Hi guys.

Ever since Telecom has rebranded itself to "Spark" it's more like "Wet spark".
When all was still Telecom, it was okay.

 

It just goes to show that a name change, to try and make younger users try to forget about a monopoly past doesn't solve anything, unless things operate differently, something that I think is not.



Internet has had intermittent issues, and although it hasn't been a big issue, apart from buffering issues. (Something I've never had before), the spark supplied DNS servers tend to be rusty at times.

At the time of posting, the internet is working fairly decently, so that's not the reason why I"m complaining. 

My real issue is with the useless customer service.

My Father's current old smartphone, that I originally ordered from the US for him from Ebay is finally dying, and instead of wasting the time to fix it for now, I convinced him to order a new one from Spark.
Both of us share the responsibilities of our phone account he pays the bills, I pay what's due on the mobile, and ensure everything is working, so he has added me as a authority person on his account.

I ordered the S4 Advanced LTE on Telecom's website, on a $69 per month, 24 month contract as the handset was free on and once it was all filled out, I thought that was the end of that but when I logged on Spark's website, the following afternoon to see if there had been process nothing had changed, nothing had been added to the phone bill, and then since I have 3 Email addresses somehow linked up to the same account, I checked all three of them, nothing initially, I contacted Spark via their live chat, and I asked for an update, then the person said "Didn't I get the the email, it is out of stock", I said there was no email, and I ended the chat, as I wanted to investigate further, it was only a few hours ago, did I manage to find it. It had been intercepted via outlook, on the email address it wasn't supposed to go to. MySpark was setup, to log in via my hotmail, amd all the bill payment emails are there, so I thought the Spark customer service email would go there too, and I didn't expect it to arrive on the older original Xtra email address, maybe I added that email address, but I'm not sure.

Anyway this is the email we recieved.

 

 

 

 

Hi Andrew,

 

Thanks for ordering a new Galaxy S4 LTE Advanced Black Mist.

 

Unfortunately we’ve run out of stock. But don’t worry - we’re expecting more to arrive on {DUE_DATE}.

 

We’re really sorry about the it. We’ll send your order out as soon as the new stock gets here, or if it’s easier we can cancel it and you can buy one directly from a Spark store that still has stock available.

 

Kind regards,

Cherille
Service Co-ordinator

Unless "DUE_DATE" is a new numeric method, I have no idea what that means, and it seems like this was copied and pasted from a standard template/response.
I'm also furious, that we didn't get the option to pick it up in store, as I know The Spark Westcity store has plenty, and we should be able to have the choice to pick it up after the online transaction has been completed, something we couldn't do, I've applied for countless Telecom (at the time) jobs, and I have always been rejected, at least I wouldn't make mistakes like that.



If someone can get back to me, that would be great. 

Thanks...