TMobile Fails in Customer Care

Originally Posted by EdwardP

Well, his profile displays that his only carrier is Sprint.

I know but sometimes people don't always list all of their carriers in the profiles, which is why I asked.

[mingkee]

[off topic]
I see you have both Kuwaiti carriers, have you been there?

Originally Posted by hf1khal

Same here and it is the same with Cingular too as well as VZW and the rest. Any way here is the link for the T mo info: http://www.t-mobile.com/templates/fa...toexpectinbill and here is the text for that particular issue (which is part of the Q&A):

What should I expect in my T-Mobile bill?
T-Mobile is committed to providing all the features you depend on, whether you’re traveling overseas or making calls to family and colleagues abroad. International long distance calls made from the US are billed at per-minute rates depending on the country you’re calling; see the rate menu on the International Long Distance Overview page.
Please note these important points about international roaming:

Unless you switch your device off or activate Unconditional Call Forwarding on your device, you will be billed for calls delivered to your voice mail box while you are roaming internationally.
Operator-assisted calls to "0" are billed at the international roaming rate for the country you are in. Calls made from outside the US are covered under roaming rates.
Checking your e-mail or voice mail while roaming incurs charges just as calling does.
Customer Care calls are free from your T-Mobile device, but they incur applicable long distance fees from any other phone.
When you’re roaming, your friends and family can dial you as they normally would and it does not cost them extra to call you. However, Mobile to Mobile minutes are only available on the T-Mobile USA network.
With GPRS-enabled devices, data transmissions, including e-mail and Internet surfing, are billed by volume: $0.01 per KB / $10.24 per MB in Canada, $0.015 per KB / $15.36 per MB in other countries.
E-mails range widely in size; attachments such as photos and documents can be very large, even over 2 MB each. Check the file properties for size before you send the file.
Outgoing text messages are billed at $0.35 per message; incoming messages pull from your feature bucket or are billed at $0.10 each.
If you activated international roaming on your account before November 5, 2001, and do not have WorldClass International Service, you may be on a variable rate plan. Please see the international roaming page for more information.

[mingkee]

I generally satisfied with CS
however, you need to push really hard if you encounter some "noob"
the last time I called that I had call problem (the other side is unable to hear my voice)
the CS lady stated I use unsupported phone, that may cause problem
after that, I request to transfer me to tier 2 Tech Support, asked them to locate the node (tower or cell site) I was using with, and they spot the problem quickly
the problem fixed about 1-2 days later

[hf1khal]

Originally Posted by mingkee

[off topic]
I see you have both Kuwaiti carriers, have you been there?

yes been there (part of my business) but only one from there, got the pre-paid with a one year expiry.

[rosenthalliou]

wow, when I had T-mobile before I never experienced any bad customer service reps. T-mobile has always been friendly and never had long wait time. T-mobile and Verizon imo are among the industries top so kind of weird hearing you rant about T-mobiles customer service.

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

IMO............Tmo and Verizon hace the best CS ever...............Sprint doesnt know how to do anything right.............Cingular sounds like they are all having a bad day (Sprint too) Boost sounds like they are all drunk or high...........

Originally Posted by SmArTeStChIlD421

...Cingular sounds like they are all having a bad day (Sprint too) .

I've had Cingular for over a year now and haven't talked to a bad Rep. yet. Every time I call they have been more than helpful and remain on the line until the issue that I've called in about has been resolved. Cingular's CS has really improved over the past 2 years.

[Charlyee]

I have had Cingular all my mobile life. Typically I have had no complains about the CS reps willingness to help. The problem I have is their lack of knowledge about anything that is not scripted. The biggest ones being equipment related; granted I don't make it easy by always buying a complicated device the very first day when it has not been released to all markets but if it is their device they should have been trained prior to releasing it in any market.

I have had Verizon since December of 2002, and in my experience their CS is actually a little less helpful than it was a year before.

I had T-Mobile for 4 years until 2006 January and they were very good but I never had an opportunity to ask them any device related questions and none of my T-Mobile phones (V66 & V600) were that complicated. So it is hard for me to decide if they are more knowledgeable than Cingular in that area.

I have had Sprint since 2000, and they used to be terrible. All of a sudden right after the Nextel merger their service has improved tremendously, atleast in my area.

Just my 2 cents.

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

i have heard people say that the Sprint and the Nextel CS both went down the drain after the merger.........i think that Sprint reps are kinda dull.........especially the tec support..........they sound like they always have better things to do than sit in that chair and help you out.............the regular CS is alright but they can mess up your account even if they dont mean it and they dont know the equipment related stuff either..........overall..........the CS isnt all too great......i have heard from other people that Cingular will get the problem solved but they are kinda boring and they arent like ohh how was your day or i'm so so sorry about this problem...........or ill put credit onto your account in some form as compensation............T-Mobile seems to do that a lot.............i was able to do that.........they gave me bonus messages when my AIM was using messages and i wasnt even sending or receiving anything.........so they just credited all of them with bonus messages and gave me extras in case it happened again.......

[Andy]

The problem I have had with Cingular Customer Service is not really their willingness to help, but it seems like everyone has a different answer for you and inter-communication within Customer Service is lacking (they are definitely not all on the same page). Of course this can and does happen with all carriers but that is just my experience.
Verizon has been good most of the time, sometimes they are really stubburn in some things, especially opening trouble tickets for cell sites that went down (even though you'd think they'd appreciate you calling in and letting them know about this).

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

Originally Posted by Andy

The problem I have had with Cingular Customer Service is not really their willingness to help, but it seems like everyone has a different answer for you and inter-communication within Customer Service is lacking (they are definitely not all on the same page). Of course this can and does happen with all carriers but that is just my experience.
Verizon has been good most of the time, sometimes they are really stubburn in some things, especially opening trouble tickets for cell sites that went down (even though you'd think they'd appreciate you calling in and letting them know about this).

yeah i would think that same thing about Verizon as well.........that seems to be a common problem........what with not being on the same page........which is why bad habit tells me to call and ask the same question 3 times to 3 different reps to make sure im getting straight truth.............

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by SmArTeStChIlD421

Cingular sounds like they are all having a bad day.

I have to say I never had a problem with Cingular's CS, they were always friendly & helpful (there were some issues right after the merger, but they did help me out quickly by transfereing me to blue cs & always solved on the 1st call)

I think part of anyones experience is how you talk to the rep from the start, if you are mad & call with an attitude in your voice it will go downhill from there everytime & yes there are reps that are having a bad day & can make the calls a bad experience & this goes for all carriers and any other service that you may have to call a CS rep.

Originally Posted by Fire14

I have to say I never had a problem with Cingular's CS, they were always friendly & helpful (there were some issues right after the merger, but they did help me out quickly by transfereing me to blue cs & always solved on the 1st call)

I think part of anyones experience is how you talk to the rep from the start, if you are mad & call with an attitude in your voice it will go downhill from there everytime & yes there are reps that are having a bad day & can make the calls a bad experience & this goes for all carriers and any other service that you may have to call a CS rep.

I concur. I feel sorry for the reps. in the store when they get a screaming customer that comes in all irate over something that a store rep. can do nothing about. There are to many people out there today that want yell first and listen never instead of just speaking calmly and then listening for a response before getting all bent out of shape over something.

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by MobilePrincess

I concur. I feel sorry for the reps. in the store when they get a screaming customer that comes in all irate over something that a store rep. can do nothing about. There are to many people out there today that want yell first and listen never instead of just speaking calmly and then listening for a response before getting all bent out of shape over something.

I use to cringe when I worked on a help desk & the reps or managers for the company we serviced would call screaming & it did start the entire process off bad & usually ended that way.

I know when I go & do inspections now I will get people that give me an attitude & it just causes me to look for more violations & find the rarely used ones as well. The best are the big companies that like to complain, the last time Wal-Mart did, when they had a fire we closed them for blocked exits & failing to call the fire dept.

How you start the conversation, sets the tone for the entire dealing with someone & it is amazing how people don't think this way & I do feel for sales reps or others that get yelled at in the stores for something they can't help.

[kananott]

I called tmo about international roaming charges for voicemails. I am fairly certain on some occasions that the phone was turned off. It need only be turned on momentarily, long enough to register with a local tower to result in these charges.

The solution is to forward the phone to another number before leaving the country. I was told that there would be no charge to forward to my wife's tmo phone which we will leave here. The customer care rep who specialized in PDAs assured me that I could avoid these charges by this method and still allow use of my phone for outgoing stuff--and of course internet.

Blackberry Pearl 8100

Originally Posted by kananott

I called tmo about international roaming charges for voicemails. I am fairly certain on some occasions that the phone was turned off. It need only be turned on momentarily, long enough to register with a local tower to result in these charges.

The solution is to forward the phone to another number before leaving the country. I was told that there would be no charge to forward to my wife's tmo phone which we will leave here. The customer care rep who specialized in PDAs assured me that I could avoid these charges by this method and still allow use of my phone for outgoing stuff--and of course internet.

Blackberry Pearl 8100

Welcome to WA kananott. As far as charges for international roaming go when using your voicemail. TMobile does not charge for incoming calls that go to your voicemail. They also don't charge you to check your voicemail using a landline phone. With these two options that are available I'm lost as to why a person would want to forward their calls to another number when they wouldn't be getting charged for roaming calls anyway, unless they used their mobile phone to check the messages.

[kananott]

The tmo rep said that you are charged at least one minute, sometimes more, for the call to be fowarded from the US to your international location. You are charged even if you do not answer, but especially if the caller leaves a voicemail. You continue to receive charges until you return to the US and your phone registers with a local tower. By forwarding your phone to a number remaining in the US, you avoid this and can still use your phone for other stuff. Not all tmo reps are equally knowledgable about this by the way. I was lucky to get one that was very familiar. The thing that made me angry initially is that I did not know about it. All the free stuff you are accustomed to goes out the window once you leave the country. At the point text messaging is a better deal along with the internet on PDA phones.

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by kananott

The tmo rep said that you are charged at least one minute, sometimes more, for the call to be fowarded from the US to your international location. You are charged even if you do not answer, but especially if the caller leaves a voicemail. You continue to receive charges until you return to the US and your phone registers with a local tower. By forwarding your phone to a number remaining in the US, you avoid this and can still use your phone for other stuff. Not all tmo reps are equally knowledgable about this by the way. I was lucky to get one that was very familiar. The thing that made me angry initially is that I did not know about it. All the free stuff you are accustomed to goes out the window once you leave the country. At the point text messaging is a better deal along with the internet on PDA phones.

I don't know about T-Mobile (and their site is not very helpful in this regard), with Cingular you will not be charged if the call attempt lasted less than 30 seconds and the call was not routed to VM. However if an unanswered call goes to VM, you're billed twice — one time for routing the call to you and one time for routing unanswered call back to VM box.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by kananott

The tmo rep said that you are charged at least one minute, sometimes more, for the call to be fowarded from the US to your international location. You are charged even if you do not answer, but especially if the caller leaves a voicemail. You continue to receive charges until you return to the US and your phone registers with a local tower. By forwarding your phone to a number remaining in the US, you avoid this and can still use your phone for other stuff. Not all tmo reps are equally knowledgable about this by the way. I was lucky to get one that was very familiar. The thing that made me angry initially is that I did not know about it. All the free stuff you are accustomed to goes out the window once you leave the country. At the point text messaging is a better deal along with the internet on PDA phones.

This is true - even if your phone is off - if you're roaming internationally (assuming your last registration was on a foreign tower I suppose) a call to voicemail incurs one or two roaming minute charges - one to find you traveling overseas, and another minute when the call goes back to the US and your voicemail.

Originally Posted by Matt

This is true - even if your phone is off - if you're roaming internationally (assuming your last registration was on a foreign tower I suppose) a call to voicemail incurs one or two roaming minute charges - one to find you traveling overseas, and another minute when the call goes back to the US and your voicemail.

Why would TMobile charge for calls to voicemail when roaming overseas, but not here?

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by MobilePrincess

Why would TMobile charge for calls to voicemail when roaming overseas, but not here?

Why ask us? We don't make those policies The same reason they raise prices on text messaging — because they can.