How Not to Buy an iPhone
I’ve played it pretty low key as the iPhone has debuted in Canada, and while doing so has kept me out of long lineups, it’s been a haystack of frustration and misdirection from Fido. The Rogers subsidiary took my order by phone on July 11 around 3pm, and promised a delivery on July 18. My number would be transferred, my voice plan changed and the data plan magically activated that day. Call back for a tracking number, the agent cheerfully encouraged.
So I did, on Tuesday. The phone hadn’t shipped, and now it likely wouldn’t be in my hands until August 1. Why? No explanation.
Call #2, Wednesday. No, it’s not shipped, and now almost certainly won’t be in my hands until Aug 1. Why? The information was incorrect. We chatted a bit about whether I was misled or whether Fido is simply incompetent, at which point the customer service agent became angry, raised his voice with me and kept cutting my sentences short. I calmed the agent down, and asked to speak to a supervisor. After agreeing to that and checking for ‘availability’, he returned and said a supervisor would call back. Then he changed his mind and said there would be no supervisor callback until after the 18th, to ‘see if it comes anyway’. Without a tracking number. Right.
Call #3, Today. I asked if I could just go to a store and see if they had any in stock, as I’ve been hearing and reading that some stores do. It’s impossible to do that, I’ve been told. Today’s reason is that it’s all UPSs fault, that they can’t deliver them fast enough and that’s why it will be two weeks late. Why not – it was fiction on July 11, it might as well be fiction today.
When I asked about the activation of the data plan on the 18th even though I don’t have the phone, I was told that would go ahead. So I was expected to just pay for half a month of service I can’t use. Very nice. Oh, and here’s a further catch: the data plan doesn’t activate until midnight of the day you ask for the plan. So if you buy an iPhone at 8am, you pay .05/kb until midnight that evening. Sweet ride.
I convinced today’s agent to take the data plan off, but it’s my responsibility to call back and put it back on if and when I receive a phone. I mentioned that I might go and buy from Rogers, and was told I can’t cancel the order. I promised a chargeback on my visa and a report to Better Business Bureau if that happened, and demanded the first and last name of the agent. She challenged me to cancel my account then and there, cutting off phone service altogether.
I’m still considering what to do. Switch to Rogers? Stay with Fido and their mouthy phone agents, so brave and bold when protected by the distance of a phone line? I haven’t done much looking around to see if there are actually iPhones in Rogers stores in town, and I don’t like spending that much time chasing a device, but I feel like I’m getting the runaround from Fido, and that they don’t want my business.
I guess we’ll see about that ‘supervisor callback within 5 business days’. By then I might not even be a customer, which tells you a lot about Fido under Rogers:
- They change their story every call.
- They’re rude.
- They blame partner companies for their own problems, which they started by promising a date.
- Worst of all, they take zero responsibility for their mis-steps. I can forgive a lot, but not that.
And it’s not really worth writing more at this point. I only know of one other industry that treats people so badly while demanding thousands of dollars for service, and that’s air travel. I fly very little these days, mostly because I think air travel is done so poorly it’s not worth it. Trying to buy an iPhone from Fido has been just as fun, and might not even be worth it.
Update:
Fido becomes responsive when talk of account cancellation and chargebacks come into play. Late yesterday, a Fido supervisor accelerated my order and ensured its delivery, along with activation of all the right services, and today I received an iPhone ready to rock after a short transfer call. That’s great news, but it came after so much aggravation and misdirection that it feels more like finishing a forced march across the dessert.
Today I missed the callback from the Fido supervisor, whom I hope to thank for the attention, and to let him know where things went wrong. I’d call him back, but the number comes through as Unknown Number. From a telecom provider. Poetic, really.
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Wow what an experience. I too have been wondering what to do. I’m not sure I have the stomach for dealing with Fido to achieve this.
The choice though is Rogers, new phone number and the hassle that would involve.
It’s a close run thing and I’m looking at the iPod Touch again!
I’ve also got an iPhone “on order” from Fido since the 13th.
My experience has been the same, Fido employees have no idea what is going on in regards to the whole iPhone launch.
Every CSR I talk to gives me a different answer. If a Fido rep tells me something can’t be done, I hang up the phone, call again, and another CSR “magically” makes it happen, go figure.
Still waiting till August 1st here……. Though one of the 3 CSR’s I talked to said it could potentially be delayed now.
That sucks, John. I think the hang up and call back approach seems the only one that actually makes anything happen. The supervisor I eventually did speak to emphasized that orders CAN be cancelled, so assuming that the stores still have stock you may be able to do a walk-in purchase.
Having the phone in pocket for about a week now, I can say you’ll forget the hassle shortly after, but it’s still a terrible way to do business, and I feel the CSRs are in the dark as much as customers.
On august 1st, I have just experience the same same thing… I was supposed to received it on august 4th…They delayed my delivery on august 23. Fido became a bad dog by bitting it’s client!!!
I’d be shocked if Rogers is any different. In fact, I’d be shocked if it isn’t the very same jerks.