The Terrible Case of T-Mobile: Part 1

Since the age of 14 I have been a T-Mobile user. Some people may dismiss their US coverage but with their recent, albeit late, roll out of 3G to numerous areas I have not had many problems with the actual service. In fact, staying in major metropolitan areas I have visited (Saint Louis, Chicago, Des Moines, New York) I have had service comparable to or better than my friends. But that is exactly where my accolades of the T-Mobile America end.

T-Mobile is overwhelmingly the number four cell phone provider in the United States and will be there for a while. This boils down to two huge problems and one more minor one. The first major problem facing them is their customer service.I currently use the HTC Touch Pro 2, a fancy smart phone. Every domestic carrier carries the phone but T-Mobile’s  model lacks two very nice features, a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack and Windows Mobile 6.5 over 6.1. The former I can live with, the later is inexcusable.

Not only was an upgrade to the new operating system offered months after it was available on other carriers, no employee of the company seemed to know that it was even available. Had I not looked on T-Mobile’s support website I doubt i would have ever found the upgrade. Them service problems I encountered may only exist in the five stores I visited. However, those stores are located in three cities and customer support also did not inform me of the upgrade.

More of my thoughts on T-Mobile can be read here.

-Jeff