There are currently 224 responses to “Customer Service Hell!! T-Mobile…Hot Spot? NOT!!!”

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1. 1 On June 19th, 2007, Glyn Simpson said:

   Sounds too familiar for many companies (even yours…), but you’ll have to verify the last four digits of your social to hear more ….

2. 2 On June 19th, 2007, Matt said:

   I would find the information verification very annoying, but I (in the slightest) understand it. It is all to prevent fraud and such. Although, if you get it through once, nothing is holding you back from doing it time and time again.

   Sometimes, support doesn’t do anything.

3. 3 On June 19th, 2007, Csa819 said:

   Ok, In today’s age of information, I cannot understand why I need to repeat the same info more than once, but here it is… every time you get transferred to a different service rep, you often wind up talking to a different call center, sometimes a different company- sucks but it’s the way it is… ust be glad it ain’t going to the punjab region.
   you won’t find a more service oriented wireless company, so call back and bitch a major bitch, tell’em you’re going to switch to an iphone….$$$$off your bill

4. 4 On June 19th, 2007, Ruari said:

   Unfortunately I’m coming across this more and more, we even have someone that drives a site to help curve this. http://www.hellopeter.com
   I have personally experienced such service when I last bought a new car (Also my first & last new car). The problem is that as much as we grow great technologies, we also make it easier to disconnect those responsible from a feeling of responsibility. “Out Source Hell” if you wanna call it that. People need to rediscover a sense of ownership… just another challenge we have created in our oversight to ultimate productivity.

5. 5 On June 19th, 2007, Deirdré Straughan said:

   You might take some comfort in the fact that you don’t have to deal with Telecom Italia, who are almost a monopoly ISP in Italy (and the rest are just as bad…). This: http://www.beginningwithi.com/italy/living/telecom.html illustrates, perhaps, why even AT&T decided not to buy them.

6. 6 On June 19th, 2007, Montreal Gazette said:

   […] friends down south seem to have the same frustrations with customer service as we do. Just read this account of a T-Mobile customer trying to get support for a simple problem. It almost seems like the help […]

7. 7 On June 19th, 2007, Dave said:

   I am in Canada, however, crappy customer service is universal.

   I have worked in a call center and the issues in my opinion are as follows:

   provider outsources their customer service to cut costs

   outsourcer sets up contracts with provider that they are paid based on # of calls vs resolution of calls

   Hires agents at minimum wage, provides minimum training and wants agents to churn as many call as possible per hour

   create a team called supervisors, they are agents with generally same powers as front line agents

   Provider like T Mobile know the grass sucks on the other side, in your case AT&T and create a situation where customers do not call in anymore

   This is the same situation with almost all telco’s selling consumer service and will not change until the the telco’s have the same type of situation as Dell where they loose market share.

   This is all based on companies running their business on metrics and not looking at the details.

   The example of Dell is real, they spent $ 300 M to improve their customer service after loosing their number 1 position to HP and fired a CEO that looks at metrics and is too far removed from customers to know the reality.

   maybe some day, one of the telco’s will break the mold and take a proactive stance in customer service.

   They are all like sheep and follow each other instead of looking at customer service as a ” marketing advantage”.

   Dave

8. 8 On June 19th, 2007, mj said:

   sounds like a very similar situation, not limited to wireless of course. my personal horror story is with citibank, whose call centers are all in india as far as i can tell. i have never in my life met an indian person named loraine, but apparantly citibank can find all of them!

9. 9 On June 19th, 2007, John Baker said:

   I’m not in the least bit surprised by any of this. Ringing support at any of these companies is an act of desperation, at least an act of last resort.
   You will almost always be connecting yourself to the least paid and the most junior person in the organization. Or more often than not you will be connecting yourself to someone, similarly, badly paid, who has nothing to do with the organization who supply the product or service for which you need support.
   (lack of) Support stories are legion in modern technology. Whatever happened to you, someone else will be able to cap it.
   But keep them coming. This one, in particular, was great. I’m gonna link to it.

10. 10 On June 19th, 2007, Marcus said:

    I have to say that I am somewhat surprised by these posts…just in case, no, I am not working for or getting paid by T-Mobile…LOL

    We have about 15 T-Mobile MDA’s in the company and I also have a personal pocket pc with a T-Mobile SIM in it, and in my 15 years as a T-Mobile customer (10 thereof overseas) I have yet to have a bad experience with customer support.

    I agree with the comments about the account verification and all that nonsense…it just gets old after a while…more of a problem with their help desk system than anything else.

    As for the service, I just spoke to them yesterday to get a SIM unlock for an employee going to Europe. Was no problem at all, got help in a very professional and courteous way and this morning the phone was unlocked. While I was on the phone I had some specific questions about GPRS roaming fees, and even that the rep did not have the answer, after a 20 second hold time she got the answer for me from a peer.

    Past calls included a phone exchange after the standard 30 days which was no problem and billing inquiries, which always were being taken care of instantly. One thing I really have to say about T-Mobile (Had Verizon for our work phones before, which was a completely different story) is that I can not remember ever being on hold waiting for a rep for more than a minute.

    Not that I discount any of the bad experiences above, just wanted to share some positive T-Mobile experiences as well.

11. 11 On June 19th, 2007, Heather said:

    I recently switched from the major carriers to Consumer Cellular https://secure.consumercellular.com/pw/
    So far I’ve been very happy with thier service, both in terms of coverage ( haven’t had a single dropped call, great reception etc.) and customer service. They are headquartered in Portland, OR and are a reseller of cellular services.
    No contracts, low rates, great coverage, and a real focus on customer service.
    One drawback is the small selection of phones. I hope they add more in the near future. Although you can always buy an unlocked phone.

12. 12 On June 19th, 2007, Chuck Boyce said:

    two words:

    sprint
    dell

    I have no idea how Sprint stays in biz. I was in a Sprint store in the West Village in NYC and the store employee had to wait on hold for 30 minutes to get internal support to complete my sale. Mind numbing.

    Chuck
    ASKaSQLGURU.com

13. 13 On June 19th, 2007, Kevin said:

    It seems like I might have had a similar issue with my dash. I sync with our company’s exchange box and I realized the net and sync had stopped working when I had gotten home. The next day I checked at work and it was working just fine. I called T-mobile and (yeah it took a couple of calls) and we narrowed it down to an issue with the dash and the tower that serviced my house. (I did a bit of troubleshooting for them before i called, put my sim in a unlocked nokia and was able to surf the web just fine from my house, reflashed the dash to WM5 and back to WM6 and other fun stuff). After I got through to the advanced support they worked their magic on the tower and havent had a problem since.

    On the other carriers, I have used the old AT&T, Verizon and Nextel (who i guess is now sprint) and T-mobile has by far the best customer care. Don’t switch, you’ll be witting a new blog in a few months about how you are locked in to a new contract with a even worse provider.

14. 14 On June 19th, 2007, Dave said:

    I think this is a prime example of what kind of consumer the American public has become. First, we complain that prices are too high, so companies find ways to cut costs, (usually in customer service). Then we complain that customer service sucks (even though we are unwilling to pay extra for it). It is really sad. I am sorry for your customer service nightmare. All I can say is lower your expectations…it is not going to get any better.

15. 15 On June 19th, 2007, skoon said:

    So the real question here is: Are the other service providers any better or are they worse?

    Helio? Cingluar?

16. 16 On June 19th, 2007, Tino said:

    I’ve had generally good experience with T-Mobile service over about ten years.

    Once, though, I got a new phone from them and found that the screen didn’t light properly. I called, and was told that this was entirely my problem. After a bit of arguing and explanation that they were not allowed to disclaim the implied warranty of merchantability in my state — initially they said that I would have to send the thing to Motorola to be repaired, even though it was defective when sold by T-Mobile — they agreed to exchange the phone. It was explained that they’d charge me for this replacement phone, and credit my account when they got the old phone back. This is dumb, but it’s fairly standard procedure.

    I got the new phone, and it worked, and I sent back the old one. DHL reported that it had been delivered, but either T-Mobile lost it or they failed to credit me. I called them, and they verified that the phone had been delivered (on their nickel), apologized, promised to make everything right, and told me not to pay the charge for the phone.

    Of course, they didn’t credit me, and about a week after I’d paid my bill minus the charge for the phone, their collections department started calling. I told them that the debt wasn’t valid, gave them the ticket number, etc., etc., but they didn’t care. They continued to call and abuse me several times a day.

    Eventually everything was sorted out as it should have been, but I calculated that it had taken about 12 hours of my time to get a defective phone replaced.

17. 17 On June 19th, 2007, Cybrid said:

    Having once interviewed for Telus. I have to say, Sean isn’t being entirely fair. Imagine cubicle hell with no way of internally communicating with other reps other than by phone. So you put the customer on hold, ring “tech support” and wait for the guy to come on. You quickly brief him and transfer the call. You’re being metered. Avg length of call X Hours = target. If your # is low, you get the “performance enhancement” spiel.
    Tech support takes the call but due to easy, scripted, prompt by prompt software needs to verify you again. CS could provide the data but that could lead to customer on hold + lower metering for both (They’re on the phone to each other). Also potential privacy breaches. Tech begins to troubleshoot for Sean whereas CS just transferred Jane.

    Where he’s spot on is the real lack of technical know-how.
    My amusing story;
    A Telus tech support guy, when I asked for additional info on the phone, couldn’t get the phone emulator/flowchart to work. He ended up running to their real IT dept. where he borrowed their test bed device to troubleshoot with me.
    # of phone models past and present x # of CS reps=!possible.
    You’d have to rely on emulators, manuals,etc…which is no substitute for hands-on experience but can solve the 90% of calls like “how do I email the internet?” and “how do I look up my own cellphone #?”

    Sean, You should be smart enough to do some basic troubleshooting on his own. With some verifiable results…and patience, you’d get further.

18. 18 On June 19th, 2007, Sean ODriscoll said:

    believe me…I did A LOT of troubleshooting on my own, including with some friends who are mobile experts. No luck. I don’t blame Tmobile for any of that time…that was my choice. my issue is with the process and empowerment.

    sean

19. 19 On June 19th, 2007, Sean ODriscoll said:

    You’re far more patient than I am.

20. 20 On June 19th, 2007, leandroo said:

    2 thoughts:

    1 It looks like they made a Master degree @ our “world class schools” in Argentina they are “better” … welcome!!

    2 “sometimes I think about quitting.” Did you carge her for the session??
    At least, you can switch…. in our lands there is when the problem really starts.

21. 21 On June 19th, 2007, Abby R said:

    This EXACTLY why I never signed up with T-Mobile (or any other carrier except for Verizon though i’ve had my fair share of dispairs with them as well). It’s sad that the saying “the customer is always right” (which could also be translated to “taking care of the customer” is just a distant memory of yesteryears…..of times gone by….of paradise lost….(you get my drift here). Sigh……

22. 22 On June 19th, 2007, Jim Gordon said:

    T-Mobile Cust Svc is magically wonderful compared to Cingular / AT&T. I had to hire a lawyer to get Cingular to correct their billing mistakes of over $2,000 per month on my bill. It does seem that T-mobile routes CS calls differently each time you call. I’ve used that to my advantage by not waiting on hold but calling back and sometimes landing upon someone who actually knows how fix what ails my phone.

23. 23 On June 19th, 2007, Top Posts « WordPress.com said:

    […] Customer Service Hell!! T-Mobile…Hot Spot? NOT!!!  [image]  “Stick Together” - The Irony is coming - read on!! I can’t believe it!!!  Over the past […] […]

24. 24 On June 19th, 2007, cenourinha said:

    What you need is Cingular…

25. 25 On June 19th, 2007, Rosewood said:

    Dude, you are an idiot. They have to verify your information because you would write an equally stupid article if people could just call in and have access to the account. Also, each time you are transfered, do you think there is some magic fairy that passes your information on?

    A few quick google searches could have solved this problem real quick for you. Also, if you would have taken a second and asked for the direct number for PDA support, you could have just contacted them directly.

    Now I know that it is idiots like you who are clogging up the hold times when someone with a real issue needs support.

    PS - Call VZW / Sprint and see if it gets any better for you.

26. 26 On June 19th, 2007, Mobile Technology in TAFE » Blog Archive » Why Collaborate? said:

    […] with customers who are part of the global community and who will express their feelings.  If your product/service has let a customer down as badly as T-Mobile; it is time to make important […]

27. 27 On June 19th, 2007, Susan said:

    Oh dude. This is way too familiar. After signing up for T-Mobile, I could never get more than 1 bar of service. It was a nightmare, and I had flashbacks reading this.

    Awful service, nightmare customer service.

    The only thing that’s rivaled it for me so far is DirecTV. But that’s a whole other sack of potatoes.

28. 28 On June 19th, 2007, Sean said:

    Rosewood…you should work in customer service:)

29. 29 On June 19th, 2007, Steven Chalker said:

    I fell for the T-Mobile scam and too had the same problem happen with the V330 and with the fact that it couldn’t contract a damn signal! Since I have two more years on a contract agreement I am not able to cancel or I have to pay hundreds of dollars.

30. 30 On June 19th, 2007, James said:

    You sound like a whiny bitch. If it was that important you could have gone and bought a new phone.

31. 31 On June 19th, 2007, Max Maloney said:

    I too have found T-Mobile to be far better than most big companies and particularly mobile carriers. Big companies with massive support phone banks just suck to deal with. Your story isn’t really that bad. If you don’t have time to deal with it and miss a lot of calls back from support, you will always have this problem… whether it’s fair or not.

32. 32 On June 19th, 2007, opsknight said:

    I guess you have never worked for a service center. Veryfing your name , SSN, and your mobile number is usually required of the agent for quality assurance purposes. They do this for their protection and yours, you should be thankful they ask, i get concerend when they dont ask.

    TMO easily has the best customer care of any of the carriers. They may not be able to fix everything, but you will get that no matter who you are dealing with.

33. 33 On June 19th, 2007, Andrew said:

    I have had T-mobile for while after first having AT&T Wireless before they were bought by the unhelpful Cingular.

    So I have not had a problem with T-Mobile until now. Every time I called customer care they have been great.

    Now my recent problem is I moved. I moved to an area despite what T-Mobile service says does not have coverage. Well, I sort of have coverage…if I am outside and the ear I have my phone in is facing the South then I can sometimes get one bar.

    So I called T-Mobile and they asked me to do a couple of things, which I did and it still did not help. They said they would escalate this to their engineering folks. Well a few days after they “escalated” it I hear back from them basically saying “tough luck” our maps show we have coverage and our engineers say there is no problem.

    My response “have them come out here and show me that there is coverage” I asked them to investigate how many dropped calls I have had…and that is sort of where I am at.

    They say I cannot get out of the contract because their maps say I have coverage.

    I too felt that these folks were not empowered to do anything. Back a year or so ago, I think they were much better.

34. 34 On June 19th, 2007, Tech Support Emp said:

    Don’t you find it annoying to give your email address in order to offer a comment, too? Anyway.

    I work for a company in similar conditions, as far as trouble resolution goes and working conditions. I can either solve your problem, or I can’t, and there’s no way you can break through that simple fact. It helps that most of our customer issues are user error. However, you made a few mistakes that someone from the “inside” of a similar company can point out to you.

    They gave you the ticket number. Good, nice and professional, leaves you feeling all fuzzy that you can cut to the chase. Did you ask if there was a way to shortcut through the normal processes? Sometimes, if the rep finds you agreeable to work with and honestly wants to help you, they’ll slip you the all-important callback number IF YOU ASK, and it will skip a department or two. Honor their trust, though, and don’t give it out. Otherwise it will have to be changed, and nobody likes that.

    The second mistake I can see was not keeping on them. Most companies have lighter rules for customers, but they can’t just leave a ticket open forever. For example, we’ll leave your ticket open for three days. Tops. Then we’re considering it fixed. You HAVE to keep on it, or it’s assumed to be fixed, or you don’t care. If possible, resolve it on the first call, come hell or high water. Try to make sure that if it isn’t fixed on the first call, THEY initiate the end of the call, not you. I have to say from personal experience, I hate the “I don’t have time for this” crowd. But to put it in perspective, part of my responsibilities is escalating issues that are outside of our network to NOCs in other companies. Generally, those companies will close your ticket in 24 hours and makes you start from scratch if you miss by even a minute. Customer service is being nice to you, comparably.

    As far as verification, explain that you’re not comfortable giving your SSN and is there anything else you can use? Some places will be understanding of this and let you use a mother’s maiden name instead. All you have to do is ask. But on the IVR passing your phone number and such on to the rep? Generally, all they have to identify you by is some code coming up on two line, 40 character LCD screen of their cheap-o phone. Could be as simple as “Support” or “Sales”. The technology is there. The willingness to adopt is not. And CID simply can’t be trusted. All too easy to fake.

    The only other thing I can offer you is DO NOT be the cowboy. If you were to call into our company for support, and I hear the words “I already tried that” without any willingness to work with me? You are going to pay for that. I will make things difficult for you, and stay within guidelines to make it utterly unpunishable. You’re calling into a company and asking for help. Don’t say “I don’t want to” when they ask you to try something, unless it is horribly unreasonable. And I do mean completely and totally unreasonable, not simply “unpleasant”. If they say unplug it for two minutes then by God unplug it and cooperate, it’s two bloody minutes. If you’re not willing to listen, why call in the first place?

35. 35 On June 19th, 2007, Martin said:

    Sorry to say this but you sound like an as***ole. The reason she didnt care about you as a customer is because you can bring your problems to some other carrier.

    “Dude, you are an idiot. They have to verify your information because you would write an equally stupid article if people could just call in and have access to the account. Also, each time you are transfered, do you think there is some magic fairy that passes your information on?”

    i agree 100%, i work in costumer service and their is a very fine line that has to be walked between getting your ass fired and treating you costumer like hes worth something. Sometimes people are so pompous and full of themselves when they really have no argument whatsoever. You did seem to have some problem, but there is an order that has to be followed. Now imagine if the guy didn’t ask for your number or social, would you like for something worse to happen?

36. 36 On June 19th, 2007, Thayne said:

    I’ve never had a problem with tmobile support. Everytime i’ve called they have taken care of the problem right away and have always been friendly. From my experience they are waaayyyy better than nextel or ATT.

37. 37 On June 19th, 2007, wtf said:

    Jesus Christ, stop getting so pissed that you have to verify your information. It’s not like all the reps are sitting in a room together and know the information of the caller that everyone is talking to. Give them a fucking break, it’s a service through the phone. If you’re having a technical problem just take it to the store and request repair/replacement since it’s still under warranty. Quit bitching about verification and get on with it. You made the situation worse than it had to be by getting yourself pissed off.

38. 38 On June 19th, 2007, joe krivak said:

    if this phone is soooooo important to you then y did u piss around soo much with getting it fixed??? people at t-mobile are taking care of more people than you. u help them out they help you out. think about it

39. 39 On June 19th, 2007, Harold said:

    Man, you sound like a twat.
    I work in a customer service center and if you think that the reps know all of your information just by hearing your voice, I want some of whatever you’re smoking.

    T-Mobile reps have by far been the friendliest and most helpful ones I’ve dealt with. You seem like the kind of asshole that thinks reps aren’t people and their sole purpose in life is to make you happy. They’re not psychics, they’re people and they deserve respect. In one part of the call, you’re just blatantly refusing to go along with a process that will help the procedure go smoother.

    You’re a total douche.

40. 40 On June 19th, 2007, Chuck Boyce said:

    What is up with all of this venom coming out in *SUPPORT* of bad customer service? Woah. Dude, if you are the unfortunate person working for souless company XYZ getting paid peanuts and you’re getting defensive because you’re hearing how customers without any free time truly feel when your company’s waste time we can’t spare while we endure bad customer service in the process - you are completely missing the point.

    I and I think most customers who’ve experienced DELL Hell, Sprint abuse, etc do not resent *YOU*. I’d guess most of us ultimately have sympathy for you. It’s the clueless companies that obviously have contempt for their companies that people are addressing.

    Chuck
    ASKaSQLGURU.com

41. 41 On June 19th, 2007, bryan erdmann said:

    waaaah. cellular service can’t be perfect everytime. try not relying so much on a shitty network. goto att or verizon. tmobile is not known for their data network. deal with it.

42. 42 On June 19th, 2007, Jeremy C. Joseph said:

    Ooooh lordy…don’t go with Cingular..I mean, AT & fucking T…..
    …they rebutted my Righteous Customer Rage too (RCR)

    …..”Why should I stay with you if youre just gonna waste my money and my time?”
    the CSR coldly replied: “That’s your option, sir”..

    (they took $700 of my money and said they were unable to return it because they had no record of the transaction even though THEY fucked up the charge……it took about 3+ weeks for my own bank to drop the pending charge, they STILL hadn’t figured it out.)

    Ps>Funny note….the CSR was the rudest of them all….

43. 43 On June 19th, 2007, Bob Kelsoe said:

    I really think you’re an idiot. They are doing the best you can. They have to verify the information, don’t like T-mobile? Quit, Who are you going to go to? Verizon? They’re not any better. I’ve had to deal with more bullshit with Verizon, 4 hrs I spent on the phone with them to get something taken care of. They were doing the best they could, I was doing all I could. No need to bitch at them. I’ve worked Help Desk for Bio-Tech Research Facilities. These idiots with Phds are no better.
    Sigh, this isn’t even worth my time. Don’t waste our time again by posting crap like this on Digg.

44. 44 On June 19th, 2007, darren said:

    Sounds EXACTLY like what Microsoft is doing to me right now in my quest to find out where my Vista Business DVD is from their http://www.powertogether.com/ website.

    I

45. 45 On June 19th, 2007, Tammy W said:

    Chuck,
    I’m also a service rep. We don’t get paid “peanuts”.. it’s actually one of the higher paying positions because you have to deal with cunts like this all day.

46. 46 On June 19th, 2007, uhh.. said:

    uhh…o.k. thanks for all the customer service reps puttin in there two cents on why they dont suck, and that makes it o.k. to not fix the problem..I am always very nice to anyone on the phone..its only when i have done the same troubleshooting ten times, that I get annoyed, and I feel necessary to explain..uhh hey…its been done before, can we skip to the next step. Why, as a customer, shouldn’t I expect to get the problem resolved a little bit quicker. Yes sir/maam, i have tried that numerous times. Yes I realize there are numbnuts out there that forget to press the power button, plug in electronic device/add batteries…that is not the case…for the 10th time. Please can we move onto another to resolve this problem. I see no problem in that..I just get really frustrated with the lack of training in the support center. Such as dell support…uhhh..sir you need to reformat your harddrive….uhhhh…no, after searching on your own forums, found that it was a driver that the machine needed…but had to look online, not in dell tech forums, cause it wasn’t there, and found out was a somewhat known problem for my model…so…in what way should we trust you customer service reps, when you fail us, time and time again. back off this guy, he had a legit problem, and he got shoved into a corner. no need for some d#*ks in customer service to get all offended…I know that their is great customer service out there, and if asked, i will always give them glowing reviews. On the same side, there is some rather shitty customer service out there also.
    thanks, my 2 cents.

47. 47 On June 19th, 2007, NYOB said:

    You’re in Seattle. Go to Factoria to the T-Mobile Field Service Center, don’t leave until your problem is solved. It’s the big white building with the T-Mobile logo right above Factoria Mall.

    Customer Care is on the 7th Floor, engineering is in the building next door. There’s a store in the shopping center right below the building and the manager there can get you sorted.

48. 48 On June 19th, 2007, Kris said:

    Dear uhh..,
    you sound like a prick and as diluted as sean.
    my two cents.

49. 49 On June 19th, 2007, unoriginalname07 said:

    First off I have had bad experiences with T-mobile customer service, sometimes extremely bad, but I work in a field that makes me have to call T-mobile, Cingular/AT&T, and Sprint/Nextel customer service daily and I used to work for Verizon as a customer service representative so I can tell you with years of experience, T-mobile is as good as it gets right now! The reason for this I can understand in many ways.

    1. Customer Service Standards. When I started working for Verizon my previous work history was Krogers and Subway… Thats called Faking it till you make it! P.S. that was in fact a motto from our trainers at our call center back in 02′ LOL

    2. Safety scripts! The reason we ask you for your number and SSN is because A. We sometimes don’t have that information pop up on our screens, I guess the computers aren’t perfect like Dells. B. For your account safety! I can’t tell you how many times I was able to fuck with peoples accounts on Sprint and Cingular without so much more then a name and phone number lol. They are trained to verify everytime incase the last asshole you talked to didn’t and is letting someone not you mess with your money!

    3. Hold time? Try waiting almost 30 minutes everytime you call and end up getting an asshole that just mutes until you hang up or just straight up hangs up on you as soon as you are transferred!(Sprint Btw) In my experience almost 75% of the time T-mobile answers within 3 minutes max and then tries to hang up on you :p

    The only reason I would leave T-mobile was for 3G service today instead of whenever they update EDGE or for CDMA phones which in my opinion Sprint has some pretty cool looking phones like the upstage(I live in US and I know you have cooler phones but still). Other then if you have a big family in another carrier you might wanna stay with Team-Mobile(wiki it) because despite all the flaws they are the least flawed with their support team. Just threaten to leave with another company and watch them offer you something. When I try that with someone besides t-mobile they just laugh at you and ready the cancelation fees.

50. 50 On June 19th, 2007, Phil said:

    I had a similar type of problem with “Verified by VISA” it took 14 separate calls to resolve a simple problem. On one of the calls I was asked by a VISA customer rep to read some of the website FAQs to her as she was completely lost.

    Total time out of my life, a little over 2 hours that I’ll never see again.

    I think we’ve hit the point where our own technology is strangling us. You would have never had this problem 20 years ago

51. 51 On June 19th, 2007, uhh.. said:

    you guys are hilarious…sorry you hate your jobs so much.

52. 52 On June 19th, 2007, Colin said:

    I would have to hear an actual recording to make up my mind about this whole deal, but my preliminary opinion is that you sound like the stereotypical “I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS, DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” kind of customer.

    Technical problems are just that. Problems. Every problem involves some level of inconvenience by definition alone.

    Your complaints and actions go beyond constructive criticism. You were just be obstinate, it seems.

53. 53 On June 19th, 2007, BC said:

    It looks to me like you are upset about the phone and not really the service. You have to understand there are many technical things that could cause even the same problem with the phone. Troubleshooting is necessary, that is if you actually want your problem resolved. It is frustrating calling into a place that has you re-verify things but isn’t it better to have more security than less? I know I wouldnt want someone accessing my T-Mobile account. Also you don’t speak with agents when you call tmobile, you talk to customer service dudes. (Agents work in stores). It sounded to me like the supervisor was trying to work with you, and instead of spending that time arguing you could have worked on your problem. I think what’s worse than terrible customer service, is ratty customers calling in with attitudes when they are there to help you and you refuse to be helped. Can you not blame them for closing the ticket after you failed to call in? If I had a problem and it was resolved, I probably wouldn’t call back in or even think to. As do most people. If i continue to have a problem , I let them know it didn’t work. Blame yourself for this one, and stop whining. As much as I hate customer service these days, it seems to me like you were just blatantly being a pr*ck.

54. 54 On June 19th, 2007, Kyle Finneran said:

    uhh..,
    I don’t think they hate their jobs, I think they hate the idiots that call in with the preconceived idea that they’re above them. You’re asking THEM for help. Wouldn’t it be reasonable to NOT treat them like shit?
    Just sayin’

55. 55 On June 19th, 2007, Joseph said:

    I’ve been a T-Mobile subscriber for approximately 5 years and when I’ve had to call support, I’ve never spent more than a few minutes on hold. When I had a particular difficult issue with my Blackberry, the “blackberry support group” folks wouldn’t leave me on hold, but would offer to call me back at a time I was available.

56. 56 On June 19th, 2007, carlos roberto said:

    I’ve been a t-mo customer for 5 years, and if ive ever had any problems, they just did what i asked. many times they have reimbursed me for problems they didnt even cause.

57. 57 On June 19th, 2007, Ben said:

    I too work in tech support, but for a company that services industrial motor controls. Our phone support is totally different. When a customer calls, I work for that customer. That one customer is my job until his problem is either solved or he gives up. I NEVER ask for any personal information. I always assume he needs help, no matter how dumb I think his question is. I solve most problems in one call, others may take a dozen calls and over a week of troubleshooting. I am not rated on how many calls I take or how long I spend on the phone with each customer. My boss just tells us to take care of OUR customer.

58. 58 On June 19th, 2007, uhh.. said:

    =) true..you are correct..I am asking them for help. I guess I just feel disappointed sometimes (as I said before, not all the time) that the people arent very well trained, and are unable to help from lack of training. I think then, rather than reflect on the actual staff member themselves, it goes to the company hiring/training the staff. So please, remove that from before, I just was rather taken aback for people attacking the customer. So that is rather poor managerial/company structure, rather than a reflection of the employee. Remember, at the end of the day, it is the customer that counts.

59. 59 On June 19th, 2007, Anna said:

    Write a letter to the company (not an email, a paper letter to their headquarters) and include everything you’ve posted here. I don’t know about T-Mobile specifically, but I used to work for a big computer company, and doing this would get your case assigned to a corporate customer relations admin who could basically do anything without having to ask permission. And at the company I worked at, corporate CS would basically do anything to make the customer happy so long as your complaint was even remotely valid. Include the ticket number and the names of the people you spoke to if you have them.

    Some companies aren’t quite that helpful, but 75% of the time, if I write directly to corporate headquarters, I’ll at least get a gift certificate or something for my trouble. The other 25% send letters that make it obvious they never even read mine, but it’s worth a shot.

60. 60 On June 19th, 2007, Simona said:

    I had a similar problem with Direct TV. Worst Trouble Shooting and Wait time ever. I had a review break, call customer service went through 4 tiers of tech support before they could fix my problem. Which happened to be a simple program update. I spent 3 hours on the phone with over six representatives, and twice I was sent two the same person on accident. Oh and In the middle I got disconnected by one of the idiots, that was another call completely.

    Also I had issues with American Express. I received their regular credit card. No probs had it for approx two months, when they suspended my transactions to verify my application. I called customer service, basically they wanted to find out what I was making which they should have found out before they issued me a credit card. But decided NAH, we’ll give her the card but cut her off middle of the month. I Canceled it right away! Ridiculous.

61. 61 On June 19th, 2007, Dan said:

    I guess I’m “diluted” as well as I can’t believe the number of angry TSRs I find on this thread. I worked for PSINet for 6 months many years ago, so I understand the basic issues. TSRs take a lot of crap, but there’s no excuse for this lamebrained officiousness.

    If the supervisor of first-level support can’t escalate a ticket ON HER OWN, the system is completely and utterly screwed.

    “How can you be so disempowered?” is the perfect question. It’s not a lack of resources - it’s a lack of trust. T-Mobile (or whoever they’ve outsourced to) doesn’t trust the people they’ve hired. They don’t trust their HR processes, their own training programs, and they don’t trust that people can make good decisions on their own. It’s a huge deficit in leadership.

    That’s why they have these stupid internal firewalls and ridiculous things like support centers that refuse to take calls. Empower people to fix the problem and problems get solved.

    If your jpb gives you stress, responsibilities, and metrics to meet, and doesn’t give you the resources or discretion to do your job, IT’S TIME TO FIND ANOTHER JOB.

62. 62 On June 19th, 2007, Simona said:

    I had a similar problem with Direct TV. Worst Trouble Shooting and Wait time ever. I had a recierver break, call customer service went through 4 tiers of tech support before they could fix my problem. Which happened to be a simple program update. I spent 3 hours on the phone with over six representatives, and twice I was sent two the same person on accident. Oh and In the middle I got disconnected by one of the idiots, that was another call completely.

    Also I had issues with American Express. I received their regular credit card. No probs had it for approx two months, when they suspended my transactions to verify my application. I called customer service, basically they wanted to find out what I was making which they should have found out before they issued me a credit card. But decided NAH, we’ll give her the card but cut her off middle of the month. I Canceled it right away! Ridiculous.

63. 63 On June 19th, 2007, james said:

    You’re the one that comes across like the a**hole. Sometimes things break and people don’t know how to fix them. Let me guess you have never not Known how to solve a clients problem and passed them on to someone else. Grow up and stop crying

64. 64 On June 19th, 2007, Meag said:

    I work for an inbound call center that takes IT outsourcing jobs from companies like T-Mobile. What you described is exactly what we teach to our agents. The “supervisors” you talk to are usually people who were on the phones taking calls less than a month before they get to that position, and usually aren’t even actual supes - they’re only one level of escalation in our tech support chain and serve solely to take the escalations of maltreated customers (nicknamed “Subs” for subscriber) like you.

    When agents ask for your information over and over again, it indicates that their software isn’t working in synch with their automated system. This is often the case with outsourced tech support. They have no idea who you are, how many times you’ve called in the recent past, or what your issue is unless they can get that small beginning amount of information out of you and use it to pull up your account.

    Finally, when it comes down to it, no amount of gnashing of teeth, wailing, or promises does anything to sway a truly jaded Tech Support agent or supe. “I will be deaf to pleading and excuses;/Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses:/Therefore use none.” - Romeo & Juliet, Act III

    We *all* hate our jobs. Its like working the McDonald’s of the IT world most of the time. The pay is bad compared to others in our respective fields, the companies we work for are inane in their myriad of pointless rules designed to micromanage our lives while they cancel training classes that would help us provide better customer service. We take abuse from frustrated customers all day, and some of us even attempt to help you. (Usually the new ones who haven’t had their spirits broken yet.) Usually though, if you’re as frustrated as you were in this reminiscence, its a problem we can’t even begin to address in any helpful realtime manner. Those tickets are about as much help as we can give.

    So in short, welcome to the wonderful world of outsourced IT work. The truth is, we *don’t* care, we *will* continue to ask for your number and the last 4 digits of your SSN, and no, we *can’t* actually help.

    If it makes you feel any better, these places - for all their faults - make great stepping stones for those of us smart enough to use them and leave. I am proud to be one of them as of this week, when I move to a new job, under contract, for a “real” IT company. So don’t worry, you’ll never have to worry about getting me on the phone.

65. 65 On June 19th, 2007, Speel said:

    Its called low wage.

66. 66 On June 19th, 2007, Katt said:

    ok I’ve worked in a call center for two years-the company makes the policies, we have to follow them or risk losing our job. At my center if we do not verify MTN and last 4 of the Social we fail our QA(quality assurance review)-2 fails and you get fired. That goes for every rep. I’ve been screamed at, threatened, insulted, you name it-and I take around 80 calls a day-imagine a job where you get threats on your life 80 times a day-not so pleasant is it? You want to know why we “don’t seem to care about losing a customer”? Aside from most customers demanding credits, free phones, threatening us etc. the company tells us not to-let you in on a secret here-you are worth approximately $30.00 to your cell phone company-not such a special and unique snowflake now are we? We follow policy or lose our jobs, which some of us need to survive, a cell phone is not a necessity, privilege, or a right, it’s a luxury. There are people dying in wars(I served in one myself), children starving on our streets, and the worst thing to happen to you is your precious cell phone doesn’t work, oh and a CS rep didn’t kiss your precious butt? Reality has a nasty b*tchslap-get over yoursef-the rep on the other end of the phone is human, probably trying to support their family-take note we tend to give more to people(credits, bonus minutes, discounts) that are nicer-the people that throw tantrums like a two year old-too bad, so sad-pay your bill.

67. 67 On June 19th, 2007, Z said:

    First of all, I used to work as a customer service rep at a company that was outsourced by Nextel (now Sprint).

    I am unsure about T-moblie, but when the customer put in his number at the automatic prompts, we got all that information when the call came through on our computers. We were still required to verify who it was. People mis-type things… People know some of that information, but it may not be enough to authorize the account for changes. For troubleshooting, it was plenty, though.

    I really got burned out quick, because we had to try to keep calls to under 10 minutes. Most of the calls were customers who hated the service and yelled in your ear or new customers who were ranting and raving about their first bill. Proration is a B1+(h… I did my best to help, but getting yelled at for 10 hours a day did not bode well. I also found a lack of support from the supervisors and fellow staff members. I was actually degraded for asking for their support on a couple of issues. I also was asked to get off the workstation I was at and move for someone else who had worked there longer than me.

    I decided to quit after two months service after we were required to start “pushing” customers into activating services they did not have on their accounts. I call that unwanted soliciting and even telemarketing. We were actually required to have sold x number of services per month.

    It sucks at both ends. Whenever I call in for support on my cell, I am polite, and I tell them how to do things, so I don’t have to worry about them donig them for me.

68. 68 On June 19th, 2007, Jeff said:

    To be honest I have had t-mobile since 2001 and not once have ever had a problem with customer service. I find everyone to be nice and courteous as well as helping me solve my problem in a quick efficient matter, in fact it’s one of the main reasons I stay with them as well as there great coverage.

69. 69 On June 19th, 2007, Paul said:

    This is why I switched to Cingular, I’m not going cdma and having them control me with which phones I can have and I’m running low on options, I haven’t had any big problems with them only the new update for the cingular 8525 and my razr but the razr was motorola’s fault.

70. 70 On June 19th, 2007, Tony P said:

    They were pretty good back when they were Omnipoint. Once it became VoiceStream you could see it starting to hit the wall and once Deutsch Telecom bought it, well, a German company buys a U.S. company. You tell me what happens.

    The “Them” in your story are probably the Germans.

71. 71 On June 19th, 2007, ash said:

    Wow what an annoying ass customer you are. tmobile sucks but dont take it out on the guy on the phone. i know its frustrating but the people you are taking to are just doing what they are told to do by the people who sign their paychecks. You may be Mr Important in your world and have important business trips and meetings to attend, but that is there job.

    Imagine if at work you had people call and yell at you all day because they were inconvienced by your companies buracracy. Obviously your problem was not very common as they cant just give every customer the runnaround. They have very strict protocol written by people who you will never get to by asking for a supervisor and your taking your frustrations out on the poor guy making 10 dollars an hour.

    maybe its you. If you are on such a strict schedule you cant take a little time out to argue with the phone company, maybe you spend to much time at work. Maybe you should chill out a bit. You talk like the phone is so important but you can afford to go without your oh so important functions for days. Were you playing hard to get? Were you sad when they stopped calling? After making such a big deal about it, you’d think youd be waiting on their call. They cant call forever. At some point they assume your not calling back and they have to worry about other customers. Were you jealous?

    chill out a bit. everyone has a problem with a company they buy service from now and again. Thats life. Dont be pissy with the phone reps. Write a letter or show up a the corporate office and picket or something. Im sure you could find some other people to join you.

72. 72 On June 19th, 2007, Kyle Finneran said:

    Dan,
    the whole “disempowered” argument isn’t even relevant. It’s not that they don’t trust their employees, it’s that they, too, have to go through procedure and make sure that the person they’re talking to is, indeed, an employee and not a customer pretending to be one. Get over yourself.

73. 73 On June 19th, 2007, Pam said:

    Sean, you definitely made your point that you are important and worth more as a human than the lowly service reps. You seem like the kind of asshole that doesn’t leave a tip because the food is “slow.”

74. 74 On June 19th, 2007, Sean said:

    to be clear I never raised my voice even once on the phone. The problem was clearly not the people, but the process, but ok, you can have your opinion too.

75. 75 On June 19th, 2007, Josh said:

    The same thing happened to me with T-mobile so I did the troubleshooting for them I told them what wasn’t wrong with my phone but they decided to send me over to the pda tech support, who are by the way, totally retarded. They tried troubleshooting and told me to reset my phone I told them I would lose my numbers, they told me to put them on the SIM card, I asked if there was any other way to do it instead of one by one, they said no. I got pissed off and told them ok I’ll do it bye. I did it, I resetted the phone, no luck, my phone still would not work the network would not accept my SIM card. I could not call, I could not txt, I couldnt get on AIM or MSN Messenger. So I called again I told them it didnt work but luckily, someone with a brain picked up the phone and told me, “Oh, your line was cancelled”. Than I realllllllly got pissed off at Tech Support, why the hell couldn’t they have told me that?? The guy I was talking to told me he’d enable my line and that it’d take a couple hours. All it took was a couple minutes.

    Wnat to know why my line was cancelled? My phone was stolen 3 months ago and they told me they’d cancel my line. I bought a new phone on Ebay, I went to the T-Mobile store, and they gave me a new SIM card and reconnected my line. A month later they disconnected it and told me that I told them my phone was stolen. If my phone had been stolen and the line reactivated it would’ve taken them a month to disconnect again?? It makes me wonder what kind of business they are running. Although customer service people are always happy and always ask me what the weather’s like. That is the only thing that I like about them.

    P.S. Dont go to Verizon, they are just as horrible. I had a worse experience with them than T-mobile.

    Josh

76. 76 On June 19th, 2007, Jon said:

    I can’t believe I wasted time away from either my job or my family to read this whinefest.

77. 77 On June 19th, 2007, Alli said:

    You said it all about T-mobile, it’s so true how you have to go through all that b.s. before you can even talk to a “knowlegable” customer service rep. I enjoyed reading your blog! =)

78. 78 On June 19th, 2007, Adam said:

    I worked at a call centre for 2 months at one point, doing internet tech support… I had to quit because I was SO miserable that I was becoming suicidal. I’d come home everything with either a migraine or wanting to cry. And they really do just throw you to the wolves. You try to do things right but then you see all the regulars cutting any corner possible. You pray for easy routine calls. You wish to god that the company wouldn’t FORCE you to sell FAULTY software that is down more than it’s up…

    I now work in retail (for the second time) in a store that’s constantly understaffed due to the store not selling enough (gee, maybe cause customers can never find someone to help them and when they do the person is lazy and takes 30 minutes to find anything or ask a manager). Customer service is HUGE. Without it, you WILL eventually lose all your customers. And with no customers, you go belly up.

79. 79 On June 19th, 2007, Barry said:

    I hear these types of stories and think back to a great book I read a few years ago- and if more people would take this kind of approach, we’d all be better off as customers and employees. The Fred Factor

80. 80 On June 19th, 2007, Panda said:

    Ok, I’ve had T-Mobile for a few years now

    I’ve never encountered this problem. First off, you’re using their DASH Mobile Phone. You ask for DASH support, not just general support or technical support.

    Hell, T-Mobile has even taught me how to do this crap on my blackberry when network connections fail

    Simple : Battery pull (With phoen on), leave it out 30 seconds, go into your internet settings and re-register it onto the network.
    It’s not difficult.

    The phone number and Social thing? Yeah that’s because in departmental transfers, they’re not all linked together.

    Seriously, this is a fucking whinefest. L2CALL TECH SUPPORT.

    I’m in ur Tech Support, calling teh wrong dpurtmentz.

81. 81 On June 19th, 2007, Andrew said:

    I have had sprint since 2002 and I have had a few problems but nothing major. Actually, everytime I had a billing dispute..the CS rep would screw up in my favor. I once called for like a 5 dollar miss bill but I wanted to add more minutes so I figured I’d get my 5 bucks back. By the end of the call, I had a $40 credit on my account. I will say CS had been flawless since my account was upgraded to a business account.

    Also if you ever have a problem with sprint just ask for the customer retention department and they can help you out pretty nicely if you nice to them (:

82. 82 On June 19th, 2007, John M. said:

    This is just a very sad story, and I’m sorry that you had to have gone through all of this, but it seems like the sad reality of it all. It seems ALL major companies are like this in every way.

    I have a prepaid Cingular/AT&T (I don’t even know who the fuck they are anymore, too many split-personality switches I don’t care anymore) GoPhone. I use my PDA & MacBook to organize myself, and my cell phone for just calling people when I really need to make a call out somewhere. I don’t rely on Cingular/AT&T because they are all the same.

    Sadly enough also, I know someone who works for Verizon Mobile’s Customer Service, and she tells me all the time that she will put people on hold all the time just to catch up on her Reader’s Digest. Or sometimes she will just ‘accidentally’ drop the call.

    All of the customer service people do not care about their customers, or their company, they are just working for them to make money for themselves, and not to help you.

83. 83 On June 19th, 2007, Richard said:

    Helio!!!!!

84. 84 On June 19th, 2007, Kay said:

    What a pathetic, crying, whiney customer you are. T-Mobile should drop you! You’re the same moron who’d be complaining if they didn’t do the security check at each step and your personal information got out. Here’s a clue, your $60 a month does not mean the world revolves around you, as hard as you may find it to believe. If you don’t lease the device, you own it. If the problem is with the device, that is hardly your carriers crisis, but yours.

    Grow up. There are serious issues out there and yours is not one!!!

85. 85 On June 19th, 2007, advanced tech support said:

    too bad, i am one of the many advanced tech support reps, but not for tmobile, but for VZW to bad, sucks for tmobile. oh and #82 thats not true, i give my customers service that i would like to receive.

86. 86 On June 19th, 2007, Kyle said:

    I actually have a REALLY GOOD story with tech support and that was with VIZIO you know the really cheap tv company. I was talking to a person within 2 minute of call they only wanted my info once and we (me and an American) had the problem figured out and solved in under ten. I barely missed any XBOX. It was amazing and if I EVER have the same problem again I will be IMMEDIATLY transfered to “Advanced Support”.

    And I got this from a start-up company selling really cheap TVs.

    If anyone from VIZIO sees this,
    -Thanks

87. 87 On June 19th, 2007, Sean said:

    keep deleting the negative comments………….you’ll be up all night you effin loser

88. 88 On June 19th, 2007, Sean said:

    use “effin” and it stays…use the other stuff I will yank…or just turn on moderation and be done with it.

    sean

89. 89 On June 19th, 2007, Jason said:

    “Does this story feel familiar?”

    YES! You brought back many memories of my own ‘horror story’ with T-Mobile a few years ago. The steps you have to go thru were more or less exactly what I was forced to do repeatedly over and over, to no end / no solution. My issue was also with the data side of their network that was (mostly) unresponsive.

    T-Mobile, while they are big in Europe, only have a US presence in order to take their (small) piece of the profit pie to be had in the States. They should be bought out by another US carrier that will provide at least minimal-quality customer service.

    My experience with T-Mobile customer support - as with yours - was measured in terms of hours wasted with Customer Service, not minutes. My only solution was to completely drop T-Mobile in favor of a regional carrier that has provided excellent service (never thought a US cell carrier could be ‘excellent’).

    In conclusion, the only solution I could offer is to spend even more time and go a T-Mobile corporate-owned store (NOT a dealer) and politely but firmily tell the kid (they are always kids) that you will not leave the store until he has fixed your problem. Maybe, just maybe, he will have a phone number that allows him to get to the right people to fix what is broken…

90. 90 On June 19th, 2007, Brian said:

    Actually you do have one more option available to you. Sue them in small claims court for fraud, breach of contract, mental distress and will full disregard of corporate responsibility. You can sue for a maximum of typically 3 - 7k depending upon your state of residence and sometimes your city. NY is 3k unless in NYC then its 5k. It costs $10 - $50 to file a claim in most states in NY its $15 in my county. It will cost them money just to send a lawyer to address the issue and they are likely to go out of their way to keep themselves out of court. Bring a lot of documentation consider calling back one more time and taping your call and specifically say why its ludicrous what they request and how long this has been going on and it is unfair and bad practice and the service rep will most likely confirm it. When the warning on the phone system says this call may be recorded its a two way street so you don’t have to mention it. Also a recent ruling in federal court made the requirement of using arbitration instead of suing them unfair and thus unenforceable in the contract so your good on that one. Personally I hate the sue happy attitude of some people but some times its the only legitimate avenue of discourse us citizens have against big corporations. Also keep in mind that if a lawyer does show up he won’t be allowed to use legalese in small claims court and if a representative doesn’t show up you automatically win and appealing a small claims ruling while possible is hard because it has to go into the appeals court whom don’t want to waste their time with a civil small claims matter.

    http://www.lawny.org/lawny/content/view/101/115/

    My disclaimer, this is just a possible route to take, but I am not a lawyer and take no responsibility for the accuracy of the above recommendations and information.

91. 91 On June 19th, 2007, DOUGHBOY said:

    Blah, this is the case with ANY carrier you go to in terms of wireless service, you will run into GREAT!! reps who care abt their job, other times you will run into reps that really don’t care at all abt their job…as for the verification methods I have to agree with some of the previous posters in the fact that if it WAS’NT done, you’d probably be bloggin abt how bad the security level for your account is..not happy with T-Mobile, go to at&t, not happy with them, go to Sprint, not happy with them go to VZW, I’m absolutely positive that if u spend enough time with any of the said carriers you will find that they ALL have the same flaws

92. 92 On June 19th, 2007, Brian said:

    One more thing, the idiots on here that I believe to be part of the corporate culture and disparaging a customer for a legitimate complaint just have no idea what a contract means and generally have little moral fiber. When a company sells a product or service to someone and it doesn’t work as advertised or claims or as is more typical outright dies after a few months of use the only person responsible is said corporation. It is the duty to abide by their on contract whether it be verbal or written. Ask any lawyer it need not be specified in writing to be considered part of the contract. You just need to be able to prove it and its typically easier to do that if its in the contract.

    The most prevalent but ignorant arguments I have seen on this page are as follows.

    1. Don’t take it out on the rep for the culture of the company or the corporate policies.

    Rebuttal: Said employee is part of said corporate culture and/or policies, don’t like getting griped at then quit and find a more reputable company/position. I’m in IT and I know all too well the frustrations of having customers gripe about things out of my control but that is just part of the job description.

    2. The customer is just whining. Really a superset of the responses.
    2a. Don’t expect the managers to be able to fix your problems you have to go through the process.
    2b. Expect to have to repeat the information for a number of reasons.
    2c. Expect to have to spend hours on the phone to solve problems with services/equipment now and then.

    Only requires one Rebuttal: Companies actively design support systems to make it as hard as possible to get a legitimate problem fixed. Because fixing that problem typically means paying to replace broken equipment. Which means costs to the bottom line. Cases to affirm my point - laptop displays aren’t covered under warranty unless they completely die, standalone LCD displays aren’t fixed/replaced unless there are more than 5 pixels bad and even then you have to fight to get it fixed. Mobile phones can only be bought from the corresponding network dealers with a service contract but they won’t sell you a new phone or take any responsibility for the broken hardware even though they are the ones selling the equipment. Don’t want to take responsibility for it don’t sell it. I’d be fine buying my equipment from independents or 3rd parties and having it activated but I’m not allowed to do so and therefore can’t buy the reliability that I want/need. If a manager has the power to replace the equipment without jumping through hoops more equipment will be replaced instead customers are actively discouraged from getting hardware they paid for that actually works because they have to waste more time than it is often worth. Stress and time costs money regardless of how hard it is to quantify. It costs money to keep my body running and repaired medical costs, food, transportation, energy, heat, mental stimulation, educational costs, stress shortening my life expectancy. Life is a finite commodity and therefore has a cost associated with it, just no company wants to admit that and no one has tested that in court yet.

93. 93 On June 19th, 2007, Brian said:

    Thats just it our anti trust and monopoly laws are no longer enforced. Case in point Ma Bell is back and there are only 3 legitimate cell companies left which leads to no competition because they all do the same things to screw over the customers.

94. 94 On June 19th, 2007, hang like sleeve of wizard said:

    Have you considered taking a couple of Midol for your raging PMS and realizing that not everyone who works for a given company can be so perfect as yourself?

    You go on and on and on about how you “have other responsibilities” . . . well then it really comes down to simple economics, doesn’t it? You CHOOSE what course of action gives you the greatest return on your investment of time. Clearly your “other responsibilities” give you the greater return, right? In other words, taking the necessary steps to resolve the issue is NOT AS IMPORTANT as your “other responsibilities”.

    Maybe if you spent less time whining like a little bitch with a skinned knee about how much T-mobile sucks and more time, I dunno, WORKING WITH THEM TO FIX WHATEVER PROBLEM YOU HAVE, you wouldn’t have had such a “traumatic” experience.

    You may be, or have been, T-mobile’s customer, but as the old saying goes . . . you can’t help someone that doesn’t want to help themselves.

95. 95 On June 19th, 2007, Kirk said:

    I’ve had problems with all the major wireless companies. Recently I returned faulty equipment to verizon wireless, i had to provide the fed-ex tracking number from their prepaid label to them three times before they would credit the return.

    I tried AMPD hybrid plan, but they couldnt provide a minute balance. Call details were coming sometime in the near to distant future. I switched to a prepaid plan, I was required to add money to an account with a positive balance, added money 2 weeks prior - calls to customer service were dropped from the cell or home. AMPD makes t-mo look like a winner.

    I am now with virgin mobile, while their customer service isnt great it is a step up form the other guys. I can do just about everything from their website. Most importantly i can have a new phone whenever i want at a reasonable price - not the best handsets but they are affordable. no contract with virgin!!!

96. 96 On June 19th, 2007, Rubin said:

    I am sorry to say you wouldn’t have had these customer service issues on Verizon. I had a near identical issue last week with my windows mobile phone,and Verizon replaced it no questions. They also don’t go through as many steps of verifying and reverifying. This story does tell me not to even consider Tmobile anytime soon. Just fyi, you seemed to get very angry over the procedural stuff, but you have to expect that (giving them the number, last 4, etc). If I were you I’d call everyone between the service manager and the CEO, although to a decent extent I think you’re complaining a bit much for the situation (i’ve been through similar). If you really care and want tomake a difference, stop shouting into theinternet abiss and figure out how to get up the chain at Tmobile to speak to someone who can actually make a change.

97. 97 On June 19th, 2007, Alex said:

    Brian, are you living in a perfect world somewhere where corporations and their employees are one and the same disembodied legal entity? Well guess what, that customer service person is a PERSON. You better be careful, you sound a lot like you are trying to dehumanize that T-Mobile customer service employee. I hope Sean had enough wisdom not to scream at a guy or a gal on the other end. No matter what your legal mumbo jumbo says, it’s people dealing with people, and it pays to play nice. T-Mobile has been OK to me, their support people are in the US, not Bangalore or Manila, so one has to give them that much at least. I also have a dash, the thingy is rather complex, so can we all just chill the —-out?

98. 98 On June 19th, 2007, Thomas said:

    JESUS —-, you whine like a little bitch. Get a life, man!

99. 99 On June 19th, 2007, Chad said:

    having worked in the tech industry for a number of years I can usually tell when someone knows what their talking about and how their gadgets work. there are those kinds of people that should buy a dash and then theres the other kind that should just stick with a candy bar phone. reading this I feel that you are the candy bar phone kinda guy. what makes you think that this wasn’t an IT issue? did you even try to let the INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY guys have a crack at it? I hope you find the problem and get it fixed and if you find out that the problem was caused by operator error are you going to retract the story or appologize on your blog? I DOUBT IT

    there are limits to what good customer service and tech support can teach some people. Now go buy your candybar phone.

100. 100 On June 19th, 2007, Sean said:

     Not IT…validated.

     If it turns out it was mean, you bet, I will happily mea culpa…but, again, my complaint never was that I had a technical support problem, it was how it was handled.

101. 101 On June 19th, 2007, Thomas said:

     Sean,
     You weren’t handled unlike any other customer. The problem was that you didn’t want to cooperate. Getting mad at how their system works makes no sense when you’re calling them asking for help. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

102. 102 On June 19th, 2007, Rachel S said:

     Damn dude. I been using tmobile for like 5 years and never had a problem with customer service. I do what they ask and the problem is always solved. Looks like u need some patience– learn some manners too, for real.

103. 103 On June 19th, 2007, butcher99 said:

     I think we need 2 service levels. One for people who like friendly on time service that works and another level for all the dick heads who wrote here that the author is a shithead because he complained about crappy service.
     Customer service has gone down. It is universal. Not customer service in general retail, but c.s. for big companies who generally do not deal with the public. Dell, all the phone companies, cable companies (although mine is great) anyone with a general arms length distance from the customer. You start with phone tag hell to “get you to the right person” and then it continues on from there.

     I switched phone companies because if customer service was online when I needed them it took 5 min to navigate the punch # prompts (actually talk them). My new company offers a total of 3 numbers to punch to get to service. The old one actually took more than 5 minutes (timed) I now get my phone and cable modem through one company. If i want phone support I type 1, 1, 1 and internet 2, 2, 2. Pretty simple. And 24/7 there is real person support. And, it is not in India, it is in my home town. I had one support person tell me that I could just come down to the office and talk to them if I had more problems.

104. 104 On June 19th, 2007, Chuck said:

     I think a big part of the dynamic going on here is that outsourcing isn’t working out as planned.

     Here is a GREAT post by uber blogger Giga Om:

     http://gigaom.com/2007/02/18/troubling-signs-for-indian-tech-outsourcers/

     Not to Om’s points, but here’s a thought of mine that I just can’t get past: if a venture provides little or no value - is it really relevant how inexpensive it is to operate? I did a consulting gig at a BIG Global Financial company and the outsourcing elements were unbelievable. Employee turnaround overseas was worse than anything I saw in the US during the Dot Com days and IT actions were affected cluelessly regardless of myriad processes that were put in place.

     I see this happening in CS. If there is literally no point for a customer to call CS as you will only waste your time - why bother HAVING CS, regardless if it can be run inexpensively overseas???

     I am NOT anti globalization and I think it is a good thing to see capitalism provide opportunities. But some things will always be true:

     the customer is always right
     if I don’t please the customer, somebody else will

     I hope we as a society can figure this whole globalization thing out in a way that helps that maximum number of people. An honest assessment of things tells me we have a long, long way to go and it may be a very rocky road.

     Chuck

105. 105 On June 19th, 2007, myname said:

     Whah. You want some cheese with that wine? Seriously. If you call into a call center anywhere, you’re gonna have to verify your information. Simple as that. Every call. They don’t give a if it’s you calling in or not. They’re people that make $8-13 an hour and are just trying to pay their bills. They make you verify it because they can be monitored at any time and have to follow a guideline of what they say in the freackin call.

     And OMG, if you get “annoyed” by their automated system, then you’re a fucking loser anyway. It takes less than a minute to get through their automated system, and it always connects you who you wanna be connected to. I’ve had tmobile for 5 years and have NEVER had a problem with the customer service. You call this “Hell?” Go back to your WoW and masterbate to a Night Elf.

106. 106 On June 19th, 2007, kevin said:

     First, if you are a customer service rep, life has not turned out the way you expected and you hate your life.

     On the other hand, you shouldn’t have missed the ticket window and that was your fault. Start over and you’ll get a ticket with advanced and they’ll either fix the phone or swap it with another or fix the tower.

107. 107 On June 19th, 2007, Justin Mancini said:

     How about this one..

     You feel your T-Mobile Dash vibrating and rapidly heating up in your pocket one day at work.. Pull it out.. Blank white screen.. Pull the battery out, and it’s fine.

     About 2 weeks later.. Same thing.. Vibrating and getting very hot rapidly.. You take it out of your pocket this time.. AND IT EXPLODES. Literally. Plastic breaks, phone smokes and all.

     So, after work, you bring it to the T-Mobile store, where they can’t give you a new one because it’s a smartphone, so they call customer service and connect you to the correct department. You talk to the lady they hook you up with and tell her what happened. She said they’ll replace the phone for me, and then begins to read the fine print. “If the screen is cracked, you will be charged a $110 fee”.. You say, wait.. I told you my phone blew up. It’s broken. The screen is cracked. They say it’s fine and they’ll take the phone back anyway.

     Then, your next bill is $220.

     *EXPLETIVE DELETED* T-Mobile.

     I gladly paid the $200 early termination fee after that one.

     I am now with Sprint using their SERO (employee referral program), where I got a Palm Treo 700wx for $200 and pay $30 a month for 500 minutes with unlimited data, email, texting, picture messagine, etc. The works. Nights (7pm-7am) and weekends. I’ll send you an email with my AIM screen name, I’ll set you up with an account just like mine if you’d like.

108. 108 On June 20th, 2007, bittermormon said:

     Maybe teh CS rep hasnt given up on Tmo, maybe she gave up on you. I have never had a problem with tmo? support. They´ve always been helpful. HoFo would have been your friend here.

109. 109 On June 20th, 2007, Ashley said:

     Interesting. I’ve had T-Mobile for five years now and was always extremely impressed with their customer support. However, I was never requiring technical support up to date. I just know they’re excellent at crediting off disputed fees, were always very courteous and professional, took ownership of the call, and empathized with my situations.

     I work for AT&T Wireless in Receiveables Management, and I try to make every call and one-call resolution. Again, I’m not discounting your experience either, only sharing my own.

110. 110 On June 20th, 2007, Pete White said:

     Why didn’t you just take your phone into a t-mobile store and have them send it off. I’ve done that with both my MDA Vario phones that have broke and they have been fine with replacing them.

111. 111 On June 20th, 2007, Breanne Milley said:

     I work customer service for AT&T, and there are always calls like that. Unfortunately, the CSR’s (and even supervisors) you speak with when you call in have no power whatsoever. Also, we don’t know what you put into the automated system, usually you can fake it with all nine’s. Very few CSR’s listen to the automated system, even when we transfer to another department. Or you should’ve gotten the number for tech support, always the best way to get directly to a department without all the transfers and fights and verifications. Just saying.

112. 112 On June 20th, 2007, FGM said:

     I’d thought this woudl be entry 111 so I’d respond with some numbers. Apparently I type too slowly Here’s some general rhetoric - 1, I believe that things should just ‘work’ - that includes the systems/processes that enable people to fix them - that doesn’t seem to be the case here. 2, people should be empowered in their workplaces - where they are not it is a shameful thing, and no good for companies, their customers or the individuals working there. 3, I remember (hazily, from college days) a study which said that if you have a good experience, you’ll tell around 3 people, but if it’s a bad one, you’ll tell at least 20 with a passion and a colour that marketing people can only dream of. 4, or perhaps There4, I hope that companies with customers (oh, that’s everyone, right ) will be humber enought to remind themselves of these things. It’s never going to be perfect, but it can get a lot closer with the right intent. I hope.

113. 113 On June 20th, 2007, Oliver said:

     Could of been wors… imagine if you where wringing microsoft “If wou wish to continu, click Next” for 30 mins before it tells you all lines are occupied !

114. 114 On June 20th, 2007, G said:

     somebody call a wahhhbulance.
     grow up pussy,

115. 115 On June 20th, 2007, Jack France said:

     You stupid moron. You didn’t even bother to mention if you leased the phone, bought it or were under a contract. It sounds like the phone was just broken and you were too cheap to buy a new one. If that was not the case, whey don’t you explain the circumstances. I mean, if it was under warranty by them, why not just give it the 25K Volt stun gun treatment and just have them replace it with a new one. As bad as T-mobile is (and they really do suck, we all know that), they will give you a replacement phone immediately.

116. 116 On June 20th, 2007, CyberMage said:

     I had problems with T-Mobile when I moved out of their coverage area. They said I had to fax them a notice of move on company letterhead with something that provided my new address. I did that. They kept billing me.

     Three months later they claimed “We never got the fax.” I pulled the confirmation out of my files and quoted who I sent it to, what number, and that I had the confirmation. His tone immediately changed to “I’m sorry we’ll refund the difference.”

     They never refunded what I paid after the fax, but they did at least stop sending bills. It was OBVIOUSLY a scam to get me to keep paying them money - they wait to see how many people don’t keep the fax confirmations.

117. 117 On June 20th, 2007, Enzo said:

     At some point, during your first call (most likely) you should have been transfered to the windows mobile support group at t-mobile. Upon bringing you first call to an end because of an appointment, the support agent in the t-mobile windows mobile support group should have given you their direct dial number. This would have probably saved you a great deal of trouble instead of having to call into the t-mobile general support line. keep in mind what are the most common types of calls that come into their general line. Questions like, why is my child sending out 2000 text messages this month? or, why was i charged 4.99 for a ringtone? These types of calls are from clients that are infuriated at t-mobile for charging them, so the CS rep is for the most part trained in dealing with that client. The irony is, it’s not t-mobile’s fault they’ve incurred so many charges, it’s the customer’s fault for not reading the terms of their agreement and allowing others on their plans to rack up crazy charges.
     Back to my original topic, my past experience with the windows mobile support group at t-mobile has been exceptional. I’m sorry yours hasn’t been so grand. I’m very happy with my Dash, and I have noticed the internet connection go out over EDGE/GPRS and WIFI, I’ve found there isn’t much I can do to resolve the matter except for a simple reboot.

118. 118 On June 20th, 2007, Mark said:

     Ive always had great success with TMOBILE compared to other carriers. Tech support on the CDMA and other devices has never been a problem and crediting money has always been instant. just my 2 cents.

119. 119 On June 20th, 2007, Adam said:

     Sorry to hear about your problem. I have never had anything but great customer service from T-Mobile.

120. 120 On June 20th, 2007, Jen said:

     Read this long winded blog post (Damn-what a waste of my time!), I must say, you are one uncooperative guy! Good luck with your new provider, they won’t be any different.

121. 121 On June 20th, 2007, Rafael said:

     Hey, I’ve had T-Mobile service for a few years now, and to me anyway, their customer service and tech support has been great. i’m sorry you didn’t have that experience, but from you described, T-Mobile at least put up a fight. I mean, sure, you had to jump through a lot of hoops, but you were never treated badly. They also told you about the hoops you had to jump through: creating a ticket and going through their support flow. Is it the best designed? Probably not. Is it timely and expedited? Hardly. But they need it to handle all of their customer’s problems. At one point they even offered to FAKE the troubleshooting portion. They tried to help you out, you couldn’t just say “yes,no,still no,still no,yes”? I can understand you being really busy, working at microsoft and all, but you don’t think us regular people have to go through the same thing with computer support? “yes it’s plugged in, no i dont see a picture, yes the computer is on, no there are no disks inserted”

     finally, you should be ashamed that you think the customer support representative wasn’t sticking with their “company.” It sounds to be like she was empathizing with you that she couldn’t resolve your problem after you had been through so much. Her boss probably read a description from your cell phone profile: was given adequate help, needed to be called back, was not available, is still irate and wants “special attention.” What else did you want her to say? PLEASE SEÑOR MICROSOFT, WE BOW DOWN TO YOU, HOW CAN WE SERVE YOU BETTER? FORGIVE US FOR ANGERING YOU

     seriously man, get off of that superiority complex.

     “Had yesterday’s call solved my problem, I would have never said a word about this…” Well, way to crap on a few years of satisfactory service as a result of a bad day and a non-working phone.

     “I’m confident (I hope) that someone at a senior level at T-Mobile will take some action.” Yea, because you were treated so ‘unfairly’ and ’shamefully’ someone, a senior-level someone no less, has to grovel and beg for your forgiveness. if it was up to me, i’d tell you to keep the phone and not charge you a termination fee.

122. 122 On June 20th, 2007, Travis said:

     I am with Tmobile, with an MDA Pro. I had purchased the Nokia Smart phone (years ago) because of it’s advanced features. I went through the EXACT same process trying to get this phone to work with sending photos. I even went to the store for 2 SIM Swaps and nothing every was resolved. I ended up giving up on it, since I figured I really didn’t need to send photos.. although it was one reason I wanted the phone in the first place.

     The only reason I’m with Tmobile still is my wife and her family love to talk and they are all on Tmobile already, and the unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling features. I’ve considered buying out all of their contracts and purchasing new phones for them on a better network. =)

123. 123 On June 20th, 2007, Rafael said:

     Those last two quotes are from the post after this one, ladies and gentleman. hey, if you want to read some REAL horror stories, check out Consumerist.com so you can stop your bellyaching.

124. 124 On June 20th, 2007, Daniel said:

     I take care of the cell phones for out company, dealing with T-mobile, Cingular, Verizon. Sprint, etc. T-mobile has the best service by far. No doubt, you ran into some troubles, but they are there to help you and they want to do that. Getting upset and frustrated does not help the situation, in fact it just prolongs the situation.
     I used to take calls in a support center, and I had a few callers that lost their cool, even though I just wanted to help them with their problem. Sometimes tech support calls go like the one you had. Stop being such a baby, grow a pair of balls, and work through the problem with the people that are trying to help you. Your problem will eventually get resolved without you having to throw a fit.

125. 125 On June 20th, 2007, sbigger said:

     I had a similar problem with them. I asked them if we got service in my college area and they guy said “Oh yeah! Great service!” And a bunch of other shit. Then when the phone didn’t work at all, I cancelled and returned it. They charged me for a day they said the phone was on when it didn’t even work. They were going to take it to a collection agency after 2 representatives lied to me (the one who canceled my plan said their would be no charge). I will NEVER buy from them again!

126. 126 On June 20th, 2007, nik said:

     it sounds to me like you are being a big baby.

     your customer service incident was no different from thousands of others. You just happen to think you are special enough to bitch endlessly about it.

     these representatives are required to ask for your name, number and social. if they are required to go through troubleshooting, then they are required to go through troubleshooting. If they are required to say the CEO is their boss, then they are required to say so.

     What makes you think your problem is more important than their jobs?

127. 127 On June 20th, 2007, Mike Hathaway said:

     You companies out there. There is a title called ombudsman. Usually it is a person or team that sits above everyone else but with no decision making ability. They are sometimes paid for by marketing. There only job is to make the customer happy, they deal with customers that have simply been bounced around and screwed for to long. They in theory should have the power to tell anyone at any level of support, tech or whatever to shove it and do the following.

     If T-mobile or any other listener wants to keep customers they need a few of these people. The number should not be public but be a secret transfer that all the customer no service supervisors know. That supervisor who was depressed at the end should have been able to go.
     “I see you are pissed, I see we have screwed you, I have no power to fix this let me send you to our ombudsman you will tell them your story and they will make it right.” And then transfer.

     The number of people like the columist above is not that huge. Usually this stuff gets fixed after a phone call or two. Having a dedicated staff member or few staff members to handle this would improve the companies image in a way no amount of marketing dollars would.

128. 128 On June 20th, 2007, Goddimus said:

     It was a good read, but, sentence structure is your friend. That was painful to get through.

129. 129 On June 20th, 2007, Sean ODriscoll said:

     good feedback, I should have gone back over this with editing and readability in mind…my bad for sure on that.

     sean

130. 130 On June 20th, 2007, Emdeeaytoo said:

     Sean, I think you are throwing bricks in a crystal palace. The only difference between your experience and a Microsoft support case is I get to pay hundreds of dollars for the same pleasure and most of the time my business is hinging on the resolution that takes forever to come, if it comes at all. Of course I could go to the free Microsoft public newsgroups like the Vista.General newsgroup where even the mighty MVPs are prone to fall into the slime with the trolls and maniacs.

     At least with cell phones, you can very cheaply switch to a new carrier - heck you even get to keep your phone number. Try switching out a network architecture or a development platform.

     I suggest you take your experience, look around in your own sandbox and see what needs to be done to “empower” Microsoft Support at ALL levels - consumer to enterprise. When that works well, you can complain about someone else.

131. 131 On June 20th, 2007, Liberalmonkey said:

     I’m not sure where you live, but one thing I LOVE about my carrier (U.S. Cellular) is that I don’t have to call that 1-800 number, I can go right into the store and they can do EVERYTHING that customer care can do, but I am talking to an actual person. It was what sold me on the company when I was shopping around. The person who sold me my phone handed me her card and said “If you sign up with me, I can be your personal customer care representative” and it made the world of difference. They can fix bills, give me credit for issues, and they have a technician right in the store. If you are still shopping, ask if carriers in your area have that. haha, I should work for them, I’m like a walking billboard

132. 132 On June 20th, 2007, Adam said:

     I used to be in customer service. And it did suck a lot sometimes. But I dealt. For everyone saying “I’m in customer service, and the guy who wrote this is a douche”: you’re all self-pitying assholes who try to elevate your shitty position in the world by belittling customers who you’re paid to help.

     It’s your job to help, and if you can’t even get that right, well, no wonder you’re still working as a CSA.

133. 133 On June 20th, 2007, jem said:

     Rosewood: yes there is a little fairy that is SUPPOSED to pass the information on to the next department. It’s called SOFTWARE. Most companies just can’t be bothered to ensure it actually works, or that all departments use the same application.

134. 134 On June 20th, 2007, Sydney said:

     I am a tech support representative that works for a small company that does tech support for a very large ISP and a few small ones. I’m not even an employee for the company that I have to fix problems for. Most other large companies do the same thing. I have to deal with customers everyday that usually shouldn’t even own a computer. Most of them are too stupid to realize that their kids have been looking at porn and letting their precious computer become infected with spyware and adware and that is why their connection isn’t working properly.

     When the automated voice says “These calls may be monitered for quality assurance.” they mean they are all recorded and calls are taken at random and listened to and graded. We have criteria and a point system to determine how the call was handled. We get points taken off if we don’t verify information, like name, SSN, and in our case, computer info. If we don’t do that, we will get fired.

     It sucks to be on the phone talking to someone who doesn’t really care about your problem and can only do so much. We are powerless. My “supervisor” can’t do anything more than I can as far as fixing an issue goes. Their power is to determine my pay and my schedule. There is a huge amount of red tape we have to go through and it’s frustrating for us. Especially when we get a customer who has been through your situation. And believe me, I get those customers multiple times a day. It’s really hard to care about fixing your problem when you have just become mine and will not cooperate. We understand being upset that your phone isn’t working properly. We understand how frustrated you are and we will really help you if you treat us right.

     When I have an irate customer who does nothing more than demand for the issue to be fixed, refusing to go through the troubleshooting steps I have to go through before I can escalate the issue, I really don’t care anymore. Someone in a comment mentioned that techs will
     “accidentally” hang up on people. This is true. And sometimes while I’m talking to someone, I am browsing Digg or viewing people’s blogs or commenting on something like this. In fact, I’m at work right now.

     But the point of it all is that you shouldn’t get so upset with them. Yes, it sucks. It really does. I would hate to be in your position. But I know that when I am calling tech support and happen to get an American, they probably aren’t anywhere near me. They’re probably just college students who are working themselves through school with a job that’s not at McDonald’s.

     We really can help you and usually will happily if you’re not being an asshole. It’s very hard to be nice after something like this, but asking how that tech is doing can go a long way. When most people have been yelling at you for something you have no control over, hearing someone actually ask about your day is very refreshing.

     Being that customer who has an awful problem but doesn’t take it out on the tech can get you very far. A hell of a lot farther than the jerk who gets a nasty note let in his file saying to watch out for this call.

     It is awful that customer service is this way, but it’s not going to change anytime soon. Not by a few angry customers. It takes everyone and since lots of people with TMobile have great reviews of CS, I’m guessing it’s going to be that way for a long time. The best thing to do in this situation is to figure out how to get the right person to fix your problem.

135. 135 On June 20th, 2007, Sean said:

     comment moderation now turned on:) Thank you recent commenter. Relevant posts/comments…including those that disagree with me will be approved. Those with profanity likely won’t be.

     sean

136. 136 On June 21st, 2007, Tony said:

     Hey Sean,

     Drop me a quick e-mail, i’m very interested in this story and i’d like to discuss this further.

     Thanks!

137. 137 On June 21st, 2007, Michael Pickel said:

     What more can I say? It seems like there are those who have experienced similar situations as Sean and those who somehow defend these mindless sweat-shop like CS Centers and even the people behind them. I could add my own (similar) experience with Nokia, but why bother. We all know that the days where “the customer is always right” are a thing of the past. Now, it Wal-Mart nation: cheap Chinese made crap, with only a simblance of “support” from the manufacturer/supplier, who in turn pays the employees as little as possible.

     One comment about this India-bashing. I have to say that as far as customer service is concerned, the Indian cs reps I’ve encountered are heads above the domestice American reps as far as coutesy, listening skills and interest in helping (as much as they are allowed to). So don’t just mindlessly bash the Indian.

     Bottom line, it’s the American capitalist/corporate model of squeezing as much blood from a turnip to satisfy the greed of the stock holder that’s gotten us where we are. It didn’t use to be this way. How did we stray so far from the days when Neiman Marcus, Nordstom, LLBean were not exceptions, but the rule in the American customer service model.

     We’ve gotten what we asked for: “cheap” is what we want and that’s what we now have!

138. 138 On June 21st, 2007, zer0her0 said:

     For someone who is so busy I find it hard to believe that you’d rather right close to 2k worth of words and promote the problem, then you know spend the time troubleshooting and fixing the problem.

     I have to admit I suffered through your redundant posting of info, what I have to re-read the whole sentence of how they asked for his phone number, social, etc again for the 4th time(I’m pretty sure every adult in the US has dealt with this) just to see what the point was.

     What I took away from the article:

     1. I just wasted 30-40 minutes of my day(which should have been spent working or with family).

     2. I’m not nearly as busy as you.

     3. For someone who was a CS agent you don’t understand how the process works.

     4. I have no idea how the problem was resolved, just that it “appears” to be, here’s to hoping the update describes it and that it’s less then 2k words.

139. 139 On June 21st, 2007, zer0her0 said:

     doh, didn’t re-read my post, write, not right.

140. 140 On June 21st, 2007, Sean said:

     I’ll update on the resolution in the next 24 hrs….for those who thought my post was too long and you wasted your time reading it…uhhh…reading it end to end was a choice….you have a back button on your browser:) But ok, fair enough, I’ll get with better editing next time. you’re right - I should have editted down.

     sean

141. 141 On June 25th, 2007, T-mobile takes service hit : Register Square said:

     […] is joining the list - Sean posts a pretty horrific series of telephone support conversations about a problem with a T Mobile hotspot. Or not, as the case turned out to […]

142. 142 On June 27th, 2007, Tankar kring… » Olika inställningar said:

     […] är lite långt, men läs gärna: Customer Service Hell!! T-Mobile…Hot Spot? NOT!!!. Via The Social Customer […]

143. 143 On June 27th, 2007, Lorraine(and no i'm not from india..lol) said:

     Wow. I dont even know where to start. I am a T-Mobile Customer Care Coach (Supvervisor). No, I am not someone who was just thrown into this position. I’ve been with the company for 5 years. 2 of those years as a supervisor.

     Being in the customer service industry, I am probably twice as likely to criticize the service I get from other CSR’s.

     T-Mobile is not perfect. Not all employees are perfect. BUT you’ll find the same is true with each and every company worldwide.

     I have a T-Mobile Dash. I’ve had the phone since it was first released. I use it for everything. Phone calls, Instant mesengers, text messaging, internet browsing, calandar,syncing w/ my PC. I’ve had one problem in the entire time that I’ve had it and was able to get it resolved immediately without any hassles.

     Other times I’ve called in for simple things and have had to walk the rep through the steps to complete the simple tasks.

     I have customers day in and day out who call in to complain about the simplest of things “Why are you charging me $.15 for a text message?” Come on….the phone call alone costs more than 15 cents. lol. Or “I know I have a 1000 minute plan but why am I being billed 300 minutes of overage? Can you please give me a credit for my VALID overages?”

     I had a woman once call in complaining about $50 worth of phone calls made in Mexico. I told her I would review the account and in doing so found the calls were made in Mexico. While I was reviewing the account she was speaking to her husband in the background saying in spanish “shh I don’t want to say that because then she’ll know that the calls WERE made in Mexico.” Of course she didn’t realize that each and every phone call has what we call a “footprint”, meaning we can tell what kind of phone was used, what tower was used (street names), what type of features were used during the call (call fowarding or call waiting).And she also didn’t realize that I am hispanic and understood every word she was saying to her husband. Needless to say, she did not receive any sort of credit and her account was noted for future reference.

     I had one other customer who was complaining about a blank screen. The rep went through the typical troubleshooting with her. She went through things with her on a step by step basis. “Remove the back of your phone. Remove the battery. Remove the sim card. Replace the sim card and the battery. Replace the back of the phone. Press and hold down the power button for 5 seconds” Nothing. She called her an idiot and said I should be fired for not being able to fix her problem and ask for a supervisor. I get on the phone and the lady is irate and crying and threatening to cancel her service. I apolotized for the situation and asked her if we could review the steps taken and she agreed. “So, Mrs.Customer, you removed the back of the phone and the battery and sim card for a few seconds and then put them back in the phone and the screen is still blank?” Her response, “oh I was supposed to put the battery back in??” Uh huh…yet the previous rep was yelled at and called an idiot because Mrs. Customer somehow thought her phone would work sans battery.

     Our reps are pretty well paid. More so then most companies in my town. However, I dont think any amount of money merits being called expletives on a daily basis over these types of situations.

     When I was just a rep on the phones everyday we took up to 60-80 calls a day. You’re expected to resolve each call in a timely manner.You are on the phones 8 hours a day with 2 15 minute breaks and a 1/2 hour lunch break. So yes, It can be pretty difficult. Especially when you answer a call wanting nothing more than to help your customers and you get people like the ones I mentioned. I’ve answered calls before and have been called a bitch and whore just for verifying an account. And on the flip side I’ve taken calls from people who were upset because their accounts weren’t verified correctly and they had unuthorized charges. What’s the saying…”damned if you do, damned if you dont”?

     T-Mobile records every call. Each representative is monitored daily. Calls are pulled and graded for customer service. It’s my job to coach the people on my team to make sure they are providing quality service on all of their calls.

     As for Sean, I agree with most of the people on here. T-Moble attempted to resolve your issue. They attempted the necessary troubleshooting. They opened up the trouble ticket. They offered you assistance w/ different departments when they were not able to resolve your issue. You did not followup. You did not call back even though T-Mobile called you back numerous times.

     CSR’s are only human. We cannot read minds to know what you have or have not done. We cannot predict the future to know what your schedule is. We do not have healing powers in our hands to magically touch your device and make it work.

     I could go on and on but I’ll stop here before I bore you all to death. lol

144. 144 On June 27th, 2007, Sean said:

     Glad you posted here but not sure you read my entire post given how you closed this out. I’ve sense posted the resolution so you might check that out too.

     sean

145. 145 On June 27th, 2007, Jdawg said:

     Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience, Sean. I actually work for T-Mobile, and sounds like you just had some pretty bad luck with that. I know there are always some hoops to go through, and I’m only in the first level of support, but our system tells us if the customer has verified his or her information automatically, so we DONT have to ask it again (like you, I find that frustrating). However, T-Mobile is a stickler for procedures and there’s really no way around that sometimes. We simply cannot transfer calls to advanced technical care if you’re currently on the phone you’re calling about. Its really there so we don’t waste time with trying to troubleshoot the phone you have an active phonecall on. While you may have personally found it frustrating, I’m sure the company as a whole, with the millions of phonecalls they receive each year, have found it the best policy with handling these issues. We do our best to make everyone happy, but if having to verify information to protect the security of your account when being transferred to another department upsets you, well, you might just be pretty hard to please regardless.

146. 146 On July 24th, 2007, Sonia said:

     I AGREE WITH THIS INDIVIDUALS SITUATION. I HAVE GONE TRHOUGH HELL WITH VERIZON, TMOBILE AND CINGULAR. IMAGINE IF I TRY SPRINT THE EVEN WORST.
     ALL THESE CELL PHONE COMPANIES ARE GETTING US THE CUSTOMER MORE STRESS THAN SERVICES.

147. 147 On July 25th, 2007, Joshua Dudley said:

     Hey Sean, I have a worse story than you and i can’t stand them so much that I don’t have the energy to elaborate as thoroughly as you did about it. I’ll just explain it very quickly with bulletin points

     If anyone can help, please contact me at

     1)My dad signed our family up for a family plan on t-mobile.

     2)some family members didn’t like their phones and called t-mobile to trade them in.

     3)phones didn’t arrive within a week. so we call to complain and are assured the phones are coming. when we say we will cancel the service if phones don’t arrive we are assured that we have 30 days to do so and get all our money back.

     4) all in all 3 different phones are ordered never arrived. more calls are made. nothing is resolved. frustration sets in.

     5) we cancel t-mobile ostensibly within our 30 day startup period from frustration with the customer support.

     6) We get a bill 2 weeks later for everything. several calls are made to complain over the next few weeks. issue is never resolved. Eventually what it boils down to is this: we only had 14 days to cancel our service, not 30. Unfortunately, there is no record of any customer service person telling us this. Also there is no record of us ordering new phones from them. Therefore we have no way of proving that they have violated the contract not us.

     7) we refuse to pay the 356 dollar bill for the first month plus switching fees and all the 200 dollar per line cancelling charges that are coming.
     I even got a number for the back sales office who told us something different than the other customer service people. she said she could help. than transferred us to someone who couldn’t, who put us one the phone with her supervisor who helped even less.

     9) I officially think they have worse service than AOL did a few years ago.

148. 148 On July 27th, 2007, Hate TMOBILE said:

     Every single time I need to contact customer service, their site is down, the phone system does not work. I have been trying for a couple of hours to access my account phone/web to no avail….

149. 149 On July 31st, 2007, *Red said:

     How is this one?

     On July 2, 2007 I became a T-Mobile customer. As I sat and waited for my Sidekick to arrive via UPS the excitement grew and on July 5th my Sidekick finally arrived. Since then however, there have been nothing but problems. For the first two weeks that I was a T-Mobile customer I was not able to receive text messages, which was one of the primary reasons I got a Sidekick. Finally, the problem was fixed, after I called every day to get status updates. Two days before the problem was fixed I was told “we don’t have a time frame for that”. I was supposed to also received 4 callbacks regarding this issue and none came. Also, I didn’t even know the problem was fixed until I figured it out on my own using my family’s cell phones to send myself text messages.

     But the problems do not end there. On July 23, 2007 my Sidekick battery alerted me that it needed to be charged. That is when a real problem developed. I went to plug my less than one month old Sidekick into the wall and it would not charge. I took the battery out, put the battery in, and plugged it into almost every wall socket in the house, all with no results. So I called Customer Care and I was informed that I should take it into the store and they can test it and figure out what it wrong with it. I took my phone to a T-Mobile store where a man named John helped me. He took my phone, plugged it into the wall and said “Yup, it’s the phone”. He then proceeded to answer the store phone, work on another customer’s phone and try to order me a new phone on the computer. While he was busy multi-tasking he didn’t even ask to verify the correct shipping address and sent it to the wrong address in my account, an address that is 6 hours away. He then spent 20 minutes on the phone trying to fix his mistake only to be told he cannot undo what he did for 24 hours; he then told me that he would fix the problem for me the very next day. The next day I called the store to ask for John to see if he had fixed my problem, there was only one problem with that, John was not working that day, even though he promised me he would fix my problem that day. I asked to speak with the manager and was told he was “out at another store” 3 different times during the day. I proceeded to fix the problem, which John created, myself after spending 30 minutes on the phone and driving 15 minutes to the UPS store to send out my Sidekick.

     On July 30, 2007 at approximately 10:30pm (EST) I called your customer service to get some information about my rate plan. When I got upset over the rate plan that I have and was told I could not change it your customer service agent me to “not to get snippy with her” and when I asked for her name and ID# she hung up on me. Now, I don’t know about you, but to me that says or rather screams poor customer service. I have never in my life been hung up on for a customer service call. Upon calling back I did however speak to an excellent customer service agent, Tamillia Ref ID: 7481177, who took all my information and assured me she would take care of the problem, one of the rare occasions that I have been treated fairly by one of your customer service agents.

150. 150 On August 2nd, 2007, Kill 'em w kindness said:

     Just a few tips on calling customer service

     I’m pretty sure us CS reps are doing something right. If you think T-Mo CS is bad remember so far we’ve had 6 JD Power awards in a row. The customers have spoken. When speaking with a customer care rep keep in mind, treat that person as you would like to be treated. Don’t worry, the rep won’t treat you any differently if you’re pissed off but you may get that rep to go the extra mile if you’re calm. Getting all worked up isn’t going to solve a damn thing. If you get all fussy with the person who is trying to help you and don’t want to follow instructions that WILL help you then you’re going to end up pissed off and without a solution. Listen to the reasons behind the questions and troubleshooting steps you are given and maybe you’ll get somewhere. Requesting a supervisor isn’t going to change a thing. The answers you are given are company policies that both a representative and supervisor have access to. Why does almost everyone nowadays think a sup request will help them get their VALID charges adjusted? HAHA! Just keep your cool and everything will work out.

     As for all the geniuses talking about outsourcers, T-mobile owns and operates all their call centers all which are located within the US. You’re pretty damn lucky not to get a so-called “Steve” from India who can’t speak English. Whoever said US cust service reps are not as kind as the ones from India must have not had the T-mo experience haha. T-Mobile reps are the kindest people you will ever deal with. Of course there are always the select few who give the rest a bad image. If you don’t feel our English speaking reps are kind enough for your taste give our Spanish line a shot. Don’t get upset if someone answers in Spanish, that person can also speak English and will be super courteous. There’s just something about the Spanish reps.

151. 151 On August 4th, 2007, Alisha said:

     Okay, I have worked as a T-Mobile Tier 2 PDA tech support agent for a year now. Yes, even when you go through the automated process of entering your 10 digit mobile number and the last 4 digits of your SS#, we don’t get that.

     This is how it goes, 30-ish call of the day. I am tired. I just got chewed out by a previous customer… and my supervisors are constantly on my ass about “AUX” (aka, break time). I am waiting for 30 seconds before I hear “beep beep” and now I am on the line with you. I have no pop ups that appear on my screen when you call, so I have to ask who I am speaking with and your number. I open your account and have to check to see if you have been verified, because if you have not, I could loss my job for not verifying your SS#… Then, I check over the notes made by previous reps… and feel angry that some reps do not leave detailed notes about your problem or troubleshooting they did (other than “Cust’s email not working… transfer to tier 2″ BAH! So, I have to find out what is wrong.

     Then, you tell me and most of the time, I know what to do. But some problems are comlicated… because we have to determine if it is a.) software issue b.) network issue c.) device issue… which is hard enough.

     Then, when I are stumped as to what is wrong… I put you on hold so that I can raise my hand amongst the 5 other raised hands… waiting for a “floor walker” (aka - assigned supervisors who walk the floor in a call center to help answer questions of agents) and wait and wait for one to come to me… but somedays I have raised my hand for 10 minutes waiting on someone to help me.

     Call centers are STRESSFUL. I have gone home literally crying because the pressure is intense.

     Don’t think I am sticking up for t-mobile. I happily have AT&T. And I don’t like working here, no.

     We are trained to empathize and be sensitive. And I am all the time.

     We go through a lot on a daily basis.

     We only have 30 minutes of a day to take breaks (in an 8 hour shift). We constantly are being bitched out by people who monitor our calls. It is rough.

     I understand your frustration. I don’t like t-0mobile either. And I work for the bastards.

     But, I just wanted you all to know that even when you call in to us at tech support… it’s no picnic for us either. We get yelled out, bitched out, treated like scum for t-mobile’s shitty ass software problems. It’s not our faults. We didn’t break your phone.

     And I understand you will run across a bitchy rep. File a voice ticket on their ass. Tip: an abusive agent loses their job once a voice ticket is filed with a supervisor.

152. 152 On August 4th, 2007, Alisha said:

     Okay, now another point (with less typos:)

     When you call, we are not sitting a a buiding labeled” T-Mobile”…

     I don’t really work for “T-Mobile” itself… but Sitel… it’s business partner call center.

     Yes, the above supervisor is right. We are given procedures to troubleshoot.

     I have had customers call in who didn’t even want to troubleshoot. They just wanted to outright do an exchange.

     WE CAN’T DO THAT.

     We have to do at least some form of troubleshooting before we can do that. Otherwise, if the problem could have been fixed with a master reset or application loader or even simple as a cancel location and powercycle… we could get in trouble with the technicians who look at the phone when they receive it at the factory.

     I had a customer yesterday who called about email on AT&T’s BlackBerry Curve. I could not do that. He had unlocked the phone and everything, but it still had AT&T’s settings on it. Of course, I got called a “dumb bitch” and the call escalated to a supervisor. We ended up having to transfer to RIM (manufacturers of the BlackBerry devices) so they could confirm that t-mobile data features would not work with a BB Curve. It is not possible because the service books (settings) will not go to the phone.

     This point being that we are not God.

     I have been blamed for ruining a business trip… I have been blamed for being “stupid”… I have been blamed for having the worst phone ever. I didn’t invent the damn thing. I didn’t create t-mobile. I didn’t tear up your phone. And no, I don’t like it either that you are upset.

     You never know who it is you are talking to when you call us or what that particular agent is going through. I remember the day I was told by a customer that her life was so shitty all because her BlackBerry pearl could not access myspace while she was sitting in a resort on a California beach!

     There I was, just got out of an abusive relationship… my family is going broke. I don’t make enough to support shit. I haven’t even gone on vacation… and of course, we can’t oblige those kind of details…

     But, anyhow, the point being, call centers are rough environments to work in. And no matter how shitty we tech agents feel.. no matter what hell is going on in our lives… we still have to put on our happy face to make you feel more at ease. Just think about the agent you talk to and assume that they are a person like you with their own sets of problems.

     I’m not saying don’t speak your mind when you call. But just understand that we are humans and not little machines that don’t understand you. We try. Trust me. Take it from someone who takes 50-60 calls a day on a slow day. It’s mentally exhausting.

153. 153 On September 12th, 2007, Gregory said:

     I am a customer support manager for an ISP. I train our techs to be accountable and responsible to all of our customers however its a shame that other companies don’t share the same philosophy. My support team has to do a lot of trouble shooting with cable and phone companies and we also get caught in the bad service loop. Automated answering services are the worst followed by the transfer to India to a rep that just agrees with what you say and never commits to anything followed by the response they will get back to us in 24 hours. Then 24 hours later we hear nothing so we call back and they tell us nothing has been done and they happily escalate to level 2 which comes with another 24 hours with a phone call back to India and the cycle continues like this for 1 to 2 weeks. In dealing with particular company I set up meeting with there executive staff and they talked a great game but still had the same sad results. After witnessing my staff and customer suffering at the hands of this company I dropped all service contracts with them and then they call to see why and I explain it to them they just don’t get it, they give excuses why they fail.

154. 154 On September 18th, 2007, Marcie said:

     I am so glad there is someone else out there who shares my frustration with T-Mobile. I think they are one of the worse wireless providers I have ever had. I bought my son a 300 dollar Sidekick 3 for his 8th Grade Graduation and what a piece of junk. He is now on Sidekick Number 3. This last time I fought with T-Mobile Customer Service for an hour and a half trying to convince them that I do not want another Sidekick to replace the second piece of junk Sidekick, I want a phone of equal value, but the Sidekick has proven to be a piece of junk. They were rude to me and of course I had to concede to the idea that I was getting another Sidekick. Which by the way, is still sitting in the box it came in and I plan on selling it on E-Bay.

155. 155 On September 29th, 2007, John P. said:

     Some of the comments here prove exactly what is wrong with today’s customer service and just goes to validate the original poster’s concerns. It seems that these comments are, for the most part, being made by disgruntled CS workers.

     I just had a two hour conversation with two tmobile representatives trying to refute ludicrous $90 charges on my bill. At some point during the call the rep actually had the audacity to say “maybe you’re having personal problems since your payments have always been on time until now”. She then went on to ask if I had any further questions and hung up.

     There is a fine line between poor customer service and then just flat out hating your job and being a bitch about it.

     PS. we, as customers, don’t owe you anything so get off your high horse and stop feeding in to this bureaucracy you call a phone company.

156. 156 On October 4th, 2007, George said:

     Don’t feel special, I was a loyal Verizon customer for 11-years and $30,000+ of service. Three years ago I moved to a new residence in Wicker Park, Chicago and had reception problems. After 5-months of calls to Verizon and no results, I had to change my service. Nobody seemed to care - oh well.

157. 157 On October 9th, 2007, Customer Service Hell:T-Mobile…Hot Spot - NOT!! « Top Tech News said:

     […] read more | digg story […]

158. 158 On October 13th, 2007, James Clark said:

     Dear Sir or Madam:
     James Clark has been a customer with T-Mobil since 2003.
     Over sixty days he had connection problems for his phone number . He brought a new phone, changed his phone number and went through many, many trouble shooting procedures with T-Moble various representatives and engineers. I start having connection problems September 2007. He canceled his contract with T-Mobile due to this improper connection problem. Your Term & Conditions - Limitation of Liability #14 states, The exclusions of limitation of incidental or consequential damage or other limitation to remedies. The exclusion or limitation will not apply to you. James should be excluded from paying the cancellation fees for this account due to consequential damage for his account. Service Availability and Limits states, you are not liable for any service limits failure of alerts. We gave T-Mobile alerts to inproper cell phone reception for over two months. No remedy for the problem was done. T-Mobil agreed to perform the cell phone service in return for payment. James gave T-Mobil reasonable time to correct his connection problem. The appropriate remedies for breaking or breaching this contract was needed because nothing was accomplish to solve his connection problem.
     Sincerely,
     Mrs. James Clark

159. 159 On November 16th, 2007, Lessons from a "Blog Post gone wild…" : Community Group Therapy said:

     […] the foreseeable future.   I thought I’d share a few observations from this weeks T-mobile blog post gone […]

160. 160 On November 27th, 2007, Corvette said:

     We got a cell phone plan from T - Mobile and a nice cell phone came with the plan. We gave the cell phone to my brother. The cell phone has a one year warranty (the duration of the plan) for which we get to keep the phone after the warranty expires. Right now we have about 4 months before this particular contract expires but the phone broke about a month or two ago. My brother took very good care of the phone (he’s an adult over 21 and he’s VERY paranoid about taking care of his stuff). Before sending the phone in the company explained to my brother that if they determine the damage was my brother’s fault they will charge him about $100 (it was a little more but it’s the principle of the matter) and it will void the warranty. He was sure the damage wasn’t his fault so he agreed. He sends the phone in and they send him a new one. Then they claimed the damage was caused by water (water damage). My brother explains that he never got the phone anywhere near moisture or water and they insist it was water damage and that it was his fault. So we ask them if they can explain how the technicians determined it was water damage. They didn’t really answer the question (they didn’t seem to know). So finally we asked to bargain with them, since we are sure the damage wasn’t caused by water and they insisted it was, we would split the bill 50 / 50 . They refused. We finally asked if they can send back the original phone we sent them so we can have an independent technician look at it and see if water indeed caused the damage and we said that, if the independent technician determines it was caused by water damage (which we are sure he would determine not to be the case) we would pay. If not, we would not pay and possibly sue. They refused. We asked to speak to their legal department. They tell us that their legal department doesn’t speak to customers. We haven’t payed the bill yet and I’m not sure we really want to go through the trouble of suing since that may end up costing us much more than the bill is worth. We’re not sure what we’re going to do at this point but I am not very happy with their service to say the least.

161. 161 On December 1st, 2007, Who is your Daddy? said:

     Corvette, I cannot imagine what it would be like to have a phone that stops working and then find out that you are being charged a $100.00 fee to replace the device for something that clearly you feel is not your fault. I know it must feel frustrating to have to go through that kind of situation. However I hate to tell you this, but cell phone companies only handle the warranty process for the manufacture. Look at it this way, as a cell phone customer you have to have a phone that works right??? So Cell phone carriers know this, so they make it easy for you in case there is a problem with the phone, they handle the warranty exchange for you. If the cell phone carriers did not do it this way, well then it would take weeks before you get your phone replaced and that would be inconvenient for you so they play nice and make things easy for you. You should be grateful that cell phone carriers will take responsibly for the product that is not made by them in the first place. When you mail back the phone, they mail it back to the company that made the phone, those tech guys will look at the Liquid Damage Indicator and also look for burnt circuits and hardware corrosion to dermine if water damage was present. T-Mobile is just handleling the warranty on behalf of the company that made your phone. So what, that it is branded as a T-Mobile Samsung or Motorola or what ever phone you have, carriers do that because they have special software that makes the phones work with their service, some carriers have special user interface other then what comes with the phone in the first place, also they work special deals that allow you to get the phones at dirt cheap prices. The price you pay for the phone is alot less then its retail value. And on your ability to sue them in this case would not leave you with a fighting chance, because even you said it above that your brother was advised if liquid damage was found a 100 dollar fee would be assest, so your brother was aware of the consequences so that is his fault. I know that sounds harsh and it can be upsetting to be charged a fee like this but I don’t like it anymore then you do. Its just a simple fact that liquid damage was present when the phone was inspected. I wish you and your family Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

162. 162 On December 4th, 2007, Diane said:

     And besides all these blogs, the t-mole website is not been available for days now.
     What gives.After my contract is up, I will never sign up with them again.

163. 163 On December 5th, 2007, Nicole James said:

     All of these customer service reps responding with all these excuses should be ashamed of themselves hence your title. T-Mobile SUCKS!!! i have been a loyal custoner for 8 years i have purchased 4 $300 dollar phones and paid numerous bills i needed a handset exchange i waited 6 months for a phone. Nothing came then when they send it out the ups driver just leaves the package on the front porch of my house. i never received the package and everytime i called in i get a different story some of the reps even hung up in my face and even the automated system recognizes my cellular # and keeps me on hold. Now verifying security information is for customer protection but get real every damn time you guys fart we have to verify hell to the naw! if that’s the case don’t have us verify through the automated system. Here’s a clue dill hole csr’s during a transfer let the one know who your sending us to that the account has been verified. i also work in customer service and it’s amazing how other csr’s do just enough to get by. No one does their job anymore and this is y t mobile sucks!!!!!!

164. 164 On December 13th, 2007, t mobile rep said:

     sorry you guys. every day we have have to deal with people that can’t express their ideas or try to scam us. thats ok. i just ask questions to ensure we are doing what the customer wants to do. some people flip when i ask questions, they feel i am intorogating them: account verification is a big deal. it is dumb that the automated service askes you to provide it and then we ask you it, but the transfer cue has been known to send the wrong customer to the wrong place. we don’t even see the number or the name when someone calls. we have to ask. i know my stuff i can fix almost anyphone but i don’t get reconized because it takes over 5 minutes to fix anything. phone calls over 5 minutes dont get listened to and are deleted. people who do fast calls get reconized and promoted. that means if someone does an awesome transfer they can become my boss. the maximum time we are allowed on a single phone call is 230 seconds: that is not nearly enough time to do any trouble shoot: then there are the credit junkies these are the people who have calloused me. they will tell you anythin for free minutes. they will tell you that: their child is drowning: house on fire: toilet overflowing: plane crashed in their home: car breaking down, they are about to be raped, dropped calls no service. we make notations on their account when they call. they become the boy who cried wolf and then no one believe them when they have a legitamite problem. my boss is dumb. his boss is dumb. they made really awsome transfers. i feel dirty

165. 165 On December 21st, 2007, Bunch of CSR **** said:

     Well, I guess that will teach this blogger to take on an industry manned with completely uneducated, inexperienced high school dropouts with nothing better to do than to comb the Net looking for CSR bashers to bash while simultaneously providing zero help to some ‘customer’ who endlessly waits on hold for them to complete typing their anonymous flame comment to some blog. Customer service used to mean something; it used to underpin the businesses that built our great economy. Now the real customers are the shareholders and the CSRs are more than happy to mindlessly push the boards cold, unconcerned agenda on the masses, masses that at one point in time so long ago used to reverently be referred to as ‘customers’. Real customer service costs money and cost is a mortal boardroom enemy that must be eliminated. How do they do that? By buying the cheapest, least valued commodity in the American economy…uneducated, inexperienced labor. As far as I am concerned, they should shutter call centers across the country and everyone’ll just have to take their chances or fight it out with a computer (the latter of which is happening already). It really wouldn’t be any different than the ’service’ we supposedly get today. And all you CSR losers can go stand in the soup line because everyone already knows you are not qualified to do anything else unless jobs open up for ‘condescending asshole who enjoys insulting people and feeling like they are better than everyone else while providing absolutely no benefit and serving no use to but to waste everyone’s time’.

166. 166 On December 22nd, 2007, Gigi said:

     I am new to T-Mobile and so far I am not happy. My daughter asked for a side kick for Christmas. I looked on the web site and decided to order the phone. I got a response saying to call a 1-800 number to complete the order. I did not call back because I said I would just go to the store and purchase the phone. The next day, I found out the online order had been processed. The cost $383.00. I asked that, that order be dismissed. Went to a T-Mobile store in asking questions and trying to purchase the phone the cost was over $400.00. Oh, T-mobile likes their money up front so the $383 had already been taken from my bank account. I was told at the store that online have specials that the store does not have so I said never mind. It was cheaper to do it online. I went back home and called and told them I wanted to go ahead and place the order for the phone that I had previously placed. I was told a whole new order had to be done. Yeah, I was placed on hold and asked all the questions. I explained to them that this was a Christmas present and it needed to be delivered by Christmas. I was told no problem but I would have to pay an extra $25 for express delivery. So, $383 had been taken out of my account for the first order, $407 was taken out of my account for the second order. The next day I called because I hadn’t received an e-mail about confirmation, tracking number or nothing. When I called again a csr said that the item was placed on back order and will not be delivered. I explained that this was a Christmas present and I paid the $25 extra for speedy delivery. She said once you get your phone, when that will be I do not know but call and we will credit your account. So I am out of $790.00 That will take anywhere from 72 hours - 7 business days to credit back to my account and no phone for Christmas. I am really mad now. I call back because I want to go to plan B which is since the order has been placed everything went through fine can I just go and pick up the phone, they tell me no. I’m like I am out of almost $800.00, It’s Christmas and I’m not rich (I am speaking to a manager at this point) Bill is the only name he would give me sorry, but there is nothing we can do. I ask to speak to someone else other than him, he would not let me. So I get off the phone and call the store and ask them could I do that, they tell me no and that they do not have that phone instock anyway. I go to the store and low and behold I see the phone and asked them is the phone available they say yes we have plenty in stock. I say well let me ask you a question, I told the very nice lady my story about how I was promised my phone and I call only to find out it was on back order and I never received anything saying it was on back order and I was under the impression that my first order would not be process until I called the 1-800 number and it was processed anyway and the money was taken out of my account (the whole nine yards) and she asked me the well known questions (social, zip code so on and on even asked for my ID)She then looks at me with this awful look on her face and ask how many phones did I order. I said 1 but you may see 2 because I dismissed the other order. She asked me have I checked my bank account lately because 6 phones are reserved in my name at a price of $407.00 each. remember T-mobile likes there money up front. The only thing I could do was laugh I just knew I was getting punked. OH but I wasn’t. The nice customer service rep phoned T-Mobile herself, after about 45 minutes she did manage to straighten the mess up, but she still was iffy about it and told me to check with my bank to see if all of those transactions had not taken place. In my final atempt to purchase the phone I asked if I could just buy the phone now not that I am rich but I really wanted this phone for my daughter shes been good all year and when asked what did she want for Christmas, she said only the phone. I was told because so many orders had been placed, I could not purchase the phone today. WOW ! So now, my bank acount could possibly be wiped out by-T mobile and I still could not get a phone. I went home and called my bank and was told I needed to close my account immediately. An account I’ve had for years. No I was not going to do that. She did tell me that only the 383 and 407 had been taken out but nothing else but I needed to check back Monday because this was the weekend. Oh, I am charged by my bank for calls. If things could get any worse I called T-moble back just because I wanted to sound off. So I called T mobile again. On this call I was told that it appears that I had a t-mobile account in 2002 that was charged off and sent to some collections agency. They gave me that number to call. I’ve never owned or had a T-mobile phone or service. So I call the collection agency and they tell me I have an outstanding bill of $800.00 and I am asked when can I make a payment? No, I can not make a payment because I never had T-Mobile service I asked for more infomrmation on the account and she has no other information but see that they have another account and she begans to tell me information about this account I say I did not call for that account I called for the T-Mobile account that I did not never have. She tells me that she has no information on that account except for that I owe $800.00 and again proceeds to talk about the other account. I asked can I talk to her supervisor and the lady tells me her supervisor is too busy to talk to me. It was no need to get nasty with her so I just hung up the phone. I really do not know what to say about T-Mobile. But I am very very up set. This letter was putting it nicely. I will tell you that I stayed on the phone about 15 hours and was place on hold so long that I was able to take a shower and come back to the phone only to find that I was still on hold. I put my clothes on, brushed my teeth and had coffee. Day one and Day 2 of my call. At one time, I was holding on my cell and landline phone for T-Mobile making a bet with myself as to which phone would I get a CSR on first and guess what? Someone came on the phones at the same time.

     T-Mobile is a Joke

167. 167 On January 11th, 2008, athena said:

     I have had repeated problems with T-mobile customer service and message retrieval. I use my phone for business and on a number of occasions, for some unexplained reason, the voice mail stops working! My clients cannot leave messages and all the saved messages are lost. When I attempt to retrieve messages, the message does not acknowledge my account. (This has happened on several other occasions.) In the recent event, after calling customer service 2 times to have this issue corrected, and being placed on hold for a countless period of time, the situation still was not corrected! When I called backed, the supervisor was rude and didn’t listen to the history. My voice message and saved messages cannot be accessed.

     I cannot wait until the contract expires. These people take their customers for granted. Without customers, these people would not be working in their jobs.

168. 168 On February 5th, 2008, Christina said:

     I am a customer service repersentitive and I am so tried of you damn customers complaing all the time. Take one day out of your life and try doing what we do all day. Yeah it is fun to have to repeat your self, but it is also a sercurity issue if we do not make sure the information on the acct is coorect. What would happen if we mistyped a number, we are people to and we are not perfect. If we mistype a number we could start messing with someones els acct and there isnt anything wrong with that persons acct. I can also say that yeah we do not like our jobs. We get yelled out 20 times a day by customers who just do not know what there doing. Most the time its user error. I do not work for a cell phone company but I suggest that you just buy a new one and save everyone the time. Granted you will have to spend money, but if you waste you time calling, you are loseing the money anyways.

169. 169 On February 8th, 2008, Sandy said:

     T-Mobile customer service is the worst ever! i have had service with them for about 4 years and all of a sudden I am suspended for being over my limit. I just paid my bill last week and it is not due until the 10th which is still a few days away. All of a sudden they are telling me my plan has only 600 whenever minutes and unlimited nights and weekends. According to their own website, the plan rate I am paying should be for 1000 whenever minutes and ulimied nights and weekends. I only use my cell evenings and weekends and they are trying to tell me that my overages occurred during the day, which is impossible because I work in a call center during the day and am cannot use my cell phone at the same time. Instead of correcting their error, they insisted I need to upgrade to a plan with more minutes. Only if I do that and pay $10 more a month will they get rid of the overages on my current bill. When I asked for the dates and time of the overages, they refused to give me the information and said I will just have to find out at the next billing cycle. So I called back again today and was told that I would have to pay the overages in order to have my service restored, then they would adjust the overage charges. Yeah, right. I have spoken to 2 different csr’s and 1 supervisor and not only are they condecending -one csr told me that obviously I talk too much - the supervisor says I had 2 really long calls but cant tell me the dates or time of them and was just as rude and condescending as the csr’s. I have sold a lot of phones and plans for t-mobile as an affiliate through a website that I own, but am cancelling my affiliate agreement now.

170. 170 On February 9th, 2008, Marina said:

     I’m a customer service representative myself, and I can say that I both empathize with you and share the frustration of the representative you spoke with at the last call. (Most) Agents do their best to solve the problem the first time, but sometimes it’s just not in their power to resolve the issue. I can appreciate that you didn’t raise your voice or curse at the rep, since most agents go through about ten abusive calls every day.

171. 171 On February 22nd, 2008, people are ------------! said:

     Wow this story is amazing! Amazingly… stupid.

     To anyone that is not in customer service-
     You believe that customer service is doing what you want. That you are always right.
     I understand you want your problem fixed. You have a right to have it fixed. Your paying for services, but your phone is a paper weight. But call in when you have time. If you get a call back- you don’t call back 2-3 days later thats your damn fault. Im pretty sure if someone you knew called you about something that was IMPORTANT to you, you wouldn’t call them back a couple of days later. IDIOT!
     But do you understand when you call the TSR/CSRs probably have talked to 20 different people before you and that there were 20 different problems before yours.
     Hot damn SEAN 28 million customers I want to see you own a company, create policys, but yet accomodate anyone. I have a handsome Benjamin that says you can’t do it! Oh and ALARMS should go off in all the call centers when you call in specifically so you don’t have to verify that last 4 of your social and your mobile number.
     So today I give KUDOS to you Sean… for being a ——–.

172. 172 On March 2nd, 2008, people are ----- is wrong said:

     wow dude, how do u explain

     1. an email from them telling me “we will unlock your (already ULOCKED… i am not in any contact and it was my phone for years)… phone….?!”

     2. they think i dont need a service even if i request it.. that too after a few hours wait time

     3. first say u can have it IF you send us back your password via email (wtf)

     4. then says u cant have it

     5. CC says we dont have roamin agreements outside canada/mexico for flexpay…. but the web site says something else so does the flyers

     6. no signal

     7. bad voice (my phone is a Nokia high end 3G phone…and it works fine in other countries with their sim cards .. so call quality is not my phones fault)

     8. GPRS speed ?!! (or should i say a working GPRS… true its $5..cheap but it doesnt work)

173. 173 On March 4th, 2008, Leroy said:

     I know you had a frustrating experience. I’ve been there. We all have. But at least understand it is easier to deal with someone from your own country that can express their frustatrion with genuinely being unable to help you instead of somebody from another country that doesn’t really give a crap and just giving you lip service and reading or reciting a script.
     As for constantly having to verify and re-verify your account, try to understand that is a real person you are speaking to. If they don’t do that they could lose thier job and they may have kids to feed. So sorry you have to waste a minute or two making sure your account is safe and protecting your information, we’re doing it to protect you and us.
     Also, do your homework before buying a phone. If you spent half as much time researching phones as you did writing this blog you probably wouldn’t have bought a piece of crap like the Dash.
     T-Mobile hasn’t won 7 J.D power awards because they don’t wan to take of thier customers.
     Go to another provider and learn the real meaning of frustration. I can guaruntee as you are leaving t-mobile and bitching at them, there are at least two customers bitching at other service providers and leaving them. They just don’t have the luxory of talking to someone on the same continent that honestly gives a shit

174. 174 On March 8th, 2008, Robert said:

     Just to let you know. After the second level of support tried to get you over to the next level, where they told you that “they” wouldn’t take the call. They’re an outsource company that isn’t used by JUST t-mobile. It’s used by most technical troubleshooting places. If they don’t see certain items done in the ticket they have to send over to the outsource company, then the representative that is not paid for by t-mobile hangs up on the t-mobile paid representative without warning. Notice as well why you have to be on hold for so long. Because it’s not just t-mobile using them.
     I love how everyone thinks that fixing a problem can be so simple. like it’s all we see every day.

175. 175 On March 10th, 2008, Samantha said:

     I work for T-mobile and I have to say that number one if you don’t want to be transfered you have to say PDA or dash to the machine, and also as far as being asked for you mobile # net everyone gets a screen pop (your account) especially for the tech department because people do not call from their own cell phones for T.S, it is cost thousands of dollars to xfer to teir 3 tech, also they are busy so if you cannot get back to them when they call then you obviously do not take the problem seriously, so they drop the issue your lack of wanting to get the issue resolved is your problem not theirs.

176. 176 On March 15th, 2008, rich said:

     sounds like warranty problem you have one year make them send new one

177. 177 On March 22nd, 2008, Charles Marcum said:

     Complaint with T-mobile service.

     On Saturday, March 22, 2008 at approximately 2:30 P.M. exited
     Wal Mart with several packages during extremely heavy rain – tried to call wife to bring the car from the far lot to the front entrance but found my phone would not let me place a call.

     I tried to call t-mobiles 611 number and it only repeated the same message “your call cannot be connected, you have exceeded your spending limit”. The phone would not allow any calls to the operator or customer service.

     Between 7 pm and 9:30 pm., I placed several calls to the T-Mobile “Award Winning”???? customer service office and was informed they could not talk to me after spending 2 hours on the phone with them because I do not have a unknown secret password. Never knew I was supposed to have a password.

     I pleaded with them to just check my phone to determine if it was a technical problem or a billing issue as I knew my bills were up to date.

     After talking to three different Customer Service employees and being told they could not talk with me about my account because I do not have this mysterious unknown password. All three absolutely refused to connect me with a supervisor.

     I asked them why they would not check my service and at least determine what the problem was. I was told by all three that although I had given them the spelling of my name, my social security number, my cell phone number, the phone plan and number of minutes I had contracted with them, my home address, zip code and my business address – they still refused to discuss or offer any help and absolutely refused to connect me with their supervisor.

     As a result, my phone has been in operable for Saturday and now Easter Sunday when we have people traveling from two other cities to meet here for dinner at a restaurant – You guessed it, the only number known to coordinate this event is my trusty T Mobile Cell,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ugh!!

     Since I will still not have any service on Monday Morning, I will lose $1050.00 in revenue for a scheduled job where directions will be phoned to “Yep! You got it - my good old trusty T Mobile Cell Phone with that highly advertised “Award winning Customer Service.?????

     Well I am now in the process of initiating my next step in locating the addresses of their CEO, CFO and their major shareholders (can be located on-line and via the SEC – maybe they can help me get connected with a supervisor. If not I guess I will just have to pay the $83.00 to file a “Breach of Contract” in small claims court for a $1,500.00 action against their local office in small claims court – who know’s maybe they will show up with a supervisor????

178. 178 On March 26th, 2008, Tmobile Lost My Payment said:

     Heres a good one for you all. So in January i had a second line added to my flexpay account. When doing this i had to pay 2 months upfront for service. Everything was fine phone worked, internet and text messaging worked. Then about a month and a half later tmobile notifies me that i owe them 132$ for when my phone was activated for service. I called and was told i would need to fax in the receipt. I did this and didn’t hear back from them about the issue until one Friday night about 2 weeks back my internet stopped working, then about 30min later i couldn’t make or receive calls. So i contacted tmobiles 24 hour customer service, entered my phone, told the automated machine i wanted a rep, then i get a recording that their closed and to call back the next day. So i waited, the next mourning i called tmobile to see what was going on with the account, they informed me that the department investigating the issue found that my receipt wasn’t enough/proper documentation to prove i made the payment. So i got another receipt from the kiosk i got the phone at and faxed it in. I spoke to customer service that whole day on friday and on Saturday. I remained as calm on the phone as possible even though the reps treated me like shit, i have never been treated so poorly by any customer service reps before. So they tell me they wont do anything and that i should pay them the 132$ and they would activate my phone (i heard this repeatedly from the reps to just give them more money). Finlay i got the person who sold me the phone to contact tmobile and after doing so they put a temporary credit on the account to get service back on.

     All was good then Saturday or Sunday they shut my phone off again. During this whole ordeal i filed a complaint with the BBB. The following week i was contacted by a tmobile executive who gave me an offer to settle the dispute with the BBB, he told me they would go ahead and forget that they lost my payment and add a 132$ credit to the account, and that i would receive no compensation for the loss of service. I didnt mind it so much but all i wanted was for them to find my payment and get things done properly. The man informed me that if i did not accept his offer he would apply the credit anyway and that any more documentation i sent in would not be reviewed by them(so basically they just want to forget it ever happend). During this whole time of speaking with tmobile i asked them at least 20+ times what documentation i could send in or what can be done, and not one person could help me they all said o thats why we tell you to keep your receipt, well i did keep mine and faxed it in several times. I refused the executives offer because i wanted them to stop telling me i didn’t pay them(which they did say several times) and find my payment. He told me he would apply a credit anyway and reply to the BBB saying we came to an impasse cause he didn’t want to wait for them to investigate cause it might take more then 10 days and theirs a time limit on the BBB complaint.

     Ok so my phones are back on, i was about to reply to the BBB saying everything is fine the phones work what ever. A few days ago i pay my new bill and it shows i have no outstanding balance and everything is good. Then guess what happens the next day!!! My phones are turned off again on March 24th. I called tmobile and spoke to customer service who transfered me to flexpay, who said they couldn’t help but would transfer me to customer retention. I had been on the phone for about 30min so far and about 20min of that was on hold. The customer retention rep then tells me oh he cant help me i have to talk to flexpay again. So he transfered me and i had to wait on hold for more then 45min. The flexpay rep then tells me that the credit that was applied to the account had been reversed. After about 20min on the phone she says she is applying a temporary credit to get the phones activated again and they will look into the issue. So i thought cool im good to go now. Till the next night and once again the phones are turned off. I tried contacting customer service but once again their 24 hour customer service was closed. So now here i sit with no phone service and unable to contact customer service about the issue. All i want is for them to fix this damn issue or refund my last payment and terminate service and the contract.

179. 179 On May 15th, 2008, Kika said:

     I received a bill with $184.00 in overcharge charges on my cell phone. I was alarmed and immediately called customer care to find out what happened and why I was charged that much in overage. The representative was able to discover that my bill did not have that many hot spot calls at home.

     The call got transferred to a supervisor Jaime, who advised me that T-mobile will review the towers from which the calls were made to figure out of there was a problem. We went through the different times that billed calls were made and found a lot of calls that should not have been charged. I work 6-3 Monday and Tuesday and 9-6 Wednesday and Thursday and 7-4pm on Fridays. Jaime figured out that I was over billed, and in order to make sure that this did not happen again; he said that would transfer my problem to technical support to figure out what happened. Jaime did not call back at the pre-arranged time but instead called during my work hours and left a message. He did not leave an extension and just left the Sales phone #.

     I called back and spoke to another customer service representative and supervisor that advised me that based on their conclusion the calls were valid. I asked what conclusion and was advised that technical had a note that calls were valid. The representative advised that technical department was a no contact department. I was advised that T-mobile was not able to assist anymore in the matter because they have concluded that the calls were all valid.

     I went to a T-mobile store in chandler, explained my situation to a representative who again got on the phone and convinced customer care to look at the problem. Customer service representative put in a ticket into technical support. The customer service representative said that she will call me back May 14, 2008 with a resolution. I requested a detailed bill be mailed to my house and said that I would pay the additional fee to get a detailed bill. I never received that bill. The representative in the T-mobile store suggested that I check online for the bill details.

     I never received a call May 14, 2008. So I called back on May 15, 2008, I spoke to a customer care representative who again advised that all calls were valid. I spoke to a supervisor, advised him that after I went into the store I looked online, printed out my bill and during February and March I had a period of over three weeks where no hot spot calls registered to my computer. He said that well we may never know why that happened but since you did not go over your minutes that month has nothing to do with this month. I advised him that I am not even able to see my bill online and advised that another ticket will be placed for that.

     I am requesting that someone explain to me why am not able to see my bill online and why no hotspot calls registered on my bill Feb-March. I am not sure if this is a phone or router issue but no one seems to be able to listen. Every time I call in, I am speaking with I different representative. Can T-mobile review my calls and correct my bill? I have changed plans and I am disappointed that I purchased this phone for the Hot-Spot at home; I never received a rebate as promised and now in this big night mare… I live in Queen Creek and the area is rural and sometimes I don’t even have service in my house. I need to have my bill corrected as this is very frustrating to get a run away.

180. 180 On May 20th, 2008, Kim said:

     OH MY GOD!!!! I felt like you were telling my EXACT story. Only my issues involved SEVERAL visits to a T-Mobile store and just about 3 months in duration! They are impossible

181. 181 On May 26th, 2008, Kimberly said:

     Hey Sean i truly agree with you!!!

182. 182 On June 1st, 2008, Cheryl said:

     We are in the same fix. They are charging us for calls from a city where we know no one. We have talked to them and talked to them to find out the telephone no. and all they will say is the call was made from you phone so you must pay. Not they are trying to charge us from my husband’s phone to my phone and they told us when we signed up that they wouldn’t charge us for those calls. We haven’t called customer service yet because it is such a hassle. We are seriously thinking of getting a lawyer. We can’t afford these guys any more. It will be cheaper for us just to pay the buy out fee rather than keep them.

183. 183 On June 3rd, 2008, Shell Smith said:

     This sounds all to familiar with about every customer phone line I have contacted recently. What a scary trend we are seeing - the customer service downslide! I ran across an interview with Fox Business and the president of a customer service company called Mindshare. He made some good points that might help us see why these trends are happening.

184. 184 On June 5th, 2008, aschwa said:

     They really burn my ass. I’m in $110 to them this month. Kills me.

     > (Uh, no, I just called to share my mobile # and
     > social 4 more times!)

     Ha!

185. 185 On June 9th, 2008, Doug Johnson said:

     When I first joined T-Mobile several years back, I had four to five bars of service in my home. About eight months ago my wife and I were several blocks south in a large department store parking lot and saw a lightning strike to the north after which we lost service in the parking lot. When we got home there was no service there either. I went through the usual drill of verifying my customer information several times and was finally told that they had apparently lost a tower in the thunderstorm and they were opening a service ticket on it and gave me the number. A couple of weeks later I got one to one and a half bars outside my house, but I still had no service inside. I called and checked on the service ticket and was told that it was still in process. Several more calls, going through the computer answering machine dance every time, and I was finally told that they had no record of that service ticket number, although it had been “in progress” every previous call. When I called it to their attention that I still had no service in my home, they responded that their contract did not guarantee service “inside.” They did not seem to care that this was a major derogation of service from the four bars I had when I signed up. If I am at home, I still don’t have service although for some reason text messaging seems to work. My daughter’s boy friend discovered this and started sending her text messages, and we got more than a hundred dollars in “Overage” text message charges for incoming text messages even though we were nearly four hundred minutes below the monthly amount we pay for. They seem totally unable to make the connection between the lack of service and the number of text messages. Meanwhile, I checked Verizon, and their rates are substantially more than T-Mobile. Is there no decent carrier out there?

186. 186 On June 26th, 2008, Ed Peaslee said:

     Unfortunately bad customer service is becoming more and more prevalent. What so many companies don’t understand is that customer retention is probably more important than customer acquisition. I saw an interview on Fox of the president of Mindshare talking about this very subject. He makes some great points.

187. 187 On July 1st, 2008, Xi said:

     That’s too bad. I love T-Mobile. I have never had a problem and is awesome when it comes to customer service. Sprint on the other hand sucks really bad. I hate Sprint, with a passion. They scam, cheat, and lie to their customers.

188. 188 On July 8th, 2008, Jason said:

     T-Mobile has the worst customer service the Blackberry/wing department Broke my phone while doing trouble shooting and now I have no access the only solution they offered was re-sign a contract this is the worst company in the cell phone industry the are equivalant to dog shit on the sidewalk they should be brought up on charges I would like to bill them for the 5 hours and 18 people no lie that I spent on the phone with them on 7/7/08 I will be filing a complaint with them everyday until my contract has expired.

189. 189 On July 8th, 2008, Jason said:

     Oh and my normal bill for my PDA and other line is around 160 per month and they refuse to do anything.

190. 190 On July 31st, 2008, Sonny Leonard said:

     Its uncany that I am experiencing the same problen and hearing the same answers my problem is failed calls and the keep insisting I change sim cards. I conduct my buisness on my Blackberry T mobile support are very polite but I think they have no Idea what the problem is, but they all go into all the same answers, I wish I were another carrier

191. 191 On August 10th, 2008, Alisha said:

     Bitch bitch bitch. Moan moan. Whine whine. It’s whiner’s like ya’ll who make our jobs unbearable. You know the beauty of the whole thing? If I get an asshole on the phone and they are calling me a “dumb bitch” as I have before… I don’t even give a fuck about them beyond that point. In fact, I make it a goal NOT to help them simply because if a person can shit in my corn-flakes then guess who won’t be serving breakfast that morning…?

     If you people are so “business saavy” then you should know that pissing on someone who is about to help you is not the best way to get good service. In fact, I am only 21 and I know that for sake.

     I am in no way standing up for tmobile because I personally hate working for those corporate fat-cats who beat us reps into submission with their “guidelines” and factious working conditions…. but damn, you got beef with tmobile, leave it with tmobile and not innocent reps like me who had nothing to do with your stupid phone messing up because personally I am tired of the immature whining…

     Oh, and another thing: Don’t call in bitching because your dumbass bought a 400 dollar PDA for your 10 year old son who broke it within a week. 10 year old kids are KIDS… getta a jitterbug retards.

192. 192 On August 11th, 2008, Maggie May said:

     alisha, get help. Of course, you are just the messenger. No matter t mobile sucks.

193. 193 On August 11th, 2008, Maggie May said:

     I called tonight after the home phone just stopped working. I was told it would be a hour wait time. I am returning all equipment and new phones tomorrow. Unfortunately I am still locked into another 9 months on a contract. I hear they now prorate the service, but my guess that is on new contracts. No matter, we are in the market for better service. Keep the faith everyone! And Alisha, I hope you find a happier work enviroment, you deserve it.

194. 194 On September 13th, 2008, Kole Whalen said:

     Umm…. Did you ever consider changing what you say in the automated system? Support? Support for what? Geez I can’t imagine why you wouldnt go straight to a technician? DUH!!! When I need help with my Blackberry I say “PDA” or “Blackberry” and I go straight to that level of technical support. I also call at night, after work, meetings, appointments, kids, etc. That way I have time to actualy resolve the issue. And the issue is usually something I have screwed up! I have really been happy with Tmobile and they speak English!

195. 195 On September 17th, 2008, Lynn said:

     Wow…my questions have been more than answered. I have noticed over the past year a constant and high flow of job postings in my area of expertise (OD, HRD) from T-Mobile. There was an apparent revolving door in that function which caught my eye even though I wasn’t actively job hunting. Today, because I’m now relocating to the Seattle area and am doing job market research, I Googled “T-Mobile corporate culture” and landed here. As I said above…wow. Suspicions confirmed.

196. 196 On September 18th, 2008, pete said:

     T mobile service contract available. Take over my contract for $39.95 a month for 1,000 minutes. Unlimited free nights and weekends. Contract would be renewable 3/2010. Seller wants to switch to an Iphone with the only carrier (ATT).

     Cheapest contract today is 600 minutes per month for that price. I am asking $25 for this conversion that would include a Samsung (T-mobile) mobile phone that is capable of internet access, instant messages, camera and much more.
     The phone is a Samsung slider model 690. It is very similar to the phone pictured in this link. http://www.samsungmobileusa.com/SCH-r610.aspx

     Call Pete at or
     

197. 197 On October 2nd, 2008, fred said:

     I worked at Tmobile tech support (tier 2) for about a year, I know exactly what’s going on. By the time you got to “real” tech support (after going through clueless customer service–the one that told you to call IT which was incorrect), he determined though troubleshooting that this may have been a network error. In order to have the network fixed, a trouble ticket must be filed with the NOC (network operating center). The NOC only deals with GPS network issues, not issues with a faulty device or SIM card. So, to make sure that it is not the devices fault and Tmobile is not bothering the NOC with issues that are device related, extensive troubleshooting must be done. Since it was already done, but the trouble ticket was closed, they needed to do a brand new trouble ticket. They apparently understood that you did the troubleshooting, and believed that you did (you were lucky, sometimes they don’t, and I’ve gotten in trouble for ‘believing’ people), but the Tier 2 agent could not transfer to ATSG (advanced support) while you were talking on your device. That’s because you cannot do troubleshooting on your device or the call will drop (they usually reset your network connection, which would drop you). You were almost home free, the tier 2 tech guy could have called you back on a land line and got you to advanced support. BUT here’s the thing: I doubt a trouble ticket was even needed. It probably wasn’t a network issue. It doesn’t say in your blog that they gave you a new sim card (which could have cost you nothing due to the inconvenience). I’m pretty sure it was your SIM card or your device, which could have been tested using a different T-mobile phone (you can go to the store and test your sim on a different phone, usually they just give you a new one)

198. 198 On October 2nd, 2008, fred said:

     oh yeah, about the phone number/ssn verification….. totally necessary. There’s a little pop-up at the bottom right of the screen that indicates you have already verified. But, call center reps are so used to verifying that it’s a habit, or they just want to cover their own ass (since the rep can get in trouble if it’s not properly verified). When I worked in Tier 2 support (we usually only got transfers), I never asked to re verify, only by name (to make sure the info popped up correctly). I was rare though

199. 199 On October 13th, 2008, Lori Pietro said:

     I have been to hell and back with T-Mobile. I just switched to Verizon - Thank God!!!!

200. 200 On October 15th, 2008, Maggie May said:

     I have moved 2 phones on our plan from T-Mobile. Just 6 more months of this for my phone, then we are done with them!

201. 201 On October 21st, 2008, Alisha said:

     We all know what it feels like. You ring the bank or building society and an automated voice tells you to press a dozen buttons on your telephone keypad, then you listen to ‘Greensleeves’ for 10 minutes and finally hear the dreaded recorded message: ‘You are held in a queue, your call will be answered shortly…’ By the time a human being answers, your stress levels are sky high.

     Now spare a thought for the person on the other end of the telephone. You could be the 500th disgruntled customer they have had to deal with today, while staring nonstop at a computer screen on long shifts without proper breaks and under constant surveillance.

     Call centres – where often huge teams of people handle a never-ending flow of customers’ calls – have been described as ’21st century sweat shops’ and modern-day ‘dark satanic mills’, while their workers have been called ‘battery hens’ and ‘galley slaves’. Horror stories, which have recently come to light, include tales of managers who threaten staff with wearing disposable nappies if they visit the toilet too often, and the worker who was disciplined for taking two six-second breaks between calls. It is no wonder some call centre staff report high levels of stress and anxiety.

     Yet at the same time, some centres are being held up as model employers and trade unions are driving hard for improvements. So what are the stress facts about call centres?

     The results are outlined in a TUC report, ‘Calls for Change’, published in April 2001. It highlighted the following complaints:

     extreme monitoring of work
     staff being timed over how often they go to the toilet and how long they spend there
     staff having to ask permission to go to the toilet and being hauled in front of bosses to explain why they go so often
     inadequate or no breaks
     stress and other health problems.

     One in four people (25%) who called the TUC hotline complained about excessive monitoring. Telephone conversations were recorded and timed, and supervisors complained if staff deviated from a set script or took too long on a call. Some staff reported being set time limits of as little as two minutes 28 seconds for each call. Several call centres had ’shame boards’ where names of staff who failed to meet targets were pinned.

     Many staff said trips to the toilet were monitored and timed. Callers from two separate companies said managers brought in disposable nappies and threatened staff with being forced to wear one if they spent too long in the toilet. Some staff had to ask permission to get a drink of water and others had to pay for disposable cups.

     Lack of breaks was the complaint made by 15.5% of callers. For many staff this means no control over the flow of calls. As soon as one conversation is finished, the computer routes through the next. Staff say there is no time to take stock, even after an abusive call. Some workers complained they had only 75 minutes break during a 12-hour shift, while others said they worked without any breaks, in contravention of the European Working Time Directive, which entitles workers to a 20 minute break after six hours.

     A study of call centre conditions, by the Health and Safety Executive in 1999, identified insufficient breaks and repetitive work as significant problems. The research, published as guidance called Initial Advice regarding Call Centre Working Practices, found staff complained the job was monotonous rather than stressful. But the researchers identified several stress symptoms including headaches, migraines, high sickness rates and high turnover.

     A further study by the HSE, published in 2001, found half of call centre staff had their performance continually monitored by electronic systems – a practice many workers say they find stressful. About four out of five staff had the duration of their calls and the time lags between them monitored. Over half the staff interviewed had to ‘hot desk’. Following this research, the HSE has issued advice on improving working conditions and reducing stress in call centres.

     Sol Mead, senior national officer with public service union UNISON, which represents many call centre staff, says some companies provide good conditions and try to alleviate stress. But too many still have oppressive regimes.

     ‘Quite often you see companies who want people to answer calls quicker and quicker and quicker,’ he says. ‘Computers monitor how many calls individuals take in an hour, how long they take and how long people are waiting. These measurements can be used against people if they are not taking enough calls. That is where the stress and the pressure comes.’

     ‘In a sense it is almost a galley slave situation, where you are constantly under pressure to answer calls,’ he adds.

     -
     Got this from this link:
     http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/0-9/4health/stress/saw_callcenter.html

     I work for tmobile pda tech support and this above is sadly true…

     I am not saying that tmobile is a great provider. I agree… they suck the big time. But keep in mind those reps you are speaking with are humans who are going through much of what is in that article…

     We did not cause your problem or break your phone, but yet when you get mad at tmobile, you yell at reps like we have not already got the most stressful and depressing job working in a fascious call center with grueling, sometimes overflowing call queues (which by the way, with too many calls in the queue, we get breaks and lunches taken away until the calls are clear…), not enough breaks, and highly stressful work hours…

     So when you are hanging with your buds, eating popcorn on a saturday, drinking some beer, and you call in to scream at our reps about [insert problem here] keep in mind that we are not machines… we have feelings. We will help you if we can but for god’s sake, don’t treat us like dirt.

202. 202 On October 23rd, 2008, Lloyd Caraway said:

     This was my 2nd call in which we repeated the same stuff as before what you cannot see is the 2- 5 minutes system lag between me typing a response and Justin’s response:

     Please wait while we find an agent to assist you…
     You have been connected to Justin T.
     Justin T: Hi. My name is Justin. How may I assist you today?
     lloyd Caraway: I have been trying to get brickbreaker reinstalled all day.
     Justin T: I understand how that can make your day so boring, so I’m going to do everything I can to get this fixed for you.
     Justin T: You’ll actually have to use your Aplication Loader on te Balckberry Desktop Manager.
     lloyd Caraway: not boring. frustrating.
     lloyd Caraway: downloaded it
     lloyd Caraway: there is no brickbreaker on any menu on app loader
     Justin T: When you got your phone, it had Brickbreaker on there right?
     lloyd Caraway: yeah it stopped working properly and one of your associates had me delete it’
     lloyd Caraway: why does it take you guys so long to type?
     Justin T: What you’ll need to do is backup your information into the Blackberry Desktop and do a hard reset.
     lloyd Caraway: yeah - I’m betting that is a long thing to do
     Justin T: No, sir. It only takes a couple of minutes.
     lloyd Caraway: my phone is connected to the computer right now
     Justin T: Ok.
     lloyd Caraway: Justin it takes you one minute to type “OK”. I’m not encouraged
     Justin T: Our system has a lag in it.
     lloyd Caraway: fine let’s do it
     Justin T: Do you need instructions?
     lloyd Caraway: yes. I need you to walk me through it because written instructions have not worked yet
     lloyd Caraway: has anyone gotten pregnant and then given birth during your system lag?
     Justin T: Click the backup and restore icon
     Justin T: Click backup.
     Justin T: Select the file name and location.
     lloyd Caraway: done
     lloyd Caraway: which file name
     Justin T: Click save.
     lloyd Caraway: ?
     lloyd Caraway: ?
     Justin T: What choices do you have?
     Justin T: Select the one with today’s date
     lloyd Caraway: backup 2008 10-22
     Justin T: Right.
     Justin T: Then click save.
     lloyd Caraway: saved/backed up
     Justin T:
     lloyd Caraway: now what?
     Justin T: Remove the batery with the device on.
     lloyd Caraway: theres a skin on so I have to unplug the utb ok?
     Justin T: Okay. Take your time.
     lloyd Caraway: ok done
     Justin T: Have you reinserted the battery?
     lloyd Caraway: nope
     Justin T: Go ahead and insert it.
     lloyd Caraway: ok done
     Justin T: Let me know when It powers back on.
     lloyd Caraway: hourglass
     Justin T: Awesome!
     lloyd Caraway: my guess is that this will totally roin my phone if history is a teacher. ha
     lloyd Caraway: ruin
     lloyd Caraway: ok home screen is on’
     Justin T: Ok. Go ahead and reconnect your device to the computer.
     lloyd Caraway: I never disconnected it
     Justin T: Does it show it up that it is disconnected?
     Justin T: or connected?
     lloyd Caraway: how can i tell
     Justin T: Diconnect it and reconnect it for me please.
     lloyd Caraway: ok it says connected to compuer
     Justin T: Awesome! Click the Backup and Restore icon.
     Justin T: The ‘Backup and Restore’ window appears.
     Justin T: Click Restore.
     lloyd Caraway: next
     Justin T: Find the .ipd file that contains the backup data you want to restore.
     lloyd Caraway: where do i find that?
     Justin T: It should have the date.
     lloyd Caraway: Back up 2008 10 22?
     Justin T: Right!
     lloyd Caraway: click Open?
     Justin T: Click Open.
     Justin T: Click Yes to proceed.
     lloyd Caraway: there is no yes
     lloyd Caraway: it says it will remove all these files
     lloyd Caraway: there’s “OK”
     Justin T: Give me one moment. Okay?
     Justin T: Is it talking about from your device or your computer?
     lloyd Caraway: it shows “Warning!” and then a list of everything on my blackberry
     lloyd Caraway: On the device
     Justin T: Are you sure that you clicked the Backup and Restore button?
     lloyd Caraway: caches, bookmarks
     lloyd Caraway: you said restore. that’s what I clicked
     Justin T: After you did the hard reset, did Brickbreaker come back?
     lloyd Caraway: I just cancled out. shall I click it again and see what comes u[p?
     lloyd Caraway: nope
     Justin T: Yes, sir.
     lloyd Caraway: how about “advanced”?
     Justin T: Go ahead and cancel it out.
     lloyd Caraway: ok
     lloyd Caraway: when I backed up data, brickbreaker wouldn’t be on there because I deleted it this morninbg
     Justin T: That’s correct.
     lloyd Caraway: that was what your counterpart told me to do
     Justin T: We’re going to run the aplication loader to reinstall Brickbreaker.
     lloyd Caraway: ok
     Justin T: Click Application Loader if the pop-up window does not appear.
     lloyd Caraway: ok for about the tenth time it’s loading
     Justin T: We haven’t tried doing the Application loader yet.
     lloyd Caraway: It says “Add” but there are no files to add. Benn here for the millionth time
     lloyd Caraway: before I got hold of you
     Justin T: I didnt know that.
     Justin T: Is that the only option it gives you?
     lloyd Caraway: I have read every information on line in the bokk what have you
     lloyd Caraway: yeah, I have done this a bunch
     lloyd Caraway: no option
     Justin T: Do you see an Action column?
     lloyd Caraway: it says choose the application but there are no choices
     lloyd Caraway: yep, it’s empty
     lloyd Caraway: Justin, your lag time is driving me crazy
     Justin T: I’m sorry sir, but I’m going to have to research the issue further, because the options you’re getting shouldn’t be options.
     lloyd Caraway: by the way. I don’t drink or do drugs and I’m fairly smart
     lloyd Caraway: I have to let my dog out be right back
     lloyd Caraway: I’m back
     Justin T: Does it ask you to add a specific thing or do you have an option that says continue or next?
     lloyd Caraway: it has an “add” button and then an empty screen below
     Justin T: Click add.
     lloyd Caraway: it gives me files that are on my computer and unrelated to BB
     lloyd Caraway: Blackberry
     Justin T: I thought you said there was an empty screen.
     lloyd Caraway: when I click “add” it brings up a new window that contains fles that are on my computer
     lloyd Caraway: my photos, my music etc
     Justin T: The aplication Loader wouldn’t bring anything up that pertains to your computer files, only files that pertain to your Blackberry.
     lloyd Caraway: well it sure does
     Justin T: I beleive you’re still in Backup and restore. Do you have any options?
     lloyd Caraway: when I click app loader it loads the screen with nothing in it
     lloyd Caraway: while its loading it says java etc. “welcome to application loading wizard
     Justin T: You’re going to have to uninstall BB (Blackberry) Desktop Manager. Then reintall it, because it’s not functioning correctly.
     lloyd Caraway: then “next”
     Justin T: click next
     lloyd Caraway: then java
     Justin T: click
     lloyd Caraway: then empty “add” screen
     Justin T: Are you still under warranty?
     lloyd Caraway: it also says “total application space 0K
     lloyd Caraway: zero kilobytes
     Currently experiencing network delays, one moment please….
     Network connection re-established.
     lloyd Caraway: oh man….the blackberry is less than a month old…are you going to tell me to take it in to a store?
     Justin T: I’m doing some research right now.
     lloyd Caraway: because there is no reason to have spent hours today messing with this if you are
     lloyd Caraway: Brickbreaker isn’t that entertaining. now it’s about the principal of the thing
     lloyd Caraway: this stuff is supposed to work…the blackberry , online help T-Mobile…it’s all supposed to help not make me crazy
     Justin T: Do you see any arrows moving on your BB (Blackberry) screen?
     lloyd Caraway: not moving but they are there
     lloyd Caraway: can you disable the system lag?
     Justin T: Your phone is receiving service books. Your phone may freeze for a couple of seconds. Check to see if the game is there.
     lloyd Caraway: it’s been frozen for more that two minutes now I cannot make it go away
     lloyd Caraway: still frozen
     Justin T: Turn it off and unplug it from the computer.
     lloyd Caraway: in that order because it won’t turn off with it plugged in
     Justin T: unpug it first then take the battery out.
     lloyd Caraway: OK it’s off
     lloyd Caraway: battery oout
     Justin T: Turn it back on and make sure its not plugged into his computer
     Justin T: When it boots back up check and see if you have brickbreaker.
     lloyd Caraway: ok its booting
     Justin T: Awesome
     lloyd Caraway: and booting…
     lloyd Caraway: no brickbreaker
     Justin T: I do apologize that it didnt work, but I suggest you contact us at .
     lloyd Caraway: not on the applications list in advanced options either
     lloyd Caraway: Here’s what I think. I think Blackberry or T-Mobile should send someone by my officve and either bring me a new device or fix my brand new BB
     Justin T: Try uninstalling BB (blackberry) Desktop manager first and then reinstall it.
     lloyd Caraway: nope. been there, done that
     lloyd Caraway: read the blogs about technical assistance sometime
     lloyd Caraway: it’s a real eye opener
     Justin T: I do apologize but theres nothin gelse we can do. In order for us to set up an exchange for your device you need to contact us at
     lloyd Caraway: gee, thanks a bunch Mr. Justin T. I really wanted to waste another three hours. Now you’re done???!!!
     lloyd Caraway: I don’t have a land line
     lloyd Caraway: I just have a cell
     Justin T: Sir, I apologize once more, but there is nothing else that I can do from you here. You can use your device to contact us by dialing 611 from your device.
     lloyd Caraway: AMAZING!
     Justin T: Is there anything else we can assist you with today?
     lloyd Caraway: YEAH, PAY MY OCTOBER BILL
     Justin T: You’ll have to contact financial care for any billing issues.
     Justin T: Is there anything else we can assist you with today?
     lloyd Caraway: How reasonable. OK. Not your fault but the disconnect here is just mind boggling
     lloyd Caraway: Have a nice vening
     Justin T: You too sir!
     Justin T:
     lloyd Caraway: you know my number. give it to someone that can do me a equalizing service for my trouble
     Justin T: Unfortunately, I can’t give your number to anybody here. It’s against T-Mobile’s policy. If you have any further questions you’ll have to call in?

203. 203 On October 23rd, 2008, M T Martin said:

     Went through a horrendous time when my phone was stolen

     6 calls to a the Customer Services team
     1 call to a retail store

     Was promised reconnection in 24 hours it took 5 days.

     Not surprised they are lingering at the bottom of the UK market

204. 204 On October 27th, 2008, Lee said:

     I was dropped from their service in June of this year because they lost the contract with the tower I use. I was told I would not be charged any fees for breaking contract because I wasn’t the one breaking it. So I waited for my final bill, and yup on it were 4 charges of 200 bucks for contract fee. I called them, spent 2 hours on hold, finally got someone, told me they would fix it and send me a new bill. Got another bill, samething. I called them again, samething all over again. Didn’t get anything from them. Called, samething again. And now it’s Oct. they’ve sent it to collections for 800 bucks. Still telling me they will fix it. Saying now they have to reverse it from collections and review why the charges were not taken off correctly. They’re crooks. Writing it off to get their money that I don’t even owe, thinking I’ll pay it to save my credit. I have contacted the BBB. But I don’t know what else to do. This HAS to be Illegal!!!

205. 205 On October 28th, 2008, chris said:

     I have been with T-Mobile for 2 years and I have a family plan. I have an expensive Nokia phone which is the biggest piece of shit/hassel. My brother has the same exact thing and we have the same exact problems. Here are the problems: Battery Life last about 12 hours, reception is horrible, dropped calls at least 1 out of every 5 phone calls, The battery falls off the phone and what baffels me is that they put the camera on the side of the phone. I HATE T MOBILE AND CAN’T WAIT FOR MY CONTRACT TO END. CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR T MOBILE IS HORRIBLE.

206. 206 On October 31st, 2008, zane rankin said:

     My problem with Tmobile is that I have been a customer for 8 years, do you know anyone who has stayed with the same carrier for so long. My place of business was relocated to an area that T Mobile does not service, unable to use my phone at work(which in my business is a necessity) I had to switch carriers, I, had 2 months left on the agreement. So after 8 years of being a loyal customer, their sales rep tells me too bad you signed a contract, now I understand this, but when T Mobile is no longer able to offer me service in an area where I NEED coverage, and they expect me to pay a $200.00 cancellation fee for service they can not give me. If I was simply changing carriers I can see this, but not when TMobile can not service me. Stay away from Tmobile and stick with ATT or Verizon two superior companies.
     Don’t bother talking to the morons hired to answer the phones ask directly for customer complaiint.

207. 207 On November 11th, 2008, Edward Sharp said:

     I wrote a hand written letter to:
     Robert Dotson
     12920 SE 38th St
     Bellevue WA 98006

     Don’t know if good ol Bob ever read it, but Vince with the “Office of the President” called me. Didn’t do a damn thing to ease the pain of dealing with T-Mobile. They’re still charging me for an account that isn’t mine. There’s a phone number out there in my name, but no one has ever made or received a single call on it. It’s been out there for two or three months now. Someone somewhere was high on crack when they put my order through, and gave me a new account. They won’t shut it off and they won’t stop charging me either. I’ve stopped paying my bill until they fix this. I hate T-Mobile with every ounce of my being.

208. 208 On November 11th, 2008, Edward Sharp said:

     Forgot to add, if you go on the T-Mobile website or search the net, get the names of as many execs from T-Mobile you can. Their template for email is
     I’ve sent email to and the “Office of the President” mentions my emails when we speak, so they get through. Everyone with a complaint send good ol Bob a thank you for great customer service. Oh, and send him a link to this website.

209. 209 On November 12th, 2008, mike said:

     i have no service at home so what good is this phone and t mobile say’s sorry but you can cancle for $200 ,this is a GREAT customer service the next time i walk by t mobile in the mall and they ask who is your server look out

210. 210 On November 12th, 2008, mike said:

     O i forgot to say my wife called fcc.gov and say’s that every one should call them and let’s make life for t mobile as good as there sevice

211. 211 On November 14th, 2008, Bernita said:

     Telephone Bill Complaint

     On or about July 29, 2008, I came in contact with a t-mobile employee through instant messaging (IM) offering his discount of $800.00 to get the t-mobile dash and the sidekick for cash of $550.00. The employee credit my t-mobile account with $800.00, instructed me how to order both phones and gave me the UPS telephone number to track the order. Employer then instructed where and who to send the $550.00 by western union using the name of Alex Rivera, Bronx, NY and gave me the secret question code “What is my favorite movie, answer: None and I would receive both cell phones the next day. I question if this was a scam and if this would come to bite later in the long run. Employer stated no, assured me that it was not and to prove it, stated, he was a t-mobile employee and was working therefore, the transaction would show up on my account as him making such transactions on my t-mobile account. After sending the $550.00 by western union, all went well. I got both cell phones the next day and my account had a credit of $800.00. The next month September 2008, I received a bill for over $1000.00 and my service was interrupted. I call to question why was my service off and why was my bill over $1000.00. Representative stated that the two payments totaling $800.00 did not clear and was returned and in order to discuss the account I would have to pay the bill in full. I told them I did not make the payment that was returned, I explained and representative referred to the fraud unit. Every since my service has been interrupted every month, I have been speaking with different reps in the fraud department each explaining the situation. On November 13, 2008 my service was interrupted again and in order to have my service restored I had to pay the bill in full and I decline to do so. I spoke with another rep and she stated that her manager would agree to restore my service and credit me for the $550.00 providing that I fax proof of the western union money transfer and make and set up payment arrangements on the cell phones as follow to come out of my bank account: $350 on 11/24, $200 on 12/5, $200 on 12/19 and $220 on 1/2/09. I feel that I should not have to pay for these phones simply because the employer backed out his discount after he received the cash funds and reneged on the deal using his discount. I will be speaking with a lawyer and fight this to the end. If you look on my account the employer name is noted as to handling this transaction and he should be the one to be charged with fraud, larceny with t-mobile and should be the one to pay for these cell phones, not me. I do not want to lose my t-mobile account but if I have not heard from someone in the t-mobile legal or fraud department before the payment of $350 is due to be paid I will be taking my complaint to an attorney. I have also been told by the various reps in customer care and in the fraud unit that my service would not be interrupted until they have completed the investagation and solved it, well, that have not happened either, my service has been interrupted every month and problem still have not been solved.

212. 212 On November 18th, 2008, Soon to be a former Tmo rep said:

     Sure is a lot of whining going on here. Some I can understand but some is just BS. If you want good service treat the rep like a human being. They can’t help you when you are ranting on about how they CAN’T POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND, and so and so company sucks etc etc. After the first month or two on the phones you get confident. After three to four months you get good at dealing with it and then after about six months you spend every day wishing you could just get off the effing phone so you don’t have to get yelled at for half of your day. Why does calling your provider suck? Cause anyone worth a damn can find something better and not have to deal with with your attitude. I’ve loved working for T-mobile. Their commitment to their customers and employees is a lot better than any of the other wireless companies. I’ve dealt with all of them and seen how they act. I love half my day but the other half isn’t worth it.

213. 213 On November 21st, 2008, jax said:

     tmobile is one of the worst communication providers and has most of the worst customer care employees i have ever had to deal with.i challenge anyone who is buying a communication service not to purchase tmobile stock at any cost.bye.

214. 214 On November 21st, 2008, John Mills said:

     HELP ME !!! WE MUST BRING TMOBILE TO THEIR KNEES !!!!!! I HATE THEM I HATE THEM I F***** HATE THEM …… AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

215. 215 On December 10th, 2008, Anna said:

     I HATE TMOBILE! Cancelled with them in August was told that my account has to be cancelled for 3 months before I get my refund!!!
     Well, it’s December no refund in the mail .. so I had to CALL THEM! The rep said that I already been refunded in September! She is then reading the notes of the call I did then.. since when I did cancel in August the person Did NOT cancel the auto-pay so it was taken out in September.. yeah, I called them and thru alot of frustration got refunded right away!
     Anyway supposedly now the refund had been processed.. and to expect a check in the mail in 5-7 business days… Oh I hope so! So I don’t have to call them ever again!!!!

216. 216 On December 11th, 2008, Dave Erickson said:

     Please wait while we find an agent to assist you…
     You have been connected to John D.
     Dave Erickson: Hello
     John D: Hello Dave, my name is John and I am reviewing your note and assist you in a few minutes.
     John D: I understand you would like to know how to return your G1 phone. I am happy to assist you immediately.
     John D: May I ask for a minute so that I can open your account?
     Dave Erickson: Please
     John D: May I ask for the last 4 digits of your SSN for account verification?
     Dave Erickson: ****
     John D: Thank you, may I ask for a couple of minutes to review your account?
     Dave Erickson: Sure
     John D: You can return us the handset within 14 days from date of receiving it. The handset was shipped to you on October 25th. You have already passed the buyer’s remorse period.
     John D: Is there anyway we can do to keep you happy with the phone?
     Dave Erickson: I would have returned it the same day I received it save for the following facts - (i) There are no return instructions in the package, (ii) there are not return instructions online, (iii) the local store will not take it, (iv) the local store does not know how to return it, and (v) I travel a lot. I have many hours into trying to do this. You make it IMPOSSIBLE to do!
     Dave Erickson: I cannot devote myself 24×7 to this task.
     Dave Erickson: The phone is useless as a business device
     John D: The phone package shows you how to return the handset. You can do as simple as chating with us and we can help you. The local dealers should be able to tell you how to return us the handset.
     Dave Erickson: I am sorry, it does not. The local dealers do not know how to do it.
     Dave Erickson: Please tell me where on the package
     Dave Erickson: I have all the original packaging in front of me.
     John D: I do not have your package in front of me. But if you can contact us just the way you chat with me, you will know how to return us the handset. You can drop the package off at a UPS drop box or UPS store. If UPS drop box or UPS store is not convenient, you can call 1-800-PICK-UPS to arrange package pickup of refused package.
     Dave Erickson: I did not refuse it. I tried it and did not like it.
     Dave Erickson: There are ZERO instructions on how to return the phone, ANYWHERE.
     Dave Erickson: I am chatting with you out of desperation.
     Dave Erickson: I have tried everything else
     John D: As a consumer myself, I perfectly understand your difficulty. But there is nothing I could do because I still need to follow the Handset Returned Policy and your request is beyond my scope of support. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you!
     Dave Erickson: That is fine. Please cancel my T-Mobile accounts immediately.
     John D: If you have issues with your G1 phone, I can connect you to our Technical Support team. They can help you and even replace you another handset.
     John D: You are still under a contract. If you cancel your account now, you will incur an early termination fee of $200.00 per line.
     Dave Erickson: It is not a technical issue. The phone does not work well for my purposes, no POP mail, etc.
     John D: Request for cancellation must be processed over the phone to ensure that your request is completed promptly. You may call our Customer Care representative at or dial 611 and then press “SEND” on your handset.
     Dave Erickson: Whywould all my lines still be undre contract?
     Dave Erickson: The only reason I extended ONE of them is because it was necessary to get this phone that doesn’t work.
     Dave Erickson: That does not explain the other two.
     John D: You changed your plan on February 18, 2008. The new plan requires a one year contract for the lines.
     Dave Erickson: Good trick, get the contract extension before issuing a product, then refuse to return the product and charge a $600 fee for quitting the extension that was never used.
     Dave Erickson: How much does it cost me to wait until Feb 18 (assuming NO USAGE) before I quit you forever.
     John D: I know your frustration, Dave. But what would you like me to help you? If I can help you, I will do it.
     Dave Erickson: Please tell me my NO USAGE cost between now and February 18th, 2010.
     John D: Two of your lines will be up on February 18, 2009. The line ending in 6471 will be up by September 23, 2010.
     Dave Erickson: So what is the cost for the two lines to February 18th, 2009?
     John D: If you cancel the two lines now, you will incur an early termination fee for a total of $400.00.
     Dave Erickson: What if I pay them to February 18th, 2009? What is the cost?
     Dave Erickson: Asked a different way, what is the monthly cost of the two lines for two months?
     John D: Your monthly rate plan for the 3 lines is $79.99; your unlimited mobile to mobile is $9.99; your unlimited messaging feature is $19.95. In addition, the line 6477 is paying $9.99 per month to share the family plan. It is difficult to break up how the two lines will cost because you are on a family plan and services. You may need to decide what features you decide to keep or cancel for the two lines.
     Dave Erickson: What features can I cancel now
     Dave Erickson: Can I go to a lower plan?
     John D: If you do not need the messaging service and mobile to mobile, you can cancel them to save about 29.00 plus taxes per month. You can lower your plan from $79.99 to $59.99.
     Dave Erickson: Will this change my cancellation date?
     John D: But the $59.99 is not a myfaves plan. Fortunately, the $59.99 includes unlimited mobile to mobile, night and weekend in addition to 700 bucket minutes per month. But this plan requires a one year contract extension.
     Dave Erickson: I do not want to do anything that will extend my contract. I want to lower my cost to the minimum. I also have AT&T so I will use ZERO minutes. Please tell me what I can do. I have set a date on my calendar to go to the store and quit forever on February 18th. In the meantime, I want to minimize my cost with you thieves.
     John D: If you choose the Family 800 plan with unlimited weekend and mobile to mobile, you do not need to extend a one year contract. But the plan does not include unlimited night.
     Dave Erickson: I will not be using ANY minutes at all so I do not care.
     John D: The lowest family plan we currently have without a contract is the $69.99 plan.

217. 217 On December 12th, 2008, customer said:

     Never seen a big operator like T-online offering products that simply don’t work. I bought xtraCard (web’n'walk DayFlat) that is a excellent product: you can stay in the foreign country and use your own laptop. It has work in four different countries with local operators (and sims) where I have been, but T-Online service (and product) absolutely stinks. It just does not function at all. After contacting couple of times to the retail shops a same promise has always been given: “our customer service will call you back and give you instructions…” Guess how many time they have called so far…?

218. 218 On December 16th, 2008, Josie said:

     After what I’ve been through on the weekend and this morning with Tmobile, Im compelled to start “some kind of dependency” to take my mind off the BS I just encountered with customer service! Did I mention that this BS is inescapable too? Everyone that I talk to acts like a freakin’ stoner repeating things that have already been mentioned to them as if they’re really solving the problem! I have no response…I’m just a regular person - not a part of royalty, a Hollywood persona,or someone with a recognizable name. Because of those factors, I guess my money isn’t valued as much, so customer service isn’t quick to resolve matters concerning me. It seems that Tmobile is quick to offer ‘Im sorrys’ and ‘You are truly a valued customer-s’ - - but never offers actual solutions. What’s an average joe to do? This isn’t the first time big business has screwed me over. Perhaps all the fight has been squeezed out me. Having to concede when you KNOW you’re right - especially after paying your money - after you’ve invested in that business - It’s a sad sad thing to have to do.

219. 219 On December 30th, 2008, Maggie May said:

     Screw’em Josie. Leave them behind and get you an iphone with att. It is great. Small snafu on billing but quickly resolved. Weird that you can actually talk to a person pretty fast too. T Mobile will become the next charter cable…cheap stock, poor customer service. Hope they go out of business.

220. 220 On January 5th, 2009, shay said:

     Sean your such a douche. Like everyone else said verification is for the protection of ur acct. If that’s the case I could call in with your name and number and say “hi l’m Sean and I want to order 2 sidekicks just add it to my bill” the call is being transferred from one rep to the next who are in different call centers. Sometimes different countries…..
     When you go through trobleshooting process they have to ask you to powercycle your phone. The reason bc everytimme you powercyle your phone off and on it refresh itself back to the network. I’m a rep myself but like tech supprt says you cooperate with me then I cooperate with you. We are only human some problems cannot be fixed if you don’t comply. Especially if you sound irate when I am trying to help you. I am not the reason your phone is not working. They gave you the ticket number for a reason to call in and check on it and you let a few days pass and didn’t call. So they think the issue have been fixed. Trust me people who have a pleasent calm tone always get by with reps, and not just reps in life period.

221. 221 On January 6th, 2009, shannon said:

     I work in teh customer service industry, and the attitude of the reps on here is appalling. Nothing in Sean’s end of the conversation was inappropriate or untoward when you consider what he had already been through. He is the customer…the complications and depressing realities of working for T Mobile are NOT his problem. Neither should the reps’ and tech’s apparent incompetence be his problem. And my guess is that repeating his info only got progressively more annoying because he had to do it over and over while following up on a situation that should have already been resolved. I deal with customers face to face and on the phone every day, and short of screaming, name-calling, or definite sketchiness, I am patient with them because if we had done what we were supposed to do in the first place, they would not be calling or returning to the store.

222. 222 On January 27th, 2009, t-mo said:

     I just spent 1.5 hours on the phone with t-mobile, and I was ready to slit my own throat so I wouldn’t have to deal with them one minute more. I have been trying for two and a half weeks to obtain an unlock code for a phone I plan to take to europe. I have contacted them no fewer than 10 times - both emails and phone calls.

     after the initial request, I read their FAQ which said it could take up to a week. at the end of a week, I was told that my request hadn’t ‘gone through’ although I’d received a confirmation email with a case I.D. number. so far my request has been submitted four times.

     I am also sick of overseas call centers where the employees seem to think they’re being paid by the word — it takes them 3 paragraphs to convey information that should scarcely fill 3 sentences!

     if hell is customized for each of us, I will be spending eternity wrangling on a phone with a telco customer service rep, while first year violin students practice scales in the background.

223. 223 On January 31st, 2009, Morgan said:

     I called tmobile yesterday because another phone on my account was getting charged 20 cent for each text message sent out. They said the messages were international. But no one was texting an international number. So I explained my case to a woman representative. She told me she can’t do anything about it and I would have to just wait for my bill to come in order to do something. So yes, I got upset. I called back again and this time a man was helping me. I told him the situation and he went into details and was actually solving the problem. When he checked the account and saw that no one was texting anyone out of the country he immediately called his supervisor and showed him what was being charged to my account. The man politely fixed it and also credited my account the amount of money that they was charging me for the text messages. I do believe you have some lazy representatives who just go to work and just be there cause they have to be there and then you have other representatives who actually go to work to do their job. I do understand what sean is saying but dude u were being a total douche bag about the information stuff.

224. 224 On February 25th, 2009, maurie said:

     T-mobile is a rip off.

     Upon t-mobile’s recommendation I changed phone plans to save money. But instead i was charged 254 dolars in extra usage the first month. They refused to remove these charges although they suggested this plan.

     What ever happen to good will in business?

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