Bill Strahm's Weblog

Saturday August 21, 2004

How NOT to do customer support

So I need a new cell phone. Well gripe one - no I don't want a new cell phone, mine is great. The problem is that the battery life has dropped to under a day, and about 10 minutes of talk time. Getting a replacement battery is something like 50 dollars assuming you can still get one. You can get a new cell phone when you sign up for new cell service.

Why can't I just get a new battery with my new cell service

OK - So first thing a lead story on CNBC was that ATT Wireless has the worst service rating - red flag number 1. So I look at the ATT Wireless website to find out what the new phones will run me, and what the services are (I currently have ATT - so lets see what they can do for me). Found a nice Nokia phone that was "free" with 2 years of service. Time to go to the ATT Wireless service to look at the phone and go get the new service. Get to the store - the store has the SAME phone at $100 dollars - talked to the sales guy... The story is only for "New" customers, not "Existing" customers. Ok - well if you won't give me the phone, mind if I walk down to the Sprint store... Well he won't budge on giving me what is available on the web, or to "New" custommers. So time to become an "Old" customer so I might get a better deal in the future.

So went to the sprint store - found a phone that I wanted, got a very similar plan (plus a 20% discount for Sun Employees - Thanks Scott) so have a better phone, a better plan, and ATT Wireless ( Cingular now ???) looses another customer.

(2004-08-21 22:38:35.0) Permalink Comments [2]