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Phone Expert
I'm just if there is anyone that works for USCC that visits this forum, you don't have to post here, but please at the very least PM me.
My Experience:
I don't have to deal with USCC customer service much, maybe once every few years. Typically it goes pretty well. However, last week, I tried to pre-order the SGS 3 via the website, just as I was supposed to. However, I am on a family plan with my parents still -- which means that when i tried to pay for the phone with my credit card, the name didn't match, which resulted in the charge being marked as fraudulent and put in a "frozen" state.
I, at no point had ANY idea this occurred. I just so happened to have checked back a few days later to see one part of the site stating my order was still "in progress" while another section showed my charge as reversed. I checked my credit card statement, and low and behold, i still was charged the full $315 with no indication of it being reversed to me.
At this point i called USCC to find out what the deal was. Naturally, the first person i talked to had no idea. I think she actually got nervous because she ended up hanging up on me (i was not mean / upset / angry at this point).
I called back again, talked to a guy who had no idea either, but he actually went ahead and said he would contact the "web payment team". I got put on hold for about 20 minutes at which point I hung up. He called me back however, and explained that whatever piece of **** verification service USCC uses to verify credit card charges rejected the payment with no indication as to why. It just showed as rejected (which it wasn't rejected, i was still fully charged). They (he and the web person) thought it was a result of my credit card company rejecting it due to some limitation, but he still was going to investigate.
I call MY CREDIT card company, making sure there is no limitations on my account preventing it. They say everything went through fine, and it's authorized by USCC to post those funds.
He calls back explaining it actually probably was a result of the name on the card / name on the account not matching. He told me that in order to get this remedied, my step-father (the account owner) would have to drive to a USCC store and tell them im verified, and i'd have to provide proof that im a legit person. I told him that was a ridiculous, and i wasn't going to make my step-dad drive 30 minutes just to tell someone the charge was ok. He then said he would talk to web processing again and call me back.
30 minutes later he called back saying the first lady he talked to was incorrect, and I only needed to go in to a store myself and verify. Still a very big inconvenience, but more doable. So i left to go to the store on the way home. I get there, and the clueless rep said that there was nothing he could do, and i would have to just re-order it online.
I drive home, log on and try placing my order. It gives me an error message indicating i should call the support line to place my order and get it verified. At this point, i'm pretty irate. I call the support line, yet again, explaining my situation. This rep seemed a bit more familiar with the process, and said I did in fact have to have this resolved via an in store visit. The rep would have to see a photo id and the card I used to place the order. They then would send a ****ing email to the web payment team proving i'm not some crazy *** person trying to con USCC out of one ****ing cell phone. Whatever. Anyway, yet again, i make a trip to the store, telling the rep on the phone he needs to call the store i'm going to, and fill in the clueless employees what they need to do, so i do not waste another trip. He obliges.
When i do make to a store the next day, and the employee I talk to is still somewhat clueless. I get referred to the manager, who doesn't fully understand the process, but he is at least willing to try to track it down. I leave. A few hours later i get a call from the manager, stating they are still looking in to the issue.
I call my credit card company yet again, just to verify the first person was correct and there wasn't anything holding my payment from going through. Again, everything looks 100% normal on their end and I STILL have not been reimbursed for the $315 I was initially charged. I called the manager again, leaving him a message verifying that everything looks fine from the credit card company's side.
So that's where it sits. It's now mid-day Tuesday, and I haven't seen any updates, emails, calls from anyone @ USCC since midday Friday.
It's absolutely F U C K ing mind blowing it's this hard to GIVE THEM MY DAMN MONEY. I can't comprehend that there is no one at USCC that can override my initial order, void it, then let me place a new one. HOW CAN SOMETHING LIKE THIS NOT EXIST!?!
I've spent probably 8 phone calls, 2 physical trips to the store, and probably over 5+ hours trying to solve an issue that USCC should be doing for me, with absolutely no contact that anything was wrong in the first place.
This is absolutely abysmal customer service. Never in my life have I had to work so hard to get something resolved from a bigger company. If something doesn't get handled this week, I will most likely be taking my TWELVE years of loyalty and telling USCC to **** off.
If any USCC employee reads this forum, please help me figure this out.
Phone Collector
I've never been called back by any customer service agent for any organization ever. The fact that they kept returning your calls and keeping you in the loop of what was going on sounds pretty good to me. I'm sorry they couldn't solve your problem, but it certainly wasn't for lack of trying. I would deal exclusively with *611, I've never met anyone in a USCC store who could tell their *** from a hole in the ground. You can also try emailing their social service team on their facebook page.
Phone Expert
Not that I can help you, but for all the horn tooting about their CS I've found it to be pretty average.
I upgraded to the GSIII online. Got a call a couple days later saying something was wrong with the payment and they needed to take it over the phone. No problem (even though I thought it odd).
The money was charged to my credit card account, but I didn't receive any notification of an order via email. I thought that was odd and today decided to call and check just to verify.
Called 611. They told me I had to call an 800 number to get the verification. Luckily I had a land line since I was on hold a very long time. CS comes on the line to tell me that yes they received payment, and the agent who took that payment was supposed to email their "web team" to let them know payment was accepted. However she could not verify whether or not that had happened. WTF???
She was going to personally handle it. She indicated I should receive an email within 72 hours verifying. I won't hold my breath.
Disappointing that they hold your money for some undefined time in the future. Christ, you have the money how about some sort of update?
On top of that after asking is their anything else she can do for me, she asks if I still want to keep my 5gb data plan. Huh? I asked why I would give it up when they don't offer a lower priced plan at this time. It wouldn't save me any money to switch to another plan with less data. I have 450 minutes, free text/pix, 5gb data, for $69.99 and with discounts pay $58.xx every month. I don't come even remotely close to using all my minutes.
Best of luck.
Phone fan
Yup, they did an absolutely horrible job with this web preorder. I still think their CS is great as a whole, but it seems like they were really unprepared for this one.
That said, they did (and always do) their best to solve the problem. I think the issue here goes higher up on the totem pole than just CS. And I hope someday USCC figures out how to launch a phone. God help them if they ever land the iPhone 5.
Post Machine
I didn't have any errors with the pre-order and I used my credit card (which is the same card I use for billpay) but the account itself is under a totally different name. It seems to have been processed fine. If they made me go to the retail store, I would've probably suggested I will instead cancel my USCC service and go elsewhere.
I do agree that it's disappointing they're taking a month or so interest-free loan by whacking my card 2-3 days from when I applied for the pre-order. I believe this is just the nature of USCC's site though. Their site is simply not capable of handling pre-orders and instead it's an actual order that isn't fulfilled until later in time. I don't know of many other times that USCC has done pre-orders through their site, so this might be something they should fix in the future if this will be a new trend.
I filled out a survey a bit back online and USCC called me out of concern for my comments I posted. At that time, it was about the new data plans. All in all, I'd say USCC CS has been great to me over the last 10 years or so. However, some of their policies are admittedly a bit mundane. I should never have to visit a retail store unless I want to, for instance. Much of this has been improved upon since smartphone customers usually deal with Phone CS instead.
--Droo, @Network
Phone Expert
What is boils down to is p*ss poor programming of the database on the backend.
It shouldn't care if the name on the card doesn't match the name on the account
when pre-ordering the phone, but due to lack of proper setup it failed miserably.
Then the poor CS rep doesn't have the tools on their interface to revise/modify.
How is that type of order any different than my Fiance going into the store to
pay with her credit card?
_mr
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Post Machine
This is also a decision of the actual processing API. We require these things to all match up for AVS amongst other reasons. They could 'not' require this. The problem is, by declaring it as a 'web only pre-order', they give the impression that you can't call. That's a customer service issue.Originally Posted by middle_road
However, my card isn't under the account person's name at all, and yet I was able to pre-order fine. It doesn't seem that this rule applies to everyone.
--Droo, @Network
Phone Collector
Whenever I've had a serious problem, I call and ask for their retentions dept. My problems have always been solved within 15min. or less. However, you being under your parent's plan could be a problem because they may think they're just dealing with a kid. Who knows.
Put the charge in dispute with your CC co. And let USCC know you're putting the charge in dispute. With the charge in dispute, you wont be required to pay it and should be off your statement within 72hrs. If not 24.
No reason to get so flustered though, you've just gotta talk to the right person.
My screen is bigger than yours
I never preorder anything because it is basically an interest free loan to the company. It is nice to have one guaranteed on launch day, but I wonder how many Galaxy S III phones USCC will be getting.
Phone Expert
I've never ordered something online (merchandise) and had them charge me before shipping. I'm not happy about being charged and having the shipping date seemingly unknown.
Hoping for the best. I've held onto my Desire waiting for a top of the line phone. This is it, so I jumped on it. Will be disappointed if I could have just walked into a store and got one at the same time or earlier. Oh well.
Phone fan
I was there on launch day for the Desire. It was a freakin' zoo. I'll gladly let them hold on to my $300 for a month if it means I don't have to do that again.
Phone Collector
lol a months interest on $300? big whoop, I prob have more change than that under the carpets of my car.
If you want to talk about interest free loans, talk about the one the vast majority of Americans give to the government all year every year, called paycheck withholdings.
Related to the topic: I had a similar thing where my order was tagged as Fraud because my billing address on my cell phone plan is not where I live (which I set as the shipping and billing address), its where my parents live (different state). Since the billing address of a credit card did not match the billing address of my account, they charged me and immediately canceled the order and refunded me. It was a whole mess trying to get them to re-instate my order. It involved about 10 different people, most of which had no idea what was going on. And after it was fixed, my credit card company called me about potentially fraudulent activity on my account LOL!
Phone Collector
Multiply the "big whoops" of $300+ interest for a month times all the people who preorder. That big whoop turns in to a big bang.
My screen is bigger than yours
Its not like USCC is putting that money in a bank for a month and earning interest on it. Most likely they will have to pay Samsung for the pre-orders as soon as they are ordered so they have enough devices to meet the demand on launch, unless they want to not only run out in store but also fail to meet pre-orders.
Post Machine
Preorders with Verizon and many other companies are 'bill when shipped'. This preordering arrangement with USCC is different compared to other preorders. I believe it's because they haven't done this in the past and don't have a preorder mechanism in their website yet.
In my case, I'd rather lock in the price just in case the price ultimately ends up going up after the preorder or something like that.
--Droo, @Network
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