So, I made a mistake ordering a new cellphone. I ordered the Motorola RIZR, when what I wanted was the Motorola KRZR. It didn’t help that I was being guided by a review at phonescoop.com, which pictured the KRZR in the color I prefer, blue, while T·Mobile offered the RIZR in blue only and the KRZR in gray. I got them confused.
Moments after finishing all the typing in of address and credit card numbers, I realized my error and called T·Mobile to repair the order. It was midnight. No one on duty, call later.
I got up in the morning, early, the only time this year. I got a person. He found the order.
“No.
“You can’t do that.
“You have to wait until you get the phone, call and get an authorization to return it, repackage it, relabel it, bring it to UPS and have them bring it back to us. After we get it and cancel your account, [in about two weeks] then you will be allowed to reorder the phone you wanted.”
All that and I’ll probably get charged for shipping and restocking, and God knows what else.
T·Mobile actually has no mechanism for stopping a shipment anytime after the order is sent to their shipping facility in Texas. On-line orders are automatically sent within a few minutes. And that means no alterations are ever allowed on orders placed on-line after hours. Period.
Of course, this probably goes for orders placed by any other means as well.
I expect bear-traps and bullets to be irrevocable. But irrevocability is anathema to good customer service, especially when that service is the customer’s first encounter with you. It ensures that the customer, once extricated from the relationship with you, will never return.
I’ll be getting my KRZR somewhere else. Maybe even blue.