As usual when I contact any service provider I start off with the assumption that as they want us to use their websites more they will of course work properly. I am usually very disappointed in this assumption but it doesn’t stop me. Hope springs eternal in my breast…
I ordered a new mobile phone for Mater for Mother’s Day. An all singing, all dancing modern one! A Huawei 2019. The Chinese can listen into my mother all they want. It will only confuse them and set back international understanding decades. It will also teach them very idiomatic, scouse English. I did it online via EE’s website. I’m already paying for her Nokia Sh*te, a phone of little intrinsic value or use. It is too small for her to use, doesn’t take photos or connect to the internet but apart from that ok. It had also recently broken/refused to work/taken its ball home/user error – take your pick. Mater was involved – it could be any of the above or a mixture.
It arrived the day after Mother’s Day but didn’t come with a new sim card which I thought strange. The lockdown had been announced so when I tried to phone to request a new sim card I was put on hold for 45 minutes and as I was being constantly asked to go to the website to see if the answer was there, I did. This was a mistake as I now acknowledge. I found the appropriate page on the website and ordered the new sim card. I then received an email confirming the order and that the sim card would be sent out in 2 working days. So I waited…
When it hadn’t arrived after a week and constant nagging by Mater I phoned EE.! She was like a bird in captivity that only knows one phrase “Where’s my phone! Where’s my phone!” So I gave in. After 37 minutes I finally spoke to a real person; a very nice lady from Middlesborough. I explained the situation and was told that the sim card hadn’t been sent because they couldn’t marry up the addresses from the account to the ordering address DESPITE THE FACT THAT THEY WERE THE SAME! So to remedy this the boffins in the back room had sent a text to the phone. The same phone that needed a sim card!! The Brains Trust were obviously exhausted after all their good work and had retired for a lie down in a darkened corner with a damp cloth over their foreheads, in order to save their genius for the next problem.
Anyway the nice lady and myself had a little laugh about this as we sorted out a replacement sim card and a little refund for my trouble. So the moral of this story is: don’t use the website! Grit your teeth and phone up. Despite the time on the phone speaking to a real person will always work out better.
P.S. The sim card arrived the next day! I’m now trapped teaching Mater how to text…