EECB the crap outta them!

That really bites. :-(

Problem is, it was not TMobile who messed up here. It was their service provider (Microsoft/Danger). So I can see their reluctance to help the OP out.
Iris being "new" shouldn't be an excuse though for the OP receiving incorrect information. She was an "Account Specialist Manager," so how new could she be?

Could get a phone that can handle its own contacts and store a few pictures :-\

Pre-paid are the untouchables of the cellphone world. I use Virgin Mobile and haven't had a problem...Ever. I'm waiting to see how the sale to Sprint will shaft me.

I say do a little research while waiting to see if normal channels (complaint letter) come through, then EECB and point out "I am pure profit for you and have been a loyal customer since X. Here's what X company can offer me. Shall I go be profit for them?" Money talks. Prepaid means they can't *count* on you to be there 2 years from now like they can with the Smith's, who just signed a contract. Of course, the years previous you've been a customer just don't count. Still, it's always worth a shot and if a compromise can't be reached, you know what company to go to since you've done your research.

Her first problem is that it sounds like she was only depending only on the sidekick to run her business.

Her second(and everyone else) problem is, stop blaming t-mobile, it's not their fault, they don't run the sidekick servers, you need to be talking to Microsoft/Danger.

Dear American Telecoms,

Learn to respect your customers, or they will leave you. I have now sworn off all business with you, T-Mobile, as a result of reading about this experience (and many others), and you, AT&T, after you destroyed my rollover balance entirely, 2 years into an iPhone contract, then charged me $95 in overage charges for 234 minutes - despite the previous 3,000+ min "Rollover" balance I had just two months prior, despite the $2,500+ I've spent on monthly bills alone in the past 2 years.

You rely on our money for your business. Start treating it, and us, with respect please!

Regards,
Your Customers

@theSuperman: TMobile offered a service - then did not provide the offered service - for whatever reason. How is this not TMobile's fault?

While i'm all for the consumer. What does being a pre-paid customer have anything to do with anything?

You yourself chose to be a prepaid customer due to whatever benefits you felt was to be had in being pre-paid. You did not choose that path in order to benefit Tmobile. Also with a monthly data plan a normal sidekick user over the life of their contract could possible give Tmobile more profit than you.

How is your business put in jeopardy over this? If it was because of the contacts and emails on your sidekick why didn't you back those up somewhere else? That is normal practice for any business user no matter where their data is stored.

Also how are you being treated as a second class citizen compared to people on contract? I don't see T-mobile offering free phones to people on contract for what happened.

Anyways my advice to you is that if you really did lose important business data you need to check the prepaid agreement and put together a case based on the agreement and try to get your free phone from there.

However in this case I think you are as wrong for "expecting" a free phone as much as the CSR was wrong for promising a free phone (which sounds way out there).

This is why I love my iPhone. All of my data is backed up on my computer, which is the backed up on 2 redundant hard-drives. Nothing with AT&T to fail. If I lose service, such is life, but my data is safe. T-mobile needs to step up and take care of a loyal customer.

The problem is that switching off the sidekick to a different phone will still not pull her data out of the cloud. She will still need to sync her data locally to avoid (or minimize) a potential loss of data.

The OP admitted that she lost no data because she was smart enough to sync her data locally, and while T-mobile and their partners lost the data, the only damage that she suffered was a loss of data connectivity for a few days. T-mobile really owed her nothing more than a credit for the time that she was out service...until Iris promised her a replacement phone. At this point if T-mobile does not make good on their promise, I would move to a different carrier. As she is not under contract, she can jump ship at just about any time.

@miburo: Wow, did you really not read the article at all?

1) A pre-paid customer is PURE PROFIT for the company. They didn't subsidize her phone, she doesn't get special deals, nothing. All they have done is profit from her, the least they can do is help her out when they fail her.

2) The CSR's REPEATEDLY stated that she was only not receiving the replacement or a discount on a replacement because she was a pre-paid customer. As in, if she had a contract, they probably would have given her a replacement when she asked.

3) How was her business put in jeopardy? Imagine if you receive dozens of emails per day from business contacts. Important emails that you need to respond to immediately, which is probably why you got the Sidekick in the first place. Wouldn't you be pissed if that particular feature didn't work for several days in a row, so that you couldn't respond to emails immediately, and had to wait until you were near a computer? Yeah. I thought so.

4) The OP clearly states that she DID back up her data, it was the outage that was the issue.

5) She didn't EXPECT a free phone, at least not until she was promisd it. She was hoping for, at the most, a discount on a few phone. That's not unreasonable.

Reading is fun!

@Colonel Jack O'Neill: Once more, with feeling:

Not one T-Mobile customer has anything to do with the fact that T-Mobile contracted with Danger/Microsoft to run the servers. T-Mobile can work out damages with Danger/Microsoft as they see fit (settle or sue, most likely), and include in that the loss T-Mobile had to take in order to make good to their customers. Period, end of sentence.
Even though it appears to be that T-Mobile won't be making good at all, but that has nothing to do with the point I'm making.

Have her keep an eye out on her sidekick for the next few days. Tech blogs are reporting that Microsoft has managed to recover most, if not all, of the data and it should be coming back to users over the next few days.

@Rask: This isn't about the data loss. From the article:

"In the wake of the data loss that affected one-third of your consumer base I was one of the fortunate who backed up their data on the included SD card. However even though I was one of the lucky my e-mail did not continue to work for several days."

Reading is fun!

She should first decide if she is "one of the fortunate" or "one of the unfortunate". Her jury of braincells seems to still be out on that contention.

@Colonel Jack O'Neill: You certainly can blame T-Mobile. They have the contract with Microsoft/Danger, and they have the contracts with Sidekick users. T-Mobile needs to take care of its customers and collect out of MS/Danger's asses.

A few points of interest:

You have been with TMO for 7 years... Could have gone through 3 and 1/2 subsidized phones.... Paid less for the data than you have with the $24.99 Unlimited/Sidekick Data and didn't for reasons unknown.

You run a business on a Sidekick which is problem number 1. Obviously you use the phone as an on the go business solution again assuming. You are paying .15 a minute?!?! Even if you RARELY used the phone to talk they have a 300 Min for $30. If you use less than 200 minutes thats understandable however if you use more your overpaying.

Sidekick data outage as noted a bunch of times is not TMO's fault.

Verbal "promise" basically doesn't mean anything so trying to bank on that is a little outlandish in many respects.

The Sidekick is your ONLY form of business connection. You don't have a laptop/mobile netbook, home or commercial office setting? If that is the case not a very solid foundation to run a business off of.

Just a recap also this isn't the 1970's you really can't just stroll into a business and just kind of haggle and demand things. If you do not like how you were treated etc then yes feel free to leave which is why you are prepaid to begin with but sitting there and assuming people from an established business can just slap discounts onto phones and do whatever they want is clearly just a sign of not knowing what happens behind the scenes which I wouldn't expect the average person to know. People will very swiftly be terminated for manipulating what is capable by their POS in a given situation. Just stating lets get out of the habit of just thinking we will get whatever we want by playing victim 24/7. Lets not forget also the whole data outage thing..... She didn't lose data she backed it up :D

@katstermonster:

You are correct

Missed the backup stuff (reading at work and i guess while doing my incognito reading i skipped the first paragraph of her message for some stupid reason or another) So thanks for correcting me on it.

Except you are missing the point of some of my comments. People who buy the sidekick on a contract are also profit for t-mobile once they get through their contract. Contract user with messaging data plan and set monthly bill can match a prepaid user depending on usage too. She chose to be a prepaid customer and have you ever heard of a prepaid customer getting free upgrades to phones? Especially the top of their line phones? Paying upfront really doesn't make a huge difference to a company that huge. Obviously the service was good for all those years or she would have not stayed with T-mobile that long and spent so much money in the first place.

And yes I would be pissed. However i'm an AT&T user and this happens all the time when i go to anywhere there are a lot of iphone users (which happens to be conventions, big cities, etc...) which happens a lot in my work. However, I have a lot of ways to check my email and most of them are not just tied to my phone.

2, 5) One CSR mentioned the replacement of phone the first time. All the rest of them never told her that it was confirmed.

Maybe you can do a little reading too

My wife uses a prepaid phone - she simply doesn't use the phone often enough to justify the extra $20/month to add her to my plan - but is really starting to get annoyed at the fact that T-Mobile's only prepaid data offering *requires* the Sidekick. No prepaid data for Blackberry, Android, or any other smartphone. Anyone have any idea why this is?

@davidschripsema: I second that thought, but you're going to run out of companies soon. Personally, I'm currently with AT&T (since they bought Cingular back) having already finished with Verizon (for adding things to my plan and refusing to refund the charges from bills I had paid, despite the fact that I never asked for the services or used them) and Sprint (For horrible service in general). I wouldn't want to switch to T-Mobile either after reading this, but there's not many options left for me when AT&T finally puts the final straw on my camel's back.

Sidekick data outage as noted a bunch of times is not TMO's fault

Once again, because people like you don't seem to understand this.

If I make an agreement with you for services, and you subcontract those services, you as the company choosing to subcontract are still on the hook to deliver those services to me, whether you do it yourself or via a proxy.

Regardless of whether or not it's TMobiles "fault" it's their legal responsibility.

But a fine job of blaming the op.

@miburo: We'll just have to agree to disagree. I don't think a prepaid customer should be barred from getting a replacement phone (or heck, even a discount on it...that's all she wanted) just because she's a prepaid customer. T-Mobile needs to use some common sense. They have a loyal but prepaid customer who was inconvenienced by an outage. By a simple loss-benefit calculation, it's clear that they will stand to benefit from replacing her phone, because she'll stay as a prepaid customer and continue to give them lots and lots of money.

@cromartie:

People are not arguing legal responsibility. But it nowhere says they have to give her a top of the line phone in red :D to make up for a few days of usage problems. They credited her for the days she didn't have data services and now because of an obvious verbal mistake by a REP she's expecting a new phone.

This seems like a case of sour grapes. At this point she hasn't even talked to Iris again which should have been her first step regardless of initial difficulties.

@miburo: Oh, and in regards to "One CSR mentioned the replacement of phone the first time. All the rest of them never told her that it was confirmed."

The first CSR promised her a phone replacement and went through a long rigamarole of returned calls, missed calls, paperwork, etc. (a) The phone shouldn't have been promised, and (b) if I were a manager, I would have done anythign in my power to at least get her some sort of discount, especially given that she'd been promised a replacement phone and been jerked around oevr it.

@camman68: I think the proper way to classify it is that Microsoft/Danger dropped the ball when they did not apparently do a backup of the server before they conducted an upgrade to the servers. As TMO contracted with MS/Danger, and TMO is the service provider, they need to answer to the end customer, the users of the Sidekick/TMO service, and TMO can work with MS/Danger to recoup whatever costs they are out for the data loss and outage.

Bottom line is, TMO did nothing to cause the outage (that we are aware of), however, as they are the interface with the general public, they need to take responsibility for the outage/loss and make things right with their customers, and deal with MS/Danger behind the scenes.

I don't believe that TMO is standing by and pointing the finger at MS/Danger.

Maybe TMO just needs to send Catherine Zeta Jones to every Sidekick owners house so she can give them a hug and a cookie to make everything right.

@cordeduroi: Huh? She was fortunate because she backed up her data, unfortunate because she was still greatly affected by the outage.

Everyone has heard a story about someone who argued with their cell phone company enough to get a new phone. Because of this, people think of their phones as disposable- as soon as a newer model comes out, we're prepared to throw out a perfectly good older one. Even if there is something wrong with the service, not the physical phone, we still feel entitled to a new phone. It's wasteful.

This is a general observation, not just directed at the OP. But the demand of the specific Red MyTouch, and the assertion that she is entitled to it on principle, not because she really needs or deserves a new phone, is a tip off of greediness to me.

Also, the amount of money spent in the past is really not relevant; obviously T-Mobile has no guarantee that they will keep you as a customer if they placate you, since you have gone out of your way not to enter into a contract with them.

Didn't I read this morning that Ms/Danger was going to restore the lost data??

@theSuperman: I absolutely HATE when people say that. Nothing gets my blood boiling more than a service provider passing the blame to THEIR CHOSEN PARTNER.

Think about those words for a second.

THEIR CHOSEN PARTNER

As a customer, you don't get a bill from them every month. You didn't sign a contract with them. They likely don't have the customer service infrastructure to deal directly with customers because they don't have a direct relationship with said customers.

There is no excuse for a service provider to pass the buck like that.

@rekoil: I was wondering the same thing when I came to back to America for a short visit (doing 2 years' study abroad in China). I wasn't staying long enough for a contract or even a FlexPay plan, but I needed phone service. After checking the roaming rates table of my Chinese provider and comparing to AT&T (the only other GSM provider that will let me keep my current phone) I ended up roaming in instead. Unlike American providers, Chinese providers are actually quite reasonable in their roaming rates (compared to the other way around). I paid about US$.35/minute local outgoing, US$.65/minute IDD to China and all incoming calls, US$.20/outgoing text to China, incoming texts free) and US$1.50/MB data. Data and text are cheaper than AT&T's rates and completely open compared to T-Mo so that was a no-brainer (yes, I could have gone Boost and gotten an unlimited plan, but 1. I would have had to get a new phone; a new phone comparable to what I have now would run me over US$200 with them, and 2. It's iDen. Data is S-L-O-W).

The moral of the story got lost in there somewhere, I think. But in general, I'm surprised at the second-rate treatment prepaid users get in America compared to in China.

@HannahK1012: But in this case, the Sidekick and its service are a package deal, and only Sidekicks were affected by the outage. Switching to a new phone gets her a difference service, and hopefully one that isn't so prone to outages.

She didn't DEMAND a new phone, she was promised one. From the article:

"That because I was such a "valued" customer she would be replacing my Sidekick with one of these options, a G1, Blackberry, or My Touch phone. My new phone would be shipped to me and I would be sending my Sidekick back to T-Mobile.

Let me clearly state this is what Iris told me would be happening.

Now I was more than pleased with this. I thought that I would be getting, at the most, a discounted price on a new phone."

She was OFFERED a new phone. Freely. Without her asking. Not greedy.

@cromartie:
TMobile lived up to thier responsibility in this case.
She was without data service for a few days, they credited her account for that time.
What more would any reasonable person expect them to do?
If she was running her whole business from the sidekick, she can't blame tmobile for that.
If she had lost data, she may have had a beef, but she lost nothing but a few days of service, which she was compensated for.

@miburo:
One csr mentioned a free replacement. Apparently a handful of others didn't have the guts to tell her she wouldn't get one. Nice!

i am no longer under a contract with sprint and will only buy non subsized phones as i like to have the option to leave at any time.

of course, if some other company was to give me a hell of a deal on a 2 year contract, i just might take it.

the reason i stay is because my plan is awesome.

E-mail T-Mobile Executive Response at ExecutiveResponse@T-Mobile.com , explaining them everything that has happened (and I mean all of it, not the condensed version).

I had to e-mail them because of two $5 credits two different online chat reps promised me but never posted. ECR e-mailed me a few hours later, posting the $10 credit to my account immediately.

Good luck from a fellow Sidekick user.

@Darkneuro: I think that prepaid customers are becoming more common as people tire of corporate shenanigans and paying for more service than they use each month. Walmart just rolled out a prepaid service after all, so there must be a market out there. People aren't going for prepaid just because they're young and/or poor; many are tired of contracts and BS from the companies, and want the opportunity to leave a company if there is a service problem. I had VM for a few years and was happy with the service. If you look on their webpage, they are now offering contract plans, for the first time since I first used them in 2003.

Unfortunately, there isn't a phone that t-mobile provides for prepaid service that will replace her Sidekick.

Even if she was sent a shiny new mytouch3g, it won't get online or allow her to check her email. Not over prepaid.

The sidekick is the only device that does prepaid data.

@camman68: They did offer a service and it failed. Why should they offer to replace the device?

They SHOULD offere to refund the time in which the service wasn't functioning.

tip: Carriers hate Pre-paid service users. They are usually contract free and present a higher risk to them.

@Spaulding:

What does that have anything to with anything. If one CSR made a mistake and the other CSR's couldn't find any information on it you are telling me they just should take the customer's word for it and give it to her?

@katstermonster
I agree Iris was wrong. The problem is people make mistakes. As i mentioned to Spaulding how would the other managers really know what was going on unless Iris confessed herself (seems like she did in the end). While in this case of course they should try to work atleast something out with the Customer it didn't seem like she gave them a chance. In the end she told them specifically she wanted a red mytouch. Doesn't seem like there was any door left open right there.

@katstermonster:

BTW, I don't think you can get just a data plan with those phones mentioned. I could be wrong though.

Sorry but as her message went on it seemed more and more she just wanted to get a new phone for free and felt like she was entitled to it because a CSR told her the wrong info.

wow...... simply wow.... i wouldnt stop until you spoke with someone who is actually trying to solve your problem, At this point your problem is you cant find iris and you were made a promise that no rep you have spoken with so far is able to keep, Demand that since its obvious they can confirm you were offered that phone by the records that you be transferred to someone who can make what you need happen, Ask for a supervisor, then if they tell you they cant help, ask for their supervisor, etc etc. Completely unacceptable.

keep on fighting the good fight ;-)

She runs a business on a PRE-PAID sidekick? That is her first problem right there. Second it wasn't T-mobiles fault that the service crashed. Third there is no other phone that will work on pre-paid data. Hate to break it to her but lots of people were effected by the sidekick outage and the be brutally honest prepaid customers take a back seat compared to contract customers. If she was smart she would have used a third party email to run her business instead of a cellphone email, which no cell provider guarentees 100% coverage or uptime.

@davidschripsema: Please refrain from signing anything "Your Customers" as this is one customer of AT&T that loves her phone and service from them. Speak only for yourself when making statements/editorial speech-letters.

Android phones aren't available to pre-paid customers since you have to have a monthly data plan at either $25/mo or $35/mo.

@katstermonster:
I read the whole article, and actually I was referencing this part:
"I told Peter that this is what I wanted to happen. That the original agreement, no, promise that was given to me by Iris be honored, and that I was now demanding that the phone be a My-Touch in red and that I wanted my promised phone by end of business Friday 10-16-09."

Demand was the OP's word, not mine. And I know the idea that the cell phone companies owe you a new phone for every little thing is a widespread mindset- the OP is not alone. But it is greedy and wasteful. That's all I'm saying.

@theSuperman: Tmobile should be made to pay for all personal and business damages resulting from the outage, since they failed to MAKE SURE the data THEY WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR was lost.

They cannot lose the data and then refuse to let people out of the device plan claiming that it is reliable.

Class action lawsuit time! Past Time!

@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: edit - FOR was SAFE.