Wireless Nightmare: A Wind Mobile Review
Over the years it has become a national pastime for Canadians to complain about the high cost of wireless service in Canada.
The volume of complaints typically rises to a crescendo every six months or so after a research firm publishes a report which finds that Canada has some of the highest wireless rates in the world. The findings are then disputed by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), an industry advocacy group funded by the telco giants, who tell us that Canadian rates are quite reasonable especially considering our small population base and the enormous size of our country.
The good news for consumers in some of Canada’s largest cities is the competitive landscape appears to be changing. Thanks to the arrival of new wireless providers such as Mobilicity, Public Mobile, Videotron and Wind Mobile in the last thirteen months, Canadians in Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver are beginning to see lower wireless plan prices and more expansive wireless offerings.
The first new Canadian wireless company in years and perhaps the largest of the new providers is Wind Mobile. The company, which is controlled by an Egyptian Company Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E, began offering service in December of 2009 in Toronto and Calgary. Since that time Wind has rolled out
service in Ottawa, Edmonton and Vancouver. By November of 2010, the company said it had close to 140,000 customers.
Wind Offerings
Wind Mobile offers three voice plans which range in price from $15 to $45 a month and three data plans which range in price from $25 to $35 a month. In the last several months, the company has also offered discounts on the first six months of existing plans along with other short term promotional plans.
For use with its voice plans, the company offers just over a dozen feature and smartphones ranging in price from $48 to $450. A data stick and SIM card is available for $100 and $25 respectively.
The company sells its products and services out of standalone Wind Mobile stores and through selected Blockbuster stores. Wind says these Blockbuster stores house a 150 square foot “store within a store” featuring Wind Mobile products, and staff that can to help with subscriptions and bills.
Picking Wind Mobile
Before Christmas my son asked whether he could have a wireless phone. After some discussion, my wife and I decided that it would be appropriate for him provided we could find a reasonably priced phone and plan.
I had no strong preference for providers. My wife has wireless service with Telus, my daughter has service through Virgin Mobile, a subsidiary of Bell Canada, and I have service with Fido, a subsidiary of Rogers Wireless. We are generally quite satisfied with the performance of each company although, like most Canadians, we grumble about the high cost.
Thanks to some cut-rate holiday promotions from the upstart wireless companies, I thought it would be an excellent time to check out their offerings and carry out a hands-on review of the service for Digital Home.
After Christmas, while investigating potential vendors and plans, I was alerted by a Digital Home reader of a new promotion from Wind Mobile which was cost effective and would be ideal for my son. The decision was made. My son would get a Wind Mobile phone with a voice and text plan and I would be able to assess the quality and performance of Canada’s first and perhaps largest upstart competitor.
The Nightmare Begins
On December 29th, I left my house with the goal of purchasing and activating a wireless phone from Wind Mobile.
In the intervening three weeks, I have been subjected to perhaps the worst retail customer experience I have ever encountered in my life.
My Wind Mobile odyssey which is detailed on subsequent pages includes: inordinately long wait times; faulty product; being lied to by Wind Mobile Staff; being patronized by Wind Mobile staff, being given false and misleading information by Wind Mobile staff; intransigence by Wind Mobile staff; and a refusal to grant me a refund.
The short Digital Home review is to avoid Wind Mobile. In compiling a list of pros and cons for Wind Mobile, which is detailed later in this article, I was unable to tally one pro and had to limit my cons to just six lengthy items.
On the subsequent pages, is a step by step account of my wireless nightmare, followed by an official public relations response from the company, followed by my summary.
Always had a lot of faith in this websites neutrality when it comes to Telco’s and CAble companies.
This article makes me GREATLY question that…
This article sucks. It looks like was fully paid by BELL,ROGERS & TELUS – If this guy wants to foreign accent he should listen BELL responce centre. Calls coming from India and Morocco !! paid by canadiens !! Regarding service – what good he is getting from Bell or Rogers ? I never got any service from them calling first time ?!
To all the wind employees posting here, please return to work immediately! No one has answered the phone in 3 days and all 28 customers we have are on hold.
Whether or not Hugh was an ‘irresponsible’ consumer or biased writer, the story is very meaningful even if only a sample of one. I’m surprised it happened in the first place.
I’ve seen that, in their haste to get promotions out the door, communications service companies often go out less than prepared, hoping to manage or fix things ‘on the back end’. This is despite constant updates and rewrites of processes geared toward eliminating this problem and provide a better customer experience. There are “process people” whose daily job is to move offer details from one desk to the next and/or one management level to the next for approval. The intent is that every department gets on board before anything goes to market. In reality though, they hope that the last – and most important – group, Customer Service, can catch up on the details in parallel to the launch of the offer. With incumbents, there are literally hundreds of offers in their billing systems and as soon as one new offer is out the door, they’re on to the next one. What then happens in the sales channels is what some call “channel choke”. (Should be called “customer choke” in this case!)
And that’s what seems to have happened here in Hugh’s case, regardless of how biased the story may or may not seem. And that’s what surprises me: that it happened in the first place, especially to that extent. I say this because:
- they don’t have as many offers and have fewer rate plans to manage than the incumbents;
- rightly or wrongly (only wrong if you’re Wind and “the offer wasn’t meant for you”!!!!!!), Hugh got the offer and he responded;
- their people are presumably and largely from other wireless providers and should know what a good and bad experience looks like;
- Wind hasn’t been around that long and has a long way to go to earn relevance and respect to be this careless;
Failure by ALL Wind employees / agents who touched this account (or the management who scripts them) to recognize that this is a new customer and first impression is EVERYTHING is obvious, regardless of the level of detail or bias in the story. That they were not empowered or enlightened enough to help him, that they were probably incented to sell other plans than that which lured him through the door; that they were completely disconnected from any process or promotion information; that they let this happen…….. is basically unacceptable. I’ve never heard about a CSR being reprimanded for going above and beyond but I have seen CSRs lauded for that which could have been done here.
I estimate the call centre costs alone cost Wind between $150 and $200 without any future revenue. Hardly a sustainable model for a company who needs market share. Oh and wasn’t Wind the one who promised to provide the wiener with the hot dog bun? It’s inevitable that they will have to separate the two or start charging for mustard when customer service costs begin to add up.
Imagine if story went like this:
1. “I’m sorry for the confusion, Mr. Thompson. Thanks for choosing Wind. I will do what it takes to ensure you receive the offer that prompted you to call us today.”
2. [listening, learning, responding, communicating, doing something…]
3. Thanks again for choosing Wind. Please write about us!
Am I saying anything new here?
No.
Then Wind, you have no excuse………
I get the same care and attention from the big telco in this country, only it costs me hundreds if not thousands of dollars more in money out the window.
I hope Rogers or bell are at least paying you for this one sided bull$hit article. Go Wind!!!
Hugh….Always respect your input…None of the companies are doing a Passing Job…seems Wind is learning how to deceive and manipulate Customers by the other companies…They all need work…i hope Verison comes into canada
Hugh, I’m very sorry you went through this horrible experience. All I can think of is “What if I had decided to go with Wind?” Right now I don’t own a cell phone, the only thing that stopped me from going back to Fido was that store I stopped at didn’t carry Fido and I was too exhausted and didn’t care much anyway so I just went home. I never even thought of Wind that night–but I had certainly considered it in the past. They are attractive if only because they are new and therefore, would at least be polite–I would think.
Some of these pro-Wind posts I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt—but they are so over the top, their arguments so illogical (‘its all YOUR fault, Hugh!) that I simply can’t believe they are neutral observers. You posted a clear summary of your experience with a company and left it at that.
I admire your ability to stay above your emotions and only give the facts of what happened to you. What in the world do people want–an affidavit from a lawyer before they’ll believe something.
They have no idea what I would have said if it had happened to ME and in what manner I would have said it. Wind is getting off lightly. THANK YOU for sparing yet-to-be potential future Wind customers!!! If we accept and excuse bad customer service then that will only feed bad customer service in a continuous loop. And I thought I knew the word for “bad” but this is beyond all language. We’ll have to think up a new language….and to me that’s very sad.
Here is an advice:
1) When dealing with Wind\PM\Mobilicity – NEVER buy from dealer stores, Blockbuster locations, Money Marts or other kiosks. They are interested in selling ASAP, and rarely has any subsequent Customer Service – no returns, no exchanges, no warranty.
Avoid buying over the phone too. Buy AT THE CORPORATE STORES ONLY. Online is also not really recommended.
2) Got a problem? Go to the CORPORATE STORE. Demand your problem to be solved ASAP. Just be firm and DEMAND it. Don’t be offensive or unreasonable – but demand it to be solved, right away.
I have 2 phones: Wind and Public Mobile. Had very few problems with both: in terms of customer service, signing up or paying, or anything else.
I also think that Hugh was either paid for this or… well, maybe he was out of luck ..
Sorry. It happens.
Interesting read, I’ve had similar experiences with other companies not mobile phone providers though. My wife is in the market for a new phone in February, Wind mobile has crossed her mind, but I think after I have her read this wind won’t be on her list.
I’m not really impressed anyways with a mobile phone company that sells phones through a kiosk in a video store.
I purchased 4 wind phones and plans just before Christmas. Works great for me , but I didn’t have anything to prove in my attitude .
I had just been released from the dingalings Devil pack , oh but no, they still wanted a months free money from me. Hey all the other big devils are doing money for nothing , so it has to be right!. Luckily, I was free of the devil pac, I state again! as it would have cost me hundreds and hundreds of dollars to relase my wireless soul from that gang.
I then chose between the many diffrent and avaible Wind plans chosing the same one for all 4 phones.
I chose not to cheap out as the above had in picking the; only for previous subscriber plan . I had to watch the guy selling me the phone as he had a very devilsih teenage attitude in setting up the new accounts. Man he should work for the dingaling with his care and attention. Who said local service was any good round here?
I now have texting across North america included with a no fee cancellation anytime. Four phones that work great so far and the option to quit anytime . I can breathe the clean free air as my wireless signal goes through the wind , without the hoof prints of a hooded bandito over charging me every month cause he is entiled. aaaaah
The Author was extremely unlucky, and also perhaps a bit foolish, like when he decided to order the phone online and activating the phone by telephone. These are typically the weak points of start-up companies and I guess I knew that and avoided it. I also knew not to go to a blockbuster because I asked once when I was getting a movie, and they told me they had only a few phones and they would have to be activated by phone. But so what, I wanted to drive to the mall anyway – 20 minutes, not a big deal.
So I got my first Wind phone 3 weeks ago, after being in the store for one half hour. I immediately made my first call – the phone worked great! I’m happy that I have locked in an unlimited voice/data plan, and the cheap phone I got is actually not that bad. It will tide me over until I can get the phone I really want. It is no secret, Wind has discount plans – by Spring I hope to have my kids on Wind, one advantage being that Wind-to-Wind calling is included on the $15/mo plan. That’s my experience so far.
It is with sadness I say that the article above is biased in that it is based solely on one case – read lots of other material before deciding! Even though I would say the service and plans I had with Rogers was not a good fit, it is not for me to say what I think is good for you. Each carrier has pros and cons, and this is where I strongly disagree with the author as he cannot she that Wind is making their mark, despite the shortcomings that all the companies have.