The Ironical Chronicle LoLyfe.co.uk

Another iPhone / Halebop entry…

I got a courtesy call from Halebop today!! Apparently they'd read my blog and thought they should give me a call to see if everything was now okay... read my blog??

I've got a handy tool that collects stats from the sites I manage, this data is either sent to me weekly in a report or I can dig out the info myself by logging on to the database. One of the cool things that this stat report does is that it tells you where the readers are located and what web page they navigated from to find the site in the first place.
I found this entry in the report, which has my blog listed. So it goes to show that Halebop do worry about what's being said about them. Of course, this is a way of easing any sort of situation from standard customer service to that of bad account management. Or in my case, I assume, to make sure that my concerns had been attended to. As I still haven't received an email response to my complaints from Halebop Customer Services, I can quite easily say I'm not yet happy with the after sales service. But I've found that this is the norm in most things here in Sweden. But I don't think that it's the norm in the way that they treat customers, no. It's the norm that they are inexperienced in dealing with after sales issues as the pre-sales service is so exemplary and the products that are sold are usually those of high quality. I mean, let's be honest, who would have expected a brand new Apple iPhone to arrive faulty from the factory, right? For all the year's I've been using iPod's, I've only ever encountered one hardware problem that resulted in me having to replace the product. I only got a couple of years use out of it, so I wasn't that happy at the time, but as I had to upgrade to a better iPod, that kind of took the sting out.
Anyway, the story continues... I await my new phone with bated breath...

More iPhone / Halebop Nonsense

With a couple of days off from me hassling them, I expected to log on to my email and find that Halebop had responded to my last queries and complaints with some sort of solution to my problem.
Bear in mind here that I reported the phone as faulty back on the 18th, without any sort of malice what-so-ever, in fact I stated that the fault lie with Apple supplying a faulty phone and sending it out without properly quality checking it in the first place.
I was stunned to see that my tirade had pretty much been ignored completely. The phone still remained unlogged as faulty with them and they had done absolutely nothing in the four days that I have been out of commission. I wrote them this on the 20th:

...thank you for your response. However, I still remain extremely displeased. I have received faulty goods from Halebop and it seems as though I am having to do all the work to sort it out. Surely this is a standard customer service complaint, and even if you have a directive from Apple about servicing iPhones it doesn't detract the fact that the phone is faulty, I have a broken phone, it should be replaced. The Halebop support page isn't updated to include the iPhone 3GS, so I cannot report it as faulty. Surely you can understand my frustration and simply report it as faulty yourselves and get this moving along?
I am extremely unhappy with the service provided by Halebop so far, and I will be taking this further if and when I get a satisfactory result.

Again, I don't hold Halebop at fault for the non functioning phone - but I do hold you responsible for after sales service. If you sell a product you should offer the kind of service that is expected. I wouldn't expect to go to any other store, purchase faulty goods and then not be able to exchange it for a working product. I would also expect the Halebop system for reporting problems to be up-to-date. I can't report the phone as faulty as the details aren't loaded on your system. This means I have no other choice but to spend my own time going to a Telia store.
If I wanted to be involved with store fronts I would have purchased the phone from a store front - not the internet.

I would be grateful if:

1. You would pass this issue on to customer complaints for further scrutiny
2. Advise me when the fault has been escalated to someone that is able to make a decision about either telling me I can have a replacement phone or be supplied with a new one

In the meantime, I eagerly await your reply...

The response I got back was:

You're right about that 3GS is not listed on the service report.
But you can still fill it.

Select the iPhone 3G and then type in the information field that you have a 3GS Iphone.

We have informed our support and asked them to update so even 3GS will appear as a choice.

No mention of my queries or complaints, just instructions of how to fill out their web page - incorrectly!

Today when I tried to answer to the message, the Halebop system logged me out. When I logged back in the fault had been closed. Not only that, but the option for reporting a faulty phone had for some reason completely disappeared! Rather angry at this (assuming that they had closed the fault and removed the ability to report problems), I sent a deeply sarcastic and fiery email stating that I was:

... at a loss for words. Not only did my last query/complaint get closed without being satisfactorily answered, but the complete lack of willingness to offer me any service is utterly incredulous!
I have a serious complaint about a non functioning product that I have purchased from you and you have closed the ticket! How can you do this? Maybe it's my fault? Maybe I should have realised that a customer service centre isn't there to answer customer service queries? I do apologise. I just thought that seeing as though you had sold me faulty goods that you might have cared that continued custom may have been at risk!

I have copied the original fault below and await a response that I find satisfies any normal customers wants.

Again, I purchased a top of the range phone from yourselves that was faulty - I would like a replacement. I don't feel that in the meantime I should suffer the incovenience of being without a phone. Can you ensure that a new phone will be sent to me as soon as possible and that my life will not be put on hold because of this?

I look forward to hearing from you...

Response:

We did not close the last file. I can see that you did it.

I only saw red from here on ... however, being a calm and somewhat reserved person, I counted to 10, made a cup of coffee, counted to 20, drank my coffee, counted to 50... and then logged back on to the Halebop system which miraculously seemed to have rectified itself. The ability to log faults was back and I was able to respond to their messages without my tickets being closed!! Amazing!!
I decided that maybe sending another complaint straight away would not help in any way, so I just logged the phone as faulty and now await a response ...

At Last…

... but ...

I finally got my iPhone today. Hurrah!! It actually arrived at the pick up point yesterday, but I was too out of it to go and get it. Plus finances dictated that I should wait until the end of the month really, but the thought of my likkle lektrik snowflake sitting at the Supermarket on it's todd got the better of me.
Anyway, setting up the phone itself was pretty simple, having iTunes already installed it just needed plugging in and the latest version of Mac Mobile OS installed. Or so I thought... after installing the latest OS and firmware I synced up a few playlists, my contacts and calender and then I was ready to play... Not so, apparently I have to wait for the phone to activate which can take up to 24 hours ... !!!
Anyway, I've got a new number, so those that are important enough will get a text as soon as the phone comes online with my new details ... if you don't get a text, well ... you know ...

How Much??

After receiving various letters from 3 about the arrival date of my iPhone, I got a bit antsy. I originally chose the 16GB version as it was about a fiver cheaper... after pondering I realised that having the 32GB version would probably pay off in the long run so I went to the 3 Store to change my order.
With that done I then got a letter saying that luckily it was in stock and would arrive in the next few days... it took a week for another letter to arrive saying that it would actually be the same time frame as before and wouldn't arrive until about the 10th...
The 10th arrives and lo n behold my iPhone arrives... however it's the 16GB version! So I call 3 and they say not to worry, just bring it in to the store and they'll swap it out as my contract states a 32GB phone.
Then, last night I spoke to Janne who tells me Mary-Anne is thinking about ordering an iPhone too, but she's doing it from Halebop! Here in Sweden, it seems that the iPhone isn't exclusive to one company, not only that it's a lot bloody cheaper to buy it from Halebop than 3 ...