NSW
2528 posts
Girlfriend and I are looking to start new cell phone plans.
We've been with the same company since we've moved here (5, if your counting) our current plans have ended and our current provider has changed their plans so you get a little more bang for your buck.
She wants the iPhone 4 (32gb) and I'm after a Nokia N8. I thought this would be simple website show's they have both phones in stock (finally) ring up set up new plans, phones get sent out, change sim cards and run our phone switcher softwares, charge the iPhone battery boom done, easy as 123.
But wait you get sent to the "loyalty" division becuase your not a new customer and they they value your buisness. But unfortunetly they don't have either of those phones in stock nore can they tell you when there actually going to get them in stock (the phone the missus is after has been out of stock for 1.5 months already). The kicker of the whole deal is they do have them, but only if your a new customer. All I wanted was a new phone and a new plan, now I've got to hit the web and start compairing plans.
I realize there's a bit more to this than a magic wall in the open plan call centre not to mention the masive warehouse that all the phones come out of in it that bars them from doing what to me should be simple matter but if I every pulled this with a client they wouldn't be a client anymore (maybe that should tell me something).
Sorry whinge (and yes I will have some cheese preferably goats) I just feel like we have all these companies that tout the "we're loyal to costomers that are loyal to us" banner but some none of them seem to live up to the hype. Not sure if this falls under the new "banhammer" rules, but what better way to try it.
WA
1991 posts
I recently underwent the same ordeal. I was with 3, and had been for 4 or so years.
I kept going in the city because i too wanted the iPhone 4, to see if it were in stock.
They would always say next friday, and i would go next friday, and get the same thing. They wouldn't give me to store phone number for me to ring, ask if it is in stock, and save a trip to the city. They wouldn't even put me on a list to notify when stock arrived.
I was always told to order on the phone/online. But I wanted to deal with a person, and not (no offence) someone I can hardly understand, or an internet which as you say, is unrealiable at indicating stock levels.
Went into telstra (who i used to be with, and left due to ****house plans), got the HTC Desire for $54 a month. 3gb of data and $400 of calls. They sorted me out then and there. Guess companies change all the time...
NSW
9029 posts
If you are with 3 you can't really complain all that much. 3 are a cheapo company with crap service, crap coverage but cheap prices. We are with them coz they are cheap and the 3 to 3 deal is great.
Good to see Telstra starting to change their tune. No longer the alpha and omega, Telstra has started becoming competitive. If it takes a company like 3 to do it then that is great.
WA
718 posts
Good ole telcos.
I was with Telstra for 4 years on a prepaid phone; I was happy, it was all going well.
Then one day I get a call out of the blue from telstra, the person on the phone tells me that I'm a valued customer because of the 4 years I'd been with them; she then proceeds to offer me a 'special deal', only being offered to customers like myself.
It sounded ok, but I like to do my research, so I asked if I could read about the deal on their website, she said yes & to just go to the mobile phone site.
She was going to call me back the next day to sign me up if I wanted to proceed.
So I go in to the website & surprise surprise, I was being offered a stock standard deal that anyone could get, no special treatment about it.
Needless to say, I didn't appreciate the piss take and insult to my intelligence, so I left telstra straight away.
If they hadn't contacted me & told me lies, I would probably still be with them.
The sales person didn't call me back the next day; shame cause I was looking forward to the interrogation.
QLD
295 posts
My wife and I never show loyalty to any of the big corporations, I just recently swapped from one provider to another, I got an iPhone 4 and went straight to the top of the cue. Signed up for the 49 dollars month plan and also received a $10 a month discount. We also change insurance and bank providers regularly, it's amazing what they will come up with to get or keep your biz.
