It seems that this recent promo has resulted in a lot of comments on the forums, particulary about porting from one provider to another and other activation related issues. In regards to porting, many of the issues were related to the standard time it takes for a port to complete, in other cases there were actual port failures that needed to be addressed by PM.
I suggest that there be a progress indicator of some sort that indicates where in the port process you are and that this should be visible from your self serve account. In addition to this, it should give you a time estimate for when the process should be complete, automatically notifiy a MOD if there is an extended delay and indicate to the customer who was contacted and where in the queue of that MOD their issue is. Also if the error is the mismatched information provided by the customer, this could be requested as part of the process and the customer could easily refill the port form.
Something like:
____________________________________________________________
Estimated: 2.5 hours remaining
| \\\\\\\\\\\\Port Requested\\\\\\\\\\\\ | Matching Info | Wating for Company X |
Error: Cannot match to Company X's account. Please verify your Port information and re-submit.
___________________________________________________________
A similar progress indicator could be provided for future dated activations, for those switching plans.
I feel like a lot of stress, frustration, and tension could be allieviated just through transparency. The customer doesn't know what is going on behind the scenes and the immediate thought is that something has gone wrong, and no one is helping.
