2010-08-19

iPhone Follow-Up

If you read my rant from last Monday, you know about my frustrations with AT&T.  I will give them their due, or is it Apple that did well?  At any rate, my new phone made it to Bartlesville by Wednesday morning.

I didn’t even try to call the local store, I just sent an email to check on the phone after seeing the tracking notice that it had been delivered.  Justin told me it was here!  He (and everyone else at the local store) has been very helpful and told me just to let him know if I have questions.  I took his picture with my camera, just to make sure that I could use it.

att_justin

My entire contact list transferred to my new phone, but I have to clean up the duplicates and add some addresses.  It does some really cool things.  For example, if you click on an address, a map of the location will appear.  I have loaded several albums to the iPod part of the phone.

I really like the thread function for text messaging.  You can see a grouping of texts as you and a friend “talk.”  But the on-screen letters are small and close together, so typing with my thumbs does not work well.

I have already loaded the iHog app, the ESPN free scoreboard app and I will be looking at the K-Force app recommended by Facebook friend Susan Abe.  It is a way to do baseball scoring on the phone.  I’m really curious to see how it works.

2010-08-16

When a Communications Company can’t Communicate

It has been a day of frustrations that really started on Sunday.

I have long lusted after an iPhone.  I know, I am a gadget freak.  I have always been enamored of such “toys.”  My two year contract for my current cell phone expired on Saturday.  I checked the AT&T on-line upgrade options.  I am not allowed to buy on-line.  You see, I have a post office box.  AT&T claims that they will not ship to a P. O. Box “to prevent fraud.”  Huh?  But they also will not ship to an address other than the billing address on my credit card (as they should not.)

I have had my P. O. Box for over twelve years.  I would rather have an item shipped there than to a street address.  Things can be taken from a mail box much more easily than from a box in the post office.  Goodness.

So I made a trip to my local AT&T store.  The young man who waited on me was just delightful.  He was helpful, answered all my questions and reassured me that a 16 gigabyte phone would more than meet my needs.  Some of his answers were not what I hoped, but he was so nice that I didn’t mind.  There were no iPhones in stock.  They expected a shipment this morning and I probably should be at the store when it opened to assure that I could get one.

The only iPhones that they received this morning were special orders.  So it was suggested that I check back with them just after noon to see if they received any more.  I called as suggested.  Or rather, I tried to call.

You see, AT&T stores have an automated answering system.  Now I was calling a brick and mortar store just over the hill from here.  Once I navigated the system, no one was available to answer the phone so I was given to option to return to the first menu or be directed to National Customer Service.  Those were the only two options.  In hindsight, I should have gone to National and asked them if the local store received any 16G iPhones this afternoon.

I tried for more than 20 minutes to connect to the local store with no success.  I finally gave up and drove to the store.  They were very nice and allowed me to vent a little.  They had received a few phones, but they were all 32G phones.  I’m spending more than I should for an iPhone in the first place.  There is no way that I would spend an extra $100 for something that I really do not need.  So I ordered what I want.  (At some point, I actually thought about giving up and getting a Droid.  But then I would be able to get the iHog app.)

After I got home, I decided to try to let AT&T know that their communications protocols were seriously flawed.  First I tried to navigate their web site to report a problem.  None of the choices fit my problem, so whatever I clicked sent me to a video on how to report a problem.  Huh?

I decided to send an email.  I logged into my Cell Phone account, clicked on Contact Us, and clicked on Send Email.  The resulting page said that my session had timed out.  It didn’t take me any longer to do that than it took you to read this paragraph.

By now I was seriously ticked off, so I decided to call.  I did get to talk to a person after another system navigation.  After subjecting the poor person to a bit of a rant (I really tried to be nice) I took the survey about my experience.  There were a couple of times in the survey that none of the options suited my problem.  At the end I was  offered the opportunity to have a customer service rep call me.  I said yes, or rather I punched the number for yes.  It will be interesting to see if they do call and how long it takes them to do so.

I will give them credit for one thing.  At no point in all of the menu navigation did they want me to speak to the automated system.  Those things annoy me so much that I find I get louder and louder as I talk to them.

Whew, <rant over>.