Launch Day Tomfoolery at MS Store

[ChristianKing]

Well listen to this experience at the Microsoft Store in Lenox Mall Atlanta GA. Now I have purchased a few iPhones, so make no mistake I was expecting an experience that was at least comparable to that experience. The iPhone purchasing experience was what I considered to be a reasonable baseline comparison scenario so forgive me if I was shooting for the moon.

I preordered a Cyan Lumia 900 on the first day Microsoft stores offered them.

Strike 1: First, I received no email prior to the launch communicating the Microsoft Store would have the phone at all, much less my preorder. :straight: Yes i knew they would be there from the AT&T Announcment, but come on Microsoft, communicate with the dedicated fanbase you have in mobile at the moment.

Strike 2: When i walked into the Microsoft store on Monday April 9th 4PM EST there was no one in the front of the store to even let you know a premier product was launching that day. :straight: There was nothing but a Lumia 900 Poster in the Window and two phones on a stand near the other windows phones in the front. To make matters even more suspect, the display for the Lumia products was only partially built and it's as far in the back left hand corner of the store as you can go. :dry

Strike 3: So I get to the back counter to get my Lumia 900 and after 5 minutes of teasing a customer rep I discover only two people working the Purchase and Activation Line. Now for a Launch day of a premium product, you have to be kidding. Strike 3A - No one thought to create two lines; one line for people doing activations and another quick line for people purchasing the phone outright without going through the contract 2step. Strike 3B - No one thought to even ask anyone in the croud of people starting to huddle arround the counter if they were picking up the phone without a contract activation.

Strike 4: It's activation day, the Website to activate AT&T Lines was obviously overloaded and taking minutes to log into. You'd think that extra bandwidth would be allocated for all the AT&T and Microsoft Store Activations, but nope.

Strike 5: It was taking so long the two reps started asking people to write down their phone numbers and last 4 digits of their SSN so they could just start the process two at a time. Who writes that kind of info down for joe blo to find in the garbage tomorrow??

Strike 6: Seeing this tomfoolery, the Apple Store reps are dying laughing across the hall. Now granted, I’ve had my share of Apple Store antics on an iPhone launch day, but had I been standing there with them I would have started howling and laughing with them. People walking by were noticing a big glob of people huddled around the back counter waiting for some guidance. Who needs bad promotion?:dry

At that point I just said hey, I’m in line to purchase only. I'll head to AT&T to activate my device and the rep says, ok, step out of line and we'll get you out of here.

So now I head over to AT&T's premier store at the Perimeter Mall Location. When I walked in they did have a Lumia Display up and the Lady did mention the device right as I walked in with mine in hand. So I wait a while and start looking for the Titan II which really looks awesome by the way. But when I find said device, the display unit is non-functional. Now granted they did have 7 900's in there working like a charm but come on, we need all the help we can get. The AT&T visit went fairly well. The only problem encountered there was that a new guy didn't know how to set up visual voicemail, which was understandable. I talked him through the setup and he thanked me and said he appreciated the help. He hadn't gotten his phone yet but it was ordered, so I could understand the VVM oversight and he said it was good that I mentioned it so that everyone after me that he works with will have everything set up once they leave

Had Balmer, Elop or even Gates walked into the Microsoft store when I did, after 5 minutes half the staff would be at the unemployment office. I'm not sure what the problem was, but I could never see myself pre-ordering anything from the MS store again based on this experience. I'll just stick with AT&T for ordering phones. No communication or organization is pretty unacceptible in my oppinion. AT&T did a fairly good job but the reps are still pretty pro Android, even with the financial incentives. The reps say they think the Lumia is cool looking and the first windows phone they realy like but it's still an uphill battle.

Hopefully most people had a far better experience than me. The phone is pretty amazing. The camera needs a few tweaks to be on par with the HTC Titan phones but the Nokia Apps are a major plus. A definte great start for Nokia in the US.

 

[cj-m]

Honestly, if MS/Nokia wants to take on the iPhone, in particular, they need to take it on at all levels. Your example is a shiny case of that. Everyone needs to be involved, from the store cat all the way up to Ballmer/Elop. You need to have a slicker than slick experience and one that would make the iphone guardians sit up and take notice. If the store doesnt believe in the product, how then can we the users be expected to believe in and support the product. Say what you want about iphone, they have the whole routine on a gold standard.

 

[ChristianKing]

Honestly, if MS/Nokia wants to take on the iPhone, in particular, they need to take it on at all levels. Your example is a shiny case of that. Everyone needs to be involved, from the store cat all the way up to Ballmer/Elop. You need to have a slicker than slick experience and one that would make the iphone guardians sit up and take notice. If the store doesnt believe in the product, how then can we the users be expected to believe in and support the product. Say what you want about iphone, they have the whole routine on a gold standard.

I think my expectations were higher considering it was an Actual Microsoft Store. I'd expect some challenges in Walmart or a mom and Pop AT&T store, but at the Microsoft store I expected a canned practiced high quality experience. I know it was a holiday weekend so it wasn't the greatest day to launch a product on the Monday following a holiday. However, if you're expecting to sell a lot of phones, you'd expect a flagship store to have a clear plan for the launch day at the very least. perhaps they weren't expecting to sell a lot of phones.

All the people in the store were nice and they were trying to get the lines taken care of but from my untrained eye, no manager was anywhere to be seen with any sort of purchase and activation plan and the employees were running around trying to be as helpful as they could under the circumstances.

 

[hasasimo]

Yeah, the Microsoft Store at Tysons Corner Mall near Washington, DC is just as bad. It's a shame I knew a lot more about WP than anyone in there. Not that they have a dedicated WP person working there anyway.

It's like Microsoft is doing all the difficult things just fine, but when it comes to the simple, common sense things that make all the difference, they're dropping the ball big time.

 

[dkp23]

My experience with MS store made me cancel my preorder.

Like you said, no communication even though they take down your email address. I got nothing. Even when i asked questions, they had no idea about the phone nor the release date even after it was all announced a few days prior. They thought the white would release same day and they wasnt even sure how they would contact me so i can pickup my phone. I asked them how will know how to pick up, they said they would call me, i said you didnt take my number so how would you call me....0_0 <--- look on the girly reps face. So i said you mean, you would email me right? She goes and asks another rep and finally says yes.

Usually in these retail places whether carrier or ms store, they dont know anything, they just work there and only know how to work their charge pads.

In the end, i cancelled, preored ATT and got my phone on Friday

 

[peestandingup]

Microsoft is going to find out the hard way that they can't half-*** their way through stuff like this & expect people to just hand over their money to them like in the old days of Windows PC dominance. Things are WAY different now & they've got to not only equal what the other guys are doing, but do it BETTER.

There's not that many MS stores to begin with, and for a flagship store, thats a pretty bad top to bottom experience. I'd personally call corporate & let them know.

 

[ChristianKing]

My experience with MS store made me cancel my preorder.

Like you said, no communication even though they take down your email address. I got nothing. Even when i asked questions, they had no idea about the phone nor the release date even after it was all announced a few days prior. They thought the white would release same day and they wasnt even sure how they would contact me so i can pickup my phone. I asked them how will know how to pick up, they said they would call me, i said you didnt take my number so how would you call me....0_0 <--- look on the girly reps face. So i said you mean, you would email me right? She goes and asks another rep and finally says yes.

Usually in these retail places whether carrier or ms store, they dont know anything, they just work there and only know how to work their charge pads.

In the end, i cancelled, preored ATT and got my phone on Friday

I had basically the same experience when i'd step in from time to time and ask about the Launch date. I knew more than most of the reps. It just seems counter intuitive when you're in the actual microsoft Store to have such an uninformed staff for a mojor product release. :straight: I joke and call my friends iSheep, but when i walk into the Apple store with my iphone, even if they don't have all the answers, they are aware of the important key points about devices, pre-orders and release dates. **** I got an email announing the ipad 3 and I haven't purchased an apple product in over a year. I knew exactly when it was availible for pre-order and pickup weeks ahead of time. :dry

When you're trying to get people attention regarding your product, you need in store experiences to be good memories. The expereince should lead you to tell the next guy, go in and check it out for yourself. I still got my phone, but I thought long and hard about just walking out, getting one from AT&T and coming back later in the week to get my $25 back.

 

[Rocket_Girl]

Apple store is gold standard, I'll say. Had my first Apple store experiences within the past few months, and they are truly remarkable. They make it easy to part with large wads of cash...quickly... and feel well-taken care of in the (swift and efficient) process. I exchanged one 4s for another after one week (more memory): response was all smiles, no questions, no problem. Same with new iPad: changed mind about memory after pre-order: returned the pre-ordered iPad in about 45 seconds (still in sealed shipping box). Sad to hear that MS is not only off the radar in this regard but pretty much off the planet. If they keep getting in their own way, they will be out of the phone game pretty quickly. I was a windows phone fanatic...thought I would never use anything BUT windows phones...until I tried iOs. Between buggy phones, lack of knowledge among tech and sales support staff alike, and terrible customer service from OEM's, I gave up. Reluctantly...yet I have had zero regrets since.

 

[ChristianKing]

Apple store is gold standard, I'll say. Had my first Apple store experiences within the past few months, and they are truly remarkable. They make it easy to part with large wads of cash...quickly... and feel well-taken care of in the (swift and efficient) process. I exchanged one 4s for another after one week (more memory): response was all smiles, no questions, no problem. Same with new iPad: changed mind about memory after pre-order: returned the pre-ordered iPad in about 45 seconds (still in sealed shipping box). Sad to hear that MS is not only off the radar in this regard but pretty much off the planet. If they keep getting in their own way, they will be out of the phone game pretty quickly. I was a windows phone fanatic...thought I would never use anything BUT windows phones...until I tried iOs. Between buggy phones, lack of knowledge among tech and sales support staff alike, and terrible customer service from OEM's, I gave up. Reluctantly...yet I have had zero regrets since.

I like Windows Phone, so i was going to get the phone regardless. The MS store is impressive visually and on most days the experience is decent, but you can tell they aren't as dedicated as the Apple staff with regards to being fully knowlegible about the product lines. I get it's just a job for most, but considering the competition (APPLE), that's not going to cut it. most people could probably care less, but I'd like to see Windows phone succeed and so i'm speaking out, not just to critisize, but hopefully to encourage positive changes with the launch day experience for future high visibilty devices.

 

[cp2_4eva]

interesting. I go to the same store in Tysons corner. And to a certain extent I agree. I only went in there for lumia 900 accessories. The guy didn't know if they had any or not. He said he would check for me. He helped another customer real quick and never got back to me. I would've pitched a fit but I went to try out tiger woods golf in the Kinect. Never happens like that at the Apple store.

Another funny thing is I went to 3 different ATT stores to find accessories and they all ask how I got mine early. Really? Oh you haven't heard? Heard what? Lol. Us forum goers no more than them. Damn shame

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express