to want to scream mobile phone sales reps.......!!!!!

[beanpot]

I hate mobile phone customer services centres...they are sooooooooooooooooooooooo useless. Tried today to upgrade my phone to an iphone to be told online I could do it but not have the phone till friday as they couldn't next day deliver it, but if I went into my local store I could have it today. The phone rep even called my local store to check availability. So get my 18mnth old in the car, drive 8 miles to the store to be told, 'computer says no' we cannot upgrade you till tomorrow!!! ARGHHH!!!

Salesman phones head office to be told, no nothing they can do. Drive 8 miles home without phone and call online sales team to be told retail store was wrong and I could have had my phone.

Online rep was rude, obnoxious and sounded about 15yrs old, and he eventually said nothing he could do and to speak to retail customer services, he put me through and surprise surprise he cut me off. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH.

Phoned retail salesman back up and said online rep says you can upgrade me, and his assistant is rude to me and says, 'look, just come in again tomorrow and we'll do it, whats your problem?......

Problem??? ARGHHHH!!!!!

rant over....

vote with your feet and go elsewhere

Ooo come on spill, who was it?

YABU

Boo hoo poor you who can't have their toy TODAY.

Sorry but you sound like a spoilt brat.

No she doesn't. She sounds like someone who has been mucked about a lot today and is understandably a bit pissed off.

Getdownyouwillfall.

No she doesn't.

I dealt with a similar company who were crap and I was pissed off with them.

Being messed around would make anyone pissed off.

We can't all be perfect.

OP YANBU

Getdownyouwillfall, not a brat at all, just expect a certain customer service level from a major retailer of mobile phones, actually, any major retailer for that matter.

Everyone else, thanks..it was O2. I've had great service levels off them for the past 3 years and as we're off for a few days in the morning, and I run a business, I wanted the new phone, (not toy ), to keep in contact whilst I'm away...

I am absolutely going to complain to the head office, not for my plight particularly, but they seem to have an disparity between the online service and the retailers....prob not the first time either..

It's the "have it now attitude" that grates. They were offering it tomorrow not next month. Tho I do appreciate the drive with a small child is a pain.

AIBU invites people's opinions, and you have to be prepared that people may disagree with you! If not, don't post!

Thing is sometimes the online/call centres have different upgrade dates to those instore, it is certainly the case with my company (vodafone) we cant change the dates and yes it is very annoying when we have poor customers sent on a wild goosechase into our store .
Nothing can be done about it, why would a salesperson really turn down a sale? I sometimes think people assume we are lying when we say XYZ cant be done sorry, I mean it defies logic, why turn away our bread and butter?

However his manner was completly unacceptable, if you have his name i would wirte as with us complaints with our names on always get fed back to our regional managers and store manager.

funkybuddah the call centre phoned the shop to check they could do it and they said yes.

Then she drove the 8 miles to be told no.

I would be well pissed off.

Am amazed that anyone thinks it is absolutely fine for a business to casually give someone a 16 mile round trip wasted journey.

YANBU

Being f around by any major company is a pita - has happened many a time to me (obviously I have the push over tone when on the phone! ) however instead of sitting back I now write and complain. Worked with Sky - I wrote to Murdochh and told him his customer services were crap and wrong and had caused no end of chaos for me. (I moved house, discussed moving with Sky as had full broadband and talk - they didn't offer it so declined to have bb and talk with them as hugely expensive - confirmed on 10 occasions - yes 10 - that this was the case and about booking in the visit for updating the machinery on site - paid for it and no one turned up and told me I was in the wrong. They then attached a phone line on our behalf (having been told not to) and fucked up our connection with BT so had a fight with them too. Gawd it went on until that email and surprise surprise the following morning at 8 am I got a call from his pa and was told someone would be with me in the pm. the fact that when the engineer was there someone else said they called to tell me they couldn't do anything about it until 4 weeks later is beyond the point but by then I had the engineer captive and he said they were a bunch of silly sods and did it all for us.)

And yes getdownyouwillfall I did want that service immediately because you see I was still paying the extortionate rates and could see no reason why I had to wait for 4 + weeks still paying and getting no service.

So OP complain and I feel your pain!

But was it maybe the case that the customer service rep only called to confirm stock? Having worked in mobiles for a long time this is usually all they do rather than make sure that we are on the same system/commitment term? If there is stock and they ask 'can we send someone in to upgrade to an xgb iphone?' they will say yes.

Again its is unlikely that they can change anything in store and they would not turn away their bread and butter, every sale counts, every sale is one more for your targets and one more for your commision and many companies are making the commision harder to earn.

yes I get that funkybuddah but it is not for the OP to be au fait with the procedural ins and outs of mobile phone companies. from her POV she did what she was told and ended up being given the runaround.

No-one has said anything nasty about the people working for the company (well apart from teh one who was rude) so i think her point is fair enough.

ImSoNotTelling I never said it was fine for a company to "casually give someone a 16 mile round trip wasted journey" that would be ridiculous.

I just think it's a bit unreasonable for OP to stamp her foot about getting something today when she has to wait less than 24hrs to get it anyway, and they are offering next day delivery so she wouldn't even need to do the trip in the first place.

Anyway I am staying off AIBU because clearly I am living in a parallel universe.

How is friday next day from monday?

She rang them up and they said "we can't do next day delivery you won't get it until Friday BUT if you go into the store today they will be able to give it to you there and then".

Thus she went 8 miles to the shop as advised by the customer service people and they told her no dice.

Cue lots of toing and froing ending up with her going home again ie 16 mile round trip and by this time she has no phone at all.

In response to this tale you called the OP a spoilt brat.

I mean what are you talking about.

"Tried today to upgrade my phone to an iphone to be told online I could do it but not have the phone till friday as they couldn't next day deliver it, but if I went into my local store I could have it today."

They couldn't so next day delivery. They couldn't do next day delivery. They couldn't do next day delivery.

Got it?

took us 2 hours yesetrday, we came out with blacklberry for daughter.she is 26, half price, new phone for me and husband. 45quid cash back, reduced monthly tariff for the 2 of us. free phones for the 2 of us and god knows what else, i lost the plot after 30 minutes.I found out all about the salesmans family, they have got the whole of Glasgow covered,with thier taxis, import/exports, Sky, Barrister BIL's, their mum's sari business, which is purely a cover for her and her mates, to sit and drink tea,car washes, here and in dundee,his sister's job in John lewis, assist. manager in cosmetics, her medical student boyfriend, Pakistan traditions, indian cooking tips,his driving ban for 4 years,drink driving, cant tell parents, strict Muslim,caught speeding 4 times on the same day between Dundee/Aberdeen,his mates chappati oven,all pakistanis want everything free,that made me laugh, im trying to him fixed up with my daughter,i think he put her No. somewhere, she is a mortgage advisor, offered him a deal. all for a bloody phone which is olny EVER used in extreme emergencies,such as phoning my friend to tell her what the wine offers are in tescoes.. I've had more fun since becoming an older person than in years. Lucy gets a bit hacked off as I keep trying to marry her off,got rid of her 2 brothers.

Hey girls,I am sat on my iPhone in bed, have checked all my business mail, checked my website, and love the convenience of it! Loads of hassle, but worth it.
I am going to write a complaint tho, as the 2 systems are not working together at all, online and retail. I agree they did not want to turn down the sale but they had no option, system said no,and I spent a wasted 16 miles. Plus I had some really poor customer service attitude along the way...

No next day delivery.... As a bank holiday... Apparently.

Hi beanpot, sorry you had a bad experience but can I tell you the other side of the story.
DH is a retail manager for O2, and he has constant issues with the call center doing these kind of things. He's complained till he's blue in the face about it, but nothing changes as it's such a big setup.
DH's store meanwhile is a smallish but successful one, he manages his staff well, but they all know what they can and can't do.
He had a similar situation over a business tariff last week, call center sent a customer in for a phone on a certain tariff that's only available through them. DH can't match it without authorisation or face a diciplinary hearing. Yes they are that strict! His area manager is on hols, so he rings his senior manager (next step down), who says if you want to do it, do it, but I'm not authorising it. Helpful as ever!!!
He couldn't risk doing it, his job is our livelyhood, and even though he would never usualy turn down a sale and bends over backwards to help his customers, it just isn't worth the grief and possible loss of income.
Glad you're sorted with your iPhone now though.

That's dreadful, they really need to get some integration sorted. I hope my feedback will help stimulate some action, although as u say it's such a large organisation. Thanks 4 the other side tho, the retail staff were friendly enough the second day when I picked up the phone, as u say, nothing they could do about it.