T-Mobile dropping over 600 customers because they roam too much
On November, 14th, T-Mobile sent out letters to over 600 customers that are no longer within a contract to tell them to get lost. Not quite the words, but more or less the same thing. The thing is, T-Mobile viewed these customers are roaming too much, and most likely thought it would be cheaper to disconnect these customers instead of letting them roam till the cows come home. They are totally out of the system, as they’ve been offered to switch to a T-Mobile To Go plan. If they don’t want that, they will then have no choice but to have their service terminated by a specific date. A little harsh? Maybe. But then again, if T-Mobile doesn’t cover where you go, you’re better off switching to another carrier. Just don’t switch to Sprint because you might end up getting canned there too, you know, for calling customer service too much…
Thanks, T-MobileStar!
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A coworker of mine just got one of these letters last week. He was totally suprised since he didnt realize he was roaming that much. He has been in town the last 7 months so its a mystery to him.
Maybe you think you’re a big hero for outing someone named “Diana” and giving her rep ID, but since you opened the door, here’s the REAL scoop. T-Mobile doesn’t want to dirty its hands with extreme roamers, so they’ve sent those calls to an outsourcing company which opens call centers in impoverished areas of the Deep South. They drag as many bodies in off the streets as they possibly can to pose as T-Mobile representatives with the absolute minimum amount of training and compensation, and the employee turnover statistics would make your jaw drop. In the city where the “45xxxx” center is located, that company is the laughingstock of the region. The outsourcers put up huge electronic help wanted billboards everywhere in sight, spend a fortune on TV commercials, and desperately hammer lawn signs into the ground along major throughfares begging for applicants, but everyone in town knows someone who’s had a bad experience with them and no one wants to work there. Employees rarely last more than a few days or weeks — as most of the young pregnant moms quickly find out, it wasn’t worth getting off of welfare to even try to do the job. There isn’t a T-Mobile store or tower within 100 miles of the center, so most of these people have never even seen or touched an actual T-Mobile phone. Their Deep South wages are so low that they can’t qualify for credit — but they’re fully authorized to run yours as part of the activation process — so they’re predominantly using some other carrier’s prepaid phones. Now, here’s the real kicker, even if they did have T-Mobile phones, the ERR call center employees would be considered extreme roamers themselves, so why would they even bother in the first place? After you got off the phone with “Diana,” she was most likely just as frustrated as you that her supervisor refused to take over your call. It wouldn’t be unusual if she threw down her headset and quit the very same night, and as each person quits, the wait time for an agent gets longer and longer. The supervisors in that call center are a lazy, indifferent, complacent clique who are off socializing together whenever an agent has an escalated call, and their turnover is almost as high as the agents. They care more about their own jobs — to carry out T-Mobile’s mission to terminate your service by any means necessary — than the fact that your life has just been upended by the extreme roaming reduction, so they just flat-out refuse to take over the calls. The people who take those calls actually do care about you no matter how rude they seem — they’re just not empowered to solve your problem.
I’ve never had a problem with T-Mo, save for them shipping me an unactivated phone, but a call to customer service took sorted that out very quickly.
T-Mobile does not have excellent anything. They have a bunch of inexperienced reps answering their calls, who have no problem telling you that they are simply a call center taking their calls. They mail you out refurbished units, sometimes the same unit that you previously mailed in for service. I am so over T-Mobile and could care less about how reasonable they are. I thought I was getting a great deal when I signed up for 1,000 minutes at $40.00 a month, but I’ve learned that this is a classic case of you get what you pay for. I can not wait until my contract is over with them in 3 weeks. I’ve already signed up for the 30 day trial with Verizon
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7 years!! 7 years for what?? Customer loyalty? I think not as I too got the letter today for “excessive roaming” nothing has changed in my last 3 years of my location so why I asked them as I angrily called tonight. They would not give any more of an answer other than excessive roaming and even checked our area and we are covered. I just bought 2 blackberry phones in Feb and renewed for 2 more years. Money down the drain. Now I have to look for new service new activation fees new phones…arrghhh so so fruatrated!
I know the setup time will be lost, but I’m confident that unless you got the BB’s without a contract extension you can sell on craig’s list or ebay. Call and ask any rep for the unlock code, you will usually get the unlock code by email within the next 5 business days, then they can be sold to ATT customers also if you don’t go to ATT yourself (shudder). Usually you need to have a new phone for a few months when you request unlock but they are losing the money on these no matter what so hopefully they will do the decent thing and give the codes to you.
My son got a new curve last march, got reassigned to Alaska in August where there is no tmobile coverage and when he explained he was in alaska on official military orders and would be so for the next four years they released him from the contract (which they were required to by law). They had to drop the contract but didn’t have to give unlock code. They gave it with no problem.
Good luck, let us know how it goes.
I am so mad!!! Yesterday I got a letter stating that my phone will be disconected because “roaming”. I ahve been with this company for almost 10 years. I live in the Keys. I spoke with customer service and no one explained why I am roaming. I wish I could sue them. THank you
Feel like you! No loyalty at all
I know the problem because the same happened to me and my husband. We spend 90% of our time at home but yet they were going to terminate him because his usage was over 50% roaming. I was upset. My line was okay. So it didn’t explain much. Anyways. I sat in my living room one night with my phone in one hand and his in another my phone was showing I was using a T-mobile tower and his was using a commnet, His phone was a blackberry. So I am thinking it has to do something with the blackberry phones. Called them and explained, but they just would not listen. Those people are very incompetent. So anyways, I was so upset I argued with them and told them it was unfair I had paid activation fees on 3 lines and purchased phones that I would no longer be using. Now I was going to have to switch over to a new cell company and pay this fees again. They ended up crediting my accouont for the activation fees of 105.00 and a little over 200.00 for the phones
Wow, activation credit and credit for phones? I’m sure you are disappointed Tmobile is dropping you, but those credits definitely show they are trying to be fair.
With the blackberry you probably have a data plan on one line anyway, you might want to check to see what sprint’s coverage area is like where you are. I know their reputation for customer service was the worst ever, but that has improved greatly from what I’ve heard (had to or everyone would have left them by now!).
I’ve had Tmobile for over 3 years now and like them (definitely feel your pain!) but with the way tmobile is now making a data plan mandatory for anything but a standard phone (blackberry’s, android) when you add up the data plans on a family plan sprint actually works out to be less and their data network is far superior for the money.
If you have a best buy that does mobile phones they deduct any rebate off the top, no filing, mailing waiting and hoping! Sam’s clubs in FL used to do activations on 3 lines or more so if you have a warehouse club nearby you should definitely check them out too. BJ’s will let you walk in without a card, Sam’s and Costco just tell the door guard you want to get a membership they will let you in, check with the phone kiosk, it might be worth a membership just for that if you don’t have one (when I got cell service set up with sam’s twice they never asked for my sam’s membership…).
Tmobile seems to be a little sloppy with record keeping (or having reps interpret the records?). I bought my son a G1 in october08 and incurred a 2 year data commitment, last rep I talked to said my contract on all lines of the family plan are up as of next week. Can’t upgrade the line the g1 is on, but can jump ship!
If that’s the case maybe a new pre and sprint is in my family’s future. Only big down side is no fave five (if you use that heavily verizon might be a good option) but 7pm weekends makes up for alot of that, or UMA which we love, but the android phones we want to upgrade to don’t do UMA.
Ask tmobile for the unlock code for the blackberry and the other phones that don’t require a hardware unlock. They should give it to you and if you go to a gsm carrier (most of the US if not tmobile it’s ATT but I guess in your area it’s comnet) you can get the basic free phone and just slip the new sim in. You will need to reload the latest blackberry os for the new carrier. My son in Alaska where tmobile doesn’t operate did that when he went to ATT, once he put the ATT os in it worked fine. No uma of course but everything else works fine.
If unlocked and you go to a non-gsm carrier they will get a better price on ebay or you can help someone out who needs a gsm phone but aren’t tmobile customers.
Good luck!
Let me explain something to you “Lorrie” and maybe this will help everyone else here too.
When you get canceled for excessive roaming, the company doesn’t just arbitrarily pick random customers out of a list and ditch them, they are people who consistently roam on other networks to the point where the cell provider has had to pay so much in roaming fees to the carrier that you are roaming on that it is -COSTING THEM MONEY- to provide you with cell service. Any moron knows that you dont run a successful business by keeping customers that pay you less than it costs to provide them with service.
On top of the money that they paid out to the carrier that your husband was roaming on, they lost the phones and the money when they credited you for the fees and let you keep the phones.
You think its unfair? Youre absolutely right. The carrier probably spent roughly 5 grand getting rid of you so that you could then go badmouthing them all over town costing them even more money. So be thankful for your free phones, shut up, and sign up with another carrier that covers the area you actually spend your time at.
Btw, all carriers allow you to view their coverage before signing a contract, and most allow you to cancel free of ETF if you move to a zone with no coverage, so there is no reason to run into this problem in the first place.
Its pretty clear that its not the companies’ employees that are incompetent. Its the consumer who does no reasearch before purchasing a product and then tries to blame everyone else for their ignorance.
UMMM… they are right tmobile has really crappy service everytime i have called i can’t get the job done right and end up getting frustrated with the costomer service rep! As far as this terminating people because they are roaming is a bunch of crap, they are cutting off all these people mostly because they don’t have enough towers in the area that they are using the cell phones. my cell has to bounce off other towers in order to even work! they haven’t sent me anything, but they sent my brother a letter! why is that? it’s not random? because i think that is an excuse to just tell them to get over it basicly!
T-MOBILE sucks! plain and simple!
Isn’t this story a couple of years old now? I’ve been a t-mo subscriber and have had nothing but great experiences. They are the smallest of the major 4 wireless carriers but the BEST value. The only issue I’ve had is not having data service in areas that are mostly farms (Green Bay). Otherwise, its worked fine everywhere I’ve traveled. Globally, they’re HUGE. I love it for international travel (most of the rest of the world is GSM). And, none of my phones features are blocked unless I pay extra fees (verizon). If you don’t like T Mobile, there are PLENTY of other carriers for you. Quit bitching.
Two of my four lines were cancelled for “excessive roaming”. I don’t care if they make a profit or what their costs of doing business are. I do care about the fact that I paid outright for a Curve, a G1 and quite a bit for accessories for them. I cannot fathom a company so disorganized that they can’t muster service three miles from an interstate highway. I am still contemplating payment of my final bill. I am out so much more that that in lost monies and replacement costs.