Monday, April 9, 2007

Scenes from a mall

(I apologize to you all for these being the ONLY pictures taken on this whirlwind visit!)
The weekend started off with my best friend, Robin and her girls bringing back the Boyscout from Chattanooga. The next morning, we headed for the mall, which you all know is NOT my favorite place. It rates right up there with getting a root canal, but anyway…… After walking around for an hour or so we decided to find some place that had caffeine. Lo and behold, Tmobile was right there. Now, Robin had the whole prepay plan, but with her father-in-law back and forth in the hospital, she was putting more and more minutes on her phone and could have bought one twice by the end of the month. We head in the direction of the phones. And after looking a bit, we were greeted by a young man, Brian, who sounded like Matthew McConaughey, soft, sweet and southern. See the resemblance? He was very polite, kind, knowledgeable and gracious. (Also, I found out later we attended the same church. Well, in a congregation of 8,500, you MIGHT miss seeing someone.)
It wasn’t long before he was showing her the phones that came free with the two-year contract, and the phones she could co-pay with. But Robin had her reservations about the whole two-year thing. She had just started as a new college teacher, incurring another debt wasn’t something she was happy about. I don’t blame her. I almost break out in hives when I make a major purchase, unless it’s fabric or something like that.
She must have talked to him for 45 minutes, then to his assistant manager, Ehren. (Pronounced: Aaron) Yep, that’s how he spelled it. He definitely was comic relief as seen in this picture. He knew his stuff, and was very gracious.
Brian went on break after we walked away to think about it. Thinking about it entailed talking to me, her husband, and her kids. She had to see if downgrading her home phone package would be beneficial to make up the cost. After about 25 minutes of working on that, we were back at the booth, now on a first name basis with the guys that worked there. The bottom line was that we had to get the exact price, taxes and all, before she would sign up. We even asked if Brian could come back, since he had worked so hard to answer some of our obnoxious questions, and done so with such a sweet attitude. You know, he cut his break short, and even went to another Tmobile site, (located at the other end of the mall) to get the exact phone she wanted.(Apparently, they were out of the color she wanted for the style she picked out.) Brian must've sprinted because he wasn't gone long at all.
I just took all this in. My buddy is definitely thorough, even if it annoys the heck out of the rest of us. But we love her!
Truly, these guys could have been rude to us, and blown us off when we walked away the first time. But they didn’t. They were some of the few examples of real customer service I’ve seen in a real long time. By the way, Ehren told us we were definitely the customers of the week!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well said...except for that "annoying" comment. Thorough yes, but never, ever annoying...ever...except on rare occasion when it's warranted.
The entire T-Mobile staff was helpful, tolerant, and more than willing to get into the fun of the event. And yes, for me it was an event. I hate committing to debt. It was a great weekend and I thank you for being there to share it with me and commemorate the occasion.
Love ya, R

Anonymous said...

YES, HIGHLY ANNOYING !!! I should know; I live with her. ;-)♥
deadgirlfor7