Last month I had to get a new plan for my cell phone, because the old one was running out. This was in the week before Apple launched the iPhone.
Sadly, here in Austria we have to wait for it at least until November.
I decided to take T-Mobile again. Reasons:
Also they had a nice new plan called “Fair Play”
You in sum have 4000 minutes/month included for a fee of € 25 (about 30 $) per month. A new cellphone included for free.
Sounded good.
So I fired up my browser and ordered. I entered everything including driving license code and bank account data.
I got a page telling me they have all the data they need and my order will be processed immediately.
2 or 3 days later, I got an email from T-Mobile. They wrote that I have to fax them a copy of my ATM card (cash card). WTF? I don’t have a fax machine. I thought they already had everything they need? Alternatively I could go to a T-Mobile store. But actually I ordered online to avoid this!
Ok, I knew there was a T-Mobile store just a few 100 meters away from our office. Went there, waited half an hour and gave my card to the service guy. It took him 15 minutes and about 20 tries to make a copy of it and fax it for me. Done.
After 3 or 4 work days I finally got the package. But the joy of the new phone was short: Of course the first thing I wanted to do is to call some people to give them my new number. Forget it.
These nice T-Mobile guys attached 2 sheets:
sheet 1: An empty form where I should fill out my personal data, like address, email, driving licence code, bank account data, etc. and send it back by old school mail.
Wait. This reminds me of something. Ahh! I already filled out everything online! Why do they need this again? I ordered online to avoid this!
Ok, probably they needed my signature. But what about pre-printed forms so that I just throw my signature below it and send it back? Luckily I can do this later. My phone should work instantly.
sheet 2: This one told me, that I have to activate my phone before a can use it. How? Of course: by phone. Yay!!
So I asked Joe if I can borrow his to call the hotline and activate my phone.
But it wasn’t as easy I thought:
I was on hold for about 20 minutes while a nice voice was telling me that a service team member will answer my call soon. I hung up.
A few hours later I tried it again. After 30min on hold, I hung up. Aggresion and other feelings came up.
A few hours later, more than one hour on hold, finally someone answered my call.
It took the service team guy 1 minute to tell me that the phone will be activated in about 30min.
After 30min: Nothing. Phone not activated.
After 2 hours: I still can’t call someone. No activation.
Switching the phone off and on every few minutes didn’t help either.
Ok, let’s give it another try and call the hotline again. After 20 minutes on hold I gave up and thought I wait until the next morning.
About 7 or 8 hours later: nothing. The phone still didn’t work.
So I went again to the T-Mobile store and I tried to keep as calm as possible.
After 15 minutes of waiting in the queue I gave the phone to the guy there, he typed something into his PC and after a few minutes it worked! Finally!
From now on everything worked. Until today—nearly a month later.
I received the first invoice. And do you guess what? It’s wrong! They somehow managed it to get my bank code wrong!
How is that possible? Remember—I filled out 2 forms and sent a copy of it to them!
Having a wrong bank code of me in their records, means that they can’t withdraw money from my bank account.
No money from me means they’ll lock my phone number soon.
To avoid this, I decided to give them a call again.
I already was used to be on hold, but after 1 hour and 45 minutes on hold, I was fed up with them.
They got this friendly email from me (more or less literally translated from german):
Hello,
I just wanted to inform that the T-Mobile Service Hotline
is—friendly expressed—shit.
I was on hold for 1 hour 45 minutes and nobody answered my call.
I don’t care anymore about my concerns now (you have entered wrong bank account data of me).
As much as you don’t care about your customers.
You simply won’t get any money from me.
Have a nice day,
Dieter Komendera
That’s it until now. Let’s see how long it takes them to notice that they can’t withdraw money from my account. Maybe as long as how it takes them to respong to my email—if it ever gets read.
I’ll keep you up to date. But I can’t suggest anyone to take a T-Mobile plan, at least here in Austria.
Anybody else with same experiences?
I was a T-Mobile customer too (actually for quite a long time, I did the transition from Max to T-Mobile). But I changed my provider because they were just too expensive for me (the girlfriend thing really matters ;) ). Had a two year contract with A1 and I’m now using One. I can only make a call when I’m on my balcony but it’s fine when I’m on the road. Guess it’s the same for every telephone company here…
Hi I am from US
well this is very true. u know what I had mobile and after few months, I cancel my contract because their services were too bad. they never ever send me my bill and almost each month charge me around $100 as late fee. I called them a lot to send me a bill at my home address but each time they excused. after all that i joined with at&t.now they charge me $250 as a cancellation and they withdraw that money from bank account without sending me any notice or any letter.
can somebody tell me. what I can do now
Do participate!