I am so angry right now. I attempted order of the iPhone via the web on Mon/Tues whenever it was it came out, only to find a site full of errors. So I pop down to enquire at my local store - Dartford 02 shop - and they say I can reserve one, so I fill out the form for that. I get a call last night about 6pm to say actually, they can't reserve them afterall, I'll have to pop down at 8.02am with everyone else and take my chances. So far, so bad.
I pop down anyway, I figure it could be interesting to see what all this queueing and excitement is like - I've never done it before.
I get there, the shop has 5 people in it already, and a queue of 20 before me. I knock on the glass ask the lady behind the locked door how many iPhones there are as I'm at the back of the queue, 6 months pregnant, and don't really want to hang about if there are 5 phones. She says she can't tell me. I say that's not good enough, someone obviously knows, so they can tell me. She says she'll find out. Yep, you guessed it, she doesn't open the door again. After waiting about for 5 mins like a monkey, I go back to my boyfriend and the rest of the queue and give them an update.
So I figure I'll give it another 10-15 mins. Still no-one has gone in or out, or any representative come out to talk to us. I go back, knock on the glass, she still doesn't know how many there are or any indication on time that each is taking to set up. Apparently, she's in her own words, "just a security guard" and has no information. I ask for someone with information to come and speak with me. She tells me no-one is free to let anyone in the queue know any information. Staff in the shop can see me there clearly looking at them holding my bump and trying to get information. A few people have left the queue by now.
Here's a photo of the queue, with babies, children, and everyone else in it, whilst they know the whole time there are no phones (click on it to go to my Flickr where I've added notes):
Ten more minutes later, and pretty pissed off, I go and knock on the glass a final time.
"All I can tell you is we're out of the 16GB ones" she says.
"And you didn't think to maybe let us know that?"
(no-one has entered or left the store, so they knew this from before I started queuing, or asked the first time)
"No.".
"How many of the 32GBs are left?"
"I can't tell you that".
So, a wasted 30mins (and that would have been longer, if I'd have waited patiently as they hoped I would), and a distinct lack of lie in, and if 02 think that they're getting any money off me in the next millenium then that just shows you how stupid they think their customers are. I'm sure they would have left me there the full 1-2 hours until my turn was up, before telling me there were no 16GB ones left, had I not have persisted. Disgusting.
Yes, iPhones are pretty, they work nicely, and the apps are really interesting. Does this mean I am going to take leave of all my senses, to be dicked about to get one? If that's the level of customer service I get when I'm trying to give them my money, there's no WAY I'm going to chance an 18 month contract with them when they've already got it.
What a load of cobblers.
[edit] worth pointing out, there were also people with kiddies in the queue, as well as me, clearly pregnant (and I told them so) as well as people able to queue for longer periods. Not once were we given any update, or information, offered water, or even acknowledged for that matter. Unbelievable.
[extra edit] I've just been on the phone to o2, who give no apology. They have given me this email address though: complaintreviewservice@o2.co.uk so if you've had a bad experience I would call you to arms and ask you blog about it and send them a link and a copy, if you feel like it, ping the url to your blog in my comments too.
We may be needy nerds, but we're certainly not helpless push overs.
[FINAL EDIT] Haha, what a surprise - I just got this back in my email:
"Hi. This is the qmail-send program at yahoo.com.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.
I pop down anyway, I figure it could be interesting to see what all this queueing and excitement is like - I've never done it before.
I get there, the shop has 5 people in it already, and a queue of 20 before me. I knock on the glass ask the lady behind the locked door how many iPhones there are as I'm at the back of the queue, 6 months pregnant, and don't really want to hang about if there are 5 phones. She says she can't tell me. I say that's not good enough, someone obviously knows, so they can tell me. She says she'll find out. Yep, you guessed it, she doesn't open the door again. After waiting about for 5 mins like a monkey, I go back to my boyfriend and the rest of the queue and give them an update.
So I figure I'll give it another 10-15 mins. Still no-one has gone in or out, or any representative come out to talk to us. I go back, knock on the glass, she still doesn't know how many there are or any indication on time that each is taking to set up. Apparently, she's in her own words, "just a security guard" and has no information. I ask for someone with information to come and speak with me. She tells me no-one is free to let anyone in the queue know any information. Staff in the shop can see me there clearly looking at them holding my bump and trying to get information. A few people have left the queue by now.
Here's a photo of the queue, with babies, children, and everyone else in it, whilst they know the whole time there are no phones (click on it to go to my Flickr where I've added notes):
Ten more minutes later, and pretty pissed off, I go and knock on the glass a final time.
"All I can tell you is we're out of the 16GB ones" she says.
"And you didn't think to maybe let us know that?"
(no-one has entered or left the store, so they knew this from before I started queuing, or asked the first time)
"No.".
"How many of the 32GBs are left?"
"I can't tell you that".
So, a wasted 30mins (and that would have been longer, if I'd have waited patiently as they hoped I would), and a distinct lack of lie in, and if 02 think that they're getting any money off me in the next millenium then that just shows you how stupid they think their customers are. I'm sure they would have left me there the full 1-2 hours until my turn was up, before telling me there were no 16GB ones left, had I not have persisted. Disgusting.
Yes, iPhones are pretty, they work nicely, and the apps are really interesting. Does this mean I am going to take leave of all my senses, to be dicked about to get one? If that's the level of customer service I get when I'm trying to give them my money, there's no WAY I'm going to chance an 18 month contract with them when they've already got it.
What a load of cobblers.
[edit] worth pointing out, there were also people with kiddies in the queue, as well as me, clearly pregnant (and I told them so) as well as people able to queue for longer periods. Not once were we given any update, or information, offered water, or even acknowledged for that matter. Unbelievable.
[extra edit] I've just been on the phone to o2, who give no apology. They have given me this email address though: complaintreviewservice@o2.co.uk so if you've had a bad experience I would call you to arms and ask you blog about it and send them a link and a copy, if you feel like it, ping the url to your blog in my comments too.
We may be needy nerds, but we're certainly not helpless push overs.
[FINAL EDIT] Haha, what a surprise - I just got this back in my email:
"Hi. This is the qmail-send program at yahoo.com.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.
I've been motivated to write an update off the back of Jason Calacanis adding me to his Twitter feed. At first, I was quite chuffed, "ooo" I thought, "Jason Calacanis wants to know what I'm up to, how exciting". Ooooh no he doesn't, as I realised upon clicking through to check out his Twitter page. He's link baiting me. Hang on a minute, isn't that a spammer tactic...?
And he's not the only one, there's a whole bunch of them at it. What a load of cobblers.
Surely I can't be the only person who's worked out that it's not how many people follow you, but what you ratio of followers to following is that ranks you as an interesting and popular Tweeter?
If I see someone has got a 1:1 ratio, I can assume that they use Twitter with their close friends, and tend to follow people that also follow them. It's not water tight, but it's a fairly good hypothesis. Similarly, if I get followed by a user who follows more people than is followed by, I can assume that actually they're probably quite interesting, but depending on how high the number differential is, they're not as interesting as their group. Afterall, their group would follow them back otherwise, no? This extends right out to the people following thousands, and being followed by maybe 10. These people I avoid following like the plague.
So, Jason Calacanis with his 17,204 followers just doesn't impress me. He's following 12,302. that makes his ratio a rather limp 1:1.5 give or take. Even if I was to follow him, it's going to be a one way relationship isn't it. There's no way my Tweets are going to make it through his 17,204 at least daily updates on average (I'm guessing here).
Check out someone like Mike Butcher on the other hand, with his 1,103 followers to 335 followings, and you've got a 1:3. I know immediately he must have some really interesting Twitter chat going on. Also, you know that at 335 people Mike is actually following people he wants to know about. Whereas what buy in would I get from a Twitter baiter? None at all.
Final thought aka Thayer Rant: When will people realise the value of social media - especially the so called experts in these fields - it is not about quantity of information or network, it's about quality.
If you're all about the quantity, then you're not a social media mogul, you're an e-marketeer at best, and a spammer at worst. Nobody cares if you're being followed by 17,000 people if you've bribed them with a prize, or offered them sudo friendship. It doesn't mean you're popular, it just means you're desperate, or selling something, or both.
As always, these are my views, and I know that some people won't agree with them.
And he's not the only one, there's a whole bunch of them at it. What a load of cobblers.
Surely I can't be the only person who's worked out that it's not how many people follow you, but what you ratio of followers to following is that ranks you as an interesting and popular Tweeter?
If I see someone has got a 1:1 ratio, I can assume that they use Twitter with their close friends, and tend to follow people that also follow them. It's not water tight, but it's a fairly good hypothesis. Similarly, if I get followed by a user who follows more people than is followed by, I can assume that actually they're probably quite interesting, but depending on how high the number differential is, they're not as interesting as their group. Afterall, their group would follow them back otherwise, no? This extends right out to the people following thousands, and being followed by maybe 10. These people I avoid following like the plague.
So, Jason Calacanis with his 17,204 followers just doesn't impress me. He's following 12,302. that makes his ratio a rather limp 1:1.5 give or take. Even if I was to follow him, it's going to be a one way relationship isn't it. There's no way my Tweets are going to make it through his 17,204 at least daily updates on average (I'm guessing here).
Check out someone like Mike Butcher on the other hand, with his 1,103 followers to 335 followings, and you've got a 1:3. I know immediately he must have some really interesting Twitter chat going on. Also, you know that at 335 people Mike is actually following people he wants to know about. Whereas what buy in would I get from a Twitter baiter? None at all.
Final thought aka Thayer Rant: When will people realise the value of social media - especially the so called experts in these fields - it is not about quantity of information or network, it's about quality.
If you're all about the quantity, then you're not a social media mogul, you're an e-marketeer at best, and a spammer at worst. Nobody cares if you're being followed by 17,000 people if you've bribed them with a prize, or offered them sudo friendship. It doesn't mean you're popular, it just means you're desperate, or selling something, or both.
As always, these are my views, and I know that some people won't agree with them.
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