I came in at 2:20pm today to switch to T-Mobile and purchase a new phone. I already knew what plan and model I wanted, and I had about 30 minutes before I needed to head home, so I figured I had plenty of time.
Came in to FIVE customers waiting on ONE employee. After twenty minutes and one person walked out, he went in the back and retrieved help--where at least three people came out! So why were they in back when the store was so busy in the first place??
While I waited on the ONE employee, who turned out to be a manager (I think the store manager), a woman told him she would help me pick a phone. I explained I already knew what I was getting and what plan, and I just needed to do the paperwork. Still, he let her show me stuff and talk me through it (all info I already had) while he helped someone who arrived after me. Turns out the woman was a CUSTOMER who didn't know anything I didn't already know myself and basically just wasted another 10 minutes of my time while the manager helped someone else. It's bad enough to be passed on to someone else, but to a CUSTOMER?? That's beyond ridiculous.
Once someone came from the back to help me, things went pretty smoothly. He talked me through my plan options and got me my new phone, even helping me make sure everything was backed up. He told me my old phone could be traded in toward the down payment on the new, and I thought that sounded like a good plan. I asked four or five times if my old number was going to work on the new phone because I wasn't willing to lose my old number, and he assured me it would. "Worst case, it'll take a couple of hours for it to activate on the new phone." Okay, I can live with a temporary number for a couple of hours... He told me they'd call me if there were any problems porting the number.
Two hours after activating my new phone, the old number hadn't ported. Checked again at 3 hours, then at 4. It was now after 7pm, and I was concerned about what calls or messages I might be missing and didn't want the store closing for the night without me having my number working. I called the store, and the guy answering the phone said "Honestly, it usually takes at least a day." AT LEAST a DAY?!? He said, "Today's Wednesday? Call us if it isn't working by Friday. Until then, just use both phones."
Umm... NO. I traded in my old phone because your employee told me it was a good idea and that my number would work in a couple of hours, WORST CASE. I cannot go AT LEAST A DAY without my phone number! I couldn't possibly notify all my family, colleagues, the doctors I'm waiting on return calls from, or my kid's school of the new number in the next day, and I don't really want to give everyone a new number that's only going to work for a day. IF I HAD BEEN TOLD THE TRUTH ABOUT HOW LONG IT WOULD TAKE, I WOULD HAVE KEPT MY PHONE INSTEAD OF TRADING IT FOR A PATHETIC $43. Then, at least, people would be able to REACH me!!
Summary:
I had a half-hour to buy the phone and plan I had already researched and picked before walking in. I got pawned off by the manager to a CUSTOMER for help. I was LIED to about how long it would take to have my phone number active on the new phone, and, based on that misinformation, turned over the only phone working on my number. I've been unavailable to everyone I know for nearly 5 hours now and won't have my number active until at LEAST tomorrow morning... And it took me 45 minutes to get this crap pulled on me, making me late to pick up my kid.
WOW, I wish I had kept my absolutely worthless phone on lousy Virgin, where at least I paid LESS per month and wasn't lied to! read more