NudgeCast 10/21/08

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My latest thoughts on the T-Mobile Android, and a cable rant.

Download the mp3 here.

NudgeCast 10/01/08

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More thoughts on the T-Mobile Android phone, the latest on Joost, and a useful cell phone website.

Jonas

Download the mp3 here.

Phone Regression

It's been no secret that I've been less than satisfied with my current cell phone provider, T-Mobile. While providing lip service to improve service, and erect new towers, and giving free roaming, it's all for naught as I still have no signal for miles as I leave where I live. ATT (Cingular) has towers, but there is no agreement, so I'm in "radio blackout," which is the same as having no cell phone. Makes me wonder what I'm really paying for.

However, I've also had another problem. My Motorola V195 that I got when I reupped my contract has a flaw. Of all the extra features I use on the phone, the only one that I want to work is the speakerphone, and it's rather poor. If I'm driving in the car, even with the windows rolled up, I still struggle to hear the conversation. I also don't like the wired headset as it's too hard to put on, and I don't have a Bluetooth earpiece that would probably solve this.

Anyway, in the interim, I've realized that my old phone, a Siemens flip phone was better. While the battery requires charging twice a week to keep it going, at least I can hear something. So, I transplanted my SIM card from the Motorola, and it's back to the Siemens phone. I'm waiting for T-Mobile to start enticing me to renew in the next few months, but unless a new tower gets built, and the coverage vastly improves, I'm not signing up for another two years of this nonsense.

--Jonas

NudgeCast 3/18/08

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This week we're talking about the continuing saga of the new TV antenna, a conclusion to T-Mobile coverage (or lack of thereof), my favorite online video service comes out of beta, and another incredibly useful site.

TechNudge Live

Eureka! Kind of...

There's been a continuing saga of my quest with T-Mobile to get a simple answer to the issue of why my T-Mobile phone won't roam to an area near my abode that has no coverage. I've even verified that ATT has coverage in the area. After too many 45 minute conversations that ended with no answers, I've been perpetually emailing them until some conclusion is reached. In my last email exchange, I suggested perhaps someone more technical, like an engineer could get involved here (I'm not sure why the customer has to be the one coming up with the good ideas). Oh, and by the way, I emailed them a link to TNL and showed them that this was more than just one little ol' customer at stake here (shoulda' done that sooner...). Anyway, here's the latest:

Dear Jonas,

Thank you once again for contacting T-Mobile. My name is Mike and I am very interested in addressing your inquiry today. Every issue a customer has is a concern to us, we do care. I do want to see that you always feel relaxed and at home with T-Mobile; you are important to us. I understand the importance of having your account setup to match your mobile needs and to satisfy all your network service needs. I definitely realize that this issue has been a long and arduous process of time and cost. From the emails previously reviewed and now knowing that the handsets in question are not the problem. We come back to the original problem of lack of coverage for your requested location. I regret that this has continued on so long since clear I see a problem way back in June of 2007.

I was also surprised to see that I had also corresponded with you back on February 24, 2008 with respect to the very same issue of no coverage. As I have previously stated the enhancements for the coverage area are scheduled but no date is finalized. Since scheduling is based on agreements, permits and authorization by local authorities to proceed with be it tower install or tower enhancement. The inability to roam manually since you do state ATT is covering that T-Mobile blind spot is not allowed by your handsets which is regrettable and most inconvenient.I have forward this to Technical Care for further resolution.

As a customer care agent in web correspondence I can only make one other suggestion to improve coverage for your current location.

Jonas, a new type of service which is designed to resolve your
particular problem of poor reception in your home is called the T-Mobile HotSpot@Home service. It was launched in spring of 2007.

T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service is based on Unlicensed Mobile Access
(UMA) technology and makes use of your home WiFi network or T-Mobile
HotSpot locations for voice calls and data services, in addition to
T-Mobile's robust GSM/GPRS/EDGE network. The service provides great
coverage in the home and offers unlimited nationwide calling for one lowprice for the calls placed over WiFi connections at home or at any T-Mobile HotSpot location nationwide. Jonas, you can use this T-Mobile Hotspot @Home option without the additional $19.99 per month Unlimited feature. Your usage will be deducted as per normal usage. However, the HotSpot @Home SOC does not give you unlimited international minutes when using WiFi to place calls. All international calls will be charged at the normal rate. Jonas, with one handset you can stay connected to family and friends while at home or away. No more reception problems!

Adding or removing this feature can be done through your online account management My T-Mobile. To change the features on your account, go to www.t-mobile.com and log in using your 10-digit mobile number and password. Once the web page has loaded then:

*Click the Plan & Services link.
*In Your Plan & Services, you can view the details of your current plan and the services associated with your account. Services currently active are check-marked.
*To add a service, place a checkmark beside the service you want.
*To remove a service, remove the checkmark from beside the service.
*To submit the changes click the Add or Change Services button.

If you have any further questions comments or concerns, you can reply to this email, call Customer Care 1-800-937-8997 or dial 6-1-1 from your handset and press the SEND key. Our Customer Care representatives are available 24 hours per day to provide world class customer service for all your T-Mobile needs.

Thank you for being a valued T-Mobile customer Jonas, we appreciate your business and patience.

Sincerely,

Mike XXXXXX
Customer Care Specialist
T-Mobile USA

Well, at least I have an answer as to why the phone isn't roaming. As usual, they're attempting to sell me another service, the HotSpot at Home. I thought at first that they were going to hook me up for free, but apparently not. While he does a great job of explaining the process of signing up on the account, he neglects to mention that I need a special phone that can do VoIP over WiFi so this isn't happening with my current gear. Also, there are no public WiFi hotspots in the area of no coverage, so this really wouldn't help my specific issue.

Still, to be fair, at least Mike reviewed all of my complaints, and came up with a better answer than "it's your phones" when it's not. These enhancements have been promised to be coming to my area since the summer (although I wasn't updated last month about them), so I'm not holding my breath. I think the company has to realize that if they can't deliver the goods before my contract expires in November, I'll find someone else that can, and I would only renew my contract if the coverage significantly improved.

--Jonas

PS: At least I'm not as fed up as this guy!

My Goal Is To Provide Outstanding Service...

Have you called for some tech support lately? In the last year, I've spoken to both Verizon and T-Mobile a handful of times. I can't say the reps are awful at either place, but I wasn't terribly impressed either. All too often I felt like they were reading from some script that went on and on, but were only cursorily interested in assisting me with my particular problem.

I've called T-Mobile enough times that I've got their script down. It goes something like this:

-After they get your name, they use it as often as possible.

-After they listen to the problem they try to empathize and understand how difficult experiencing a problem with the phone can be.

-Then they tell me a personal story about how they use their phone to keep in touch and how important it is to them.

-They take down the problem.

-They promise to follow up, and tell me they will call back within a few days.

-They try and sell me something else (HotSpot at Home is popular these days).

-They ask if they can help with anything else.

-They wish me a good day.

I'm sure some psychologist consultant to the company devised this script. I have some issues with it though. For starters, while it may be nice how you use your phone, and it may reinforce my need for a phone, but it just wastes time to getting my phone working again. Also, when they take down the problem, they often simplify it. Finally, I've yet to have any of them actually call me back to follow up on anything.

While these companies put tons of effort into monitoring their call centers, I wish they would put half of that into actually assisting the customer, and resolving an issue. For the record T-Mobile, after too may interactions, you still can't figure out why my phone won't roam.

Hear more about what goes on in a Verizon Customer Service Center here.

--Jonas

NudgeCast 3/11/08

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This week: more about T-Mobile, their service, and a phone battery issue. Also some talk about a new TV antenna. Finally, the incredibly useful site is Consumerist.com.

SIM Card Gone Bad?

I've pontificated before on the poor coverage with my T-Mobile phone, and plenty of other issues. Unfortunately, I'm locked into their two year contract, but at least the light at the end of the tunnel is dimly present as I'm up for renewal in November this year. I actually emailed them to find out what the early termination fee would be, and it's $200 per phone. As I have two, and the cost of canceling is nearly the cost of keeping it, I'm stuck for the time being.

While I had an email exchange going, I also explained that on the major routes out of my town, there is no coverage for miles. I also explained that the phone should roam onto the AT&T network. After they questioned the coverage by their competitor, I went so far as to email them the screenshot of AT&T's service area, and now they were stuck. Or were they?

Now they started with the series of "busywork" activities. Please follow this ten step sequence of resetting your phone. Of course no difference, but it took me a day to do it, and recheck the service. How about checking the software version? Cycle the phone on and off, etc, etc. Needless to say, I'm sure you've realized that none of this was going to help any more than hopping on one foot and swinging a chicken over my head! It was also frustrating that each time the email went to a new rep who didn't know what went on before and I had to recover old ground.

After they ran out of activities, the final one was to tell me that maybe the SIM card had gone bad. That's the little card that fits into the back of the phone underneath the battery that identifies the phone on the network. If you want to know more, there's an excellent article about it here. True, it is a memory chip, and I've had those go down before so it just might be the problem. Why not give it a try?

I headed to the T-Mobile company store with both my phones. I waited on line while folks were paying their cell phone bills- in cash (as an aside, I would never even think of coming into the store just to pay a bill, but that's just me). I explained the problem, and the customer rep told me to get HotSpot at Home. Yeah, like that was going to help. I related that the phone had service at home (generally), but it was on the road outside my town where the issue was. He then told me that with HotSpot at Home, it would roam onto open WiFi networks. Huh? Is that the answer here? To not fix the T-Mobile service and hope customers happen to roam onto open WiFi networks of unsuspecting neighbors that didn't secure their wireless???!

At any rate, when he was reminded that my contract was up in the Fall, and that I would go elsewhere for better coverage, he agreed to change the SIM Cards in both phones. I'm still wondering if both could realistically go bad simultaneously. Then again, I never had coverage in this area, and the phone doesn't roam.

On the ride home, the phones still didn't roam onto AT&T's network that I know is there. My phone, if forced, can even detect the alternate network, but not connect to it.

However, I also noticed that the coverage with the new SIM Card is slightly improved. It was also a clear sunny day yesterday, so that might be the factor responsible. In my mind the jury is still out, and I'll keep you posted over the next few days.

In the meantime, I'm counting down eight months left till I can ditch this contract and move on. I'll be switching to "More bars in more places," or "Can you hear me now?"

Jonas

Pricey Landline....

Month after month my Verizon phone bill shows up in the mailbox. You may recall that I have both telephone service with them, and DSL internet. While I'm generally satisfied with my internet hookup (hard to beat 768/128 for a broadband bargain $17.99 monthly), I always feel like I'm overpaying on the phone portion of the bill.

The phone, on the other hand, is just under $25 for a traditional phone service. You know, the ol' fashioned copper lines that many have gotten away from. I generally don't make that many calls in a month as I use my cell phone on nights & weekends, and for any long distance or regional calling. The landline is really more for incoming calls, and God forbid, for 911.

When I look at the $25 charge, and the 6 calls that I made on the line a month, and realize that it's close to $4 a call, it starts to become rather silly, and clearly there should be a better way.

When folks think about VoIP, the name that instantly comes to mind is Vonage. There $25 plan gives an all-you-can-eat, err, I mean talk, approach to phone service. While it works out to more than what I'm paying after taxes, there's still something attractive about it, and represents a better value. I recently learned that folks are getting the service for even less which could force my hand (like $14.99 monthly before taxes). The other stumbling block is that my DSL modem is downstairs, and my base phone with answering machine is upstairs. Recall that the Vonage box needs to plugged into the phone and the internet. While I'm not enthusiastic about running my own Cat 5e cable, I'm pretty sure a quality powerline network adapter could bridge this gap.

Yesterday, Bill posted about a new service from T-Mobile, my dreaded cell phone company. It's called the Talk Forever Home Phone. For customers with existing plans of greater than $39 monthly, which I fit into, for a mere $10 a month, they offer an all-you-can-talk phone plan. Sweet! Unfortunately, it's in limited areas (and not by me yet), but while I've been unenthusiastic about their Hot Spot At Home plan (special phones, new router, and mediocre service), this new plan did get my interest. True, I still have the issue about the network box, but for such a low monthly rate, and the ability to keep my home phone number, it could be worth the effort.

The one stumbling block in all of this is that any of these new services rely on a fast internet connection. With a DSL upload speed of 128 (kbps) I'm not sure that I'll be able to both surf and use the phone simultaneously, so this is going backwards to the days of dialup. Not to mention that my DSL is tied to my landline account, and I'm not getting DSL without the phone (smart phone company folks).

I think at this point, the best thing to do is to wait for my phone contract to expire in a few months (begrudingly paying for the overpriced copper in the meantime). Then I can get Fios, which I believe is 10/2 mbps in my area for $39.99. Then depending on the triple play offer, I'll either go with "Fios Phone" or a Vonage service.

It seems to me that at this point, while phone service used to be the star of the show, it's become a secondary player to the internet service, and used mostly for retaining customers.

Cell Phone Pricing "Shakeup?"

After cell phone pricing has been fairly stable for a while, today the "big four" all announced a new cell phone plan of $99 for unlimited voice minutes in a month. While Verizon started it, before we could even digest it, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile jumped on board this mobile all-you-can-eat bandwagon. However, I think they really had to do this, and it's not really that great of a deal as they face increased competition.

Firstly, while the trend for a while was to dump our landlines, not too many more have followed the trend. I keep my landline mostly for incoming calls, and local calls. Also, with triple play offerings, and unlimited domestic long distance for around $30 monthly, only those always on the move will need that many cell phone minutes.

Next, the VoIP services have gained traction. The likes of Vonage for $25 monthly for their unlimited residential plan put the cell carriers to shame. T-Mobile's Hot Spot at Home for $10 monthly turns the T-Mobile phone into a virtually unlimited account with a little planning. Also, let's not forget the popular SkypeOut service which is an affordable $3 monthly for unlimited domestic long distance.

The cell carriers are also facing increased competition from more regional carriers. Helio is offering a nationwide plan of $99 with its trendy devices (as an aside, they need to market this better as I had heard of the devices but didn't know they were a service as well). Ever hear about Cricket? They have unlimited regional plans for $45 to $60 depending on the other features. Or how about MetroPCS' $35 monthly unlimited plan that is only in limited areas?

Finally, many users, such as me, are frustrated by the lack of affordable plans. I never use all my minutes, and have been waiting for the day to cancel with T-Mobile. Others have turned to prepaid phones with $100 annual cards that should more than cover light phone usage, and not break the bank. While prepaid phones were once only for those with mediocre credit, others are turning to them for more affordable options as the low cost plans have mostly disappeared from the mainstream carriers.

So, now you can see that a $100 monthly all-you-can-talk plan is not really that great a deal when you really think about it. The big four phone companies are facing increasing competition on all sides in a somewhat saturated market. While they each thought this would set them apart, they look quite the same once again.

Jonas

NudgeCast 2/12/08

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Here are the topics: the latest on T-Mobile and my coverage, a digital TV converter box, and planetfeedback.com.

Update & Another View On T-Mobile

My regular readers will recall that I've not been a fan of T-Mobile for quite some time now. I was talking to Rapcomp, and letting him know that they still haven't delivered on the cell tower that they promised to build, but they do have some time left on that promise (although I give it very little hope). I'm also happy to report that my strategy worked to eliminate all spam text message issues on my phone.

Anyhow, Rapcomp then shared the following thoughts on T-Mobile:

I've had Voice Stream/T-Mobile for about 6 years, and have very few problems. My biggest complaint has been with the voice mail notification, their are times when I don't get the message for days because the system didn't send me a message. As for coverage, it's mostly good in my area, except in my house. I can talk on my deck, but if I walk into the kitchen, it's a crap shoot whether the call will drop. My other complaint, actually it's an annoyance, is with the phone replacements. They advertise that you can replace your phone every year for free, but the selection is crappy. I usually call customer service and give them an ear full of how they take better care of new customers than loyal customers like me. That usually guilts them into getting a supervisor and approving a better phone. If not I tell them I can get a better deal, and new phones for all (I have 5 lines with unlimited messaging) if I call another carrier. That does the trick. After all, they get almost $150.00 a month out of me. Besides, I don't replace my phone every year, just when I've beat the old phone so bad it doesn't work any more.

I'm glad to hear that others have had a better time with them than I have. I also never thought about the phone replacements, and complaining about the lack of choices. While I was initially satisfied with my Motorola V195, lately, I will admit that as I see some of the other gear out there (not to mention the iPhone), I'm feeling kind of third tier, and looking forward to an upgrade next year. At the rate T-Mobile is not improving my service, it will likely be with another carrier, no matter which phone they're willing to give out.

--Jonas

Mobile Spam, Part III

This is the continuing saga of trying to block the increasing spam text messages from my cell phone which uses T-Mobile for its service. If you’re just joining us, check out Part I and Part II before reading the conclusion.

After waiting for three days to get onto the T-Mobile website, I navigated over to “Communication Tools.” From there I selected “Spam and Email Filters.” Great, I was finally on the correct screen, which was no small achievement at this point!

First I selected the option that I could only receive messages from other cell phones. I figure that most text spammers are sending their stuff through the email system, and not from keying it on the tiny keyboard on their phone, so that should cut things down to size as a starter move.

Next, remember that the T-Mobile guy said that I couldn’t block all text messages? While that may be potentially true, I figured out a way to practically do it. What they intend for you to do is to generate keywords to block that if the message contains those words, it gets identified as spam. While this sounds great in theory, we all know from our email accounts that it never really works. I’ve had spam email blockers on all of my accounts for years, and yet I still receive hundreds of spam emails every week, just like many other users.

Rather than selecting keywords that then identify the email as spam, I went another route. I decided to set it up that the text message would only go through if it contains a certain phrase. That phrase is equivalent to a random twenty character string, which makes the Wargames code look easy to guess. So while I can’t block the text message service completely, this should raise the bar high enough to keep anything from getting through.

While there was an option to have the messages forwarded to an email account, I chose the discard option. I already have plenty of spam, and I don’t need any more. I hope this helps some other folks out there, as since I did this, I have received no further mobile spam messages.

--Jonas

Mobile Spam, Part Two

The Continuing Saga…

After receiving an increasing amount of spam text messages, I decided to get those almost helpful and friendly folks over at T-Mobile on the horn to iron out that I didn’t want to be paying for Spam messages. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “Hi, this is Jonas, and I’m having an issue with my phone.”

T-Mobile Jeff: “Ok, what seems to be the problem?”

Me: “Well, I’ve been receiving Spam messages. I got one a few months back, and now I received two last month. As I pay by the message, there’s really no point in paying for Spam. Is there a way to block all the text messages on the phone?”

T-Mobile Jeff: “Spam?”

At this point, I’m starting to get that sinking feeling…

Me: “Spam, as in unwanted email.”

T-Mobile Jeff: “Oh. Are you sure you didn’t want the message?”

Me: “Yeah, absolutely sure. It was a solicitation for medications the first one, and the second time for under priced software from a shady distributor.”

T-Mobile Jeff: “You must have posted your cell phone number on the internet somewhere. That’s why you’re getting the messages.”

Now I really think that this guy must think he’s dealing with an idiot, but I feel like we’re not quite communicating.

Me: “Listen, I’ve never posted my cell phone number anywhere. I’ve never sent a text message to anyone, ever. Can we just disable the text messages for the account somehow?”

T-Mobile Jeff: “I can’t block it, but we can add a filter for the Spam.”

Somehow, now he understands the term.

Me: “Great, go ahead and do it."

T-Mobile Jeff: “No, you have to do it.”

Me: “Ok, how do I add the filter?”

T-Mobile Jeff: “You have to log on to the My T-Mobile site, and add a spam and keyword filter under Communication Tools.”

At this point Jeff tries to log on to the site and walk me through the process. The only difficulty is that that portion of the site is completely down. Believe it or not, I’ve been trying to log onto that portion of the site for the last three days, and it is consistently down.

Is T-Mobile deliberately trying to keep the Spam going so that they can get the text message fees? Why wouldn’t the Spam filter be on by default? They didn’t offer to take off the charges for the messages that I received. There’s also no way to totally disable the text messaging on the phone according to them. Let’s just say we can add this to the list of complaints, and why I wish I didn’t have a two year contract with them with over a year left.

--Jonas

Read the conclusion over here.

Mobile Spam

Being a "Generation Xer," I just really don't have a need for text messaging. If I want to send someone a message, I use my email account. If I want to reach them on the phone, I use my voice. As tech savvy as I am, I have never sent a text message to anyone, nor do I forsee myself doing so anytime soon.

However, I still receive them. Last month, I received several of them in fact. They were all from places looking to sell me software, or pharmaceuticals, or whatever they were hocking that day. I have no idea where they got my phone number from. At fifteen cents a message, it's not breaking the bank yet, but the only thing worse than receiving spam is paying to receive spam.

On my email account, when I first got it over a decade ago, spam was quite rare. Now I receive five spam messages for each real email received. If text message spam grows at the same rate, this could start to add up- especially for the cell phone service companies.

Apparently, in at least one state, mobile spam is illegal. However, legal or not, I'm still getting spammed, and paying for the text messages which don't seem to be stopping.

I'm planning on calling T-Mobile. I'm not sure what they can do. Is there some spam filter they can out into place? Can they totally block text messaging from my phone? Or will I be told there is nothing they can do? At the very least, maybe this will encourage them to drop me from calling too much.

I'll keep you all posted as to how this one progresses...

--Jonas

The story continues over here.

TMobile Update

So after being promised yet another call back from TMobile that never happened, I decided to call again. This time when I got "tier one" tech support on the phone, I told that them to kick me up to "tier two" which they did. I figured that after this many tries, I could skip the folks that simply couldn't help me.

When I got the tier two associate, I gave her my "trouble ticket" number. She returned with some excitement that she had some "good news" for me. I made sure I was sitting down, and she informed me that a new tower was planned for the dead spot I had described. Then the other shoe dropped- it was going to take 120 days!

I suppose that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but that wouldn't help me for quite some time. It is also often difficult for the companies to get permits to put up towers, so I'm quite sure it will take longer. While she could hardly contain her enthusiasm, I could contain mine.

She then told me about the new WiFi router plan that TMobile is rolling out. Perhaps that could fix my network coverage issue? Is this the new plan- for the consumer to provide their own coverage? I'm not impressed with that idea.

Then I find out that Sprint is ditching their customers that call fifty times a month. Maybe TMobile will do the same. So does that mean that I only need to call 48 more times this July to get out of my contract?

--Jonas

TMobile,...The Saga Continues

So after being promised a call back from the TMobile folks about my tower roaming issue, and of course not, I called one more time today. Each time that I have to navigate their voice menu tree it gets more frustrating- I had to call three times today to get to speak to someone.

Today's person was pleasant enough, and she took my ticket number. However, even after talking to her supervisor, we're still no further along to a resolution. Apparently, nothing has been done about the lack of roaming. This is after almost a month for those of you keeping track of this with me.

The best she could do is that a new ticket was generated, and I was yet again promised a call back by Friday with an update. A few minutes later, I received a text message that indicated that there would be some type of tower "upgrade" to my area very soon. Call it what you want, but this sounds like more of a repair to me than an upgrade. Poor coverage could be tolerated when we got out first cell phones a decade ago, but not in the current year.

Once again, we'll keep you posted how TMobile is doing, but so far I'm not impressed after several cumulative hours on the phone (that's my landline as the cell phone is still dropping calls).

--Jonas

Update: TMobile

This is starting to become the ongoing saga with my cell phone carrier. As I still hadn't heard what was going on with the lack of roaming, and my monthly bill didn't have the promised credit (although it did have some), I decided it was about time to reach out and touch someone.

I spent over twenty minutes on the phone with TMobile, but it least it was better than the 40 plus that has been the usual as of late. It would seem that the folks that I speak to need to speak to a manger to do just about anything which explains the slowdown across the process. They did promise to deliver on the full credit promised, but I have to wait for next month's bill- maybe they're hoping I'll forget.

I also inquired about the roaming issue, namely that the phone doesn't roam onto the other networks. Not only is there still no answer to this, but today they couldn't even find the issue in the computer. Even when I gave them the tracking number, they still couldn't provide any information. Kinda weak, no?

The service rep promised to call me back tomorrow with some more information as to what is being done on this issue. I'll keep ya posted, but don't hold your breath for a quick resolution, because I'm certainly not...

--Jonas

T-Mobile Update

After some major cell phone issues last week, and some less than informative answers from T-Mobile’s service line, I’m happy to report that over the weekend and this week the cell tower has been mostly up and running. There have been some times where there was no coverage again, but overall it has been more up then down.

However, things are not quite perfect. When I complained about the tower outage, I also complained as why my roaming capability for my quad band phone doesn’t get onto the neighboring network. They promised to have an engineer look into things, and get back to me within 72 hours. After more than double that time period, I have yet to hear anything back, and the dead spots, that there are towers from competing companies in. Not good. (As an aside, I sent a copy of last week's story to their media relations department. They called me back on my cell phone, but I had a lot of difficulty hearing the callback number they left. I returned the call to my best guess of the number, but it only said that due to heavy volume it wouldn't go through- four times! Also, the received calls on the cell phone only was the general 800 number for the company so we're not exactly communicating).

Also, the supervisor on Thursday was going to call me back to follow up on the issue, and determine the final credit. He did not, nor anyone else from the phone service center. Also, not good.

In this era where the cell phone carriers are all pretty much the same, in that the contracts are similar, and the plans are very similar, the only thing to distinguish them is some level of service. Unfortunately, T-Mobile is not doing well in this area. I’m thankful the phone works again, but they really could do better overall. When my contract comes up next year for renewal, I'm going to think long and hard before just signing up again for this.

--Jonas

I Spoke Too Soon...

After my initial positive experience with T-Mobile earlier this week concerning my cell tower outage, I've been soured to the entire experience. Here's the inside scoop...

When they first told me that the tower would be down for another two hours, it sounded reasonable, and I could surely understand that everything electronic needs to be serviced/upgraded/fixed or whatever they do to their equipment. The only problem is that the two hours came and went, and the service didn't return.

On my next 45 minute phone call to the service line on the next day, I graduated from the regular crew, to what they call "Tier Two" technical support. These folks told me that it would be up in three hours. All right, these were the "next level" folks, so they should know. They assured me that their engineers were working hard on the problem, and understood the hardship of having no mobile phone. While it was reassuring, long after three hours, I still was not connected. I powered off the phone and went to bed hoping that the engineers would be working through the night.

Well apparently they went to bed too. Or maybe they need to ship a part from Djibouti or Nepal or somewhere that FedEx doesn't deliver from. At any rate, today's folks, including the supervisor on service could only tell me that it is an open item, and that they were working on it, and gave me no estimate when it would be fixed.

I find this rather unacceptable. With the recent problems with my landline, I really need the mobile phone as a backup, and now it's not working at all from the house, and for several miles in any direction. The only consolation that the company will give is that will refund me $5 per day for each number that has no service. That hardly seems to compensate me for the 45 minutes (no exaggeration!) I've spent daily with them over the last three days troubleshooting their network and explaining my difficulties to the next person who is in another state.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do. I really don't wish to endure another three week outage like I did last summer. I'm paying for service that I'm not receiving. If this continues into next week, I think I'll insist that they let me out of my contract and try someone else. It really can't be worse than no service, no?

--Jonas

Annual Cell Tower Issues

Over the last year, I've had decent cell phone coverage by my house, although there are still too many deadspots not too far down the road. You may recall that last year the cell phone tower in my town went down for a three week duration last summer. Still, for whatever reason, I've stuck with T-Mobile through it all.

Now with the warmer weather, I noticed that again today that I had no bars of coverage on my cell phone. In another area, I had full coverage. Ok, it must be the tower again.

I went ahead and called t-mobile, yelled "English," my phone number, and other verification data into the phone until I got to an account representative. This was the Tier One person. While she tried real hard, she gave up and kicked me up to the next level before too long.

The second tier tried to make the phone roam onto another network. I kept pointing out that I have free roaming in my plan, and there are other providers in my area, and why didn't my quad band phone make friends with a new tower. She didn't know, but she put in a requisition with the engineers, and they will text me when they figure things out. More importantly, she told me that the cell tower would be up in two hours. I wasn't holding my breath.

While it took closer to three hours, and my usual four bars of coverage has dwindled to one to two, I will say that the phone is at least more than a paperweight again. Compared to last year when they only wanted to sell me a new phone, this was much better this time around.

As the cellular phone market consolidates, and increasingly the providers all have many of the same phones and similar contracts, one key way to distinguish themselves is with service. Assuming the cell tower is up and running tomorrow, T-Mobile appears to be doing tons better than last year. Then again, they had nowhere to go but up.

--Jonas