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I am glad they are such a cool company today, yesterday (yes, I worked my ass off on Sunday) I had to work with one of their products - a company I do freelance

I am glad they are such a cool company today, yesterday (yes, I worked my ass off on Sunday) I had to work with one of their products - a company I do freelance work for bought a domain and some hosting from them. Instead of cPanel or Plesk they had some home made solution, basically 80% of the links were dead, and the whole application only consisted of approx. 10 pages. Bravo! I called the tech support, I've talked with 10-12 people, 9-10 of them were supposed experts at the technical department. Only one of them said he knew what an A record is, but he had to redirect me to yet another "expert", but he informed me it will take a "lot of time to access this man". A lot of compared to what? I was on the phone for like 1.5 hours already! I suspect this guy was eating his lunch at home but he was a resrouceful chap so they had to phone him with "tough" questions. I feel sorry for that guy working with idiots! And if he is unlucky enough he doesn't even get paid more. The tech support story is not necessarily related to this article but I had to shout it out. I will probably write a blog post too. On the other hand, the fact they undertook developing a software which has perfect open source alternatives, and they let the end product become an epic fail, seeing these "we are so cool and competent" ads makes me puke. Please, PAY YOUR TECHNICAL EMPLOYEES TOO, not just the marketing guys and DON'T BE DUMB, if you want to develop software give me a call because I can cut your costs by 90%, your managers are dumb. Ohh, thank God I feel so much better now.

Samuel_Michon 14y ago
The page was about T-Mobile USA, formerly known as VoiceStream. Nowadays, it is owned by Deutsche Telekom, but it has little to do with the T-Mobile brand in other countries. T-Mobile USA doesn't offer domain or web hosting services. T-Mobile USA mostly just sells budget cellphone plans. They're a small player trying to gain more marketshare. I suspect you're talking about T-Mobile Hungary which, like T-Mobile in other European countries, is the largest carrier in the country and really couldn't care less about its customers. (I'm a subscriber with T-Mobile in The Netherlands, where the company isn't dominant. The situation is better here.)
- friendly_chap 14y ago
  Yeah I suspected they may differ but how come they don't control the quality at the top? Developing shitty ad hoc in house software? Which company allows that?
- yareally 14y ago
  All of what you said is 100% true about T-Mobile USA. Just to amend, their tech support and customer service is similar. From friends I know that deal with them, they outsource all their tech support to firms with employees that can barely speak English and are inadequately trained. I don't like dealing with Verizon (Vodaphone for those outside the US) customer service either, but their service is still leap years ahead.
  - Samuel_Michon 14y ago
    “Verizon (Vodaphone for those outside the US)” Verizon and Vodafone are separate publicly traded companies. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone. Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless. However, Verizon has a 23% stake in Vodafone Italy. Complicated, but not the same company.
- EliRivers 14y ago
  Now that's interesting; a brand in one country that's doing well (if I take your word for it, which I will - no reason not to :) ) is (presumably) being actively damaged by the incompetence of companies operating under that brand in other countries. What happens in this sort of case? Can we expect to see T-Mobile US try to rebrand or rename itself?
  - Samuel_Michon 14y ago
    T-Mobile has a better reputation in the US than it has in most European countries. It’s not so much about the T-Mobile brand, but about the companies it acquired. In the US, T-Mobile doesn’t have a large network, which makes it uninteresting to customers who travel, but at least it’s relatively cheap. In Europe, the problem is that the T-Mobile networks are the incumbents. As we know from AT&T before the Baby Bell division, dominant parties tend to get lazy and lose interest in their customers’ wishes. Like the cable companies in the US, T-Mobile doesn’t have a lot of customers because it’s such a great company, it has lots of customers because of mergers & acquisitions, false advertising, and lack of choice.

Samuel_Michon 14y ago

The page was about T-Mobile USA, formerly known as VoiceStream. Nowadays, it is owned by Deutsche Telekom, but it has little to do with the T-Mobile brand in other countries. T-Mobile USA doesn't offer domain or web hosting services. T-Mobile USA mostly just sells budget cellphone plans. They're a small player trying to gain more marketshare. I suspect you're talking about T-Mobile Hungary which, like T-Mobile in other European countries, is the largest carrier in the country and really couldn't care less about its customers. (I'm a subscriber with T-Mobile in The Netherlands, where the company isn't dominant. The situation is better here.)

friendly_chap 14y ago
Yeah I suspected they may differ but how come they don't control the quality at the top? Developing shitty ad hoc in house software? Which company allows that?
yareally 14y ago
All of what you said is 100% true about T-Mobile USA. Just to amend, their tech support and customer service is similar. From friends I know that deal with them, they outsource all their tech support to firms with employees that can barely speak English and are inadequately trained. I don't like dealing with Verizon (Vodaphone for those outside the US) customer service either, but their service is still leap years ahead.
- Samuel_Michon 14y ago
  “Verizon (Vodaphone for those outside the US)” Verizon and Vodafone are separate publicly traded companies. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone. Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless. However, Verizon has a 23% stake in Vodafone Italy. Complicated, but not the same company.
EliRivers 14y ago
Now that's interesting; a brand in one country that's doing well (if I take your word for it, which I will - no reason not to :) ) is (presumably) being actively damaged by the incompetence of companies operating under that brand in other countries. What happens in this sort of case? Can we expect to see T-Mobile US try to rebrand or rename itself?
- Samuel_Michon 14y ago
  T-Mobile has a better reputation in the US than it has in most European countries. It’s not so much about the T-Mobile brand, but about the companies it acquired. In the US, T-Mobile doesn’t have a large network, which makes it uninteresting to customers who travel, but at least it’s relatively cheap. In Europe, the problem is that the T-Mobile networks are the incumbents. As we know from AT&T before the Baby Bell division, dominant parties tend to get lazy and lose interest in their customers’ wishes. Like the cable companies in the US, T-Mobile doesn’t have a lot of customers because it’s such a great company, it has lots of customers because of mergers & acquisitions, false advertising, and lack of choice.