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T-Mobile Rocks

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Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#121

Post by umsm »

My experience with tmobile and Att is probably reversed: tmobile found ways to add hidden or mysterious charges that others couldn't (I.e. $10 / month android charge). Most of the customer service reps in recent years got worse and worse.

I finally switched to Att about 2 years ago and I have to admit: every time I called, everyone was friendly and helpful. Nothing was hidden: they laid out their charges and I agreed to them. They may have even slightly higher ($10 a month), but I have excellent nationwide coverage and very good internet speeds when I need it.

This was just my experience, and it may be different for others.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#122

Post by hkmurakami »

rogerbinns wrote: post #80
skrause wrote: post #18

> Because if all of us move to T-Mobile, the other carriers will have no choice to join them in being customer friendly. No, if all people move to T-Mobile, they will just start behaving like the other carriers. The only reasons they're customer friendly is because they have a low market share and try to win customers, not because it's their company culture. Just look at their German parent company, Deutsche Telekom…

T-Mobile in the US is a separate company. The German parent has tried to sell it in the past, and no doubt would gladly sell it in the future should a willing suitor come along and the regulators okay it (that caused the last sale to fail).

To elaborate, Sprint and T-Mobile have been trying to merge, arguing that scale is fundamental in competing in the market. Regulators have argued that 4 carriers are essential to keeping parity and competition in the market.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#123

Post by simonw »

When I visit the US from the UK I use T-Mobile pay-as-you-go SIM cards to get data on my iPhone. It works great - you go in to a T-Mobile store, pay for the SIM and $3/day of credit (I normally spend about $25), they set up the phone and profile for you and you walk out within a few minutes with a working iPhone.

I used to use AT&T GoPhone for this, until they sold me a "special deal for SXSW" in Austin that would keep my number and data working for multiple trips three years for $100. A few months later they cancelled the data portion of the plan (naturally refusing to refund my $100 since voice still works) and made it impossible to get pay-as-you-go data on an iPhone no matter how much money you give them.

They might have fixed that now, but they've lost me to T-Mobile.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#124

Post by phaus »

mortenjorck wrote: post #54
cracker_jacks wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

T-Mobile had a sudden change of heart because they had a sudden change in CEO in 2012. He's the one that's been pushing the 'uncarrier' movement within the company.

John Legere is... interesting. Check out the original 'uncarrier' press event from this summer: http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/26/4148836/stop-bullshit-says... "Carriers are really nice to you... once every 23 months. This is the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard in my entire life. Do you have any idea how much you're paying?" This is not a quote from an angry blog commenter. This the CEO of the United States' fo…

It is refreshing to see a telecom executive make a statement like that, but its hard not to feel as if it might just be a clever marketing tactic.

Apparently he used to be the Chief Executive of AT&T Asia. I wonder how cellular service plans are structured there. I know that Europe has traditionally favored the no-contract plans that are just now starting to get attention in the U.S., I wonder if perhaps Asia does too.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#126

Post by michaelgold »

MacsHeadroom wrote: post #45
e28eta wrote: post #4

I just switched to T-Mobile with my iPhone 5S, largely on principle. My monthly bill won't go down much and my service has gotten worse, but I'm so happy to leave AT&T and support what T-Mobile is doing. The new international roaming policy is icing on the cake.

Your bill won't go down much? 5GB of 4g internet with 3g speeds after that, unlimited texting, and 100 minutes of non-wifi talk (unlimited on wifi) per month is only $30 flat on T-Mobile if you buy the start-up kit at Walmart. If you need more minutes than that you can either call over wifi, pay $0.10/minute or talk all you want for free over Wifi/3g/4g using a VoIP app like GrooveIP.

I don't think the iPhone 5s has wifi calling.

Is this accurate? http://support.t-mobile.com/thread/52768?start=0&tstart=0

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#127

Post by joelrunyon »

skrause wrote: post #18

> Because if all of us move to T-Mobile, the other carriers will have no choice to join them in being customer friendly. No, if all people move to T-Mobile, they will just start behaving like the other carriers. The only reasons they're customer friendly is because they have a low market share and try to win customers, not because it's their company culture. Just look at their German parent company, Deutsche Telekom…

The purpose isn't to pledge loyalty to one company forever - it's to vote with your dollars to encourage the type of behavior you'd like to see.

If enough people switch - the others will have to make some changes in order to stay competitive. He's not suggesting that we all pledge loyalty to t-mobile until the end of time.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#128

Post by bsimpson »

greenmountin wrote: post #99
Shivetya wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am so tired of two year contracts, but I have a list of 'approved' carriers I can choose from and have my phone partially paid for. Until recently T-Mobile was not on the list. Now all I need to do if wait out my current two year with the other guys. There is certainly nothing smart about paying seventy, eighty, or more, per month for a smart phone. If anyone is smart its the guys charging for it and getting it.

Two year contracts are a lie, a prop, an illusion. If you break it, you basically pay back the prorated part of the phone discount you got. If you go to a carrier without phone subsidies, they'll charge you less month-to-month an amount equal to the monthly prorated phone discount. This was my realization when pricing out basic phone service with T-Mobile, ATT, etc. You have to really work hard to pay different. Just…

I made a spreadsheet for my girlfriend when she bought the iPhone 5s. She was debating between AT&T, StraightTalk, and AIO wireless. On AIO, you're still better off on AT&T over the course of a 2 year contract by $90. If you choose StraightTalk, you'll save $174 over 2 years. (That savings goes up to $299 if you buy an AT&T phone and then immediately cancel and pay the ETF; both prices combined are less than the $749 sticker price.)

The trick is that most people don't replace their phones on a schedule. Some phones don't hold enough of a charge after 18 months and get replaced early; some people are still happy with their 4 year old phone. If you are on a pay-as-you-go plan and hold onto a phone for longer than 2 years, the savings start to really add up.

The other trick is that many people can get pay-as-you-go prices on contract, through their corporation, credit union, or university. When I was on AT&T in 2009, I used my university's alumni association to bring my cost down to $55 per month.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#129

Post by bsimpson »

jeena wrote: post #69

I'm really confused when reading articles like this because it sounds like a different company to the one I know which was formed out of "Deutsche Post" during the 90ies and patronizing and shitting on its customers ever since, at least in Germany. The biggest thing with them this year was their 384kbps Speed Throttle[1], where after your family consumed 75GB of data (download and upload) the speed of your DSL (flatr…

I bought a 1 month unlimited plan the last time I was in Germany, but went through 100MB in less than 3 days (and I was trying to be fairly conservative with my usage); the remainder of my trip had speeds so slow I could basically only use e-mail.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#130

Post by mortenjorck »

umsm wrote: post #121

My experience with tmobile and Att is probably reversed: tmobile found ways to add hidden or mysterious charges that others couldn't (I.e. $10 / month android charge). Most of the customer service reps in recent years got worse and worse. I finally switched to Att about 2 years ago and I have to admit: every time I called, everyone was friendly and helpful. Nothing was hidden: they laid out their charges and I agreed…

I would definitely not want to be a new AT&T customer today as they've phased out nearly every part of my current grandfathered plan, but I've had nothing but good experiences with support.

Even last year, when they somehow lost my old messaging plan in a phone upgrade, the rep (who I didn't even have to wait long to speak with) quickly switched me back.

The moment they require me to switch to a Mobile Share plan I'm out, but until then I'm continually surprised to be such a happy customer.

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