Cautionary tale: I’m no longer with T-Mobile. AT&T had a better deal so I changed to them. However, I had been with T-Mobile for 7 years, several of them without a contract, but I just kept up with them. When I changed service, I mistakenly stopped my service 3 weeks before the contract was up. I got a bill for over $400 in early termination fees. When I spoke with a customer rep, and asked him to consider all the business they had from me over the years, he still refused to eliminate or even reduce the fee. I know he had the ability to do so. I was able, eventually, to find a guy in a T-Mobile store who sympathized with me, and spent about an hour on the phone one day with T-Mobile’s customer service, working out a way to at least reduce the fee to some degree. They will never get me back as a customer, regardless of what services they provide, what phones they sell, or what deals they offer. They treated a loyal customer like a squeezable money sponge. Fuck them.
I’m not sure you can call yourself a loyal customer. You bailed. Of course they aren’t going to give you a discount!
I was loyal enough to stay with them after my contract expired - for almost five years.
I realize your plight, CC, but the honest truth is that you *didn’t *stay with them after your contract expired, that’s why you got hit with the early termination fee. Yes, you stayed with them for a good long while after your first contract expired, but I’m not certain why you think that makes you exempt from the second contractual agreement you entered into. It is certainly unfortunate that your mistake ended up costing you more money, though.
I’m currently with T-Mobile, and am very happy. I was disappointed in their phone selection, but it seems to have gotten better (and continues to do so). I have the myTouch 3g, and get 3G everywhere, so I’m not certain where the EGDE info is coming from.
I’m aware that I terminated the second contract prematurely. Not by a lot, but before the ending date. What I expected was some accomodation due to the fact that they had received lots of money from me - off the contract - and in the interest of pleasing a customer, who admittedly made a mistake, they could have modified their demands. There was a time, clearly before your own, that the mantra in business was “The customer is always right.” It created immense good will here in Chicago when it was promoted by Marshall Field’s (as attested to by the ill feelings that Macy’s generated by changing the store’s name when they bought it). And despite the occasional abuses such an attitude might generate, the good will almost always overcame it. In recent years - I’d say since the early 80’s - the scramble for the buck has eliminated most vestiges of that belief. I continue to patronize companies that evince a regard for their customers and avoid those that do not.
Well, just to give you a fair warning, AT&T will treat you just like T-Mobile did.
You know why it’s not in widespread use any more? Because it’s not true and it leads to bad business practices and loss of revenue for almost no gain.
You’re pissed at T-Mobile because they wouldn’t cut you a break, and now you say you’ll never go back to them. But they were already losing you as a customer. They didn’t have an incentive to try to butter you up, so instead they focused on getting as much money from you as they were rightfully entitled to before you stopped giving them any more money at all.
There’s no financial sense in them treating a long term customer like a customer when he’s no longer a customer. Where’s the percentage in that? It’s not like you were going to say, “Oh, thank you so much, sir, for refunding my early termination fees…you know what? Fuck AT&T, I’m coming back to T-Mobile!” I’m honestly shocked you got anyone to reduce anything at that point.
I’ve only had one T-Mobile customer support call, and that was because some counter monkey at a store signed us up wrong for an additional line and we were being charged odd stuff we shouldn’t have. I find their bills incomprehensible, and I hadn’t paid in full on time like, ever, so I didn’t really notice for about six months. When I finally called, the phone rep not only helped me figure out what was wrong with our current bill, but he spent more than 30 minutes going back into the previous months and adjusting each line error, taxes and all. Ended up crediting me over $50 of inappropriate charges, for months earlier, that I didn’t even know for sure were wrong. I think that’s pretty *awesome *customer service, myself.
This is clearly not the place for a debate on business practices or ethics, but I’d say that the drive for larger and larger profit has been a debilitating impulse in western society when it has come into conflict with human and societal values. And as for T-Mobile, they eventually were able to reduce their demands - via one of their own employees who saw their reach for money as excessive, too. And had T-Mobile not treated this customer in such a raw way, I might, if the opportunity arose, have returned. So they lost business that they might have regained. No business can afford to create ill will among its customers and no company can afford to look at its customers as dispensable. T-Mobile did, and I can’t help but wonder if the reports above of inefficient and inept customer service training and performance, and my own experience, might help explain why they are rumored to be going out of business.
They didn’t “reach” for money. The termination fee was in the contract you signed.
I say this as someone who’s had to break contracts and pay termination fees before. It’s painful, but you did agree to it.
Here’s a story from this morning that T-Mobile demanded a search warrant AND a $50 fee before they’d turn over a murder victim’s phone record to the police.
One of the detectives finally put the fee on his own credit card.
Now that’s reaching for money.
Loyal? Ha! Why should they lower your bill after you’ve already left? On the off chance you’d someday return? You got really lucky with that store rep.
T mobile is done for because they have no plans for 4G - let alone nationwide 4G.
T mobile already has 4G and they will have a lot more by the end of the year.
I’m glad the wanted the warrant, and I don’t mind about the fee. Seems to me they’re working on protecting customer privacy.
Interesting view from the sheriff, there. Not only does he feel he has a right to obtain the protected data without a warrant, but a carrier that refuses to comply with the illegal request is potentially obstructing justice. Interesting perspective.
Agreed. The fee was way overreaching (and dumb, IMO), but I’m glad to see the insistence on the warrant. AT&T and Sprint toss your information about willy-nilly like it ain’t no thing as evidenced by their roll-over and reacharound during W’s administration.
Every single cell phone company does this. Plans get changed around and you can’t go back and and use one that’s gone. That is not unique to T-Mobile*. And honestly, $30 a month for only 200 minutes isn’t a great price anyway.
If you use your phone that infrequently, you should get a pay as you go phone and just buy minutes as you need them.
- Ahhh, memories of my “Great Lakes Plan” I had with Verizon back in 2000, where I got 200 minutes that I could use in the Great Lakes area. No free nights and/or weekends and I didn’t even get voicemail. All for the low low price of $47 a month (after taxes and fees).
Ayuh. I have a T-Mobile pay as you go phone. $100 gets me nearly a year of service.
Me too. It only gets me about 4 months or so, but still a bit cheaper than having a plan. Text messaging is expensive (5 and 10 cents per), but still cheaper than making calls to plan things.