Day: October 18, 2023

T-Mobile is dead, long live T-Mobile.

Okay, some background.

1) T-Mobile purchased Sprint
Sprint had become a terrible company to deal with.
2) There was a 3 year moratorium on price hikes after T-Mobile purchased Sprint. That moratorium is now expiring.
3) It’s become widely known that T-Mobile will begin sending out notifications of plan changes on 10/17/2023.
4) Being someone that prefers to have a plan. I reached out to T-Mobile on 10/16/2023 intending to compare the plan that I am on, with the plan that I’m going to be migrated to. The migration destination is already widely known and being reported in various media all over the internet.

You’d think this would be simple…

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA! You’d be so fucking wrong!

Due to T-Mobile’s security being less secure than the drunk ugly girl’s virginity at prom, they have implemented double super secret security.

They require a PIN code even though you’re calling on their network, from a phone they know and they issued the SIM for, and the phone number is a number they know is assigned to them. Plus they are talking to a human being who can provide other relevant information.

BUUUUUTTT!

If they don’t have a PIN code, and try to send a PIN to your phone but it doesn’t show up… Guess What? T-Mobile doesn’t want to actually do business. They’ll tell you, “You’ll have to go to a physical location”

I’m more than a little frustrated with T-Mobile right now.

Last week I was out and about and got an email from them saying that my iPad had blown through all my data for the month. Except that I didn’t have my iPad with me, it was home happily plugged in, and chatting with my home WiFi. There’s no reason for it to have blown through my cellular data.

“Hmm… I better call T-Mobile,” I think. So I call them and manage to get to someone without this damn PIN code because they verified me with the last 4 of my social security # and Billing information. But after explaining the issue and listening to the Indian Woman go on and on about her iPad data and how important is was for her to have data with her children.

None of which I asked, or cared about. I just wanted a simple answer as to why, according to T-Mobile did my iPad just blow through all my data? The Indian woman couldn’t answer the question. But instead of telling me that, she chose to keep blathering on until I was fully annoyed.

Eventually I terminated the call and she called back 3 times even after me telling her that I was no longer interested in speaking to T-Mobile.

Two days later I pulled up my T-Mobile account and found that it was my Phone, not my iPad that blew through the data. I was at the Apple Store resolving another issue and my iPhone got bumped off the Apple WiFi Network. Apparently the Apple Genius told my phone it was okay to use cellular data for software updates… Sigh!

T-Mobile couldn’t tell me accurately in an email what device was sucking up a month’s worth of data, nor could their representative. That sure doesn’t sound like a company or system that is on top of things.

WOW!

I called T-Mobile at 9:00AM wanting to do an Old Plan – New Plan comparison. Depending on the cost increase, and what options the new plan had, I may be interested in changing plans. When I called, T-Mobile was really busy. I asked for a callback via their system.

At 3:30PM T-Mobile finally got around to calling me back and I waited on hold for 30 minutes to speak with a representative. Then when I get the representative she can’t help me without a PIN code, which I don’t have… Because she couldn’t get her system to send me a PIN, she couldn’t open my account. Because she couldn’t open my account, she couldn’t do the comparison.

She was however very interested in how I knew about T-Mobile’s plan to effectively raise their rates. She was also illogically telling me that if I hadn’t received a notification from T-Mobile about changes to my plan that I didn’t have to worry about it.

I pointed out that ALL of the news reports say that the notifications will not start going out until October 17th, and that since it was October 16th her reassurance is completely useless. I can tell her my account meets all the requirements for mandatory plan migration according to the various articles. She wasn’t listening or she was sticking to her script and didn’t mind looking like an idiot.

T-Mobile would have us believe that them forcing a migration from one plan to another plan which implicitly raises the rates is not in fact a rate increase.

Yeah… And pissing on my head is still PISS, Not warm yellow rain! Anyway, even with T-Mobile Pissing on me, I was willing to listen…

However, after having 3 negative experiences with T-Mobile over the past 6 months I’m thinking it’s time to shop for another cellular provider.

Oh, “What’s the third negative?” You ask. That was when T-Mobile decided they didn’t want to deal with credit cards anymore and insisted on linking into my bank account. I’d been using my Apple Card because I got 3% cash back. T-Mobile took that away.

But… I can still use the Apple Card if I purchase merchandise from the T-Mobile website. So which is it T-Mobile? Are you trying to get away from Credit Card Processing fees? OR was it just to fuck with your customers, and collect yet more sensitive information so that when you have another breach (something you seem to do once a quarter,) everyone on your service is REALLY fucked!

While I had this little lady on the phone I asked what would be involved in my changing services and keeping my phone number.

Then it gets complicated! Of Course it does…

I have to start up with the new cellular service, have them give me some code, then I have to call T-Mobile and give them the code. Which of course is problematic if I don’t have a valid PIN to allow a T-Mobile employee open my damn account.

I wonder if I can even cancel my account without the PIN number.

So let’s look at this, I can’t change the parameters of the account without a PIN. I can get a PIN from a physical T-Mobile Location. I must be able to call T-Mobile to get a transfer code of some kind to move my existing phone number to another service.

I’m seriously wondering if I’m going to have to report my debit card stolen just to have T-Mobile cancel my account if it comes to it.

It feels like the Mafia! You think you’re out, and they pull you back in!

It’s possible that I might end up taking the path of least resistance. I might simply find another carrier and then flush my old phone number in favor of a new number just to get away from T-Mobile.

By the way… This is exactly the kind of shit that Sprint was known for.

Customer service that didn’t know what the hell they were doing. Policies and procedures that were so odious that customers would stay with Sprint just to avoid such policies. Sprint considered its customer base as indentured servants and did anything necessary to keep their customers tied up in regulations, excessive charges, and contractually enslaved.

I’d really hoped that Sprint wouldn’t infect T-Mobile. But alas, the cancer that was Sprint has apparently metastasized.

T-Mobile has become Sprint…

As I said to the completely unhelpful lady when I terminated the call, “This is one hell of a way for you to end a 15 year relationship.”

Perhaps I’ll look at AT&T, Verizon, and / or some of the independent carriers that rent bandwidth on the big threes towers.

If I change phone numbers because I can’t keep my old phone number, I’ll maybe change the number to whatever State I believe I’m going to end up in. Perhaps changing the number now will save me annoyances down the road…

Goodbye T-Mobile. I enjoyed your service. I was even planning on keeping you when I moved. But frankly, if you’ve become Sprint I can’t stay with you.