Why Wind Mobile lost two customers today

37063 Views 153 Replies 35 Participants Last post by g011um, Jan 23, 2011

hugh

Discussion Starter · Dec 30, 2010

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!

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hugh

Discussion Starter · #61 · Jan 17, 2011

Called WindMobile.

They told me that the store in question has a Wind Mobile Kiosk and that they have to take refunds because they are actual Wind Stores with a Wind Employee. I once again, re-iterated that they wouldn't so could I get a refund from the Head office or whoever it was I called to buy the phone form.

The answer was no, I had to take it back to the store. She then said that I should go to the corporate store at Jane/Lawrence.

Looks like I will likely be forced to waste another hour of my time driving to Jane/Lawrence, return the phone and drive back.

mr weather

· #62 · Jan 18, 2011

Wow, this whole saga is really unacceptable. For a company that has touted since day one to be different than Robellus, Hugh's story has been a disaster. Wind should be bending over backwards to make it right. Not sending the customer on a wild goose chase, ignoring the customer and downright lying to the customer.

I find it very hard to believe that they weren't expecting the onslaught of new subs when news of this unlimited plan was leaked. Even a monkey could see how that would turn out.

I've still got another year left on my Bell contract but I've been researching alternatives. Wind was high on my list but now I don't know.

hugh

Discussion Starter · #63 · Jan 18, 2011

My nightmare hasn't ended as I still have the phone which I hope to get a refund for at some point but so far this is what I can say about WindMobile

Positives

None

Negatives

Weak Management - can't get its programs under control and is unable to communicate effectively to staff. The entire Holiday plan was a major screw-up.
Terrible Internal IT systems - An order processing system that requires you to give a customer a sales order number, a plan order number and Case ID and then can't reconcile the three is absurd. In 1990, it would have been acceptable but not in 2011.
Terrible Sales and Marketing - programs which are available but not available; a website that is inaccurate on critical issues; use of ridiculous terms which confuse rather than enlighten (what is a take-out store and how is a consumer supposed to know how a take-out store differs from another store); stores that aren't stores; stores that sell but don't sell sim cards; stores that supposedly accept refunds but don't accept refunds when you show up.
Poorly trained customer service reps - for the original order, it took 45 minutes to order a phone, this is unacceptable; in dealing with these poor first line reps, it's clear they have no idea what to do when something doesn't follow the script. Next you have reps who tell you to get a new SIM card when its not necessary; Reps who give out false information about what store can service your needs and so on.
Ineffectual customer service reps who have no ability to make decisions, only follow orders - Reps telling me they would love to help and then would read to me from their information sheets. Clearly they were trying but they had no power to make some common sense decisions to resolve the issues quickly and efficiently;
Supervisors and second line support who can't make decisions because they are forced to follow poorly designed and poorly documented procedures - the second line support staff and supervisors were unable to break through the problems and stuck to the script which led to providing me with information which was false;
Culture that encourages deceiving the customer rather than admit problems - from the first sales rep I met to the second line tech support to the supervisor, I was told and promised information and feedback that was nothing more than a lie. The first Wind staffer told me there were better plans than the one I wanted but when pressed could not come up with anything and refused to help me, second level tech who lied when he said my card would be activated by days end for sure, the supervisor who promised a call back in two hours, the condescending supervisor who assured me that a store would look after me when clearly they could not.

Over the years, I have been critical of Rogers and Bell for various consumer related matters but compared to Wind, they are the absolute gold standard.

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stampeder

· #64 · Jan 18, 2011

I might accept a "but we're just new to this" defense from them in Vancouver (today they just announced a major expansion of the home area) but not in regards to Toronto, which is their anchor location and which celebrated it's first year of operation on Dec. 16th.

recneps77

· #65 · Jan 19, 2011

I guess I'm lucky (or I just got in early before the mad rush)
When I signed up in march, it was painless. Port went through overnight.

When they unofficially announced the $40 unlimited plan, I called up and was switched over in <6 minutes on the phone.

Zero problems.

It's unfortunate you had such a bad experience, though it's important to note that there are good ones too

Reading through your whole story, I could understand the hassle with the HAITF, since it was technically only for friends and family of wind employees.

The rest of the problems are inexcusable, IMO.
Especially the simple return of a phone..

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hugh

Discussion Starter · #66 · Jan 19, 2011

I am writing a review of WindMobile based on my experience. I contacted Wind to ask for a response to my situation that I could append to my article.

The following is wind's reponse which I received tonight ( I have left out the persons name)

Good evening Hugh,

I have spoken with WIND's team and it appears the program that you were trying to subscribe to was one that was designed for friends & family of WIND employees. The form was provided to WIND employees to extend the offer to their network of friends & family members. Promotions of this nature are very common among organizations as a benefit to their employees. As you did not have the form when you visited a WIND Mobile store, the employees were unable to offer you the plan.

We apologize for the misunderstanding however this plan was never made available to the general public.

We sincerely hope that this helps clarify the situation, and we certainly regret the negative experiences you have had.

Needless to say I was surprised at the response because it makes little sense.

First I never ordered the phone at a store, I ordered it over the 1-800 number!

Second, the form makes no such disclaimer.

Third, they do not say why they took the order if it wasn't available to me?

Fourth, why did WindMobile say they would activate the SIM card and did not?

Fifth, Why did the WindMobile rep tells me the phone could be returned through the WindMobile store when it could not.

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profets

· #67 · Jan 19, 2011

recneps77 said:
I guess I'm lucky (or I just got in early before the mad rush)
When I signed up in march, it was painless. Port went through overnight.

When they unofficially announced the $40 unlimited plan, I called up and was switched over in <6 minutes on the phone.

Zero problems.

It's unfortunate you had such a bad experience, though it's important to note that there are good ones too

Reading through your whole story, I could understand the hassle with the HAITF, since it was technically only for friends and family of wind employees.

The rest of the problems are inexcusable, IMO.
Especially the simple return of a phone..

I've had very good experience as well. 4 lines in total, another few for my parents, and easy 20+ more people that I know who signed up during busy periods or promotions without issue.

It sucks what happened to Hugh, but its clearly not the norm. What really started it off was that HAITF that shouldn't have been available to the public.

Hugh, you mentioned that form, but did a Wind Employee (family or friend) pre-register you and partially fill the form you? That was the whole purpose of the form. Too many uninformed reps who didn't know how to deal with it either.

LOL @ rogers/bell being the gold standard.

djino

· #68 · Jan 19, 2011

profets said:
It sucks what happened to Hugh, but its clearly not the norm. What really started it off was that HAITF that shouldn't have been available to the public.

Hugh, you mentioned that form, but did a Wind Employee (family or friend) pre-register you and partially fill the form you? That was the whole purpose of the form. Too many uninformed reps who didn't know how to deal with it either.

+1.

As I previously wrote, my experiences was a bit like Hugh's, and then I had enough of the BS, and went back to my WIND friend who signed me up for the HAITF. Everything was taken care of immediately and efficiently at that point.

djino

hugh

Discussion Starter · #69 · Jan 19, 2011

The discussion over HAITF is really moot. When I called in, they took the order. If they didn't want me to have the plan, why take my order?, why send me a phone?, why try to activate the SIM card?, why tell me that the card will be activated? and so on.

For the record, I read the list of exclusions and it was clear that I Qualified. Retailers and manufacturers are advertising Employee pricing, Friends and Family plans and similar such marketing gimmicks all the time

Verizon has had a Friends and Family plan for some time and it is not exclusionary.

The big car manufacturers have "employee" pricing etc. The name of the plan is really irrelevant.

lubmar

· #70 · Jan 19, 2011

The discussion over HAITF is really moot. When I called in, they took the order.

+1 !
(they pooped big time)

otafool

· #71 · Jan 19, 2011

Hugh, as you may know, your 'review' appeared on Google News.

I appreciate that your personal experience with Wind has been appalling. But unfortunately what has happened here is that a personal rant is being presented to the public as an authoritative professional review. This is unfair to Wind, and a disservice to cellular competition, which as we all know needs a helping hand in Canada.

Just my 2c.

profets

· #72 · Jan 19, 2011

Nice review you did Hugh lol.. You really can't find one pro for Wind?

Honest question for you.. if a friend or family member is thinking about signing up with Wind (who lives in the coverage area) would you advise them not to?

hugh

Discussion Starter · #73 · Jan 19, 2011

otafool,

Mine was an honest review of an actual customer experience. By definition, isn't that what a review is all about?

Unfortunately many reviews I see these days are glowing reviews with an advertisement
for the product or service right beside it.

The problems I was having were given to Wind Mobile last week with a follow up on Monday for them to respond. In fact the review was delayed an additional day so that they could respond.

I told them I would post their response verbatim, which I did.

Should I only post glowing reviews of products?

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profets

· #74 · Jan 19, 2011

I don't think you should only post glowing reviews.. but you could have been more fair about it. I mean, really no 'pros' for Wind? Honestly, you got yourself into a mess by trying to use a program (HAITF) that wasn't for public use, and expired on dec31, running around to stores when you clearly could have called ahead of time to check if they had sim cards...

In general, yours is one review that is completely against the norm, extremly unfavourable since you were getting personally upset at all the nonsense and people reading it shouldn't be basing their decision on whether to sign with wind on such a biased review.

I'm not saying Wind is perfect.. There are plenty of people who ask me and I advise them that Wind is probably not for them. But that kind of negativity I'm sure the big 3 will be very happy about.

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hugh

Discussion Starter · #75 · Jan 19, 2011

You really can't find one pro for Wind?

Honestly, I wish I could but nothing positive happened in the three weeks that I dealt with them.

Honest question for you.. if a friend or family member is thinking about signing up with Wind (who lives in the coverage area) would you advise them not to?

Absolutely.

The funny thing is that in my dealings with Wind, I gave them every opportunity to do the right thing.

If by the fourth phone call, a representative had simply said, "Hugh, we are sorry. We should never have sold you the plan. We understand that we have made mistakes, we will send a courier to pick that phone up for you and credit your account" then I would have said "hey, some honest mistakes were made and I forgive the company"

My belief is that the hallmark of a great company is one that admits its mistake, apologizes to the customer and resolves the issue"

As noted earlier, Bell and Rogers make mistakes but they always try to clean up after themselves.

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hugh

Discussion Starter · #76 · Jan 19, 2011

In general, yours is one review that is completely against the norm, extremly unfavourable since you were getting personally upset at all the nonsense and people reading it shouldn't be basing their decision on whether to sign with wind on such a biased review.

People should never base their decision on one review. Conversely, I am amazed at people who will base their decision on a glowing review with an advertisement for that product right beside it.

profets

· #77 · Jan 19, 2011

^Thats great.. so you're advising others on whether to go with Wind based on your poor experience, and people researching online will come across your biased rant and not have a real idea either.. Wonderful.

otafool

· #78 · Jan 19, 2011

This would have been fine as a blog entry. But as a review, IMO, it should have included the experience of more than one customer, more information about Wind's plans (e.g. some people would willingly suffer bad customer service to save a few bucks), and some acknowledgement of similar hells inflicted by other cell phone companies.

NeilN

· #79 · Jan 19, 2011

No idea why hugh is getting flak for this. He's writing about his experiences with Wind, not anyone else's. His ordeal has shown me that Wind may be ill-equipped to handle situations that go "off-script".

TorontoColin

· #80 · Jan 19, 2011

I have no real issues with the review itself. However, I do think you should consider clarifying that the form that you obtained and printed did not come from Wind, you found it from an unofficial internet source. While they still shouldn't have processed your order, I do think that detail matters.

Also, though you never activated or used the service, I think low pricing deserves a spot under pros, as it was what attracted you in the first place.

Good luck to your wife in returning the phone.

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