My replacement purple iPhone case from iFrogz came in the mail yesterday and it fits great! It’s so nice to get good customer service from a corporation. I highly recommend their cases, too. They don’t add much bulk to the phone but have saved my device from breaking the few times I’ve dropped it. Just buy them from Amazon instead of the official site because they are much cheaper that way. My magenta one was only $12, the green one was around $15, and the purple one was about $20. Not sure why the color affects the price, but it’s still cheaper than the $30 list price I’ve seen on their site and at the AT&T store.
Category: Retail Experiences
Recent Retail Experiences
You all know I’m not one to get screwed by a company and keep my mouth shut, so here’s a recap of my recent “run-ins” with a few businesses.
Domino’s Pizza
I haven’t eaten a Domino’s pizza in well over a decade (because I remember them tasting like cardboard), but shortly before Christmas we bought a Hasbro board game with a coupon inside for a free medium pizza. The coupon stated you had to place your order online, so I followed the directions and after choosing my local Domino’s and entering the coupon code, it confirmed the code was valid but informed me that they wouldn’t honor it. Nice. So I fired off a complaint through their website and got a response back a couple of days later:
Thank you for taking the time to contact the Domino’s Pizza Customer Care Team. As a valued Domino’s Pizza customer, your comments are extremely important to us.
I want to apologize for the situation you encountered at the [redacted] location. Domino’s Pizza takes great pride in providing the quality products and service you have come to expect and trust every time you place an order with us.
Because your Domino’s Pizza store is independently owned and operated, I have forwarded your comments to the franchise owner with the expectation that the franchisee will follow-up with you.
We appreciate the opportunity you have given us to address your concern and improve our operations. Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us. Your feedback is very important to us.
Our goal is to make every Domino’s Pizza experience an enjoyable one!
When a week had passed and I still hadn’t heard from the local Domino’s, I fired off a reply to the above e-mail that said, “I just want you to know I haven’t heard from the local Domino’s. It’s obvious to me they aren’t interested in anyone’s business. You can be sure I will share this experience with others as I think it’s very poor customer service.”
A few days later I received this response:
I apologize that your local store had not gotten back to you. I am sending you some gift certificates to replace the Hasbro coupon you received in your game.
Once again, please accept our apologies and we do value your business.
Sure enough, a couple of days later I received a letter from Domino’s with two $5 gift certificates. I’ll be sure to use them at the same location who has still never contacted me and rub it in their face AFTER I get the food to ensure they don’t spit in it since I don’t plan on going there again anyway. Not going to pass up free food though. What a bunch of a-holes to offer a coupon and then not accept it. I get that each store is independently owned but that’s no way to do business. Plus now they have to give me $10 in free food instead of $5 so their selfish behavior cost them more in the end. Morons!
—
Taco Bell
When we were in Phoenix, Joe’s sister had acquired coupons for a free Fruitista Freeze at Taco Bell. We had no problem using them there, and I think we got three during the week we were visiting. She gave us two to take home so we stopped there on New Years Eve once we realized they were expiring. We had the kids with us, so we ordered four, but expected to pay for two. They wouldn’t honor them. I looked at all the fine print and there really wasn’t anything on there other than that bullshit “valid at participating locations” they put on every coupon so they can get away with that crap. So we turned around and left. Perhaps they think they can deny coupon use since most people would end up just paying instead. Not me. Oh no. I also complained through their website but haven’t heard a peep back. I probably won’t go so far as a boycott, but Taco Bell will definitely be getting less of my business in the future thanks to that move. I mean, how stupid are they anyway? They would have still gotten money for the other two items.
—
iFrogz
This one actually has a happy ending, or at least it should. Joe bought me two iFrogz iPhone cases for my birthday – one in green/black and another in purple/black. Unfortunately the purple/black one doesn’t fit quite right so I sent them feedback through their website asking for a replacement. They replied if I could either send them a photo of the problem or send the bad case to them, they’d do so. I sent them a photo and they replied that a new case is on it’s way. I really hope this one fits as well as their other cases I have.
Apple Store
This morning, after taking my car in for maintenance, we decided to head over to Oakbrook Mall so I could check out a perfume I was interested in at Sephora. We got to the mall early (9:30 am) so most stores weren’t open yet. It’s one of those outdoor malls and it was a beautiful morning, so we decided to just walk around.
And that’s how we stumbled upon the Apple Store which was already open. It wasn’t terribly crowded, so we went inside to take a look around. There were iPhone 3Gs everywhere! What a tease! We learned from an employee that we could have bought my phone at the store (as they were fully stocked) for the same price AT&T offered us and just ordered the service online to get Joe’s employee discount. Ugh, just stick a stake right through my heart why don’t you?!
We browsed the iPhone protective cases (but I’ll get mine at Fry’s where they are cheaper) and then I proceeded to bore Joe while I played around with one of the iPhones. I’ve never really handled one before (yet ordered one with full faith in its abilities), but it was love at first touch. My experience navigating and using the apps just cemented the fact that I made the right decision. Even Joe was impressed with the things it could do.
After ten minutes I finally managed to tear myself away, and when we passed the store an hour or so later there was a mass of people in and around it.
The next 7-14 business days are going to be the longest of my life!
Downloaded apps: 39 and counting
New favorite phrase: “If I had my iPhone, I could do that right now”
AT&T Wireless Woes
I haven’t even gotten my iPhone yet and already AT&T Wireless is annoying me. First off, when I placed the new service order online Monday evening, I specifically put on there that both lines in the plan were being ported over from T-Mobile. Yet for some reason in the shopping cart under my husband’s phone there was a drop-down asking me for a preferred area code. I left it blank since he already had a phone number. On the next page all seemed well – it asked for information on each phone # that was being ported over, displaying both of our current numbers, and I went through the rest of the process to complete the order.
Since then, I have I repeatedly checked the order status several times a day but there were no updates to it. Until today. When I checked the status update for the umpteenth time (yes, I’m obsessed), the status was In Process with today’s date. I noticed, however, that under my husband’s phone it was showing an unknown phone # and not the one that was supposed to get ported over. So he called AT&T and waited 20 minutes to talk to a representative. The guy explained the order came through requesting a new phone number. That’s total bullshit, but whatever. He warned Joe that if he tried to change it now, it would start the processing of the order all over again. He recommended we wait until the phones were delivered and then call to make the change. He said the old # could still be ported over without a problem at that time. Fair enough.
When I got home this afternoon and checked the order status, instead of showing both phones and the phone numbers assigned to them with a status of pending, it just showed the order # and date with the following message – “We have received your order request, and we expect to begin processing it shortly.”
I freaked out and called AT&T to see what was going on. Luckily I was on hold for only ten minutes before being able to speak with a representative. She told me that the order is actually complete now (that status message is not very helpful then, obviously), but my phone is back-ordered and could take anywhere from 7-10 business days from today before being shipped. *CRY*
It’s bad enough we had to order online just to get Joe’s employee discount and didn’t learn of this caveat until Monday (had we known sooner we would have started this process last week), but now it could be two whole excruciating weeks before I get the sweet sweet iPhone? Say it isn’t so!
As you can tell, I’m feeling extremely impatient. I want my iPhone and I want it now. Shoot, I’ve already downloaded apps I want to install. It was one thing waiting the past six months for our T-Mobile contract to expire (which it did yesterday), but now that the time is here, I can’t wait any longer. Not that I have much of choice.
I just hope things are smoother from here on out. I’m already worried after hearing my friends complain about constant dropped calls. As one friend remarked, “more bars in more places my ass”. LOL! I never had to wait to speak to a representative with T-Mobile so right there the customer service is inferior. If only T-Mobile had the iPhone, I might not be treading into dark waters for the next two years…
But hey, I hear the iPhone is worth it. And I don’t call anyone but Joe anyway. ;)
Day 1
Spent the first day of our four day weekend sleeping until 8:30. Then we went back to the store we visited a few weeks ago and bought this tile for our foyer/guest bath renovation.
I got a coupon earlier in the week for 10% off the entire purchase so it was perfect timing. I’m really looking forward to updating our place.
We also hit the produce market, library, Sears Optical, and Petsmart.
Sears Optical is on my list at the moment. I really like the doctor but his staff, while nice, leave something to be desired. First they weren’t able to order my lenses while I was there on Monday and told me they’d call me back the next day. I never heard from them so finally I called them yesterday and was told they needed Joe’s SS#. I don’t know it by heart and he was unavailable, so I told them I’d call them back. Instead, we just headed over there today and proceeded to wait around fifteen minutes because there was one person working there who told us she’d be with us after the person who was in front of us in line. In the meantime, another worker came in and instead of asking her colleague who was next, proceeded to take care of everyone else who had come in AFTER us until I approached the counter again to make her pay attention to us (and this was the second time she pulled this crap as she did the same thing earlier in the week when Joe was picking up his contacts).
We were so aggravated at this point that we just asked for the prescription. I’m going to order my lenses from 1-800-Contacts and just get reimbursed from the insurance. My contacts will be delivered to my home so I don’t have to go back to Sears and wait forever for them to take care of me once more.
And these brick and mortar stores wonder why their business is suffering?