Mixed messages from O2

Two reports from two unconnected O2 stores agree that they will not be dealing with existing iPhone customers looking to upgrade to iPhone 3G for an estimated two weeks. The stores will only be dealing with new signups. Both of them said (separately) that existing iPhone customers who expressed interest would be posted a new iPhone after being called in early July and agreeing to a new 18 month contract. This means that existing iPhone customers would be very unlikely to receive the iPhone on day one.

Both of these stores were likely O2 franchises and not necessarily O2 corporate or O2 retail. So I rang O2’s specialist iPhone support line.
I was told:

• I would have to wait til the end of my existing contract (October) to get an iPhone 3G. She was quite pushy and talked over me as I tried to explain that she was contradicting the web site.
• When I’d endured a couple of minutes on hold while she read the web site, she confirmed that O2 would ‘give me a bell’ sometime in late July and tell me what the process would be.
• She then suggested I call 2302 from my handset to get more information. I explained quietly that I’d called 2302 and had been directed to her. I just gave up then. Said goodbye in a nice way.
• When she said goodbye she was late in putting the phone down where I heard someone say “Are they going to call them?” to which she says “Says so on the web site.”

Overwhelmed I am not. It’s evident that the people on the front lines don’t have a clue – they’ve been kept completely in the dark. This is something that annoys me about big companies. After 12 years of doing tech support, I think it’s absolutely vital to inform the people on the helpdesks of the situation as soon as you know. It stops them from getting frustrated and then in turn, frustrating your customers. Remember that for any company, your customers are your most important asset. (Apple, of course, breaks the mould here because their customers enjoy speculating about new Apple products more than they actually like buying them.)

I understand it’s two weeks now until the iPhone release and if rumours on the Internet are to believed, the new firmware for the iPhone may have just hit final release which means Apple will be working hard to get it in place for download to phones by the 11th July.

O2 will be doing well out of me. We have two iPhones in this household and both will be upgrading to iPhone 3G and handing the old phones to family members to use – effectively doubling O2’s penetration. This is not to be ignored. The early adopters will also be the most effective marketing platform for O2.

I’m left a little frustrated about being an early adopter and not having any answers. About being told the opposite of what I’d read on the web site. About the company’s apparent interest in new customers rather than existing customers.