an option when asked. Which is sort of sad as all of the issues I encountered could have been handled without the need for inconveniencing the consumer.
Oh well. I chalk this up to yet another experience.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–Got word this week that Intel subsidiary Wind River has come up with an Android test development kit that “replicated human interactions to rapidly create automatic scripts to test real-world user scenarios.” Now I did not read this whole release carefully, but what I got out of it was that Intel was making cyborgs to test Android devices. From what I can remember from the movies, this sort of human/robot hybridization usually ends with a lot of things on fire and humans on the losing end of the battle.
–Nokia released a survey showing the most annoying habits of mobile phone users. (For those of you unaware, Nokia is a mobile device manufacturer based out of Japan or Iceland or somewhere.)
Just about any sane person will read the list and shake their head knowingly as everyone in the world has had to deal with all of these at one point or another. But, I will also assume that none of us would actually admit to any of these social faux pas themselves, so in the end instances of these annoying habits will never cease. Of course this does not refer to the 1.75% of people that said people need to just chill out.
Now, feel free to begin knowing head shake:
–People playing music/games/movies in public, without the use of headphones (21.48%)
–People who talk loudly on their phone (20.89%)
–People using their phone in the theater/cinema (17.49%)
–If the person you’re talking to takes out their phone to text, mid-conversation (11.86%)
–Taking pictures and uploading them without permission (6.51%)
–Using a phone when at the dinner table (5.54%)
–Constantly looking at the screen, just in case they missed a call or text (4.66%)
–Continually looking up every conversation item on their smartphone (2.04%)
–People just need to become more tolerant (1.75%)
–Partner using their phone in bed (1.65%)
–Cheating in the pub quiz (1.55%)
–Other (.68%)
–Insisting they don’t need directions because the maps app will get you there (.39%)
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at: dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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