[hugh]

This morning I read about the Wind Mobile All in the Family plan.

I thought, excellent, I am going to sign both my kids up with new phones.

Went to my local Blockbuster and asked for the deal. The helpful sales clerk apologized and said that he couldn't give me the deal and that I had to talk to "corporate." The guy is a nice guy and I wanted him to have the sale but he said the only way I might have a chance was to go to a corporate Blockbuster store.

Okay, so I hopped in the car and drove ten minutes to the Blockbuster store at Parklawn and Queensway. Went inside and asked the clerk how to sign up for the All in the Family plan. She said I had to have a "form". I said, I don't have the form but I would like to sign up for the plan. She then proceeded to tell me how I could sign up for "better" plans and so on.

I said no, I wanted the All in the Family plan that I had read about. She refused to offer me the plan and refused to tell me why some people were eligible and I wasn't.

Result:

• An hour of my time was wasted.
• Wind Mobile lost two customers.
• Wind Mobile has gained a vocal critic for its refusal to even exlain to me why I was not eligible for a deal it was offering some and not others.

Seems like Wind has learned about customer service from the Big Three!

 

[hugh]

This is a Wind Issue.

The first CSR told me that there are offers that only corporate could hand out. The Second "corporate" CSR which works at the second Blockbuster could give me the offer, provided I had the "form." I also called Wind Mobile but they are learning from the big three and have a wait time of 60 minutes!

After some Googling, I found the form.

It seems that Wind Mobile is offering it to some but not others.

Too late for me though!

 

[hugh]

Actually, in this case I think the main problem was incomplete information posted here.

No. I went to a corporate store and the woman knew exactly what I was talking about.

She could have simply printed off the form and signed me up.

 

[hugh]

I checked with a couple of people and it looks like the CSRs can't give the forms out

TorontoColin, I understand what you are trying to say but the reality is the Wind Mobile is cheating customers. They offer deals to some (some undisclosed organizations) but not others. In addition, the corporate store employee knew what I was talking about it, acknowledged then just blew me off. At a "corporate" store they should treat consumers with a bit of respect. I wasn't asking for anything that wasn't already being offered to others.

Is this behaviour new? No, of course not. BUT, it is the shady underhanded type of practice that we rail against when practiced by some other providers discussed around here.

Form attached.

 

[hugh]

On another note, I can buy MS Office 2010 Business Edition (or whatever it's called) for $11.

MS does not hide that and they have some very clear conditions which must be satisfied to get the offer. The MS offer is different in many respects. With MS, you can only get the offer if your organization has already bought a copy of the software for the employee. So its really a Buy one get one for $11. Not really quite the same.

When I entered the Wind store, I meet all the conditions imposed by them but I just needed the form. All she had to do was give me the form but she refused. (yes I politely asked where do I get the form or could she give me one)

 

[hugh]

. I guess the takeaway here is that Wind is no different than any other wireless carrier..... I have no illusions of their higher moral code.

I hear you. I guess looking for a telco to have some ethics was a very naive on my part!

FWIW, I am now reconsidering and may get one phone since its probably the best deal for $20 a month and my son is at point in his life where we would like to get him a phone.

I am currently seeking alternatives! Off to other mobile sites.

 

[hugh]

JamesK, where on the form does it say its restricted to a specific organization?

 

[hugh]

Well, I looked around and couldn't find anything that compared for $20 a month.

I called Wind this morning around 8:30am. Told them I wanted the HAITF plan. WHen they asked what organization, I told them MobileSyrup. They pushed back but eventually I got signed up to the plan.

It took 45 minutes to get signed up and the CSR's english was terrible. Not sure if the call centre is in Canada or not.

It could be about 10 days before I get the phone delivered but its done.

Decided against a second plan for my daughter (who currently is with Virgin Mobile) because I'm still not sure this Wind thing is going to happen.

 

[hugh]

I chose the Samsung phone because it has the slide out keyboard

 

[hugh]

Thanks guys for the tips. My son tests stuff more thoroughly than me so he will let me know asap.

 

[hugh]

Wow, what a messed up company.

I received the phone today. Went to activate my phone.

Called in and gave them my Sales Order # and told them I wanted to activate the phone with the plan I purchased. Apparently my sales order did not have a plan attached to it and I would have to goto the second level or I could sign up with another plan - yeah right.

So I said put me through to second level. Two minutes on hold and they came back saying second level couldn't help me and that I would have to leave my name and number and they would get back to me.

While I was on hold, I managed to find a Case ID from my original scribbles. Gave the CSR the case ID. He said give me the SIM # and he would activate.

I gave him the SIM #. After several minutes, he said I could not activate the phone because the SIM Card that I had was previously activated with a different phone. - Okay.

So then he says I have to goto a WindMobile store to get a SIM card but not any WindMobile store, it has to be one that has SIM cards in stock. He assures me that I won't have to pay for the new SIM card!!!

He does a search and finds the closest store which is about a ten minute drive from my house. Great, now I have to go out for half an hour to pick up another SIM Card.


People complain about Rogers, Telus and Bell but this is truly mickey mouse.

 

[hugh]

Oh another lovely thing. I never received a confirmation email from the company. The original agent's English was very poor.

On the invoice both my first and last name were spelled incorrectly.

My first name was spelled Uhugh (i told her repeatedly on the phone my name was not "you who" and spelled it out three times. When I was telling my wife the story afterwards, she was rolling on the floor laughing)

 

[hugh]

That doesn't make sense -- the SIM is your subscriber identity, and is linked to your account or line, not to any specfic phone. (In techy parlance, the IMEI is the serial number of the phone, the IMSI is the serial number of the SIM.)

In fairness, he may have said the SIM card was already linked to another account and I misinterpreted. The point was the SIM card number had already been entered into their system and was in use so I needed to get another one.

I'd like to know how the SIM card I received can now be linked to another account. Wouldn't the carrier reject the call if the SIM Card # in their system did not match the one in the phone?

 

[hugh]

My local Blockbuster has a Wind Kiosk. It's ridiculous that I can't go there for a SIM card. I understand that a Kiosk can't change your plan but they should be able to activate an account or provide a user with a SIM card.

 

[hugh]

My god, this is truly one of the worst customer experiences of my life.

I just spent 40 minutes going to the Store which WindMobile told me to goto to get a SIM Card. Guess what? They don't sell sim cards.

They directed me to another store which I went to. Guess what? They don't sell sim cards.

Came home, called Wind. Explained that I was furious. Guess what, it turns out the second CSR made also made errors. Turns out that store isn't corporate (no kidding!) and, oh yeah, the CSR made a mistake and the card could be activated but I need to talk to the back office.

So now I am on hold (for the last 10 minutes) waiting for "the Back office."

 

[hugh]

Okay so I have now been hold waiting for the back office for 50 minutes! When I get through the guy has no idea what I am talking about.

I give him the SIM Card #.

Guess what, he can't process the order. He has to create a new sales order!

Back on hold.

 

[hugh]

After an hour on hold, the second level rep told me that there was nothing he could do except contact IT and have them "free up" the SIM card.

This is what the first level rep told me would have to be done so my waiting on the line for an hour did absolutely nothing for me.

Is it worth continuing at this point? Just return the phone and get your money back.

Honestly, I have wasted almost four hours. To return it would likely waste another hour and then I have to tell my son I didn't get and then go buy another.

 

[hugh]

Update to this horror story.

Wind never contacted me Friday or Saturday to notify the problem was fixed despite the earnest assurances by two techs that the problem would be resolved by end of day Friday.

So now I can add lying to the list of issues with this company.


Rogers may be annoying and they may be pricey but never have I been treated like this


(P.S. Contacted Wind Mobile PR contacts to get feedback on my story and they never bothered to reply!)

 

[hugh]

We have a Rogers forum to discuss issues with that company so please lets keep to Wind Mobile and not derail my thread.

I think my story pretty much speaks for itself.

A company that can't get its promotions straight, a company that get its front line support straight, a company whose IT and customer support systems are clearly inadequate that it can't link a phone order with a plan order, a company that tells a customer something that is clearly inaccurate on multiple occasions, a company that will simply say anything to a customer to simply get off the phone.

 

[hugh]

Monday Update;

On Friday, I have been promised that Tech 2 support could get the issue resolved by EOD Friday and that I would get a call back on Friday letting me know the card was no usable.

Naturally, I never heard back from them on Friday.


Called this morning and sat on hold for ten minutes. CSR says that nothing has been done. He spoke to his "supervisor" and I will be getting a call back in next couple of hours. - Yeah right.