Mobile Phones, Telcos, Customer Loyalty and Failing Hardware #2

On the 10^th October 2011, I had the unfortunate need to write THIS POST http://itaintalwaysmylife.blogspot.com/2011/10/mobile-phones-telcos-customer-loyalty.html due to Optus’s inability to solve simple customer questions.

On the 9^th December I spent a further 2 hours on the phone to Optus Support, regarding handset that wouldn’t stop ringing. Literally. The phone (Nokia X7) was stuck in some sort of loop, even with the SIM card and Memory card removed, the bloody thing rang for nearly 20 minutes before I managed to somehow turn the phone off. (You can’t remove the battery because it’s an all in one unit). Keeping in mind I was driving ALONG a freeway at the time and normally the bluetooth picks up. Handsfree.

As soon as I reached a landline I called Optus help and again offered numerous handsets, this time, the operator attempted to answer my questions, which did surprise me, completely different approach, I was pleasantly surprised. The only problem was………….. NOT ONE handset could do the 3 things that were/are and will continue to be ESSENTIAL for my day to day operations. Which are sync with Outlook (offline), tether to a laptop, and make phone calls. Not anything terribly complicated.

90% of handsets available to Optus Customers with faulty handsets are NOT SMART PHONES and 100% of handsets WON’T do everything that I require. This surprises me greatly. So I ran a short survey on Twitter, which revealed that 86% of people used and operated a smart phone. Number of participants was 43 people.

So own a ‘smart phone’ and need a replacement whilst yours goes back for ‘repairs’ (software upgrades) DO NOT EXPECT to get what you pay for.

I have to admit that Optus DID handle this query FAR better than previously, BUT it is still appalling that a majority of Optus network users, USE smart phones and yet Optus DO NOT provide a smart phone as a ‘loan’ phone in the interim.

My problems so far with my Nokia X7 have been:-

.Looping/ringing handset that you can’t stop
.The unit asking for USB cable to disconnected, when it is not connected
.’Connection Error’ when attempting to make outgoing calls
.Phone ‘freezing' which required the intervention of an Optus Employee, who was unable to tell me what he did to ‘unfreeze it’ (Chadstone Store)
.Unable to connect to Android Market (probably my fault) but no help guide can solve the problem.
.Phone not always recognised when connected to PC for sync/upload/download.

And NO - I DO NOT want an Apple iPhone, I do not want to use Apple iTunes, I dislike Apple products, I dislike iTunes ability to wipe things when it feels like it, I dislike numerous personal security issues that arise with the use of Apple Products (and no doubt Nokia as well). and look what happened Friday 9th/Saturday 10th December with Telstra Bigpond.

I am currently waiting for Optus to send a 'post pack' for the return of the 'faulty' phone and no doubt, they will find nothing wrong with it and in the interim I have to put up with a sub-standard issue 'loan' phone, which won't do what I NEED  until I get my phone back. A lose lose situation if you ask me!