Three Strikes for Customer Service

Those are the last words I expected to hear in the AT&T store. I'd run in all excited to purchase my new iPhone yesterday. You see, my Palm Centro is on its last legs. After playing with my friend's new iPhone on Sunday, I was jazzed.

I ran home on Sunday night and placed an order with Apple. I even paid for fast shipping, so I could get it ASAP. Yes, immediate gratification was in charge! Monday morning, I received a notice from Apple, stating that the phone would arrive by Friday or the following Monday. You call that ASAP shipping?

Strike #1 Apple.

I called Apple's customer service desk, and explained my situation to the nice man in India five times. He kept explaining that five to six days was fast shipping. In whose world?

Strike #2 Apple.

He finally accepted my opinion on his fast shipping, after I explained my locale and situation. I live 6 hours from the Apple distribution warehouse so a week is not ASAP. After much pushing and begging, he offered to reverse the order so that I could go buy the phone in a local store. I remember thinking "Why does buying something have to be so hard?" Little did I know...

I headed out later on Monday to the local ATT store to buy my new iPhone. I was so excited - I love new toys! I found a salesman, Jeff, who got a kick out of my excitement! We picked out my iPhone, accessories and headed for the checkout. Jeff entered my phone number, started to check me out - and then got this confused look on his face. "Have you already bought an iPhone?" Ah, the Apple thing. I explained what had happened. He shook his head and took a deep breath.

"I have to talk to my manager. I don't think we can sell you a phone."

WHAT???

Long story short. Apple did cancel the order. But it takes 3-4 days for Apple to clear the transaction from ATTs system. In the meantime, they put a hold on my ATT account - so no new purchases or changes can be made. So basically - I can't have a new phone until Apple's system releases my account. You gotta be kidding me? What transactions takes 4 days to clear in this digital age??

Strike #3 and you're OUT Apple.

I'm a customer ready to make a purchase. I have cash in hand. And I can't buy?

To be fair - the ATT manager offered to sell me an iPhone at full price for the week. I'd return it when Apple released my account. ATT would sell me a new one at the discount for my upgrade - and then THROW AWAY the brand new iPhone I bought at full price. OMG - what a waste!

I declined. That just didn't seem fair to poor ATT. Just because Apple can't ship in a timely way and saw fit to highjack my account, why should ATT pay for it?

So here I sit, no iPhone and helpless to do anything about it.

Sigh, I can't even go buy a Blackberry Storm. They stopped me from buying anything. I called Apple again and finally found a manager after a long begging session with another outsourced rep who badly needed to buy a clue. That manager stepped up and attempted to get my iPhone here sooner, due to my inconvenience. So I'll have a phone by Wednesday (we hope). Now why didn't the first rep offer that same timeline???

I give Apple three strikes and a BIG OUT for Customer Service.
What do you think?