I bought an iPad a few weeks ago and I love it.

I decided to get myself an O2 PAYG microsim – because they are the only operator offering pay as you go in the UK – hats off to them for offering something different and not following the others by demanding monthly payments.

So – off I go to the O2 page, order my sim and guess what…

Do you know what, actually it’s not… 14 days! Clearly they are embarrassed about the length of time it’s going to take to arrive – due to the statement above. As it happens I reckon it’s been at least 3 weeks since I ordered it – but that’s another debate.

For me, I’d like to ask

“Why?”

Why on earth can sending a sim card possibly take so long? I could have used it say 5 times in that period of time and generated £10 for them. Multiply that by the 1000’s of people who are also ordering but factor out the 1000’s of others who are probably ordering sims from other operators because they can’t be bothered to wait.

The reason for the 14 days I suspect is simple – the corporate ordering systems JUST TAKE THAT LONG. It takes that long because it does and guess what, no one has thought to ask why?

It would be cheaper, more efficient and speedier to hire a team to receive the orders, stuff envelopes and deliver sims within 48 hours. Customers could start using the sim quickly, which in turn would pay for this extra labour… but no one has thought to have done that, because that’s not the way it’s done. Why?

Don’t accept the norm. Don’t accept the answer “Because it’s always been done that way”. Question… ask why? and then do things differently. It’s the only way to get noticed.