Service

If there is one thing that I can appreciate it is good service. I know when a server is going above and beyond his or her job without being completely irritating. I know when a CSR [customer service representative] knows what he or she is doing.

Right now, I'm kind of irritated with Virgin Mobile [VM]. I order a new phone [LG Optimus V for the curious] last week [V-Day present for myself]. As of this point, my order has been submitted [which I can see courtesy of some clever google searching]. And has been for a week now.

VM has some questionable wording with shipping. Here are two answers to what I found in their FAQ under "Shopping & Order Status":

Question: What kinds of shipping options do you offer?
Answer: Any order that contains a phone can be shipped FREE OF CHARGE using FedEx Ground , and should arrive within 3-5 business days (Limit 3 phones per order)

Question: Does Virgin Mobile offer free shipping on phones ordered on their website?
Answer: Yes, FedEx Ground Shipping is FREE on any order that contains a phone. Place your order by 11 a.m. Eastern Time and you'll have it in your hands in 3-5 business days. Free and easy.

I've contacted VM 4 times. 3 times through their little e-mail messenger thing and once via their twitter account at VMUcare. And it's all sorts of frustrating.

The first time I used the e-mail messenger thing , I sent this on 2/18: "I ordered from the website a few days ago. Is there anyway for me to track my order?" I had already found the page with the submitted message but I wanted to know if there was anything more I could really know. This was the response I got 12 hours later:

Thanks for contacting Virgin Mobile Customer Care. First let me extend my apologies for any inconvenience this has caused.

In regards to your email, at this time your order is still in submitted status. As soon it is shipped we can then provide you a tracking number from federal express.

If you need additional assistance, feel free to let us know how we can assist further or contact us at 1-888-322-1122 (or *VM from your handset). You can reach us Monday through Friday 6am-9pm PST and Saturday and Sunday from 6am-8pm PST.

So basically I was told what I already knew. I could deal with that but still... Annoying to be told what you already know. I decide to wait a little longer. As of 2/21, the message of submitted is still the same. I'm thinking "Shouldn't they have sent my order out by now?" I'm kind of irked [I really wanted this phone]. So I send another e-mail message thing: "I placed an order for a new phone on 2/14. According to your FAQs, I should have received my phone by now. Is there a problem with my order? Here is my order number: ***********"

And the response [again, more than 12 hours later]:

Thanks for contacting Virgin Mobile Customer Care. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

We can certainly help resolve your question, but first we must verify we have the right account. Can you please respond and provide your correct Virgin Mobile Account PIN (numeric security code), in case you do not remember what your Account PIN is, please respond the secret question correctly:

"What is your pet's name?"

Once we have that, we can get right to business and get you on your way!

Hopefully you can understand - you wouldn't want just anyone getting your private information. Without the information requested we can't divulge information through email, it's a privacy thing.

If you need additional assistance, feel free to let us know how we can assist further or contact us at 1-888-322-1122 (or *86 from your handset). You can reach us from 4am-9pm PST.

First, they don't even tell me if I should just reply to the e-mail or what. I send a reply e-mail with the information... This is the reply I got back [well over 24 hours after the fact and after I contacted VMUcare]:

Thanks for contacting Virgin Mobile Customer Care. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

I reviewed your order and it changed from pending status to submitted, we do not yet have a tracking number for it. Due to a number of system issues we experienced, our orders are taking longer than our normal timeframe.

I just want you to allowed us some more time to have this issue resolved at once, be sure that your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated.

If you need additional assistance, feel free to let us know how we can assist further or contact us at 1-888-322-1122 (or *86 from your handset). You can reach us from 4am-9pm PST.

First off, I don't like how this CSR makes it sound like my order just changed from pending status to submitted. I do like how he explains [even if it isn't truthful] that they are having issues with orders. So far he is the only one to give me any clue as to what the heck is going on.

As mentioned before, I contact VMUcare on twitter before I even got the last message. So I decide to try the twitter account at this point. The response is much faster, which is sad because it looks like it is just the one girl doing the twitter. Again, there is still the waiting but it's cut down to a few hours tops. But again, I get a similar response:

I see that your order is still in submitted status. We need to see it say "Shipped" for it to be on its way.

They don't seem to get that I want to know when my order will be shipped. Even if they were to tell me "Well, I don't know when exactly..."  would be better than all this "Well, it's submitted right now..." 

Oh, and of course I submitted another report via the e-mail messenger thing today and they got it at 1:57 pm: "I placed an order for a new phone on 2/14. According to your FAQs, I should have received my phone by now [it said it was in stock when I ordered though now it says it is out of stock]. Is there a problem with my order? Here is my order number: ***********"

Have yet to hear about that but at this rate, I'd suspect they will send an e-mail sometime in the early morning hours.

I must also admit that I haven't been perfect in this situation either. I haven't been using any of these incident numbers they have been giving me. It may have made their lives a little easier and may have made the information I wanted a little more obvious. Honestly, they've gotten either my phone number or my order number every time and you'd think they would put any issues any particular customer is having under something like that. But I can get the other side too that it is just easier to assign each case a number because sometimes people don't want their number or something in an e-mail.

However... Keeping track of incidents would be better by phone number. Since every phone has its own number, there is still no chance of repeats. Also, a CSR would be able to see any past problems. If one person is having constant problems with something, whether it be a company or a particular product, could lose a customer.

However, from what I've seen online comments wise, VM has always had a bad CS reputation. And while it is not the only not so hot thing about this company, it is probably the most problematic for the company and for its customers.

Virgin Mobile, get it together. Price cutting will only get you so far before you hit the dead end.


_____
Update!
 
So it's been almost 24 hours since I sent the last e-mail message thing and still no message back.

Also, I didn't note that in the DM [direct message] I sent to VMUcare via Twitter, I asked in the same DM later "Is there a time frame of when that will happen?" [After the "I see that your order is still in submitted status. We need to see it say "Shipped" for it to be on its way."]. 16 hours and no response. And I know someone is on the twitter account now. -sigh- There is just no winning with VM, is there.

I'll probably try calling them tomorrow if I don't hear anything back within the next 24 hours.