Mobile Phones & Broadband

[squidly]

namelvom,

I called yesterday and received the incredibly helpful "if you haven't received a call, we haven't received them yet" answer.  It might be a good idea to spend 5 minutes updating the few people waiting with a phone call.

Sigh.

[EliteBushido]

i lost my receipt for the GC

[Mbrguy Emerging Expert]

Just curious, but what kind of update would you like?  I can imagine what most customer's reactions would be.

BB Mobile employee:  "Hello, just calling to tell you that we don't have your phone in yet and we don't know when it will come in."

Customer:  "Then what is the point in this call?  All you told me is exactly what I would know if you didn't call me?"

Updating a customer by telling them that it isn't in yet and we don't know when they will be in doesn't do anything.  The customer will be called when their phone arrives.  It accomplishes nothing.

[squidly]

Actually Mbrguy, it would let the customer know that the product they special ordered for a specific date had not been forgotten, even after 10 days.  Sometimes a quick update letting people know that the company knows there's a problem and is working on it can go a long way. 

And, should the company actually be doing something about it, they could inform the customer of their status.  Such as coordinating with all stores in the region to redistribute phones according to pre-orders rather than just waiting for phones to appear in the mail.  If one pre-order is waiting at one location while one walk-in has been sold somewhere else then it's a failure to prioritize.

Surprisingly, I'm not really upset over this whole fiasco, but it has been a disappointment from a company that has usually proven to have good customer service.

[DextarRogue]

*call customer with pre-order not filled*

"Hello (insert name here),

This is (insert name here) calling from Best Buy Mobile, there have been some shipping problems with Apple sending phones directly to the stores but we wanted to keep you informed so you know what's going on. We are working with Fedex and Apple to get proper quantities of phones to get our pre-orders filled. We are working diligently to get the phones to our customers as quickly as possible. We apologize for the wait and thank you for sticking with Best Buy with the problems going on."

Not too hard to just throw something up off the top of my head. I'd rather get a call informing me of what's going on instead of trying to call the store (if they even answer, seriously why does it take so long to answer the phone.. I had the phone ring for literally 10 minutes one night before someone answered, around 7:30ish at night) and getting told "You will receive a call when your phone is available for you" from the guy who answers the phone when you ask for the mobile department to see if the phones have come in.

[Mbrguy Emerging Expert]

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DextarRogue wrote:

"Hello (insert name here),

This is (insert name here) calling from Best Buy Mobile, there have been some shipping problems with Apple sending phones directly to the stores but we wanted to keep you informed so you know what's going on. We are working with Fedex and Apple to get proper quantities of phones to get our pre-orders filled. We are working diligently to get the phones to our customers as quickly as possible. We apologize for the wait and thank you for sticking with Best Buy with the problems going on."

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So, you want the Best Buy employee to lie to you?  You prefer for Mobile to tell them that we are working with Fedex and Apple to get more phones?  At the moment, Apple is still shipping the original Allotment.  Nothing Best Buy can do will speed up this process and Best Buy's hands are tied until the original allotment has been filled.  At that point, I believe Apple will ship them to Best Buy's distribution center for distribution to the individual stores and Best Buy would have a better understanding as to when shipments would arrive.

I don't know how it is in the store in your area, but at my store Mobile is supposed to do the Invisible Shield installs.  Geek Squad will do them if Mobile is busy.  Of course, Geek Squad always installs them at my store, because our Mobile department is almost ALWAYS busy.  They don't have the time to call customers to give them the update that "Nothing has changed, we'll call you when the phones come in."  

Again, I understand your frustration, but until the shipments from Apple actually arrive in the store and the Inventory team opens the boxes and finds iPhone 4s, the Mobile department does not know when they will arrive.

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DextarRogue wrote:

I'd rather get a call informing me of what's going on instead of trying to call the store (if they even answer, seriously why does it take so long to answer the phone.. I had the phone ring for literally 10 minutes one night before someone answered, around 7:30ish at night) and getting told "You will receive a call when your phone is available for you" from the guy who answers the phone when you ask for the mobile department to see if the phones have come in.

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When I am working in Geek Squad and if I'm by myself at a particular time ( i.e. it's late at night before closing, or the other agent is at lunch), and I have a line of customers at the front that I am helping and the phone is ringing off the hook, I can't always answer the phone, especially if I've already got a computer on the counter that I'm looking at, another customer picking up a computer, and another customer on hold on the other line.  Same with Mobile.  If they are with customers, their attention must be with those customers.  That is why the operator who answers the phones will give you the 100% correct answer that "You will receive a call when your phone is available for you" rather than try to transfer it to mobile and have it ring off the hook while the Mobile employees are with other customers, and when they do finish and answer the phone, they give you the same answer that the operator gave you.

I'm not trying to mull things over for you, just trying to give you an idea as to why the phones aren't answered quickly at times, and why the operator will give those answers out rather than transfer the calls.  In some stores, because of the manufacturing problems that Apple had and the slower fulfillment of the iPhones, there are a multitude of calls about the pre-orders and the operators are then told to answer the customers rather than transfer them because they will get the same answer regardless.

[Solange82200]

Sorry, but I see PLENTY of employees whenever I go into best buy standing around with nothing to do. I dont think its that hard to get an employee working in a department that isnt as busy as mobile to take 20 minutes and call the customer to let them know they havent been forgotten or whatever. Many stores at this point just have maybe 5 or so people waiting, it takes that long to call them? Even if you have 40 you could do that in an hour or two, it just takes a minute