I just wanted to officially second the idea seen in the "Buying and receiving devices" (https://help.ting.com/entries/20828896-buying-and-receiving-devices).
My family is anxious about not having the ability to drive to a "brick and mortar" store to immediately buy a phone if something were to happen to ours. We only have cell phones, so there would be no backup. With the current setup, we would need to wait 3-5 business days for a replacement phone.
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Hi Christopher... sorry which feature would you like to see?
As for the express shipping... we now have it as an option for purchasing new devices and we expect to be offering express as an option for replacement phones too in the future.
The feature I would like to see is the next day or overnight shipping. You stated in my referenced forum topic that this option wasn't available at the time but you were expecting to make it an option in the future.
I see the new feature of Express Shipping in Ting 1.11. This states devices would be shipped in 3 business days or less.
Do you still expect to make next day or overnight shipping available in the future or is Ting drawing the line with Express Shipping?
Getting a replacement device has become my first unsatisfactory experience with Ting, which I have been recommending to friends up to this point ("Ting? What's that?").
My Samsung Conquer has failed, which I first reported to Ting via email on 7/14/12. Being a Saturday, I did not get a reply until Monday, 2 days later. (I knew signing up that one of the trade-offs of Ting was no 24/7 customer service, but weekend support at least by email would be appreciated.) After trying agent Mike's good suggestions, I called and Janice and I agreed it was a problem with the phone, and that it would be replaced. So far, so good - but although the email I received on Monday said the replacement unit "will be processed in the next 24 hours", I could not get any estimate on when I would receive the replacement until Friday, in spite of several other emails. I learned on Friday that it had been shipped, and learned by looking up the tracking number that I won't get it until next Wednesday. So that's 12 days between reporting the problem and getting a replacement phone. (For reference, my support ticket number is #16722).
What I would like to see in the future is:
I was fortunate that I have a pre-pay feature phone I could use, and a Google Voice number that I can redirect to that temporary replacement, so i was not cut off from phone service. I am willing to make some trade-offs for Ting's pricing model: buy a new phone, no brick-and-mortar stores, no 24/7 support. I recognize that Ting's approach is new and long overdue in the phone industry, and I want to support it.
But having to wait almost two weeks for a warranty replacement phone means I will not be able to continue recommending Ting to my friends, at least until your support system matures. More and more of my friends and family are going without land lines, and if they do not have Google Voice and a spare phone at hand, I will have to tell them to stay away from Ting for the present.
Hi Joel,
This is great feedback, thank-you.
Processing device returns is a known issue for us and we've been investing a lot of time in automating the process of handling these requests. This includes processing shipping labels, getting them to you, notification to the warehouse, picking from the shelves, tracking inventory, etc. etc. There are a lot of moving parts and it's one of our most complicated pieces.
I do apologize for how we treated you here and I'll dig into your specific circumstances to make sure our upcoming procedures take your experience into account.
It sounds like you're all good now, and are taking a moment to offer feedback. But if there's anything you need that's still outstanding, please do ping me at ben -at- ting -dot- com.
-Ben
As a side note to my concerns noted above, I want to let you know that whenever I have clicked the link "Your request (#16722)" in the emails I have received, I get a page that says: "Request not found. You do not have access to request #16722. It may have been solved or deleted."
Also, when I go to Ting's help site and click on "Check your existing requests", I see "You have no open requests". When I go to the right sidebar and click on "View your recently solved and closed requests", I see two earlier requests from April, but not #16722.
I mention this in case it has something to do with my phone taking longer than 24 hours to process, as it appears my help ticket may not exist in your system.
Thanks for the fast response, Ben. I appreciate the complexity of the business, and I'm willing to stay with Ting while you work these out. I just wanted to add my thoughts to any wish list you have going for future improvements.
In retrospect, what probably aggravated me most during the week was getting an email stating "24 hour processing" when that wasn't the case. At this point, just giving a more accurate time estimate would probably go a long way towards reducing customers' agitation.
Of course, many of us have been spoiled by a certain big website (starts with a "A") that does a lot of overnight and two-day shipping. But I know they didn't start out that way. I'm willing to wait while you work out the kinks. There are enough pluses on your side, and I like your company's attitude. I've never had a phone contract, and never will. That's what attracted me to Ting in the first place.
While Ting may not have the volume or resources required to independently offer free 2-day shipping like some large online stores, perhaps Ting could look into partnering with Shoprunner.com? It would get fast shipping for customers and prominent name placement for Ting.
Thanks Joel. Appreciate it. You'll see big improvements in coming months. As for the issues with your ticket requests not showing up... I think the answer is because you have two accounts with us with two separate email addresses. If you send me an email with both of them, I'll merge the accounts for you.
@Curtis: Thanks for the suggestion... our warehouse is setup for pretty efficient operation. It's more than just shipping too... they do testing and initial setup of the devices as well. When we have fallen down (it happens) the issue really is related to some small, but important controls. Streamlining the electronic communication and business process that flows between customer service and the warehouse fixes this.
I have to second this idea (overnight shipping). I recently broke my S3 (btw, it only fell 3 feet, I'm a little surprised it resulted in a touch screen that no longer received touch events). Anyhow, my mistake, and one that has cost $650 with taxes and faster shipping ($25). But, it might be that I'm already in a bad mood, but working with support on this has been the first time I've been irritated with Ting. They've asked for my ESN for my new phone twice despite me giving them my order number (e.g. I don't have the new phone -- so I don't have the ESN, its in Ting's warehouse somewhere ready to ship) -- this is my own pet peeve, but I can't stand it when people don't read your email/message.
I would suggest the following things:
Ben Smith,
The dashboard idea sounds good, but I am not sure Ting is ready for that yet. Currently, we still need to call Ting support to have a Ting number ported to another device. When I had one of my numbers ported, I had the support person go ahead and remove the old device from my account. In my case, I want to sell the old Ting device.
Hi Ben,
I'm so sorry to hear about your phone. I can only imagine how tough its been.
My apologies too if your interactions with us in any way added to your frustration.
I really like where your thinking is at in terms of making this process easier all around. As Ben mentioned earlier in this thread, returns/repairs represent some of the most complex logistics of any of the stuff that we're handling at Ting.
Can I ask, did you try calling Samsung directly during this, and have you asked if they could help?
In situations like this, there is of course always the small third-party cell phone shop you can turn to, but Samsung may have been willing to take it as well.
I wish that there would have been more that we could have done here, however, we're not quite at this point yet.
Hi Ben,
I looked into this more, and found that you should be able to send the phone to Samsung directly for repairs. This may not be as speedy as what you're talking about, and I'm sure it will cost quite a bit, but it is an option to you.
While I understand you've ordered another, you may be able to repair the damaged found and then either gift it or sell it potentially.
Thanks Rob for looking into that; I'll see what it costs and maybe one of my friends wants an upgrade if it is priced below the cost of the phone. Unfortunately for me, I'll need to wait for the new phone to pursue this as I get "Please call 888-987-HELP to send in your product for repair" when due to my zip code. This sort of leads to the answer to the small third party shop issue; I live in the sticks, I'm about 250 miles from super major city, there is no 3rd party shop.
I second and third all of this, I received a new phone from Ting (Kyocera Rise) only to find it was defective out of the box. I was told it will be 3 days till I get a new one shipped to me. When there is a mistake on Ting's end (sending me a broken phone) Ting needs to move heaven and earth to get a new, working phone out as soon as possible. I was told I will have a new phone in three days, however, I highly doubt that will happen. To be 3-5 plus without a phone in this day and age is asking a lot.
Hi Jason,
I'm so sorry you were sent a defective phone!
I can see that you spoke with Isabelle about this, and she's about to provide you with an update letting you know that we're going to get that phone to you as quickly as we can.
Thank you as well for your feedback regarding the default shipping options for defective phones. We'll definitely take it into consideration.
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