T-Mobile HORROR Story

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Originally Posted by marcmywrdz

I am involved in a customer service nightmare with T-Mobile. I’ve tried dealing with them to no avail. First I spoke with “Ralph” from the “office of the president.” I’ve also written to their media relations department, Robert Dotson, Brian Kirkpatrick, Susan Nokes and Hamid Akhavan, all of whom have ignored me. All I want is something fair and simple, yet the are they have dug their heels in and are being completely unreasonable—and have been quite deceptive to boot!

My 19 year old daughter has not has good luck with her T-Mobile phones. She had a Razr which gave her problems on many occasions. She eventually switched to a Wing—the source of her current, ongoing problem.

My daughter has gone through several Wings. In the beginning, they were replaced with refurbished units. She dropped one and paid the insurance claim out of her own pocket. Her current Wing (a new unit), which she received a few months back, started to give an error message saying it was out of memory, repeatedly froze, etc. It finally stopped working altogether. Research on Google shows that this is common problem with this phone. The tech at a T-Mobile store said that there was nothing they could do and suggested she go to Wal-Mart and get a pre-paid phone until she got a new Wing!

I tried reaching Ralph from the “Office of the President” (877) 290-6323 x-341-8022, several times. After leaving many messages, Ralph finally called me back. He said, “If the account number isn’t left, I won’t return the call.” To me, that is NOT customer service. All he would have to do is to look up my daughter’s records OR call me back! Finally, Ralph got back to me, then my daughter. Initially, Ralph told my daughter that he would exchange her Wing for any other T-Mobile phone. She was pleased to hear this. My daughter went to a T-Mobile store again and tried out different phones. Because of her needs and the shape of her fingers, etc., she settled on the G1.

When my daughter called Ralph back and told him the phone she wanted, he told her that she could have any phone EXCEPT THAT ONE! I’m sure you can imagine her disappointment—and outrage. He offered to give her a Sidekick 2008 (quite old) or a Dash (even older—and one she doesn’t like). These are not even close to being in the class as a G1 or a Wing. He said that she could get the G1, but she’d have to pay for it—and offered her a “discounted” price of $179.99. I then spoke with him and expressed my disappointment and how it was insulting that even though she had a flawed, lemon of a phone, she’d have to pay even MORE money for a different one—one that was also close to a year old technology-wise. I asked for his supervisor to call me.

Jennifer Martinez (877) 290-6323 x-8011 called me the next day. She basically reiterated the same offer, making it sound like we were getting some amazing deal, saying that “retail” price on the phone was $399.99. This was absolute deception, of course, as hardly anyone ever pays the “suggested retail price,” and, the T-Mobile website offers the very same price of $179.99 to ANY new customer!

I declined Ms. Martinez’s offer and told her that I would be contacting other people. She said that “I could feel free to do so, but they would tell me the same thing.” Now, I understand empowering employees, but when they come off as sounding like even the owner or CEO can’t or won’t do anything they won’t do, it just sounds ridiculous.

Apparently, my letters trickled back to Ralph, who called me and clearly indicated that he was authorized to speak on behalf of all of the executives that I had written to.

Among the many absurd things that he said, he told me that he could not (or…WOULD not) contact my daughter when I called him the first time, since I didn’t’ leave her cell number, since there were others with her name in their system. I told him flat out that as far as I knew, there are NO other people with my daughter’s name in the world! I again wrote to T-Mobile asking for some type of proof of this. The fact is, Ralph refused to be proactive and just make a simple phone call to me. He tried to cover his tracks with this ridiculous statement. Ralph also told me that the $179.99 was a huge discount—the only thing that that my daughter qualified for. It seems that T-Mobile is more is more interested in getting new customers than keeping the ones that they have.

This situation has been going on for over a month. My family has had an account with T-Mobile for many years. We’ve paid T-Mobile thousands of dollars through the years. My daughter’s Razr and now her Wing have given her problems. I’ve tried to resolve this fairly, yet they refuse to budge over $200—and an old phone—one that’s already being updated!

I appreciate the chance to share this information with your readers and let them know that the vows of great customer service by Susan Nokes and her team are nothing but lip service.

first of all, razrs suck, from any service provider, it doesnt matter, they all suck, motorola really screwed those phones (though i seemed to have a god of a razr because after throwing it at a concrete wall and shattering it more than once, neither of the screens cracked and the phone still works flawlessly, although i dont use it anymore)

second, if the phone was out of warrentee (sounds like it) you should not expect that you can get a new one without paying (thoguh in your case you could probably have filed an insurance claim and paid the deductable) do you expect ford to replace a fualty water pump from a '95 focus when it breaks in 2005? no chance in hell, why should your cell phone be any different?

secondly, offering the g1 for 180 is a GREAT price, because its only offerd to new customers for that price (now 150) with the signing of a new 2 year contract, but you were offerd that without the contract and you complain? people DO buy phones at full retail belive it or not, and the amount tmobile pays isnt an incredable amount lower than the retail price shown, so the fact that you were offerd a price on the phone cheaper than what tmobile paid for it in the first place without signing a new agreement is amazing as it is.

now, what in the world makes you think, that they should give you a phone for free that retails at a high price and end up LOSING money over the course of your remaining contract on this phone, how does that make sense to you? why in the WORLD do you belive that tmobile should LOSE money over you? why dont they just hand out $100 bills to all of their customers? you are no different than anyone else.

Thank you Xexy for bringing good ole fashioned common sense to this post.
1) Marc, you're daughters' Wing stopped working. There was no mention of any troubleshooting so I'm guessing at this point, the phone was out of warranty. Every piece of electronic equipment has a one-year warranty. This is a common practice of every major company in America, so maybe you should check your expectations of the American Warranty before blaming your bad fortune on your current cell phone provider.

2) If "Ralph" offered you a G1 at the $179.99 price WITH the current contract not being extended, this was a heavenly deal, and had you used more reason and logic and stopped acting out of emotion, you would have jumped on this sweet deal. I guarantee you were only at a partial discount at the time and were not even qualified for a full discount but they tried to hook you up anyways and you declined again and again. That is YOUR BAD!!!

3)It is evident that you were not using logic when you said, "I told him flat out that as far as I knew, there are NO other people with my daughter’s name in the world!" C'mon Marc...really. Tmobile has millions of customers, I'm sure there are about 10 Suzy Q's in there so if you were so adamant about getting what you wanted in a timely fasion, you should have left all the correct information. Phone numbers and account number.

And last but not least...
Had I gotten a call about a guy whose Razr didn't work, so he bought a Wing, then he broke it and got another wing, not he's out of contract and he has to get another phone so we gave him a very good deal and he's still not happy. I'd have gotten pissed and gave you the business tone of voice myself. I mean really, did you honestly expect to get a free phone of your choice because your out of warranty phone stopped working.

*IDEA* Let me call Chevrolet, because my 1996 SS Impala's transmission went out. Maybe if I moan loud enough to them, and call all of their supervisors and managers and email everybody from the CEO to the janitor, then they'll give me a whole new car of my choice.

See how ridiculous that sounds? You need to check yourself. I've been with AT&T, Sprint and Cingular, and none of them gave a rat's ass about my troubles and woes, so you may want to call back in with your "nice" voice and jump on that G1 deal buddy. And make sure you opt in for the extended warranty and insurance, it's $5.99 a month, and with your track record on phones, it seems necessary.

No hard feelings, just being real with you. We all get a lil pissy when things don't go our way and it's too bad customer service reps can't get THIS REAL with customers (I take that back, Sprint does, which is the reason why if you were with Sprint, you'd have received a little letter in the mail saying that you're service is being cancelled because you call in too much, lol.) Now CSR's do F up every now and then, but this time, you gotta suck it up and take what you can get, or give up however many years you've been with Tmobile and start off as a baby with another company, with no tenure, and no "years of service" to fall back on. Think about it...

Re to marcmywrdz

(Dont mean to be bashing, but I have to put my .02 in)


Now, I do agree that if Ralph said "Any phone" and then when you pick the G1, he says no you can't, I would be upset, but....


You have a T-Mobile Wing... and you were saying the other phones were old... the Wing was released on 5/22/07, and I am sure the Sidekick was right around there.

You really need to put yourself in their shoes, and think about if you were the one making the decisions, woudl this be an unreasonable request?

I am all about Customer Service, and bending over backwards to a certain extent is good, but that does sound a little unreasonable.

jsut switched to t-mobile today xD

That's unfortunate; I have always had a good experience w/ their service...

Wow. Yeah, if I were you I would defintely not give it up without a fight.

Originally Posted by marcmywrdz

I am involved in a customer service nightmare with T-Mobile. I’ve tried dealing with them to no avail. First I spoke with “Ralph” from the “office of the president.” I’ve also written to their media relations department, Robert Dotson, Brian Kirkpatrick, Susan Nokes and Hamid Akhavan, all of whom have ignored me. All I want is something fair and simple, yet the are they have dug their heels in and are being completely unreasonable—and have been quite deceptive to boot!

My 19 year old daughter has not has good luck with her T-Mobile phones. She had a Razr which gave her problems on many occasions. She eventually switched to a Wing—the source of her current, ongoing problem.

My daughter has gone through several Wings. In the beginning, they were replaced with refurbished units. She dropped one and paid the insurance claim out of her own pocket. Her current Wing (a new unit), which she received a few months back, started to give an error message saying it was out of memory, repeatedly froze, etc. It finally stopped working altogether. Research on Google shows that this is common problem with this phone. The tech at a T-Mobile store said that there was nothing they could do and suggested she go to Wal-Mart and get a pre-paid phone until she got a new Wing!

I tried reaching Ralph from the “Office of the President” (877) 290-6323 x-341-8022, several times. After leaving many messages, Ralph finally called me back. He said, “If the account number isn’t left, I won’t return the call.” To me, that is NOT customer service. All he would have to do is to look up my daughter’s records OR call me back! Finally, Ralph got back to me, then my daughter. Initially, Ralph told my daughter that he would exchange her Wing for any other T-Mobile phone. She was pleased to hear this. My daughter went to a T-Mobile store again and tried out different phones. Because of her needs and the shape of her fingers, etc., she settled on the G1.

When my daughter called Ralph back and told him the phone she wanted, he told her that she could have any phone EXCEPT THAT ONE! I’m sure you can imagine her disappointment—and outrage. He offered to give her a Sidekick 2008 (quite old) or a Dash (even older—and one she doesn’t like). These are not even close to being in the class as a G1 or a Wing. He said that she could get the G1, but she’d have to pay for it—and offered her a “discounted” price of $179.99. I then spoke with him and expressed my disappointment and how it was insulting that even though she had a flawed, lemon of a phone, she’d have to pay even MORE money for a different one—one that was also close to a year old technology-wise. I asked for his supervisor to call me.

Jennifer Martinez (877) 290-6323 x-8011 called me the next day. She basically reiterated the same offer, making it sound like we were getting some amazing deal, saying that “retail” price on the phone was $399.99. This was absolute deception, of course, as hardly anyone ever pays the “suggested retail price,” and, the T-Mobile website offers the very same price of $179.99 to ANY new customer!

I declined Ms. Martinez’s offer and told her that I would be contacting other people. She said that “I could feel free to do so, but they would tell me the same thing.” Now, I understand empowering employees, but when they come off as sounding like even the owner or CEO can’t or won’t do anything they won’t do, it just sounds ridiculous.

Apparently, my letters trickled back to Ralph, who called me and clearly indicated that he was authorized to speak on behalf of all of the executives that I had written to.

Among the many absurd things that he said, he told me that he could not (or…WOULD not) contact my daughter when I called him the first time, since I didn’t’ leave her cell number, since there were others with her name in their system. I told him flat out that as far as I knew, there are NO other people with my daughter’s name in the world! I again wrote to T-Mobile asking for some type of proof of this. The fact is, Ralph refused to be proactive and just make a simple phone call to me. He tried to cover his tracks with this ridiculous statement. Ralph also told me that the $179.99 was a huge discount—the only thing that that my daughter qualified for. It seems that T-Mobile is more is more interested in getting new customers than keeping the ones that they have.

This situation has been going on for over a month. My family has had an account with T-Mobile for many years. We’ve paid T-Mobile thousands of dollars through the years. My daughter’s Razr and now her Wing have given her problems. I’ve tried to resolve this fairly, yet they refuse to budge over $200—and an old phone—one that’s already being updated!

I appreciate the chance to share this information with your readers and let them know that the vows of great customer service by Susan Nokes and her team are nothing but lip service.

1) stop trying to get a brand new phone for nothing, 2) the people you are speaking w/ are working on behalf of the CEO but you will never speak with the CEO. Are you dumb enough to think that if you called the White House Obama would drop everything and take your call? When you buy a phone it comes with a manufactures warranty Tmobile doesn't make the phones, they buy them from the manufactuere and have them to resell to you as a courtesy. If you were to call the maufacterer about a replacement, all they would offer is the same phone. People..Pull your heads out of your fannies and get a life.

the wing released 5/2/07 and the sidekick in 11/2008>> do the math peopld

truly horrendous

Originally Posted by nashobaslove

1) stop trying to get a brand new phone for nothing, 2) the people you are speaking w/ are working on behalf of the CEO but you will never speak with the CEO. Are you dumb enough to think that if you called the White House Obama would drop everything and take your call? When you buy a phone it comes with a manufactures warranty Tmobile doesn't make the phones, they buy them from the manufactuere and have them to resell to you as a courtesy. If you were to call the maufacterer about a replacement, all they would offer is the same phone. People..Pull your heads out of your fannies and get a life.

the wing released 5/2/07 and the sidekick in 11/2008>> do the math peopld

1. I'm not trying to get a brand new phone for nothing. We paid for a working, non-defective phone, as well as for the service. This phone is proven to be a lemon.

2. We want a comparable phone. Your "do the math" statement is inane and tired cliche. I'd much rather have a 2007 Ferrari than and 2008 Kia.

3. So, T-Mobile is selling phones "as a courtesy?" That comment doesn't even deserve a reply.

T-Mobile has a F Rating from the Better Business Bureau for a reason. Well, actually, THOUSANDS of reasons. Maybe you'd have good luck with them, maybe you work for them. But to be condescending--it doesn't make you sound intelligent or knowledgable. it just shows your lack of bothy.

3. I never expected to speak with the CEO. I wrote to the CEO, knowing I'd never speak with him, THAT'S why I cc'd his underlings.

Originally Posted by marcmywrdz

1. I'm not trying to get a brand new phone for nothing. We paid for a working, non-defective phone, as well as for the service. This phone is proven to be a lemon.

2. We want a comparable phone. Your "do the math" statement is inane and tired cliche. I'd much rather have a 2007 Ferrari than and 2008 Kia.

3. So, T-Mobile is selling phones "as a courtesy?" That comment doesn't even deserve a reply.

T-Mobile has a F Rating from the Better Business Bureau for a reason. Well, actually, THOUSANDS of reasons. Maybe you'd have good luck with them, maybe you work for them. But to be condescending--it doesn't make you sound intelligent or knowledgable. it just shows your lack of bothy.

3. I never expected to speak with the CEO. I wrote to the CEO, knowing I'd never speak with him, THAT'S why I cc'd his underlings.

1) Yes, I agree you paid for a working phone but anyone who would have read a single review for the wing would tell you it had issues because the hardware was not up to snuff for the software. Also, take that to HTC, they built it, not Tmobile.

2) Cant argue with that, was a poor comparison. But in the same respect, would you take the Ferrari if you had problems in the past or move on?

3) They are not selling them as a courtesy, they are subsidizing on the cost. Hence where the whole contracts issue derives from. Thats why if you buy the phone at retail from Tmobile, they dont give you a contract.

4) You clarified that. Which is what I hoped you meant to begin with.


To jump on the G1 part, that was a major fail on your end as that was a very good price on the phone but of course it has lowered since the MyTouch came out but it was good at the time so I really dont understand that decision..

Originally Posted by starfadedblack

1) Yes, I agree you paid for a working phone but anyone who would have read a single review for the wing would tell you it had issues because the hardware was not up to snuff for the software. Also, take that to HTC, they built it, not Tmobile.

2) Cant argue with that, was a poor comparison. But in the same respect, would you take the Ferrari if you had problems in the past or move on?

3) They are not selling them as a courtesy, they are subsidizing on the cost. Hence where the whole contracts issue derives from. Thats why if you buy the phone at retail from Tmobile, they dont give you a contract.

4) You clarified that. Which is what I hoped you meant to begin with.


To jump on the G1 part, that was a major fail on your end as that was a very good price on the phone but of course it has lowered since the MyTouch came out but it was good at the time so I really dont understand that decision..

My daughter picked and ordered the Wing, thinking it was a good phone. She doesn't research things like you or I do. : ) I'd never buy anything that I had read was bad. Well, at least not knowingly.

"Tmobile doesn't make the phones, they buy them from the manufactuere and have them to resell to you as a courtesy." That is a direct quote from the post that I was replying to.

My biggest problems with T Mobile is the fiction that Ralph kept creating. He promised her the phone of her choice--because the Wing was so bad--then changed his mind. He completely made up the reason my daughter wanted a new phone. Then, both he and Jennifer, his supervisor, made it seem like she was getting such a great deal. Don't you think that someone that has had an account for a long time and has had numerous issues with the same phone model should get a better deal than any new customer off the street? I sure do.

That is Horror!
I live in the netherlands and over here they arent too bad.

Damn, that just really sucks.

My house is a T-Mobile deadzone. No bar whatsoever.