Happy Holidays From Wirefly

Since I get to hear so many reader complaints about different vendors, you might figure I’d personally know which companies to avoid. Much of the time that’s true, but a few months ago I went against Gripe Line wisdom by ordering cell phone service though Wirefly.com. And it’s a mistake I’m still paying for it.

As I live in a rather remote area, I didn’t have many choices when I was looking for new cell phones and a service provider. Cingular and Verizon are the only ones that have reasonable cellular coverage around here, and — given that Verizon was a close contender for my Worst Vendor of 2006 award — that meant my only real choice was Cingular. But there were a few deals on phones, and on Wirefly I found one what looked like the best one, in that it would save me $50 over what I’d pay ordering from Cingular directly.

Now, I was well aware that Wirefly/InPhonics has a horrible reputation in terms of not paying off on its rebate offers. But the deal I’d found didn’t involve a rebate, and once the phones arrived I’d really just be dealing with Cingular anyway, so I decided there was no reason not to save a few bucks by going with Wirefly. On February 7th, I put in the order. A little over a week later, the phones arrived and everything worked fine, so I congratulated myself on having gotten a bit of a bargain.

There was just one small problem. A few days before the cell phones arrived, I got a strange phone call on my landline home phone. It was a nearly incomprehensible canned message from a female with a heavy East Asian accent. I could only make out a few words, but it sounded like it had something to do with Christmas. That seemed strange, since it was mid-February, but my wife shops with some pretty eclectic catalogs so I thought it might be a gift she’d bought that had gone astray. I tried copying down what sounded like an 800 number, but I got it wrong.

It turned out, however, that I would have all the chances in the world to decipher the phone number and the message correctly, because the calls kept coming. It wasn’t until after our new cell phones had arrived that I realized the 800 number was the same as Wirefly’s customer service number. And, after countless repetitions, I came to understand that the woman with the accent was saying: “Greetings, and happy holidays. In order to insure delivery by December 25th, we need to speak with you about your order for wireless service. If you prefer to call back later, you can call (the 800 number).”

If I preferred to talk to someone right away, however, staying on the line didn’t help as the call would just end. Calling Wirefly’s 800 number and entering my order code just got me referred to their www.whereismyorder.com website, and since my order had already arrived, that did no good either. Obviously, it was not going to be easy to get Wirefly to stop these purposeless phone calls.

Over the next few weeks I seemed to average one of the canned calls per day. Toward the end of February, I got an e-mail from Wirefly with a customer satisfaction survey. I used that as an opportunity to convey my distress over the barrage of phone calls, asking them to please stop it. I also went to their website and opted out in every way I could from further communications from Wirefly, although there didn’t seem to be any procedure for asking them to stop phoning. In fact, their privacy policy seemed to give them the right to keep harassing me as much as they wanted. (Remember, the Do Not Call list does not apply to a company you have a relationship with, so I couldn’t file a complaint on that score either.) I called the sales line as well so that I could speak to a human being, who after I explained the situation promised (in excellent English by the way – why didn’t Wirefly use her to record their canned messages?) that my home phone would not be called anymore.

And, for a while in early March, it seemed like something must have worked, because I went several weeks without any more phone calls. But then there was another flurry. The calls come in the morning, the afternoon, or the evening. (I guess I should be grateful that none have come in the middle of the night – they must at least track what time it is in my area code.) Then the calls would stop for a week or so before starting up again.

Frankly, I was a bit bemused by the whole thing, wondering just how long the calls would keep coming and whether they would continue to promise me delivery by Christmas. When they talk about Dec. 25th, which year do you suppose they have in mind? Perhaps their order fulfillment system was created by the same folks who do their rebates, which would mean it was designed on the assumption that the customer’s wait will be a matter of years, not weeks.

But on Monday, April 9th, I happened to be outside around noon and expecting a phone call related to this not-so-happy tax season. When the phone rang I had to dash to get it, only to hear “Greetings and happy holidays…” Enough, already. I called Wirefly again and this time refused to give my old order number until I got to speak to a customer service representative. Tracking by my home phone number, she found my records and promised (again in excellent English – it’s not that they don’t have anybody who could record a comprehensible message) that it wouldn’t happen again.

But, of course, the next day it did happen again. And the day after that. Will Wirefly stop calling me before it really is the next holiday season? I don’t know, but I do know one thing. It’s not going be worth the $50 I saved to find out when Wirefly will realize it really shoudn’t continue harrassing me with these calls. And next time I listen to what my readers are saying about a company before I do business with it.

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