Ok, the iPhone is here and we’ve heard all kinds of comments good or bad from various reviewers about the new device…the small keypad for entry, the steps you have to go through to get to the ‘phone’ function, AT&T’s slow Edge network, etc. I’ve now seen pictures taken from an iPhone and can report they’re impressive..far beyond most cell phones out right now, but we know that continues to change.
Let’s turn our attention to the Cell Phone service providers. My burning question is, do carriers do anything right?
Here’s my perspective. I am probably classified as a carrier’s best friend and customer. First, I pay my bill on time, and I hardly ever call customer service. I’ve learned what to expect in my coverage area…I know my dead zones and don’t complain about them.
My first ‘handheld’ cell phone was a 2lb behemoth I acquired in the early 80′s. There were a lot of older trunk mounted phones my friends in the oil fields had much earlier than then and the tote-bag cell phones as well that you generally left in your car, but this one was one of the first you could actually, uh, stick in your pocket, maybe! I remember my wife taking the phone with her to the store, antenna sticking up out of her purse and ladies marveling at her purse ringing when I gave her a call. So back to today’s topic, I’ve had experience with many, many, many carriers in the past 25 years of cell phone usage.
I’ve got a family plan with 5 phones on it. Recently, we decided it was time to upgrade our phones, most of which were ancient at around 2 years old! You know what I mean, we need internet access, better pictures, video capture, unlimited text messaging, larger full color screen displays, and oh yea, the ability to make and receive phone calls! We purchased 2 units in a company store, and the other units via phone to customer service. Naturally, we had to change service plans, and the carrier acknowledged us as loyal customers of theirs since 1994, geez! Everything seemed great, new phones, minimal out of pocket, new 2 year contract, about the same monthly rate with more minutes, faster internet, better pics, what more could you ask for? Nothing until the first bill arrived…gulp! Our new monthly bill was almost double our old one. Both the store and phone customer service had set things up differently and we had a disaster in the making. I called customer service once, and after waiting almost 20 minutes was connected with a rep I could barely understand, and after a few minutes of struggling, said I’d call back, which I did immediately. My next call a few seconds later was connected, after 15 more minutes to music on hold, with someone who’s name I couldn’t even write much less understand as they pronounced it and I ask her to spell it for me. Let’s just say Supercalifragilistic was a shorter name. I hung up. I called back again, waited 12 minutes, was connected and told my story for the second time to the rep and was told that I had agreed to that new contract. I hung up. I did some research on the internet and learned about “retention departments”. Hmmm, I called a fourth time, was connected after 17 minutes and almost immediately ask for the retention department. Cool. Progress. I was connected to a great person there, and even after explaining my frustration, she calmly said we’ll take care of it. While I remained on the line (for almost an hour), she went through every line item on my complex bill and we made adjustments to exactly what I understand and had noted for my own records the line item should be. My world back in order, finally.
From learning the ins and outs of cell phone business and the technology, I know one thing that is most important when it comes to cellular carriers–and the bottom line of any business is customer service! If I ever have to call customer service or visit the local company store for any reason, the way their customer service rep treats me is way I judge the company–because I’ve always believed that if you take care the customer, the customer will take care of you! So my loyalty is to the carrier that takes good care of me when needed, and if they get that right then other things just seem secondary.
Now something I have not mentioned is the phones themselves. Wanting to get in on the latest hot product recently added by our carrier, we purchased all Motorola Razr V3 phones, you know, Red, Grey, colorful! I had been using a 2 year old LG PM-325 and for the most part loved the phone, except for the small display and slide cover sometimes sliding shut. So thinking the Razr was the hot dog of the day, we blindly purchased them. The display is great, big and colorful, but on the downside, the battery life is short, and really sucked down fast when you use the internet. The carrier’s EVDO service makes the internet pretty fast for wireless with nice graphics. I use Opera Mini, a free download app that makes your cell phone’s browser much like your computer’s browser and love it over anything that comes with the phone. The other thing that totally frustrates me about the Razr is the speed of deleting messages. After having had Blackberries for many years, I gave mine up, but now forward most of my work-related email to my phone, at least the first few lines of my email, just to know what I need to stay on top of. That means I get a lot of messages on my phone in a day, so when I try to delete 300 messages, it takes the Razr about 10 minutes doing nothing else. My old LG phone deleted them all in less than 2 seconds.
What about you? Do carriers do anything right? Praises or gripes, let’s hear it from you directly.
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