A few hours later, an email came to my phone to inform me that the order was now labeled as shipped, and that I should receive it in a few days. It also mentioned that if I was ordering an iPhone 4 or an iPhone 3G 8G that they were being staged for delivery and would be on the road in a few days. Seeing as how I ordered a 3GS version, I figured mine was officially heading on out.

Today, however, I’m not entirely certain. I know the item is being shipped, so I’m already extremely pleased, but I’m confused about one small detail.

Last night my USPS tracking info indicated that the item had left the sorting facility and was on the road, but today it shows that the “electronic order info has been received” which sounds more like it hasn’t left yet.

Who knows? At this point at least I know it’s coming. Yeah, it’s going to take forever to get here, because they chose to use USPS, which is somewhat irritating because I indicated I wanted to use the free 2 day shipping. However, I’m not getting charged for shipping, so beggars can’t be choosers.

Most of my complaint with AT&T through this ordeal was that there was minimal information available to me on what was going on. I was told by one person that the item was not in stock, and told by another that it might be in stock but not to expect it to ship until July. Conflicting reports like that are a little confusing.

I will mention that the two people I talked to through AT&T Customer Care, Tia and Domenic were AWESOME. Extremely helpful, they didn’t make me feel like I was an annoyance when I called (and you know that I totally was considering the iPhone 4 debacle taking place this past week) and they even found ways to save me a little money.

This experience did leave a little bit of a sour taste for me about AT&T but certainly not enough for me to jump ship and head to another company.  I’m certain that once the phone gets here, assuming that all goes well, I’ll more than likely forget about the entire ordeal.

So here’s hoping that the phone gets to my house soon, and that set up and activation is simple to do at home, because there is no way I’m going to set foot in an AT&T store for the next 2 weeks.

However, this is all I saw:

I attempted to call the web sales again, but when it comes down to it, nobody knows if the order has shipped, if it will ever ship, if the item is even in stock, but they do know that if it does ship, not to expect it for at least another week.

I just want to cancel it, I was told that it was out of stock two days ago, so I know it’s not shipping, and there is a slim chance that it will in the near future.

Although I guess it doesn’t matter, it’s not like I can set foot in an AT&T store today anyway, seeing as how all the iPhone 4 pre-orders are taking their phones there to activate.

I have gone from being really irritated, to pretty furious.

I think what really is ticking me off right now is that I can’t even cancel the order, especially when it’s in this weird “In Progress” limbo. At this point, I’m so disgusted with the entire process that I’m ready to give up on the idea of even having an iPhone.

I think I would be far more understanding if I was one of the ones ordering an iPhone 4, but I’m not.

Today, however, I’m a little irked with them. Not even angry, just a little miffed.

My birthday is in less than a week, and I decided that after several years of wanting one, I’d go ahead and get an iPhone. Not the new iPhone 4, I didn’t have the money for that, but with the money I made from a recent wedding, I was able to afford a refurb 16GB 3GS.

I ordered yesterday, and normally with AT&T if you order it one day, you have it the next. I knew that wouldn’t be the case this time, seeing as how we moved from TN to PA in September, which takes us from 12 hours from their Texas hub, to about 24 hours away. No big deal, their service has always been lightning fast, so I expected it tomorrow.

I checked the shipping info several times yesterday, and it just kept telling me that it was simply “In Progress” and I figured that perhaps their software was slow to update, especially with the iPhone 4 orders rolling through.

When I got up this morning and it still wasn’t updated, I panicked a little, but someone on the Apple board of the AT&T Forum said that their order said “In Progress” for days and then the day it arrived at their house it updated their shipping info. So maybe it was already shipped out, who knows?

At around 8:00 tonight, I decided perhaps it’s time to give them a call. I just had this bad feeling, and I’m glad I called.

It turns out that when I made my order, their system found the nearest warehouse to where I live, and that warehouse has 0 in stock. I asked the girl if we could cancel the order, so perhaps I could go ahead and just find it locally, even if it meant spending a little more money. She informed me that because the warehouse had already received the information that the order could not be canceled, even if the backorder remains for several weeks.

Up until that point I handled it well, but I definitely felt a little irritation when I discovered that I now have a $104 charge on my debit card for a phone that will not be shipped, can not be canceled, and can’t be replaced locally.

I am almost keeping my cool for a few reasons:

1. The girl I spoke to said that this particular phone is in stock in other warehouses. So I will get it, it just has to make it from one of those warehouses to the one closest to me.

2. I’ve been happy with AT&T for 6 years, and this is really a pretty minor snag in the grand scheme of life.

3. Both of the girls that I spoke to tonight were pleasant, and considering the crap I’m sure they are dealing with this week from the iPhone 4 folks, they really weren’t required to be pleasant anymore.

So I’m just trying to keep calm, and remember that it will find it’s way here eventually. I’m not going to rant and rave about how AT&T sucks, because they really don’t. I’m not going to threaten to sue them because they said an item was in stock on their website when it wasn’t in the local warehouse. I’m not going to slander them and succumb to the “tell 10 friends who tell 10 friends” scenario.

The only thing I wish that could be changed is the fact that they are unable to automatically redirect the shipment from another warehouse. From what I can tell, it’s up to the warehouse to contact another one, have the phone shipped there, and then the original warehouse sends it to me. It’s a really long process, so I’m a little irritable about it, but what can you do?

That being said, I still have a few annoyances when it comes to dealing with people in customer service. Actually, let me rephrase that: I have no problem with customer service people, I have a problem with the techniques that they are forced to use. For the sake of public sanity, perhaps it’s time we retire just a few of these techniques.

1. The Name Use Game: Anyone who has ever worked in retail/customer service/sales has been told over and over that scientific studies have proven that if you use someone’s name several times, they are more likely to buy something.

I’d can only assume that these scientists are actually 4th graders working on a science project on opposite day.

As a consumer I despise this. Nothing against you personally, but we aren’t friends. As a matter of fact, my friends and I rarely use each others names more than once or twice in an entire day, let alone a 3 minute phone call.

To be perfectly honest, I find this practice to be  pushy, and extremely creepy. Humans use  names as a method of directing our conversation in a new direction. If you are talking to Richard but want to talk to Mary, you say her name to indicate that you are now talking to her. In a customer service setting, you are only talking to one person, why is it necessary to reuse their name over and over? The simple answer is: it’s not. Use it once, if necessary, but I bet you will find that even that is overkill.

A note to consumers: This works in reverse too. Customer service agents are required to wear name tags for one reason, and it’s simply so you know their name when you complain or boast about them to upper management. Don’t use their name unless you are good friends.

2. The Badger: I have nothing against store greeters. It’s not exactly a secret that this particular job even shows up on my resume. From a customer service standpoint, having someone at the entrance asking if someone needs help isn’t a bad idea at all. It gives those who have never visited the store, or someone in a hurry, the opportunity to find what they are looking for quickly and easily. However, if I walk into a store, and say that I don’t need help, please do not continue to badger me. I believe the badgering is the reason you see most people walk into retail outlets with their heads down, and trying to walk by quickly.

Also, if you direct me in the way of an item, I’d really prefer that  if you absolutely must lead me to the item (and I wish you wouldn’t) that you didn’t stand there with me. Often times my husband and I will need to deliberate on an item, and we don’t need an audience.

3. Surveys: These are becoming extremely common, but I’ve never actually done one. Sorry retailers. It’s not that I don’t see them on the bottom of every receipt I’ve received in the last 5 years (often circled) but I just don’t have the time to answer 50 questions about how great my service was at the dollar store.

4. Would you like to add…: This one is a serious pet peeve. If I get to the counter with all my junk, don’t ask me if I want a subscription to Entertainment Weekly. If I wanted a subscription, I’d have one.  If the internet crashed today and none of the stores in my area sold what I wanted, I still wouldn’t order over the phone, and this is the reason why. I’ve made my purchase, take my money, and leave me alone.

5. The customer is always right: Dear Every-Corporation-Ever, thank you for turning us into a nation of entitled spoiled brats who will complain until we get our way. Thanks a heap. This behavior has oozed out of your doors, and into the world at large. Teachers are harassed if an underachieving child doesn’t get an A, despite their skipping class and never doing homework. Doctors are consistently told that they are wrong by their patients, and pilots are falling asleep in the cockpit because consumers demand to be able to fly to some remote location when it’s convenient for them. You and your pandering, your bending over backwards at the slightest threat of a bad letter, of the empty threat of  “a friend tells 3 friends, and they tell 3 friends” scenario…and you destroyed a nation of people. Congratulations.

I keep abandoning this blog, because quite frankly, my life is boring. Who would want to read about my life?

However, I still have things to say sometimes. Social commentary, likes, dislikes, rants, raves…and what good are they doing if I am only writing about them in private?

So that’s the plan. Let’s see how it goes.