del.icio.us
(6/9/06)

This just goes to show that making customer service calls is like playing roulette. It's a game of chance to be able to speak with the "right" CS rep who can handle your issue. Perhaps it's mainly because they don't listen well and probably don't want to do the work involved in addressing customers' concerns, especially the ones not in the playbook. Of course I'm generalizing here, but having spent the better part of the past month with customer service departments in various outfits, I think my experiences and conclusion aren't far from the truth.

Sometime a few weeks ago, I called LetsTalk to see if I could add another line to my plan which is already a "family plan". It only seemed logical that since I was still within my trial period I should be still considered a new customer activation and hence "entitled" to adding additional lines while receiving the benefits of those rebates.

My "workaround" to the MDA network registration problem and evidence that true phones even on the T-Mobile network worked fined was to buy a phone-phone, not a computer-phone...

del.icio.us
(6/6/06) ]:-> :)

A box arrived today with two new MDAs! Despite what the LetsTalk email stated, it had apparently shipped on Monday as the lady said it would most likely do.

You've already read the review of the MDA so I'll spare you the pictorial op-ed.

The $64,000 question is this... Did this new MDA have any reception and slow network registration problems?

Want to take a guess at the answer?...

del.icio.us
Come on people. Sheesh.

Got an email from LetsTalk saying that they're shipping out the phones on Tuesday (Day 28) which means with overnight delivery we get them on Wednesday (Day 29).

Time to pour over the fine-print of their agreement. I sure hope they're not trying to be sneaky by taking their sweet time getting our replacement phones back to us...

del.icio.us
(6/2)

"Love is in the air..." (from the LoveBoat)

Remember the optomistic timeline I posted? Well, hell hasn't frozen over, reality kicked in and here I am four days (and counting) without a phone and paying for service that I can't use and couldn't use even when I had the phone...

del.icio.us
(5/30)

The first chance I get, I put the phones back into the boxes and ship 'em back.

Now I wait.

As I understood it (and still hoping for best case scenario), I would get the phones shipped back the day they received them in-house. So this is the timetable I'm looking at:

TUE - send back
WED - in transit
THUR - delivered and new phone shipped back
FRI - delivery to me


Elapsed time: .5 hours

If you make minimum wage ($8.50/hour) = $4.25
If you're a hot-shot partner at a law-firm ($400/hour) = $200 (crazy, right?)

Overall satisfaction meter: >:\

del.icio.us
(5/25)

After speaking with T-Mobile, I call LetsTalk. I explain the entire ordeal and the customer service lady says to ship the phones back (at their expense) and once received, we'll get replacement (new) phones.

Great (sarcastically). So, I get a 2-day return ship and an overnight ship back to me. Mind you, this is already Thursday and best case scenario I get the mailing slip same-day and with the weekend coming up, I could theoretically get the phones back by the following Tuesday:

THUR - ship out
FRI - transit
SAT- no transit
SUN - no transit
MON - delivered
TUE - new phones

But there's a problem. Monday is a holiday and everyone's closed! :(

del.icio.us
(5/25)

After having spent more time on researching this issue, I figured a more pointed call to T-Mobile would help resolve the issue.

This time, I call and talk with Tier2 support after explaining that I've rebooted, swapped chips, and all other things that I, the customer (not guinea pig, lab rat), am stilling having problems with slow registration AND poor reception. I really just want a fix to the registration issue first.

The guy tells me first that he's never heard of such problems (more on that later) and that it's a sim chip problem. Um, I've swapped out four chips already. If all four exhibit the same failure, T-Mobile has serious issues. They're not even from the same batch! I re-explained the situation and perhaps it sunk in a bit further into his wall of defiance that something is wrong. He thinks it's the phone itself and said that he recommends that. I ask if I can get escalated to which he replies "no". I have to try this first.

Now, think for a minute that I have two MDAs and four sim chips and none of them are sequential in serials.

Fine. I'll get the phones replaced. At this point, I'm quite the unhappy camper. I'm paying for all of this service and I can't use it. Tech support is clueless (or maybe just this guy).


Elapsed time: 1 hour

If you make minimum wage ($8.50/hour) = $8.50
If you're a hot-shot partner at a law-firm ($400/hour) = $400 (crazy, right?)

Overall satisfaction meter: >:\

del.icio.us
(5/22)

Got back on the phone with LetsTalk and this time stuck around for 30 minutes with a lady who after doing some checking, updated the record to reflect the new rebate amount to be received.


Elapsed time: .5 hours

If you make minimum wage ($8.50/hour) = $4.25
If you're a hot-shot partner at a law-firm ($400/hour) = $200 (crazy, right?)

Overall satisfaction meter: :\

del.icio.us
(5/19)

I checked online to make sure that the $150 rebate was posted on my account. Nope. Time to get on these guys...

After being on hold for 30 minutes, I decide to send LetsTalk an email asking about the status of the rebate change.

Later that day/Early next morning, a form email shows up telling me how to check on rebate status. Hellooooo?

By this time, I've figured out that there's a huge problem with many MDAs running on the T-Mobile network. My question at this point is what to do next? In California, you have 30 days to return and cancel without penalty and I'm halfway through this...


Elapsed time: .5 hours

If you make minimum wage ($8.50/hour) = $4.25
If you're a hot-shot partner at a law-firm ($400/hour) = $200 (crazy, right?)

Overall satisfaction meter: :\

del.icio.us
(5/16)

The sim chips come in the morning and within minutes, I was on the phone with T-Mobile.

Activation of the new chips took just under 15 minutes. Painless really.

After I get off the phone with them, I test the phones. The result? Same as before. Now what?


Elapsed time: .25 hours

If you make minimum wage ($8.50/hour) = $2.125
If you're a hot-shot partner at a law-firm ($400/hour) = $100 (crazy, right?)

Overall satisfaction meter: :| (still hoping...)

del.icio.us
(5/15)

I call Letstalk, explain the situation (again) and within a matter of minutes, the customer service lady said she'd overnight new chips and that we'd have to activate them ourselves. OK! Now that's service...

Elapsed time: .25 hours

If you make minimum wage ($8.50/hour) = $2.125
If you're a hot-shot partner at a law-firm ($400/hour) = $100 (crazy, right?)

Overall satisfaction meter: :| (there's hope)

del.icio.us
(5/13)

It's a beautiful Saturday, Barry Bonds is still trying to hit #715, birds are chirping and all that crap...

And here I am back on the phone this time with T-Mobile directly. I speak with customer service, tech. support, provisioning, the data department and a whole circus of T-Mobile drones (to be fair, they're nice on the phone, it's just that they can't _help_).

One of the guys "rebuilds" my account and again, I'm calling from within the home and the MDA shows the dots. There are sporadic moments where I'd receive a text message, you'd see the "G" and get a bar or two. Then when you make a call, it dies into a cell-phone ether. Obviously something's wrong...

del.icio.us
(5/12)

Knock on the door - it's UPS with the phones! (No signature required.)

I'm happy as can be like a kid on Christmas. I open the box and find brand-spankin' new T-Mobile branded boxed phones (I had thought maybe they would be shipped in some brown-box refurbished cartons).

To be a good phone user, I plugged in both MDAs and waited an hour to charge up the batteries. Then with great excitement, I turn on both phones and started the WM5 (Windows Mobile 5.0) OS orientation. This is definitely NOT a phone-phone, not even a PDA-phone. This is really a micro computer with a phone taped to it...

del.icio.us
(5/11)

Now this sucks, doesn't it?

The day after I placed the order, Letstalk offered a better deal on the rebates down to $50/phone from $100/phone.

Well, I called in and basically asked them to modify this and guess what? They obliged. The customer service lady said sh'ed be able to take care of it and that the account would be reflected of this in 3-5 days. Cool.

So, at this point, I'm thinking that I've made the right decision with the etailer.

Still waiting for a phone, but if this kind of service continues, I'd be more than happy to refer friends to them (they also give you a referral fee if you do so - now that's even a greater incentive, so it's in their best interest to make customers happy).

And we wait for another day...

Elapsed time: 0.5 hour

If you make minimum wage ($8.50/hour) = $4.25
If you're a hot-shot partner at a law-firm ($400/hour) = $200 (crazy, right?)

Overall satisfaction meter: :)

del.icio.us
Before I start, let me explain what this entire category is about.

While it's fun to play with your phone and there are many sites dedicated to such activities, there aren't any that specifically chronicle the experience of shopping around for a phone from start to finish (and beyond).

You will read plenty of updated information as I take you down this journey of a fairly unpleasant experience...

(Oh, by the way, this journey is a continuing saga-of-sorts and what you're reading now is probably anywhere between two weeks to one day behind until I get to the present.)