Why I don't have an iPhone or ... Why AT & T kinda sucks
Today I should have come to work with an iPhone. I should have been able to toy away with it all weekend. I should have already loaded up on apps, added some music and been able to blog from wherever I happened to be. None of this has happened. Why? Because AT & T is stupid.
Let's start on Friday morning. I woke up around 7:30 a.m., not thinking there would be a super rush for iPhones, since it's just a new model. Wrong. When I arrived at Fashion Fair just before 8:30 a.m. the line at The Apple Store went down to Gottschalks.
I wasn't playing that. So I turned around, thinking I'd hit one of the local AT & T stores, where people on Twitter had been saying the lines weren't as bad. I passed two stores along Blackstone (the one near Shaw and the one near Herndon) before stopping at the store across from Manchester Center. I was quite excited to see no line out front.
Thinking I scored, I proudly marched to the front door, where I was greeted and asked why I was there. I could have told the guy I was selling Girl Scout Cookies, but I played it straight and said "iPhone." I waited a few minutes before I was let inside. There, I stood next to a woman with the word "manager" on her nametag, waiting for an open register.
She asked if I was there for the iPhone. "Nope, selling Avon," I said. OK, I didn't say that. I just said "Yes." She told me that was a good idea. I agreed. She said again it was a good idea. I agreed again. Then she told me they were on "direct fulfillment."
Having no idea what that meant, I just nodded. She said I could get an iPhone in two to seven days. Then I figured it out -- "direct fulfillment" is retail double talk for "sold out." Argh. I asked if other AT & T stores still had phones. She said no. I thought about it. A couple days wasn't a big deal compared to that Apple Store line. I trudged forward and chuckled about "direct fulfillment" -- geez, I'm gonna have to use that one next time my wife wants me to clean the toilets.
So I meet the guy who is going to help me, who shakes my hand and seems very nice yet totally unprepared to sell me an iPhone. He was twiddling with the computer and had to ask a co-worker for help. I presented my ID and a recent bill from AT & T (with whom I've been a customer for 10 years now). A few minutes later, the co-worker told me that I "wasn't eligible for an upgrade" and that I could buy an iPhone but it would "a little bit more."
"A little bit more" in direct fulfillmentville means $200.
Let's stop here and go back two weeks. Back on June 29, I went to the AT & T store at River Park with my wife. She was buying a Bluetooth so that she could live the great hands-free life. I used this opportunity to inquire about iPhones and AT & T contracts. I told the nice girl behind the counter that I understood the $199 iPhone price came because of a new two-year agreement. I asked whether I had to be within the "upgrade" period of my contract for that. She said no. To make sure we were speaking the same language, I asked if by agreeing to a new two-year, I essentially was voiding what was left on my current contract (five months). She said yes. I was happy.
Now let's go back to iPhone day. I was unhappy.
All I'd gotten from AT & T was double-speak and misinformation -- no iPhone. Nope, I'll have to wait until mid-August to be finally eligible for an upgrade.
Here's hoping that experience will be both more direct and more fulfilling.
Comments:
Gotta love AT&T and their double speak mentality.
I went head to head with them today, but just for a regular flip phone.
Posted by: Ashley at July 14, 2008 3:14 PM
AT+T should be shot. I, too, have been a cellphone customer with them for almost 10 years -- first with AT+T, then with Pac Bell Wireless, then with Cingular, and now back to AT+T.
I recently went into the Manchester store for a phone upgrade, which I was entitled to after finishing my most recent two-year contract. I've never paid for a phone before, always opting for one of the free, no-frills models. Every time I've previously upgraded, I've gotten out of there with a small upgrade fee (less than $10) and no hassle. But not this time.
This time, I got charged an $18 upgrade fee. ("That's just what the fee is now," the sales guy told me.) Then, I got charged $20 for the "free" phone. When I asked why this was, the sales guy told me that AT+T has a new policy of waiving the $20 phone charge during an upgrade if the customer purchases one of the company's new multimedia packages -- which start at $35 a month. I told the guy, how am I supposed to use a multimedia package with this old-skool, cheapy phone that I'm getting? He suggested buying a better phone.
I agree with Mike Oz on this one: AT+T = FAIL.
Posted by: Jeffresno at July 14, 2008 3:35 PM
so you are an at&t customer ... and have been for 10 years.
im not ... never have been (well, they bought out my sbc landline and internet, but still)
but as far as cell phones go, i can walk into any store and get me an iphone (assuming i wake up early enough on the right day).
you = loyal customer
me = loser off the street
but im treated better than you because i dont have a stupid upgrade time period to worry about?
the business world makes no sense to me.
Posted by: will at July 14, 2008 3:37 PM
Hey Mike, maybe AT&T will have their act together by August and those pesky glitches they are "trying to fix" will actually be fixed and you'll have a better time with your iPhone rather than those that go thte new one and had to do all the same crap anyway...
Posted by: Renee N at July 14, 2008 3:37 PM
Haha. I love the graphic. Boo on you AT&T! Bunch of 'tards.
Posted by: Erin at July 14, 2008 4:01 PM
I have also been a victim of AT&T double speak.
1. When I canceled my account after I moved, they said I had to pay 15 bucks a month to keep my email account...that everyone else got for free. (Huh?)
2. Part of the Dish Network/AT&T Internet/home phone/satellite package that I had required me to ship back the receiver after I moved...which I did...and they STILL charged me an equipment charge of $269. This of course was resolved, but only after taking an hour out of my life to explain the issue again and again, to a series of helpful AT&T agents over the phone.
Posted by: Clare Frederick at July 14, 2008 6:45 PM
I applaud you Mike for not falling into the trap that too many uneducated people do by waiting in long lines for an iphone so that they can be one of the "magical special people" who have the iphone the minute that they come out. It never fails to amaze me that by looking through the lines in the news coverage and articles of such a sad event, that the majority of the people look like they are in no position financially to spend so much money on a phone.
The same people wasting hundreds of dollars on an iphone are probably the same people who fell victim to the subprime mortage debacle. Suckers! I have no sympathy for people who make poor life choices. It is 100% their fault for the position that they are likely in financially.
It is the same line of thinking of people who buy, I mean lease expensive cars to look like they are somebody, when in reality they are virtually bankrupt. So continue to waste your time and money standing in line to buy an iphone, you are pathetic.
Posted by: John at July 14, 2008 10:42 PM
I wonder, if AT&T is so bad to their customers, why stay? For the IPhone? It's just the first, others will be coming along. I'd rather have great service and great customer service than I would the newest little gadget. Good Gawd, I sound old.
Posted by: C1 at July 15, 2008 1:24 AM
ATT stinks...It's hard to speak to a human, or get ANY results. I gave up and went to Verizon...IPHONE's not that important.
Posted by: Ginger at July 15, 2008 4:14 PM
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