There are currently 187 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 co