Wavelength Comic by Ben Klingberg

I’ve never had any overly bad customer service from a phone company, at least, not until now. Thanks Optus, you have finally gotten around to reinforcing your industry stereotype in me.

I was on the fence whether or not to upgrade to the iPhone 4, an email from Optus clinched the deal. It promised a 40% discount in paying off my existing phone in return for signing the new contract. On release day, I went in to my local phone shop, and asked them if they had any iPhones left. They told me they only had a single 16GB model left, and I could either have walked out with that, or I would have to wait for the 32GB model to arrive. Boy do I regret not taking that 16.

I was given a Raincheck policy form to sign, which stated the following:

How long before my iPhone 4 arrives?
It may take up to 4 weeks from today for the handset to be delivered; and we will contact you regularly to keep you updated.

How will you keep me updated?
We will send you a regular SMS with an update on your order.

I thought “Fair enough, a bit of a wait, but I’ll know what’s going on.”

1 week later, (Friday) Wormy and Klingers asked 2 different Optus shops to call them if they got in any iPhones (Everyone was out of stock at that point) and around that same time, RaGe ordered one online.

2 days later, (Sunday) BOTH Optus shops called Klingers and Wormy saying they had iPhones in stock for them. They both got theirs on the following Monday.

Last Friday, I got my monthly phone bill as usual. $535.87?!? That doesn’t sound right, even including paying off my existing phone it shouldn’t be that high. I got on the phone with Optus, and we eventually learned the culprit… they listed my old phone as a 40% discount, but for some reason, the full price was listed! Apparently I have to pay the full price, which will be refunded to me in the next bill or the one after the next.

Saturday, approximately 2 weeks after RaGe ordered his phone, it arrived in the post. While RaGe was of course happy with this, I couldn’t help but feel a little ticked off at this. I ordered my phone a week before him, and I still hadn’t even gotten a “regular update” via SMS as promised. I went into the Optus shop where Klingers and Wormy got theirs, and they tell me they still have 1 16GB and 4 32GB iPhone 4′s in stock.

Fast forward to today. Tomorrow is the end of the time frame promised by Optus, therefore today is the last day my iPhone could possibly arrive and still be within Optus’ delivery window.

Nope.

The dude at the phone shop can’t do anything but apologize, and is really starting to get sick of seeing me pop in. I spent 1 hour on the phone to Optus, being bounced between Customer Support and Deliveries, both telling me “I don’t have access to that information, but Customer Support/Deliveries might, I’ll just transfer you there.” The previously helpful @Optus Twitter account has gone silent, and I am still yet to receive a single goddamn SMS message in regard to ANY of this.

Oh, and as I started writing this, the guy from the phone shop called and told me that his customer rep told him that it will be about a week. He also said that the second shipment of phones hadn’t gone out yet. Uh huh. If that’s the case, then how come Wormy, Klingers and RaGe all have theirs?

And that’s about it. A frustrated me, a frustrated phone shop guy, and no doubt a handful of Optus customer support personnel who don’t have access to the information they should… also frustrated. One thing is for sure, I’m never buying anything from a phone company again unless it’s in stock. A promise is worth nothing.