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August 22, 2006
Going mobile against T-Mobile
A year ago, "Dell Hell" was the rant of an angry Dell customer that eventually spread across the Web. We found out later that "Dell Hell" was a leading indicator of bigger problems at the computer manufacturer, which eventually dedicated $100 million to rebuilding its customer service operation.
Matt Certo from Websolvers captured this pic in his office parking lot today. People on the fringes do fringe work but if I were at T-Mobile, I would consider the effort of this customer vigilante a leading indicator of bigger problems to start working on.
UPDATE: Jim Durbin says T-Mobile has less bad online buzz than the other cellular providers. And a T-Mobile corporate blogger weighs in on a comment to Jim's post.
Other blogs that reference Going mobile against T-Mobile:
» T-Mobile is the next worst practice from Emergence Marketing
When I saw the efforts of this T-Mobile user on the Church of the Customer blog I could so relate to it... I am a big T-Mobile user and when I thought about upgrading my BlackBerry the last time... [Read More]
» TMobile and Online Reputation Monitoring from Brandstorming
Online monitoring is a hot new (well, maybe not new, but definitely hot) topic for corporations interested in protecting their brand. Trademark and copyright lawyers make their dough protecting trademark infringement, but a new class of cyber-customer ... [Read More]
» Negative Mundpropaganda - jetzt auch in der Außenwerbung from Bernd Röthlingshöfer,
Ja über Blogs und Foren kann man schlechte Erfahrungen weitergeben. Ganz klar. Und es wird ja auch bereits massenhaft getan. Aber dieser neue Ansatz ist auch nicht zu verachten. Vor allem weil er auch die Menschen erreicht, die sich wenig [Read More]
» Citizen Evangelist Link Post 2006-08-24 from Citizen Evangelist
A good citizen is well read. Here’s what I’m consuming today:
Assumptions have a sell by date - Creating Passionate Users
We cant expect to innovate new products, services, techniques, etc. without challenging our assumptions. Have some o... [Read More]
» T-Mobile and Why We Don't Piss Off Our Customers from CustomersAreAlways
The Church of the Customer Blog points out this picture taken by Matt Certo of blog.web solvers. See - this is why you dont want to piss off a customer. Personally, Ive had no experience with T-Mobile, but I have... [Read More]
You do not really deserve to hear customer service stories from Germany...
I did some analysis on the numbers for "T-Mobile sucks and got a T-Mobile blogger (and friend of mine) to respond on my blog.
As with Comcast, the question is not whether T-mobile is bad or good, but how popular the story gets based on the public's dislike for the industry.
Companies in tough industries need to know that it's not enough to be the least worst in a bad industry. They need to be proactive in reaching out to customers, or find themselves on the 6 0'clock news.
Jens -- Give us a hint. Good, bad or ugly?
When it comes to Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile's parent company), you rarely hear something good - sure bet that they're just "too big to create a good user experience". They just create anything, and ship it with bombastic marketing.
Hopefully, that changes soon, as it /will/ change someday.
Great articel with good information thank you.
I've been traveling and haven't had the time to respond to this as quickly as I'd hoped. However, I will say, it is a bummer when you can't please every customer - and I'm saying that sincerely.
But I do disagree with Ben's comment about T-Mobile being "too big to create a good user experience." Whether that's true in Europe or not, I don't know. But in the USA, T-Mobile is known for it's customer service (even in an industry that's not known for it's service).
C'mon, Ben - we'll take the bad when it's due, but give us the love as well when it's deserved :)
http://recruitersdumpingground.blogspot.com/2006/07/you-gotta-love-somebody.html
Dennis
i hate inode they also sucks!http://blog.herrderringe.at/user/admin/no-inode-small.jpg
A very good and sophisticated article.
Thank you!
T-Mobile has horrible stateside service! Ifit hadn't happened to me I wouldn't believe how rude the t-mobile reps can be. I loved service from them, until I had a real complaint and began to be lied to. I won't say another company is any better. But you must read it, and you probably need to experience it to believe it.
http://ihatet-mobile.blogspot.com/
T-Mobil Slam Sellers T Mobil will slam you into a contract if you buy a new phone and are a current T-Mobil customer. I also changed my plan and I got slammed for another year, so now I’m a happy T-Mobil client for three years. I noticed I was paying $150.00 per month for over 2,000 T-mobil minutes and was only using 500 T mobil minutes minutes. I feel as if I’m stuck for life. It is now July 21, 2007 and I’m in a contract until sometime in July 2009 with T-Mobil. I then switch back to a lower plan and they said they had to lock my rate in for an additional year. T-Mobil is a German company ripping off as much money from American consumers as possible. Stop sending hard earned American dollars to Germany Keep them in America. Stop paying T-Mobil… What a rip off T-Mobil.
T-mobile sucks!!!
I have been a T-mobile customer for more than 2 years now. I changed my phone number 3 weeks ago since I moved to a different state. After the change, I realized that I couldn't receive international calls. I called T-mobile and they said I should wait 72 hours, so that the whole system could be updated. I waited and waited and waited..nothing changed! I called them again, then they started testing to see what is wrong with the phone and the new number! After talking to 3 different representatives on the phone and spending more than 3 hours answering the same stupid questions (what is the model of your phone, what problems are you facing, do you know what is a simcard? did you try it in a different phone, etc.) they said they could not solve the problem and that they have to report it to their engineers, so I got a ticket number. 2 days passed, nothing changed! I sent them an email..didn't get a response. At the 4th day after getting the ticket I called them again..First, I was told they don't see a ticket issued, but I had the number written down!! It took them a while to find the ticket. Later, the representative told me that I haven't called them for the past 4 day! Duhh?? Do I need to call you every single day, couple times a day? Is that how you work? No solving problems without talking to angry customers..Is that your engineers' motivation for problem solving? Finally, I was told that the engineers are still working on the problem, but couldn't figure out what is wrong..they said it might take up to 11 days! I told them I want to cancel my contract, but the answer was I should pay for the cancellation fees since my contract will normally end in November.
Anyways, this thing continued for 17 days! They offered me to buy Hot Spot from T-mobile. The T-mobile representative said having Hot Spot might solve the problem. I should give a try. How is that related to my problem???? They even said the problem is not T-mobile's, the people who are trying to call me should talk to their local providers, and the local provider should contact T-mobile. I was really mad when they told me that..Are you kidding me? Is this a joke? My parents were able to call me before I changed my phone number and they can still call any number in US but me!!! and T-mobile says Turkish Telecom needs to fix it, it is Turkish Telecom's fault.
Overall, T-mobile was not able to fix the problem and offered me to give a new number. The new number seems to work fine and I can receive international calls. The change happened very recently, but this time I started receiving calls from people I don't know and they want to talk to Janine. I believe she is the previous owner of the line. We'll see what happens next. The lesson from this is; think more than twice if you are planning to get a T-mobile plan or planning to renew your current contract. You understand how good these companies are at customer service or how much they value their customers only when you experience problems with them. T-mobile customer service sucks! I am very disappointed with them. I am stuck with T-mobile until November but you don’t have to be.
I have had a technical problem with TMobile and have had the same experience with customer service. It starts off nice and the problem seemed to be solved but the problems was back within 4 hours of getting off the phone with Tech Support. Phone is behaving as if it is off with calls going straight to voice mail even though I have the phone on and there is plenty of signal and I have moved around in a 75 mile range. Now I am a "ticket" person with 11 days to wait. I have spent over seven hours over 12 days with these techs. I've switched to a differnet phone, got a new sim card, reverted to factory settings, blah,blah,blah. They wont' let me out of my contract. They won't let me talk to someone above them. I am a 4 year customer with a very high rate plan and now I have had it.
Let me start by saying that I was totally happy with my service and customer service up until last month when I received a letter stating that on 3/11/08 my service would be terminated because of too much roaming.
I called customer service immediately and explained that I had a 2 year contract, and they said I only signed a 1 yr contract. Luckily I keep copies of everything and told them I had it in front of me.
The CSR told me if I would take the contract to a T-Mobile retail store they would verify it and see what they would do.
On 3/1/08 I drove to Muskogee Ok to the retail store on Shawnee Dr. Showed them my contract and they in turn made a copy. The rep at the store agreed that it was a 2 yr contract and called (she said customer service). they told her I only had a 1 year contract, the Rep told them that she had a copy of the contract and it INDEED was a 2 yr contract.
At this point I asked if they were going to honor the contract until Aug of 2008 or not. Everyone agreed that it would be honored until that time.
I left the store satisfied that it would be honored until the end of my contract and I understand that at that time it would not be renewed, and while not happy I understood why.
Had I know it would not be honored until the end of the contract I could have taken other options to get a cell phone from another company and ported my number.
All I request of T-mobile is to honor their contract and keep it on until the expiration of such contract, OR send me a check for $200.00
(the cost of me breaking the contract if I would have terminated early). I, and others have read the contract and cannot find any provision for T-mobile to cancel the contract before the expiration date.
I talked to a Diana this morning her employee number given me was 452525 she stated her supervisor most likely would not talk to me.
Dear Ms. Susan Nokes, Chief Customer and Operations Officer, T-Mobile,
I am sure that you recognize T-Mobile does not always provide a dropped-call-free service. Because of this, customer service is important.
I have been a customer of T-Mobile for many years longer than my account shows, 5 years. I have had to speak with customer service personnel in the past to request credit for dropped calls and my having had to reconnect which has resulted in additional minute charges to my account.
Today, the customer service personnel were mis-interpreting T-Mobile policy attempting to tell me that credit is not given when calls are dropped unless they are dropped within one or two minutes of FIRST having initiated the original call. By that I mean, I was told that T-Mobile's credit policy is different if the call drops one minute after making connection or if the call is dropped thirty minutes of having made the connection. This makes no sense at all. If a call is dropped, the call is dropped.
T-Mobile's credit policy should allow for crediting back the time required to re-establish the connection. In the past, I have received credit of one minute for re-establishing connection if my second call was made within three minutes of the first call being dropped.
Now, Sara (T-Mobile employee ID 8474274), a supervisor, refused to provide credit for having had to reconnect unless the first call had been dropped within two minutes of having been made. Sara refused to let me speak with her supervisor or any other supervisor to resolve this matter. I informed her that I wanted to resolve the matter at that time (since I had already spent a considerable amount of my time on the phone with the customer service department, about twenty minutes. I was flatly told that there was no supervisor available for me to talk with which I could not believe as truthful. I received the clear impression that she merely wanted to brush me off and hope I would go away.
I am entitled to credit for dropped calls. If T-Mobile refuses to do so due to its poor telephone service, then I should be allowed to cancel my contract with T-Mobile without penalty to me. Would you be willing to provide such authorization?
All I ask for is that you ensure your personnel properly know and apply crediting policy and that I be credited for my dropped calls.
I am very dissatissfied with the customer service I received today. It appears that T-Mobile is penny-wise-and-pound-foolish when it comes to crediting minutes for customer complaints. I wanted you to know that I attempted to telephone the executive offices and the switchboard operators would not put my calls through as they related to a complaint.
Regards,
Eric Metz
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 502 245-3218
or peteandbetty@hotmail.com
T mobile is by FAR the WORST Company that I have ever had to deal with. I left Sprint to go to t mobile, bought 2 phones one of those phones being $350+ I had horrible problems with the phone service as far as people calling on numerous occasions and getting a busy signal. This happend on both lines. After I had to go out of my way to prove it to t mobile (because when they did test call it worked fine) WEll duh it didn't do it every minute of every day. Anyway I called customer service when it was screwing up and told them to do a test call. Finally someone believes me. After 2 hours of dealing with a lady (that did not speak good english) who I had gav the option of 2 new phones at ($400 each) or letting me out of my contract. If I would have known that's all I had to do I would have saved myself an hour and a half. She told me I would get a credit for the bill I just paid ($143) back in my checking account. I was flex pay so it was paid a month ahead. Oh yeah and by the way the cycle didn't start until the 14th and they took money out of my personal account on the 8th of each month. Ok so I am very happy that I can go back to a phone company that has working phones. Never got that refund in my account so I called and was told they will be mailing me a paper check. 3 weeks after that I got a bill for $389.86...called tmobile, transfered 3 times (explaining the story all 3 times)1 hour 45 minutes later they admitted they screwed up by reactivating the phone to port the number and forgot to cancel out the early termination fee again. So they fixed that and assured me I would get my refund in 7 to 10 business days. One month later still no refund. I just got off the phone with t mobile after a very long exhausting hold time, transferring and then disconncted so calling back. Once again they assure me I will get a refund of $139.06 in 7 to 10 business day. It would be nice if I could charge T mobile a late fee because we know I would have to pay one. Would not recommend!
T-mobile, is teach there support people to lie. That they have to get unlock codes from blackberry to give a unlock code. Will someone tell the truth. They have promise to send you a code with in 2hrs and here I am two days later there is not a code unlock in my email. They are just a company that lies and teach there employees to lie as well.
T-mobile approved me for two lines on a regular account, so at wal mart trying to get 2 black berry's so the clerk called in to t mobile and i am approved for a RUGULAR acc. She starts telling me about all the diffrent plans ,internet ,prices. And i choose it all and she is putting it all in computer that is linked to t-mobile. Every thing that she hed to do, she gets to the part on the activation screen where she needs to enter my new phone # and she calls t-mobile back to get my # (this is the second time she calls t-mobile ) That is where it all changed. The first call she made i was approved on a reg account ,and that included three monthes free. That second call well she gets transfered 4 times, 4 diffrent times she told them who she is and what she needs. When she is on the 4 c/service rep and an hour after starting this whole thing she is told that i was NOT approved for a reg account. The computer she is puting all of the info into is seting up a reg account, not a flex pay . and she told them that it was approved as a reg account,then the c.service said it was not.so the clerk went back page by page and it never said flex any where . she told them and in the end The only thing that i could get is FLEX PAY well FUCK that .So the free phones and three free monthes of service that just went out the window.( NOT AVALIABLE FOR FLEX PAY ACC). (FUCK T-MOBILE AND THERE CUST SEVICE REPS).I guess maybe i should be saying thanks to t-mobile after reading other blogs. From a pissed off person who wasted 2 hours for NOTHING BRIGHTON CO
I am a business professional with a very prominent corporation that represent a large demographic of African Americans on Candler Road in Decatur Georgia. I, my family, my friends and many of my business associates uses T-Mobile wireless cell phone services. Toady ( 10/05/2008) at approximately 01:00 pm, I visited a T-Mobile store located at 1620 Dogwood Drive SE Conyers, Georgia to speak with a T-Mobile representative about upgrading my plan to the new G-1 service.
As I entered the business, I was greeted by a T-Mobile representative who’s first words were “how can I help you today, are you looking to break bread or just to pay a bill”. I responded with “it depends on what deals or promotions are offered”. Without hesitation, he replied “this in not Candler Road or a flea market, we are a corporation, we don’t make deals” (really! But every time I go on line to pay my bill, I am offered a ton of promotions to upgrade my plan; I am also bombarded by T-Mobile representative stationed in various business lobbies with “great deals”).
My first thoughts were are my ears deceiving me, did he say what I thought he said. My second thoughts were is he saying this because of my attire; a baseball cap, t-shirt, blue jeans and unshaven (getting away from the monotonous corporate environment).
I asked, why would you say something like that?; you don’t know who I am or what demographic I represent. Are you telling me that T-Mobile only offer deals to people that lives on Candler Road or people who make purchases at a flea market? The representative replied “I’ve been employed with T-Mobile for three years and I know what I am saying”. I found the T-Mobile representative’s comments to be extremely offensive and racially motivated since I am an African American and the demographics on Candler Road is made up predominantly of low income African Americans compared to the demographics of Caucasian on Dogwood Drive. My wife, who was with me at the time of this incident, immediately turned around and walked out of the store. I told the T-Mobile representative thank you for helping me to cancel my T-Mobile service. I will inform my family, my friends, my business associates and as many T-Mobile customers that I can reach about this incident. I will also encourage them to cancel their service with T-Mobile. I exited the store and realized this incident needed to be reported. As I reentered the store, the representative was joined by his manager who heard the original conversation and they were laughing. I told the manager how I felt about this incident and I wanted to report the actions of his employee. The manager stated “ok, is there anything I can help you with”? I replied no, I will be canceling my service and I will encourage people to do the same due to this incident.
In these harsh economic times, corporations must understand that customers are the center of their universe. Without a steady cash flow from paying customers (roughly $8000 over the past 9 years was paid to T-Mobile, but no more by the end of business day) they will soon be in the “red” asking the Government for a bail out like much of corporate America these days. We the consumers need to stand up and let our voices be heard; we will not take offensive or racially motivated comments from corporations or their representatives. Corporations must take the necessary steps to train their employees in cultural diversity and strong reprimands should be executed immediately when violations are reported. In today’s market place with so many corporations vying for our business, and the relative ease to have your phone number ported who needs T-Mobile. New players in the cell phone business like Metro-PCS do not have all the bells and whistles of a T-Mobile, but the basic plan is very affordable. Technology will continue to develop and cell phone will be like pagers a thing of the past. With the economic crunch upon us, I only need something to say hello and good bye.
The tmobile G1 has been unlocked, this will allow you to use a SIM card from any network, in any country. Hey guys FYI, T-mobile will unlock any phone for you for free if you are in good standing with the company, so don’t shell out the cash to get that iphone unlocked just call T-mobile.
The tmobile G1 has been unlocked, this will allow you to use a SIM card from any network, in any country. Hey guys FYI, T-mobile http://www.fommy.com/t-mobile-g1.htm will unlock any phone for you for free if you are in good standing with the company, so don’t shell out the cash to get that iphone unlocked just call T-mobile.
you can unlock almost any t-mobile phone with an imei unlock code. i got my g1 android unlocked here: http://www.gsmunlocklabs.com/unlock-tmobile-android-google-p-263.html
thx! good job!
I love T Mobil! We have had low monthly bills, usually, but recently had a bad month, and went waaaaaaaay over my minutes! I called and they helped me with my bill, even though I had to agree to a one year extension contract. I have checked consumer reports, and so far, T Mobil has the least amount of complaints. I'm happy with them.
I have to say. t-mobile is a wonderful company.. I have never had a problem with them.. And reading the blogs that people are putting up here are crazzzzzZy.. What do you expect when your thinking of that ONE time you had a bad experience? I'm sure you have had more good then bad times.. there customer service is huge, over 33,000 employees and u prob will never get the same rep twice, so if you have a bad time with one, just think your going to get another one next time you call in, and as long as your respectable to them they are going to return the favor. Act like your a B*tch,.. the rep is prob not going to want to do as much for you anymore.. like the old saying "Treat others how you would like to be treated" Something to think about.
I purchased insurance for my 2 year contract. I did receive 2 replacement phones but was not advised that that was the limit. TMobile continued taking my insurance payments event though they knew I could not use the insurance anymore.When I tried to replace for a 3rd time, I was told THEN that I had used my limit and they would cancel my insurance. When I requested the months of insurance I had been paying for nothing, I was basically told...TOO BAD FOR ME!
I have had issues with Tmobile since I fist started using their service. My favorite five minutes have been deducting from my whenever minutes for the last 3 months. I even contacted the Executive Office. They did nothing to help me. In fact, the rep tried to use his position and power to intimidate me....IS THERE ANY OTHER STEPS I CAN TAKE TO GET RESULTS?
Hi there anybody want free service with t-mobile service please feel free and I can get you free service with any company I will charge $30 to do so please respond back if you like
I had service with T-mobile then I cancelled the service, I was entitled to a refund to which till to this day T-mobile has lied to me sayings they would first put it back on my card, then they said it would come through the mail in 5 days, then it would come in six days, and it was mailed. It has been over sixteen days since the money was supposed to be refunded, now they tell me that I have to wait on T-mobile's bank to clear the check before they can send and that will take another 30 days. It took T-mobile all of ten seconds to take the money, but I have to wait 30 days to get it back....
