One of the worst customer service relationships I know is the one I have with mobile phone operators.
When I wanted to change from one supplier to another, I had to do something risky. I had to close one account – the one I had with Meteor. That was straightforward. Meteor were easy to deal with. They placed no obstacle in my way – all their business processes seemed to work very well.
I had to open another account with O2. O2 were easy to deal with – all the setting up processes seemed to work very well. I was looking forward to becoming a customer of O2 – because they offered the iPhone. [The only reason I switched suppliers was the iPhone.]
The problem, the mess, the horrid situation came about in between the two suppliers. I was forced to shut off my supply from Meteor before I could get supply from O2. I was compelled to be without mobile phone connectivity for a while.
It didn’t matter how long I was left waiting for the new supply to kick in. I wanted un-interupted supply. I wanted all my contacts intact. I wanted the move from one company to another to be seamless – and it wasn’t.
The customer was left carrying the can. The customer was made to suffer uncertainty, anxiety and frustration. The mobile communications sector screwed me. It put itself first.
It would be so simple to arrange things so that there’s no switch until the customer is ready to pull the plug. Wouldn’t it be much better if you could check you had all your contacts intact - before you cut yourself off from the supplier you’re leaving?
Isn’t this a dreadful example of how not to do customer service?
1 Comment
My stepdaughter changed from O2 billpay to Meteor PAYG and in much the same way as yourself, had to go through all sorts of hoops.
It happened over a weekend, so while we were able to do some steps, others had to wait until the following Monday. So no phone for the weekend. (Wish we were told this before we started.)
Anyway one of the steps was a bit tricky and we messed up – to be honest, it could have happened to anyone. So number wouldn’t port properly and could never be fixed. The upshot was that it would have been easier, cheaper and less time consuming to get a new Meteor number and still end up with the same result … but with a free Meteor handset!
I know the technology can be complicated but surely, at this stage, the mobile phone operators can come up with an easy way to switch.