The wife and I abhor going to cell phone stores. We ALWAYS have a problem with getting our accounts set up the way they should be, having something spelled wrong, having the wrong person identified as the primary on the account, or getting our cell phone numbers switched on the wrong phones.
We went into this store to switch from Verizon to AT&T, purchase new iPhones, and to take advantage of a discount on the service as offered through my employer (which is nice). But we went in fully expecting a cluster-cluck. We weren't proven wrong.
We had a wait to be connected with an employee to set up our new service. Understandable to the extent that there were quite a few customers in the store. What was frustrating was that there were plenty of employees, and many seemed to just be standing around doing nothing while folks waited for service. Several times we noticed that there were issues that seemed to take 3 associates to solve one problem.
When we finally got paired with an associate, we were met with several ridiculous frustrations that should not have taken place. While she was relatively nice enough, had she not been trying to do too many things at once, including helping more than one person at a time, we likely would have had much better of an experience. She kept going back and forth between us and another guy, each time disappearing to the back of the store for what seemed like 5-6 minutes at a time.
She didn't inform us she was helping someone else, or what she disappeared for so frequently and for so long while we were waiting to get our phones set up. - Strike 1.
While attempting to get our phones service established and activated, she insisted on doing huge updates over the air, then going through an ENTIRE ICLOUD RESTORE (which for our phones meant over 20GB of data - EACH) while we sat there and waited. SERIOUSLY? I know most folks might still not really grasp "the cloud" yet, but if we'd have waited for both the update and the iCloud restore while there in the shop, we'd STILL be waiting. (*Note: Future cell phone customers of any service/brand, do NOT allow your agent to force you to do updates or restores while you wait. This can be done in a FRACTION of the time at home.) - Strike 2.
This brings me to a huge beef I have with this particular store. They are dead center in Providence, a nice shopping area. They claim they are only allowed to have TDS crap internet, which provides them a whopping 6mbps for the ENTIRE STORE. This is simply unacceptable. We waited (wasted) over 30 minutes for a 52MB update that didn't even complete because the file could't download. This took (I kid you not) less than 90 seconds at home when connected to proper wi-fi. - Strike 3.
As if this wasn't enough of a headache, there's more...
A big no-no for us is charging us for items that weren't disclosed. (I'm mildly sure this is illegal, but haven't gone through the TCA recently to find the statute myself.) When preparing our charges/bill for review, we found out only after she'd printed all the forms that she charged us $7.99/mo. per phone for their insurance. Not once in our conversation did we ask for this, nor did she state it was going on the bill. She simply didn't inform us that insurance was being charged. UNACCEPTABLE. Never charge a customer without telling them. - Strike 4.
Last, but certainly not least, was the complete lack of professionalism. Sadly, this was a result of not only our associate, but her (lack of) management. She spent the entire time she was assisting us watching a college football game on her cell phone... Seriously. So unprofessional. Who does that? I fully understand, as a huge football fan myself, wanting to support your team, etc. But never do that at work, and certainly not right in front of paying customers. Once again, UNACCEPTABLE. - Strike 5.
At the end of the day, we walked out with working phones, but only after many frustrations and insisting that we complete the updates and restore process at home ourselves. Utter ridiculousness... This place needs to get it together, and the managers need to take control of their employees, emphasize professionalism, and someone needs to seriously tell them to STOP DOING UPDATES AND RESTORES on their slow @$$ internet!
Get it together AT&T at Providence. (This is NOT a review of AT&T cell phone service, just their store at 401 S Mt Juliet Rd, Ste 230, 37122.) read more