Poor "Customer Care" from T-Mobile/VoiceStream??

[digipixel]

Just curious if anyone else has had a bad experience with poor customer service (Customer Care) from T-Mobile/VoiceStream?

In a separate thread, I have been complaining about an "Emergency Calls Only" message I'm getting on the display of my Ericsson T28 phone. This seems to only occur when I'm trying to use my phone at home. I just called the local T-Mobile distributor store to complain again about poor signal coverage and the "Emergency Only/SOS Only" message. They weren't much help except to say that if my coverage was really that bad, then T-Mobile would probably let me out of my contract without much hassle (yeah, right).

The other problem I've had with T-Mobile (and VoiceStream) is that I have been trying now for over 9 months to get two $50 dollar rebates (one on each phone) that were offered when I purchased two Ericsson T28 phones. So far I have mailed in the rebate forms twice, FAXed the forms a third time to someone who called himself a Customer Care manager, then talked to "Customer Care" again ANOTHER 3 TIMES. Each time, they promise to either send me the rebates by mail, or give me a $100 credit against my account. So far neither the $100 rebate nor the $100 account credit has appeared and it's beginning to piss me off.

I have come to believe that T-Mobile's "Customer Care" means that, "They have Customers, but they don't Care."

Anyone else had this kind of bad experience with T-Mobile/VoiceStream????

Richard

[ZaphodB]

T-Mobile's customer care is a weird mix. When they're good (which is most of the time) they are very very good, and when they are bad, they are abysmal. What's particularly bad about the evil ones is that when I asked to speak to a supervisor, my evil drone tried to intimidate me into not being able to speak to his supervisor.

I fully realise that phone drones are human, but when someone asks to speak to a supervisor, you just transfer them. Refusing only makes it worse for you.

Normally, though, I get pleasant-if-somewhat-clueless people.

[digipixel]

[digipixel]

Just a followup to the forum on my 9-month struggle to get the two $50 rebates on T28 Ericsson phones I purchased in December of last year.

It did take 9 months of phone calls and FAX's to T-Mobile (and VoiceStream), but T-Mobile did finally add a $100 credit to my account.

I talked with a T-Mobile's Customer Care rep this morning and they confirmed that my account has been adjusted.

Whewwwww!

Dick

[Matt]

Glad to hear it worked out! Persistence pays off, but I agree it should not have taken this long!!

[calbee]

Not sure if all the blame can be placed with the wireless service provider as most rebates are handled through a third party.

Took my Dad also 9 months to straighten out his phone rebate from Verizon on a Motorola phone about a year ago. Never received the actual rebate check so Verizon ended up giving him credit instead.

Problems with Customer Care?

The first thing out of your mouth should be
"What is your Rep ID?"

If it starts with 01, 09... They are the best. If you get someone else ask yourself "does my question require intellegence".. If you answer "yes", you may want to just say "Thanks!" and hang up.

They have 13 call centers and... well... different parts of the country have different management styles. Usually LaQuisha and Tyrone in Tampa can't help you as much as Mary and John in Albuquerque... If you catch my drift.

Hate to admit but you are absolutely right!

[7465cell]

Hi,

I had one of the worst experience of "Customer service" with T-Mobile.

I travel from Mountain View to Palo Alto everyday and there are 2-4 spots where the calls always dropped. Since this affected my business, I called up the customer care to cancel my service within my trial period. The person talked nicely to me and suggested that I should try for one more week so that they can check the towers in the route. All the time implying that my 14 day grace period will be appropriately extended.

After a week, when I called them up to cancel the service as nothing had changed, they said that now I have to pay $200 for breaking the contract. I reasoned with the customer care agent as well as the supervisor that it does not make sense. Only reason I am cancelling is that they did not provide the service they promised in the mountain view area. (they claimed it is one of the best coverage in that area). And that if I had got the expected coverage, I would have happily continued since I want a service that works in US and in Germany.

Moreover, I informed that I had called up the customer care within the grace period to cancel my service and it is only based on her request to try for one more week that I had done so. To which, they claimed that call log indicated that I had only complained about the coverage and nothing was mentioned about my intent of cancelling the service and the discussion on extending the trial period. I reasoned with them that I have no way to control what is in the call log and that I can only go by what is conveyed to me.

But neither the customer care agent nor her supervisor were interested in any of this. For them, since technically, I was beyond 14 days trial period, I was breaking the contract and hence all they were interested in was to charge me $200.

I am really surprised and shocked by their customer care philosophy. They may have good service standards for corporations, but for individuals, and at least for me, it sucked. I hope T-Mobile learns what customer care means.

Best regards

[714tmobile]

Originally posted by: 7465cell
Hi,

I had one of the worst experience of "Customer service" with T-Mobile.

I travel from Mountain View to Palo Alto everyday and there are 2-4 spots where the calls always dropped. Since this affected my business, I called up the customer care to cancel my service within my trial period. The person talked nicely to me and suggested that I should try for one more week so that they can check the towers in the route. All the time implying that my 14 day grace period will be appropriately extended.

After a week, when I called them up to cancel the service as nothing had changed, they said that now I have to pay $200 for breaking the contract. I reasoned with the customer care agent as well as the supervisor that it does not make sense. Only reason I am cancelling is that they did not provide the service they promised in the mountain view area. (they claimed it is one of the best coverage in that area). And that if I had got the expected coverage, I would have happily continued since I want a service that works in US and in Germany.

Moreover, I informed that I had called up the customer care within the grace period to cancel my service and it is only based on her request to try for one more week that I had done so. To which, they claimed that call log indicated that I had only complained about the coverage and nothing was mentioned about my intent of cancelling the service and the discussion on extending the trial period. I reasoned with them that I have no way to control what is in the call log and that I can only go by what is conveyed to me.

But neither the customer care agent nor her supervisor were interested in any of this. For them, since technically, I was beyond 14 days trial period, I was breaking the contract and hence all they were interested in was to charge me $200.

I am really surprised and shocked by their customer care philosophy. They may have good service standards for corporations, but for individuals, and at least for me, it sucked. I hope T-Mobile learns what customer care means.

Best regards

It sucks being stuck like that... Did you ask him/her (the CSR) for their name, employee ID# (they give it at the beginning of every call) and/or a Case ID#?

[mrnokia]

You know, after all the complaits (and a US record too!) that T-Mobile has been receiving you would think they would know what kind of customer service reps to hire. It seems as if they have the complete opposite type of qualified people working. But, I don't have T-Mobile so really shouldn't be saying anything unless I tried them out.

Mr Nokia

t-mobile has obviously offer relatively lots of minutes for a reasonable monthly price to attract new customers, but they simply do NOT have enough "towers" to provide good service. I am in the San Fran city limits, cannot often make a call from my home or other "downtown locations due to poor signal strength, yet my phone often inicates that At&T service IS available. T-mobile is sharing towers with Cingular, who also has issues with poor signals..... so both companies need to do a dramatic investment in new towers, which will probably take a while. And customer service has NOT a clue as to these signal problems... it took me six weeks just to confirm with C.S. as to whether I had a phone reception problem or not .... the answer is NOT... it is simply a lack of towers in the SF Bay Area. Naturally my contract couldn't be cancelled without paying the $200 cancel fee by the time I finally got the answer to the reason for the bad service. Watch out if you purchase T-mobile.... thoroughly test it in your area and cancel within the grace period if it does work for you.... don't trust their coverage charts, they are old Cingular charts... highly inaccurate!

The quality of reception in SF has already been established in other threads. By the same token LA service is very good.

Now as far as the CS service goes, TM's situation is not that different from other service oriented companies. You've got many who are professionals and others abysmal. It would be nice not to generalize! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

Check out these auction-driven results.. Here's what actually happened:

- Nearly 80% of T-Mob's customers would refer a friend, co-worker or relative.

- T-Mob lost fewer customers than almost all of the other carriers last quarter.

- T-Mob was 2nd in new net adds last quarter (behind verizon... but VZs customer base is 4 times that of T-Mob) Some companies lost customers.

Every company has their issues, but if you think of it like this, it makes a lot of sense:

Which would you want, a company that consistantly delivers 20% more product every month, or a company that you have to literally twist their arm to get a 20% credit one month..?

[Venedotia]

Originally posted by: ZaphodB
T-Mobile's customer care is a weird mix. When they're good (which is most of the time) they are very very good, and when they are bad, they are abysmal. What's particularly bad about the evil ones is that when I asked to speak to a supervisor, my evil drone tried to intimidate me into not being able to speak to his supervisor.

I fully realise that phone drones are human, but when someone asks to speak to a supervisor, you just transfer them. Refusing only makes it worse for you.

Normally, though, I get pleasant-if-somewhat-clueless people.

I'm sorry you feel that people who do customer service are drones. I work cs for Verizon (I won't say what call center... I like my job and want to keep it) but I must say if someone called me a drone or referred to me in the derogatory manner you have, you'll find me a tad less pleasant, and I am being extremely polite when I say that. It's not an easy job. And yes I fully "realise" that you were referring to T-mobile's customer care, however the attitude is not needed.

Customer service is probably one of the most difficult jobs someone can have. Yes, I get yelled at all day. I work my hiney off to make the "pleasant-if-somewhat-clueless-customer" happy and take a lot of abuse for it. (*note- not all customers are clueless or abusive nor am I implying they are*) I'm still a pleasant-thorough-not clueless-person, my apologies for being offended but I'll take a customer service representative's side anyday, even if it is a competitor, when they are called a insulting term such as "phone drone" & "clueless."

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img] ,
Vene

[ZaphodB]

Originally posted by: Venedotia

I'm sorry you feel that people who do customer service are drones. I work cs for Verizon (I won't say what call center... I like my job and want to keep it) but I must say if someone called me a drone or referred to me in the derogatory manner you have, you'll find me a tad less pleasant, and I am being extremely polite when I say that. It's not an easy job. And yes I fully "realise" that you were referring to T-mobile's customer care, however the attitude is not needed.

Customer service is probably one of the most difficult jobs someone can have. Yes, I get yelled at all day. I work my hiney off to make the "pleasant-if-somewhat-clueless-customer" happy and take a lot of abuse for it. (*note- not all customers are clueless or abusive nor am I implying they are*) I'm still a pleasant-thorough-not clueless-person, my apologies for being offended but I'll take a customer service representative's side anyday, even if it is a competitor, when they are called a insulting term such as "phone drone" & "clueless."

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img] ,
Vene

You don't think I'm dumb enough to call them a drone and clueless on the phone, do you? I stand by my statement, though - first-line customer service reps in particular are drones. They recite the same bland scripts given to them by the provider and cannot deviate from it. I can't tell you how many times I've called about my voicemail, for example, and TOLD the CSR that I have already powered the phone off and on and that I have already checked the forwarding-when-unavailable. I am always told that they have to go through the script anyway before transferring me to technical support.

Also, whether they are clueless people or just have their intelligence shackled by those infernal scripts, they come across as clueless.

An army of people performing tasks exactly as given to them by the entity to which they belong - a textbook definition of drones working in a hive.

I'm glad you're not clueless. I wish more of the T-Mobile people were. Also, speaking of pleasant, it seems to be an innate feature of a lot of Americans to make rude comments about accents, then take offence when the comment is returned in kind ("Where'd you learn to talk funny like that?" "That's odd, here I was thinking you were talking funny!" "I don't talk funny!") This goes for written 'accents' as well.

I've noticed, having called many, many times, that a higher proportion of the clueless T-Mobile ones have slight Southern accents. I wonder if it's one call centre that's just particularly evil - with AT&T the evil call centres had very Midwestern (i.e., Iowa/Nebraska) accents.

I haven't had to call Verizon customer care in five years, so I will give you the benefit of the doubt; perhaps Verizon are better and less addicted to scripts from which their CSRs cannot deviate.

[Venedotia]

I'm sorry you have had a bad experience(s). It's a shame that someone who works in customer care for T-mobile will not get your respect or deserve your attention. That they are a "drone" and don't deserve to be treated kindly, like you would to any other person.

~Vene

[ZaphodB]

Originally posted by: Venedotia
I'm sorry you have had a bad experience(s). It's a shame that someone who works in customer care for T-mobile will not get your respect or deserve your attention. That they are a "drone" and don't deserve to be treated kindly, like you would to any other person.

~Vene

My rule is that everyone I interact with gets one chance to prove he (or she) is not an idiot. This means I start off kind. I'm also quite equal-opportunity about it - this doesn't just apply to phone support personnel, but to everyone. I expect that when I call T-Mobile customer care that the people with whom I speak will know what they are doing. Sadly, that expectation is not often met.

[mophile]

I guess this is another case of "your mileage may vary", as since coming to TMo about a year ago, I have been extremely happy with their CS! I came from Verizon, which was universally the WORST customer service I have ever gotten in any situation in my life. I was not surprised to see the attitude from the gentleman who is a Verizon CS rep...that is pretty typical of what I heard from them. Sad to say, but due to lotsa turnover and the young age of CS reps, they ARE clueless most of the time. I have had cell service since 1986 and typically have to explain SOME part of their jobs to them once per phone call. Having said that, with Verzion I had to call CS at least twice a week to fix some part of their ****ed-up service, whereas with TMo I have probably called 5 times in the year I have had them...their service just works!

[Danthrin44]

Originally posted by: Anonymous
Problems with Customer Care?

The first thing out of your mouth should be
"What is your Rep ID?"

If it starts with 01, 09... They are the best. If you get someone else ask yourself "does my question require intellegence".. If you answer "yes", you may want to just say "Thanks!" and hang up.

They have 13 call centers and... well... different parts of the country have different management styles. Usually LaQuisha and Tyrone in Tampa can't help you as much as Mary and John in Albuquerque... If you catch my drift.

sounds like you are implicating racism.

I don't know why people have such a need for customer service. The only thing you should REALLY need them for is pricing plan changes, or putting credit on your bill for something you shouldnt get charged for. Anyone with a 'complicated' question is only making the question complicated because Cell Phones and services are not that complex.

I work Customer Service for a cell phone provider (not T-Mobile).. I'm actually a Senior Rep (basically meaning i have put up with customers bs for a long period of time and i still havent choked a customer haha jk) and a majority of calls that I receive shouldnt even come into the que. Dont get me wrong, there are calls that are necessary and important which i do value and work hard to resolve. Worry Free Gurantee.. haha. But there are those calls where the people are so ignorant and they dont want to listen to anything i have to say because 1. They just want to vent. 2. They are afraid i'll tell them information or something that they wont agree with even though i am right. 3. They think they know more than me which is a contradiction because why would they call in the first place.

I know that we need those customers as well as we need the 'nice' customers. I know that sometimes i'm the 3rd of 4th rep theyve talked to about the same issue so their confidence in me is very limited.

haha so where was i going with this.. oh yea.

If you have a question that is 'complicated' then you've probably made it complicated yourself. Cell phones and the services arent that hard to understand if u just take a min to read over your literature instead of calling *611 the second you think of the question..

[Venedotia]

Originally posted by: mophile
I guess this is another case of "your mileage may vary", as since coming to TMo about a year ago, I have been extremely happy with their CS! I came from Verizon, which was universally the WORST customer service I have ever gotten in any situation in my life. I was not surprised to see the attitude from the gentleman who is a Verizon CS rep...that is pretty typical of what I heard from them. Sad to say, but due to lotsa turnover and the young age of CS reps, they ARE clueless most of the time. I have had cell service since 1986 and typically have to explain SOME part of their jobs to them once per phone call. Having said that, with Verzion I had to call CS at least twice a week to fix some part of their ****ed-up service, whereas with TMo I have probably called 5 times in the year I have had them...their service just works!

I'm curious as to what attitude I had? I merely objected to the terms "drone" & "clueless."

Young age means a person is clueless? Isn't that ageism? However it is spelt... Because a person can be clueless whether they are young or old.

ZaphodB has had a bad experience, so it's understandable where he is coming from. You on the other hand are bitter and appear to be incapable of composing yourself in a manner that does not invole insults or profanity "starred" out. ZaphodB was able to compose himself in a mature manner that I applaud him for.

~Vene

(very much a woman, thankyouverymuch...)