I have often wondered why businesses use Twitter and Facebook to provide support for the services they offer. Whilst I think it can be handy, the unfortunate thing is that everyone can see the issues all day long. They can see what others are experiencing and why they should use or not use the service.
Today I decided to check the keyword “Kogan Mobile” out on my Twitter feed. Kogan Mobile has received so much air play so far that they hardly need to promote the service. One of the problems with this success is how to handle the customer support. Initially there was rumours of two week delays on sim cards over Xmas, then today I decided to check out Twitter and saw a whole heap of complaints. Mind you there where some compliments as well and Kogan staff trying to get to everyone they could.
The challenge seems to be stemming from being far too popular and Telstra Wholesale not keeping up with the requests to port from competitors to them. See this link that was issued recently. In fact Kogan has been emailing this to customers to support the delays they have been experiencing. Unfortunately blaming Telstra does not help anyone out.
http://www.telstrawholesale.com.au/products/mobile/mobile-service-status/index.htm
Pre-Paid Mobile Service Status
SERVICE UPDATE: [17/01/2013] [12:25 PM AEST]Some pre-paid mobile end users may be experiencing delays with SIM card swaps and in porting their service to a service provider using the Telstra Wholesale pre-paid mobile platform.
Telstra is working to resolve these issues as soon as possible.
Service providers are receiving regular updates on progress to return the service to normal as soon as possible.
If you take a look at the Twitter feed you can feel the frustration that so many are experiencing. Delays of more than a week. Promises of call backs. Issues in porting due to mistaken numbers and DOB. I am sure the issues are no different to that experienced by every other Telco out there, but this Telco is just one month old and the promise of best value has been diluted by a crappy first experience.
They “Kogan” will get on top of it when Telstra do, until then it might pay to stick with what you have for a few more months until it all settles down.
