<![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile - Consumerist Comments]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile - Consumerist Comments]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> I think my son must know your daughter, when I saw 3200 texts in 2 weeks I could have died. Lucky for me it was the rep from tmobile that I was calling about something else that told me and allowed me to sign up for family unlimited texting for 19.99 which was way cheaper than the 300 plus I would have paid.

mintyscrolls

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @CorporateTool: lOL!! Teenagers these days can do so much. I talked with this one dad who's daughter did over 40,000 text messages.

I myself can barely do 100 in a month.

pigeonpenelope

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> What they should have advised in the email is to avoid T-Mobile stores at all costs. The staff at our local store appears to know nothing about the phones they carry, or the services they offer. I didn't know you could employ 16 year olds with no training, but they've managed to pull it off.

Double check everything when adding/changing services, and especially if you're dealing with a store rep.

Devidence

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> I had a similar problem with my bill, that went up to $320 from the $65 it was supposed to be after only a few days. But when I called customer service to ask why I was charged even though I got the $15 unlimited texting, they shuffled around for about an hour and a half looking through my information in their system and somehow couldn't find any hint of me actually getting that added to my plan, along with more things that seemed to be missing. The problem is that I had purposely switched to TMobile because with the unlimited messaging my plan would be almost the same price as with my former provider for almost the same services. The only way I can prove to them that I ordered it is if I have paperwork showing the information on it, which is the major problem because I ordered the phone through their online store, but wasn't able to print up the reference number after my order went through because I had just moved to college without a printer. No contract information was sent with the phone either, even though they told me that I should have gotten a copy of it in the mail. Now I'm stuck at an impass because their computer system decided to screw me over and I have no way to prove it, or any way to pay the huge bill.

sirmoosh

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> I have always had good luck with T-Mobile.

JustaConsumer

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> Did he get his rate switched? I'd double-check that to make sure his plan's switched over to cover the IM-over-SMS's.

Me, I'd run Bluetooth on a small device like a Zaurus and use the phone's Bluetooth Dial-up Networking (DUN) profile to IM. Cheaper in the long run.

STrRedWolf

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @ dweebster "this call may be monitored or recorded..." those statements, aren't they just informing you of your right to record the conversation. I do not recall a stipulation that it only applies to them.

elephantstomp

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> I hate T-Mobile. Overcharged me on an account I didn't use and refused to refund me when they were supposed to cancel my contract and didn't and I was basically paying them every month without using a single minute. Shameful company that treats their customers like a crap.

nikitab

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @CorporateTool: Instant messages count toward your SMS limit. I am a messaging whore.

sibertater

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @CorporateTool: You OBVIOUSLY don't have a teenage daughter [grin]

MPHinPgh

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @dweebster: Actually, when I worked for T-Mobile we couldn't access the recordings either. But our manager and a national quality assurance team would randomly select one every other day to listen to, and we'd be rated on what we did on the call. Promotions and bonuses were based on your score from the call. Sadly, after 2 weeks or so, the call would be purged and so if we wanted to dispute a score we received, it had to be very shortly after it occured, otherwise it was already deleted.

TrexSchad

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @CorporateTool:
You don't need to send 1312 text message, half of them could have been received - 656 and the other half sent. It's only about 33 message sent per day.

jryan

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> I have Sprint and they play the same exact games. They're always changing around the pricing and configurations of their plans that there's _NO WAY_ they can train the worldwide staff to keep on top of it. They always screw up something, and every representative you reach to try fixing it manages to screw up your account in some other way if they fix that issue.

What would help is for these utility companies to provide simple, clear pricing for their various services, it ain't hard: 1) voice minutes 2) text messages 3) data KB's, and whatever else.

They play it loose and free like Bally's Health Clubs and then send off snarky "apology" letters like this one when the inevitable problems arise between what the rep tells the customer and their actual murky terms.

News flash to Cell Phone companies: Want to retain customers? Simplify and clarify your plans and stop playing the shell game.

dweebster

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @Difdi: I notice that when I call most customer service centers of companies, they have a recording that says "this call may be monitored or recorded..." before I get a chance to talk with anyone. Well, if the call may be recorded, then AFAIK that's very clear permission for me to record it. That game doesn't only play one way.

What's astounding is when you follow up later and the company doesn't seem to have any way to retrieve conversations from recordings. WTF do they do with the recordings, obviously they aren't using them to "improve customer service" -- if that were the case the information they provide would have to have SOME level of accuracy!

dweebster

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> i've talked before on this site about how much i appreciate T-Mobile's customer service. I recently added a new line and new phone (the Shadow) to our plan. The Shadow had a 50 dollar mail in rebate and i did it over Presidents day weekend where they offered no $35 activation fee for a new line. so i go to the store and the sales rep says in order to get the mail in rebate i had to purchase the Total-Internet package which was $20 per month. but they said i could get it and then cancel it after my rebate came in. so i go through with the deal and get the phone and new line.
my first problem was they added the Total-Internet to the wrong line which has a basic phone and would never use web browsing. so i called customer service to fix that. and while talking to them i asked about the rebate deal and they said i didnt need to get the total internet deal to get the rebate. wtf? so i had them cancel that. also i come to find out from the bill that they signed me up phone insurance for $5.95 per month (which i didn't ask for) AND they included the $35 dollar activation charge for the new line! so i called up customer service again and they spotted the issue and apologized right away for the mistake (which is rare these days) and credited my account for the errors...
i must say, from my experience, T-Mobile does have some of the best customer service agents around. (at their call centers, not the idiot sales reps at the store who will lie to your face)

falc

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @CorporateTool: I have sent 5000 in a month. When txt messages consist of 10 words or less sentences it's easy to amass a great number of them.

darkened

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> If an agent of the company, one who is authorized to enter the company into contracts or otherwise act on the company's behalf (someone you can say "sign me up" to and they handle all the paperwork) states what the contract is, then that is the contract, whether they are right or wrong about what they should be telling you. Period.

The problem is proving it, since the company can claim there was no such verbal contract. This is why most people you get on the phone when calling a company will instantly hang up if you tell them you will be recording the conversation. Because what they say to you in error is legally binding on the company, if a tangible record of the statement exists.

In an ideal world, where everybody kept their promises and didn't lie to make sales, and understood every aspect of the product perfectly, you wouldn't need to record conversations or have written contracts. The fact that both things exist in our world, simply reinforces the old wisdom, of Let The Buyer Beware.

Difdi

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> What a dickish reply. Yes, he was "aware", but only after he made a call to T-Mobile to ask why he was being billed one way when the store rep said he'd be billed another way.

BillyShears

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> While I applaud TM for resolving the issue, I still have a bad taste in my mouth, due to the tone of the letter. Basically, it said, "You rang up all these charges, we don't care that you were misinformed at the store and got nowhere with customer service, but due to our generosity and overall better-than-youness, we're going to forgive you for being stupid this time."

Here's a suggestion T-Mobile...if you're going to take care of the customer, lose the attitude, take full accountability, apologize for the misinformation and poor customer service and act contrite. Otherwise, what good does it do? Instead of having a happy customer who felt like they were taken care of and respected as a customer, they (if it were me) now are glad that they have their money but feel absolutely no respect or assurance that their original issues of misinformation and customer service will be taken care of; hence, no reason not to consider another provider when their contract is up.

Sorry, TM, you blew a golden opportunity to make lots of $$$ off a customer, costing you little to no money to do so, but couldn't keep your smart mouth shut.

IndyJaws

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> I can vouch for t-mobile being misleading. Go into any t-mobile and see if they know what the unlimited messaging actually means. When I signed up for the plan it was with t-mobile customer service over the phone and they said "it covers any form of messaging other than calls". If it wasn't for the fact I don't IM (only text) than I probably would have run into the same problem by now.

If the people working for t-mobile don't get how it's supposed to work, how is the customer???

KiLE

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @Bozman8:

I have also had a Verizon rep retroactively change my account to help with overages, and didn't need to escalate the matter or have to jump through hoops.

flamincheney

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> Yah, AT&T did something similar for me without being all douchey about. I called because my family went over the minutes (yet again) and it was still a good 6 days until the end of the billing cycle. I upgraded the plan to start with the next billing cycle and the CSR gave me extra minutes for the current month at no charge. Since there was no way (well, almost no way) possible for us to spend the extra 700 minutes, a majority of it went straight into my completely depleted rollover bank. Now I have a cushion. A few more months, then I'll tell the fam that we have more minutes, cuz I just know they'll go all hog wild.

FightOnTrojans

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @azntg: so can "checking away messages" (because it has to send/access them via a txt) and doing other things. It's a lose-lose.

weakdome

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> This is not a surprising solution. T-Mobile, while not gaining nearly $200, has not lost any money in this deal. After all they did make their one month of unlimited instant messaging.

Mr. Dotson took this reasoning and ran with it. He als okept a customer while he was at it.

ezacharyk

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @CorporateTool: You don't exactly. It's the way the IM client on the phone is programmed. It has been reported that just accessing the buddy list can "run up" several text messages.

azntg

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> Eh, not really so much in the way of say, oops, we screwed up but more of, Shut your damn whining, here's some $$$ to cover the mess that we "Supposedly created for you".
T-Mobile proves that they continue to suck like all CellPhone companies do.

soulman901

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> 1312/30

about 43 per day.
not so unreasonable if you do consider a 'conversation' over text with a person could have 20 or so individual texts.

Avacasso

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @CorporateTool: not text messages, AOL instant messenger.

ideagirl

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> i use verizon, and i don't really care for them. but, that being said, i had a similar issue resolved by verizon in the same way (retroactively changing my plan), and i did not have to escalate the complaint past regular custumer service.

Bozman8

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> @morganlh85:
They have a point, though. Granted, the salesman messed up, but so did he in the eyes of T-Mobile. Pretty good resolution, overall.

Toof_75_75

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> How do you send 1312 text messages in a month? Just physically?

CorporateTool

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> I used to work for TMO and had the opportunity to sit down for a meet and greet with Mr. Dotson, and I must say that he really does believe in customer service and keeping customers happy. He's a good guy, and I liked having the opportunity to meet him. I quit working there over a year ago (I never considered it a career option, but a good job to hold me over while I found something I really wanted to do... also my store manager was a total douche), but I will remain on their service for the long haul as I respect their committment to customer service in an industry that is notorious for shirking that committment.

The problem I can see here is that in-store people are not customer care representatives, but sales representatives, and have very high sales quotas in an industry where new business is hard to come by. A lot of the simple answers to questions similar to the one asked by the original poster are outside of the realm of many sales reps who have to focus on selling in order to keep their jobs. If you have a question like this regarding your bill, your best bet is to get on the phone with T-Mobile's customer care rather than rely on the word of a sales rep who may not have the correct answer. This is not to say that all of the sales reps are unfamiliar with billing policies, etc., but the odds are that you'll get the right answer from a customer care rep on the phone, and they will document your account with the conversation so it can be referenced later. While it would be nice if all sales reps were better trained in customer care, it's unfortunately not the case.

Sasquatch

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> They have to say that - otherwise everyone else will want one, too.

weakdome

]]> <![CDATA[EECB Scores Direct Hit On T-Mobile]]> But I hate how they are soooo anal-retentive about apologizing. "Well, this really is YOUR fault, but we'll be reeeealllly cool and give you the money back ANYWAY."

morganlh85

]]>