This is a little lengthy, but I like a good story, so I just assume everyone else does, too. This…read moreis a repost of a Google review I did last summer.
I spent not-quite-2-hours at the AT&T store in Olympia. My phone had gone into a loop of rapid fire error messages-- all because I hadn't done regular Google Play updates. Apparently. I'll own that. Anyway, I usually go up to the Capital Mall store, because they FIX things. When I go to the AT&T store here in Centralia, they instantly want me to upgrade to a new phone, without trying to fix it. I walked into the Mall store, and the woman who greeted me looked at my phone and said, "Looks like you need a new phone."
What. The. What. Groundhog Day.
"Nope," I say, "David and Gus have fixed it for me before, so I want to try to fix it first." I assess she's not capable, by demeanor nor skill, because she's very abrupt and impatient, and my eyes are darting around, as if I'm looking for a way out of the Hunger Games, but I'm actually looking around for someone else who might care a little more than not at all.
Another employee, Ralph, stops by our table to see what's happening. He digs in, and patiently works on my phone (and shortly into it, the sales manager woman goes off to be not busy at another table). He tries every trick he knows. He has a big bag of tricks. Impressively big bag of tricks. Did I say he PATIENTLY worked on it? After well over an hour, we decide to reset my phone, even at the risk of losing everything, although I was reasonably certain I'd backed things up in Google. He reset it, and sure enough, everything uploaded to my phone, except for some voicemails and a few pics.
Admittedly, I'm a horrible cell phone owner. I don't feed and care for it like I'm supposed to do, or even speak its tech language...in fact, if it were a pony, it would've died long ago. But I really appreciate people who are great at their job skills, who give superior customer service, and who make you feel like they were happy to help you. So, here's a big shout out to Ralph Rivera at the Capital Mall AT&T store. Thank you for treating me like a valued customer, and for fixing my phone. You're a Rockstar. And PS: Thank you for your service to our country.