Tmobile Month two

We thought the problems would go away now that tmobile had run a payment with our credit card and it had gone through. After all, we had verified all our billing information and there is plenty of money in our account to cover a tmobile bill. No, they couldn’t handle getting paid I guess. March 2007 with tmobile turned out to be much worse than February.

Seven days after calling and making the February payment actually go through we started getting the text messages again. We had been promised by 4+ tmobile representatives that these would stop and not happen again. The same things were said in these text messages about our account being closed and sent to collections. A great message to send to a long time customer that always pays their bills on time. So, we ignored the text message but we got another one in 3 days and an automated phone call followed by another automated phone call and of course a post card again. We called three times to make sure there was not a problem and got the same response from three tmobile representatives that our account was all in order and they had no idea why we were getting these messages. They also promised that they would stop contacting us about this, which never happened. This all happened before our bill/statement had even gotten to us in the mail to tell us what the current charges were.

I was annoyed to say the least with all this unwanted and completely unnecessary harassment. So, I called 3 days before the bill was due to get this resolved and cancel our automatic payments from our credit card so I would not have to deal with them anymore. I figured I could use automatic BillPay through my bank. I waited on hold like usual for at least 10 minutes only to find out after another 10 minutes of discussion that the tmobile computer systems were down and they did not expect them to be back up for 3 days. I was perturbed at tmobile for all this stupid harassment and for their incompetence in not understanding why this would even bother me.

The tmobile rep and all the previous tmobile reps told me that the messages were a convenience to let me know that something was wrong with my account, but every time I called up nothing was wrong with the automatic “EasyPay” information on my account, so it was really just harassment. She told me I would just have to call back on Monday when their systems were back up and basically wait on hold until then. I told her that I was fed up with tmobile and if they didn’t call me back I would cancel my service. This motivated her to do something for me. She said she could schedule a call in another system and someone would call me back on Monday. She made a note in that system and spent about five minutes typing it up before she read it back to me, to be sure I was satisfied with her explaination of the problem. Then she promised someone would call back on Monday.

Monday, the day the bill was due, came and went without any communication from tmobile. I guess they didn’t want my service because they certainly didn’t care that I was going to cancel. With all the other problems I was having with them I felt like being with tmobile for 5 years really didn’t matter anymore. I don’t really need to be a loyal customer of theirs; my contract is up and I can cancel anytime.

I forgot about tmobile for a few days (what a relief) and, not having received a text message or phone call saying that they never got a payment, I thought they had finally gotten their act together. I thought that until a week later when I was looking at my bank statement and didn’t see a charge from tmobile. I called them to see what was up.

After the customary 10 minute hold I talked to Eva. Eva was nice and I explained everything to her about why I was perturbed with tmobile right now. I said that I wanted a refund or partial refund for March for all my troubles with tmobile in the last 2 months. She said she didn’t have the ability to do that and that there was nothing she could do. So I asked what she could do for all this trouble tmobile has caused my family. She said she could give me 50 bonus minutes on my next month and that was it. I said “Okay, then I would like to talk to someone who can do something more or I plan on canceling my service because I already have more minutes than I use included in my plan.” She said she would get someone and put me on hold for 5 minutes.

Then Josh came on the line. Josh is an accounts specialist. The first thing he said to me was: “So, you want to cancel your service with tmobile right?” I said “No, but I would like to be refunded for my trouble in calling and dealing with tmobile in the last couple months.” I had to tell him everything that had happened again and he said that he could give me 50 bonus minutes for my inconvenience. I said that I would like to have a refund for the last months bill. He said I would have to meet him half way. So, I said that would be fine. I would accept half of last months bill. He said he couldn’t do that because of the nature of the situation. I asked him more about that and found out they didn’ t have any records that my wife or I had ever called in to complain or ask that the messages be stopped, or that we had even tried to remedy the automatic payment problem by responding to the text messages and phone calls. They didn’t even have any records of the phone calls or postcards being sent by tmobile to collect money. It was like he was telling me that I had imagined this lie and that I was trying to get out of my bill with it. I countered with the argument that they did have records. All we would have to do is look through my tmobile statement and find all the calls to 611 (tmobile customer service) in the last couple months. “It is all on my bill,” I told him, but he still didn’t listen so I asked to talk to his supervisor.

Janelle, Rep ID#0599742, was one of the worst customer service people I have ever talked to. She interrupted me so much I couldn’t even talk. I’m surprised she didn’t just tell me to leave tmobile and go find someone else to make stories up about. She let me tell my story but would not give an inch about a refund for service. She said she would give me a $5 “inconvenience credit” off my next bill or a month free if I signed a contract to be with tmobile for the next few years. I told her “I don’t know if I want to be with you next week much less several years from now!” Surprised at everyone’s unwillingness to keep me as a customer, even though I’ve been a paying customer for years now, and their complete incompetence about the situation I finally just took the $5 off. I was tired of the whole situation after arguing with her for what seemed like hours about what the right thing to do was. I even told her that this post would be the first thing I would do to help the world know of my troubles with tmobile. I feel like I didn’t get all I wanted but they will get more than they bargained for if other customers have similar stories to tell. I know I’m one of the first with these troubles. I know I won’t be the last as long as they act like this towards their customers.

Total Stats and unwanted communication:

Automated phone calls 4
Postcards 2 (make that 3, we just got another one today April 9, 2007)
Text messages 8
Phone calls to tmobile customer service 8+
Hours spent (At least 4 hours on the phone alone)
Tmobile fault 100%

Tmobile’s total worth of keeping my business and understanding: $5.00

So, I thought it would be appropriate to join another cell phone referral program. I went to Verizon’s website and tried to sign up for their referral program but the page wouldn’t ever come up. So, I guess it isn’t about the Network. I guess you will have to try these Google Ads and maybe something better will come up for us both.

Let me know if you think it would be a good idea to drop Tmobile quick. What would you do? I would try the Better Business Bureau, but friend’s past experiences say that the BBB is really worthless in resolving anything.

If you are Tmobile you can consider this blog a giant text message in reply to all of your annoying messages. Call me, you have my number if you can find it in your system.

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