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T-Mobile in the States is, if possible, even worse. I visited Puerto Rico in February and decided on a T-Mobile stick because the one I use in Budapest works p
by Vivtek 13y ago
T-Mobile in the States is, if possible, even worse. I visited Puerto Rico in February and decided on a T-Mobile stick because the one I use in Budapest works perfectly. In PR, though, there were URLs that simply didn't go through - and there is literally no support. None; you simply can't get support at all. No phone, no email - just a "community support" forum where you can post things if you feel like blowing off steam. And it still cost $10/GB.
Not only that, you can only purchase a new block of 5 GB after your current one has already been used up. Before then they simply don't take your money - unless you set up autopay. And you can't purchase time online, because the URL forwards to nowhere - see above lack of any support facility. You can't even report this breakage.
So you have to do it by phone. But there are two systems; first you have to load money onto your account, then you can use the money on your account to pay for a new 5GB block - but these are two different systems with two different numbers and they each require you to punch in your phone number and a PIN code. Different PIN codes, if I recall. And again, no human support at all.
But then let me tell you about our T-Mobile cell phones here in Budapest. My phone started sending me "premium" SMS messages at 1500 ft a pop (about $7.50 per premium message) until the entire balance was used up. As service messages so they don't show in the Inbox. T-Mobile was able to block that, but my wife's phone started mysteriously "accessing the Internet" (it's not a smart phone), again at something like 500 ft per access, invisibly, until her balance was used up. The only recourse is to go to a T-Mobile store and stand in line for half an hour, because they do kind of have phone support here in Hungary, but the only thing they can tell you is to go to the store and wait in line.
The store has no permission to escalate to technicians. The people in the store "disabled" Internet on my wife's phone three separate times; the theft continued each time. Sometimes they'd refund some money and apologize and swear up and down that everything was disabled.
Finally, it seems to have stopped on its own. Maybe it was a system misconfiguration, maybe not. It's impossible to know, because clearly T-Mobile itself has no idea.
Their Internet stick (in Hungary) works great, though. So I continue to use them - it's just that if there's ever a problem they are entirely unable to fix it. The entire company is so Balkanized and so incredibly poorly managed that they can only barely function if nothing goes wrong.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- Vivtek 13y agoHowever, T-Mobile's advertising in Puerto Rico when they were expanding into the market a couple of years back was fantastic. Very well-localized. Most people have no idea at all they're a German company - my wife and I laughed that the only giveaway on their billboards was their heavy use of sans-serif fonts.
- bluedino 13y ago> T-Mobile in the States is, if possible, even worse. I visited Puerto Rico Judging the 'United States' based on Puerto Rico?
- sdoering 13y agoWhy not?
- bluedino 13y agoAlthough it's a US Territory it's pretty far from what you'd get in 'the states'. It's an island, they don't have the same kind of providers or infrastructure, something like only half the households in PR have a computer and only a little over half of those have broadband. It's just nothing like you would have in say Florida, Texas, or another state.
- Vivtek 13y agoT-Mobile is a national provider whose territory includes Puerto Rico. The lack of support is not PR-specific; it's the same company and same infrastructure.
- FnF_VE 13y agoFact: Magyar Telekom has the worst customer service of all telecom operators in Hungary according to government funded studies, year after year. I was involved in QA for a few months on a contract basis, bc the parent company (Deutsche Telekom) is apparently freaked out by this fact. So anyway, here are some tips on how to deal with them, unfortunately you can't avoid them forever, but I haven't been in a store for years. Going to a store should be your last resort. Use My T-Mobile/My T-Home (on their website). If you have a really special problem, call them. Also, never buy anything in a store or on the phone, unless you're very, very good at negotiating, you get 10% off of your orders automatically on the website. Customer service agents use the very same interface (with more privileges of course) but you can do pretty much anything you would want on My T-Mobile. E.g. I know for a fact (I'm also a customer) that you can disable receiving premium texts and having an Internet connection altogether. It's worth checking out every service if they're enabled or disabled at least once, so you can avoid unexpected charges and activate things that you know you might need some day. Btw, your options are very clearly described, much better than how an agent would explain them to you. If you absolutely must see someone in person, here are some more tips. Always go to T-Pont stores, those are the official reps of the company, never go to a store with a big T-Mobile sign, those are resellers, agents there receive poor training and all they want is to sell you stuff. Don't go to a store in the late afternoon/evening hours, they have the most customers then and you have to wait more. 30 min waiting time is actually not very common, if you go any other time you either won't have to wait or only have to wait a few minutes. Also check on My T-Mobile if you're a 'gold' or 'platinum' client. If you are, always choose that on the first screen in the in-store queue ticketing system, and you'll get to someone in a few minutes even if there are loads of people in the store, bc most people don't know about this. Yeah, it's ridiculous that you have to know all these to get a good service, but you don't have to put up with it, e.g. Telenor's customer service is pretty good, or so I've heard.