Yesterday, I received a call from Don Gibson, Director of Sales for nTelos. He had read my blog entry detailing my odd episode with an nTelos retail manager that ultimately drove me to the competition. I had a very pleasant and informative chat with Don and I think we both concluded with a better understanding of each other.
First, Don apologized on behalf of nTelos. Then he made it clear that he was calling just to discuss my experience, not to win me back as an nTelos customer. Then he apologized several more times, to the point where I found it a little awkward. For the record, the only reason I blogged about the incident in the first place was just to start a conversation about the implementation of senseless and annoying business policies, so receiving this call was quite a pleasant surprise.
We spoke for over twenty minutes, and in the course of that call, Don explained nTelos’ policies regarding the use of personal identification and their need to follow federal regulations. He also offered that, given the circumstances as I described them, there were many ways my request could have been better handled. As he noted, I was a long-time customer who always paid my bills on time and there was nothing on my account to raise any alarms. He actually repeated what I had mentioned in my blog entry: all my information was in their system. The manager could have asked me to confirm my address, my home or work phone numbers, my wife’s name (we had two phones on the same account), or a myriad of other questions to verify that I was who I claimed to be. Any of those, along with my state-issued staff photo ID, should have sufficed. If the manager still had a problem, or if he needed a clarification of the policy, he could have called the home office and allowed me to speak to a higher-up, or even asked for an exception. All of those options were available to the manager, but instead of exercising them, he allowed me to just walk out of the store without a new phone.
(Please note that I did not storm out. There was no yelling or waving of arms involved. I mention this only because some of the comments attached to my original post leave the impression that I must be a raving idiot. Really, I almost never am.)
Don then thanked me for the opportunity to provide more training to their retail staff concerning nTelos’ policies. Yes, I know, he’s the Director of Sales, it’s his job to put a positive spin on things, but I believe he was sincere. He also said that they would examine and possibly modify their policies, particularly when he learned that their one of their competitors happily took my UVA staff ID to start a new account. He explained that they have policies against using student IDs, and that might now need clarification.
He concluded by giving me his contact information and letting me know that if I ever needed anything in the future, or if I was willing to return to nTelos as a customer, I just had to give him a call.
Overall, this was a surprisingly positive experience. And after his call, I actually do feel a little torn. I was happy to stand by local provider nTelos for many years, even as they experienced growing pains and even as their service was sometimes spotty. But competition is healthy, and I think it’s a good thing to try the other guys for awhile; however, the door has definitely been opened for me to return to nTelos some day.
Their are really two tracks to this tale. In addition to my experience in the store, there has also been the experience of blogging about it and watching the comments roll in. I’ve been at this long enough that I probably shouldn’t be surprised any more at the number of people who take the time to post a comment pointing out how much of their time I am wasting even writing about this, but it still amuses me. I am also once again impressed by the power of blogs. A generation ago (I come from a long line of malcontents), one would have to type letters on carbon paper to vendors, wait several weeks, then write again “in re: my letter of last month”. Sometimes one would got a reply and satisfaction, most often neither would be received. In contrast, I spent a few minutes typing up a conversation on my website and within hours I get emails and comments from perfect strangers calling into question my sanity and parenting skills, but I also received a phone call from the amiable and apologetic Don Gibson. It’s a new way of communicating, and I am encouraged to see businesses like nTelos responding so positively.