Buying an iPhone at Walmart (product provided)
March 30, 2009
As you may be aware, I’ve been one of Walmart’s Elevenmoms since last August.
This year, Walmart started carrying the incredibly popular Apple iPhone at its stores that supply AT&T wireless service. In order to see how Moms (and in general, the average phone-buyer at Walmart) experienced the in-store process of buying the iPhone, we were asked if we wanted to participate in a program to evaluate & review the entire procedure at stores near us. It was a voluntary program, in return for which, we’d be allowed to keep the iPhone.
Despite my still unbridled affection for the Palm Treo 680 I’ve been using for about a year and a half now, I’ll admit that I was very curious about the iPhone and so I signed on for the review.
The Shopping Experience
A few of my fellow ElevenMoms had headed out before I had a chance to and reported back that not all stores seemed to have them. Given that a day spent with a squirrelly 6-year-old, driving from one store to another in order to find one that carried it near me sounded like a quick way to kidlet meltdown and parental frustration, I made a list of stores within reasonable driving distance, with their phone numbers, and handed it off to GeekDaddy.
Why hand it off to GeekDaddy? Well, to be honest, I’m not terribly fond of making phone calls. I have a tendency to get frustrated rather quickly when on the phone and figured that it was probably the better idea for him to call.
First, he called the store we usually shop at. He was transferred to the Electronics department and the guy at the phone desk. The response of “iPhones? We don’t carry iPhones” followed by being disconnected was certainly not what we expected – but it turns out that it was the better idea to have GeekDaddy call, because that would’ve set me off! When GeekDaddy called back to verify the information, whomever he spoke to (no name was given) only let him know “we don’t have AT&T phones” when directly queried. Unwilling to continue to drag info out of Mr. Less-than-helpful GeekDaddy moved on to the next store on the list.
This experience was night & day from the first one. I have no problem sharing with y’all the fact that Randy Brown on the phone desk at the Walmart at Chambers & Parker Rd in Aurora CO (Store #1689) was not only pleasant but incredibly helpful.
He told GeekDaddy that “not all stores have an agreement with AT&T – we only carry Verizon phones here. The stores that potentially have them are I-70 & Tower (#5334), E Hampden (#3566), Centennial (#3313), I-70 & Quebec (#3533) maybe Aurora Mall (#1492).” Seriously… he not only told us why some stores carried and some didn’t, but he also provided a list of nearby stores that should have them. That kind of customer service is refreshing.
Calling the rest of those stores let us know that many only had the 8-gigabyte iPhone in stock, and we were looking for the 16-gigabyte 3G iPhone. Two of the stores had the 16gb and they were about equidistant from Case de GeekFamily… but one of the sales reps was incredibly brusque and only quoted the price for the 8gb when asked if they had iPhones, and when asked if that was for the 16gb he replied that they ‘only had that in white’ and rattled off the price again.
At the other store, the Centennial store (#3313), the young lady on the phone was not only pleasant and polite, she was helpful and didn’t require GeekDaddy to drag information out of her slowly and painfully. So we opted to go there.
In The Store
We really should’ve taken the kidlet with us, but you know, some days you just don’t feel like dealing with it if you don’t have to and she was at my Mother-in-law’s playing away – so GeekDaddy & I just figured we’d run in and get it taken care of.
At the phone counter, we were met with a smile by a young woman named Shaina Lotko. Shaina was the one who had been so helpful on the phone earlier! She was also incredibly pleasant and professional in person – despite being nearly 7 months pregnant. Seriously, you can check with GeekDaddy but I’m fairly sure I was never that nice to anyone at any point when I was pregnant… so it was kind of notable!
Shaina was also terribly apologetic and sympathetic throughout the lengthy signup process that followed. Apologetic despite the fact that none of the delay was inside her control.
Over the course of the next hour and a half, I watched her have to consistently re-enter information that she’d already entered at least once. Sometimes having to do so multiple times. There were 2 systems – AT&T Wireless’s system and Walmart’s system – both of which seem to have be written by programmers who were of the ilk of student I used to have to fight the system to flunk when they couldn’t really pass my intro classes.
Seriously – the databases are clearly not well-architected and tables not linked. It was bad enough that both moved at the speed of dark and were clearly not talking to each other – but that they required the sales rep to continually enter information already entered with each new screen? Reprehensible.
Shaina did her best to be engaging while waiting for each new screen to enter and to allow her to go on to the next. But despite that, the process still took an hour and a half. This would’ve been unbearable had my 6 year old been with me instead of my husband. Even GeekDaddy’s legendary patience wore thin over the course of the signup. I can’t even imagine how frustrating it would be with more than one squirrelly, bored child.
Still – that fault lies with those who set up the process, not those who have to use it. Sadly, I expect that most Moms and buyers would not necessarily be aware of that… and might get frustrated with the sales clerk. I rather wonder if that might account for some of the less-than-cheerful voices on the phone. It must be frustrating to deal with customers who blame you for something taking this long when there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.
After we finally got through the lengthy setup process, Shaina helped us with adding on Apple Care and getting a bluetooth headset for it. She didn’t even break a sweat when my Walmart gift card with the money to pay for the phone & setup didn’t want to slide right through. She entered it manually and got us checked out and on our way as quickly as possible.
Summary
So, can you get an iPhone at Walmart without too much trouble? Yes, if you’re willing to be patient. I don’t know how long it takes to get one through an Apple store, given that I haven’t done it, but I do know that I wasn’t expecting it to take 1 1/2 hrs even though I knew exactly what I wanted.
Here are my tips if you decide to do it:
- Leave the kids at home. It’s just too long to have squirrelly, bored kids underfoot. Nevermind if you have questions first!
- Call ahead. Make sure the store you’re heading to has AT&T and has the phone you want in stock.
- Bring a book. Or something to distract you. I don’t know that you’ll be in a position to go shopping while the process finishes – there was the occasional question that couldn’t be answered just by looking at my Driver’s License, so you’ll probably need to be nearby.
- Don’t blame the clerk. If the process takes the 1 1/2 to 2 hrs that seem to be standard with the ElevenMoms, you can rest assured that it’s not the clerk’s fault s/he is just inputting things in the order they are asked for.
Meanwhile if you do decide to buy an iPhone at Walmart? Make sure to get the survey receipt so you can give them feedback on the process and if you get great service like I did from Shaina Lotko? Get the name of the person who helped you. Because it’s clear that not everyone has the patience it takes to do that job and still maintain a cheerful disposition – so it’s always good to let a store manager know when they’ve got an employee who does.
Administrative Note: the preceding post was not compensated monetarily. However, in conjunction with the review program, the phone and service were paid for by Walmart. This is often referred to as “soft compensation” by bloggers and advertisers. Since the point of the review was of the purchase process of the iPhone at Walmart, no review or endorsement of any sort for the iPhone itself is included herein. Neither Walmart nor any other agency had editorial input into this article, nor was the author in any way encouraged to represent anything other than her own personal opinion of the process.
Give a Little, Get a Little…
April 20, 2008
A couple of years ago, GeekDaddy and I were in a Wal-Mart picking up diapers and whatnot… and we walked past a product demo. The free sample was a cup of coffee – and given our consistent state of sleep deprivation as parents, there was no way we were turning it down.
The coffee came out of a Senseo Coffee Pod System… at the time, still pretty new and trying to gain ground. At the time, my idea of ’single cup coffee’ machines extended from espresso machines to those annoying vending machines that have the paper cups with the poker hand you never win and the watery coffee & hot chocolate for 50 cents…
But it was decent enough coffee – and what a great idea. I mean, I can’t tell you how many 1/2 full pots of coffee I have emptied down the sink over the years. But the machine? Yeah, well, it was priced at around $80 for the machine plus the price of the individual coffee pods… er… maybe not. We thanked the lady and went about our shopping.
I always thought it would be a nice thing to have – but when it comes right down to it, I wasn’t sure I wanted to make that much of an up-front investment on something I wasn’t sure I’d use. Like every other home, we have our own ‘Small Appliance Graveyard’ filled with machines we were sure we’d use that eventually got relocated for new machines we were sure we’d use. I didn’t need to add to it with a pricey coffee maker when I already had a coffee pot and an espresso machine.
Fast-forward to about a month ago…
A friend emails me a link to this Senseo promotion which read:
Selected participants will receive the following $70 retail value for FREE*:
- Selected participants will receive the following $70 retail value for FREE*:
- Senseo® Single Serve Coffee Pod System
- Bag of Senseo® gourmet coffee pods
- Senseo® Coffee Pod Canister for easy pod storage and long-lasting freshness
- 5 $20-off Senseo® coffee machine cards to share with friends and family
*Participants must pay shipping and handling fee of $15
Seriously – sounds too good to be true, eh? I mean, come on… who gives away something that expensive that has clearly been successful enough to stick around for several years?
But I thought ‘what the heck… for $15 s/h, I’ll try it. I’d spend that ordering a pizza or in a few trips to Starbucks… can’t hurt.’
So I filled out forms, gave them info for billing the S/H fee, and promptly forgot about it. Until it showed up on the doorstep and I explained to GeekDaddy what was in the big box.
After it sat unopened by me for about a week – GeekDaddy unpacked it one morning and set it up. I know, because i was awakened with a freshly brewed cup of coffee that was waaaay to darkly roasted for my tastes. “That’s the dark roast that came with the new machine – we’ll have to try some other blends too,” he said.
He came home that afternoon with several bags of ‘other blends’ in pods to try.
By the end of the week, the ‘old coffee pot’ went to live with its predecessors in the Small Appliance Graveyard. We’re hooked. Firmly.
But that’s the beauty of it, you see… the company doesn’t make the bulk of it’s profit on the machines – it makes them on the pods. Which usually run anywhere from about 30 cents to $1 each depending on where/when you buy them and in what quantities. Now, that’s way more expensive than your average can of Folgers costs per cup – BUT – it’s way less than your average Starbucks and no more pouring unused coffee down the drain every day.
So they hooked us as customers by giving us the machine. Not a bad deal on their part. Something Gevalia coffee has been doing for years – which probably works for them frequently (but never did with me, I don’t like their coffee, personally.)
Zappos
Now, during this same time frame, a company I already respected a lot, Zappos.com decided to join the Twitter community full-force. Seems their employees had already been utilizing it – and Tony, their CEO decided to join Twitter as @zappos. It didn’t take long for the Twitter community to find @zappos and follow him – partially because he was running a promotion/contest of giving a free pair of shoes to one of his followers early on, partially because many of us already knew the site and loved the shoes, and partially because their company presence was so amazing.
Okay, granted – when they started giving away things like a trip for two to Las Vegas to tour the factory and meet with Tony – it started getting even more appealing… but by then we were all following already anyways and perusing the Zappos website with shoe-lust in our hearts.
I wasn’t really aware of how much different the presence of Zappos on Twitter was until I started getting new ’shoe seller’ spam followers on Twitter by the handful this week. Like the account @buyshoes — which just posts random news links in the hope that you will stop by their Twitter homepage and follow the link back to ’sicshoes . com’ (which I won’t link and am munging – not going to give them traffic, thanks) and buy shoes from their crappy website.
Now, honestly – I can use a search engine with the best of them. I know how to find shoes online if I want to. What no search engine can really tell you though is what kind of company you are doing business with before you do. But I can tell you what kind of company Zappos is – it’s the kind whose CEO makes the time to interact with their potential customers… and is willing to run a few free promotions because he knows that most people will pay a little bit more if necessary to deal with a company that treats them well. It’s the kind of company whose employees all seem to love what they do and are positive and upbeat (don’t believe me? click here) It’s the kind of company that I want to do business with.
While I’ll happily continue blocking the link-spamming shoe-bots that follow me on Twitter – I’ll be recommending them to anyone and everyone who will listen. Same as I sent that Senseo email to about a dozen friends and family and keep singing its praises.
Because honestly, the easiest way to make a loyal customer is to give them something they weren’t expecting… like a coffee pod machine, or a pair of shoes, or even just your time and attention.
It’s not rocket science – but it often seems like some companies perceive it that way. Thank heavens there are those who get it right the first time.
Now if you’ll excuse me – I’m going to drink a cup of decaf coffee made freshly just for me and go peruse some shoes…
