I just had to voice my frustration at the extent of apathy and poor customer service in corporate America. I just received a phone call from the "top customer service department" in T-Mobile and it was a horrible experience. The gentleman was argumentative and kept cutting me off in mid-sentence. Here's an abbreviated version of my dealings with this company over the past year.
It all started when the screen on a phone that I had for 14 months burned and I have been trying to replace it. First, I was told, at a T-mobile store, that since I still had a contract it would cost me a hundred dollars. Same online and with the telephone people. I was told that T-mobile had grown so big they didn't have to care about customer's problems anymore. That in fact they no longer allowed the retail stores to take care of customer issues and "do anything for existing customers." So I decided to wait until my contract ran out and see if they would offer me the phone at the same price as they did a new customer which was fifty dollars. However, now it is unavailable to me as an existing customer even though it is being offered for free to any new customers. After receiving no answer as to why I can not get the phone as an existing customerr, I wrote a letter to customer service asking why and the response I got today is even more frustrating. A "customer service" representative called to offer me the phone I wanted. However it was not a new phone as offered to new customers but a reconditioned phone without any instructions. This is how much T-mobile thinks of me. I guess I'm supposed to be thrilled at any offer but I am not. I am insulted that they would offer me a reconditioned phone without any instructions. He told me that if I didn't accept the offer there was nothing he could do for me. Obviously, T-mobile as a company has no integrity because they think all I want is the phone. They still have not given me a reasonable reason why the phone is unavailable to me but is available to new customers. Although the "customer service" rep from the head office did admit that free phones are not free to new customers. You pay for them in extra fees and increased costs. That doesn't surprise me that T-mobile would lie to new customers about getting "free" phones. They're a typical corporation in American where integrity and ethics doesn't exist. It's sad that we have to do business with such people.
I know that most of you would say that this is the way all the telecommunications company do business and that's just the way it is. But my question is why do we allow this to be the way they operate. Why do we keep buying things from companies that treat us like crap? Why do we reward the rude behavior of T-mobile and others by signing long contracts and buying expensive phones and plans? We can't go on much longer like this. The greed in this corporate climate has already caused a lot of destruction to our middle class. This is not the America for which my father along with many thousands of men and women today are fighting. We need to stop allowing companies from destroying our country.
Two of my friends have already left T-mobile. One signed up for their "no contract" plan which I think is a big rip-off since they charged him for the phone (full price) and then an activation fee of 35 dollars. Let's see. he already had an account, he kept the same phone number, he put the Sims card in his new phone. I haven't upgraded quite honesty because I can't get one comparable to the phone I had a year ago. Any time I think of taking another one I am pissed off about seeing the upgrade fee added to whatever the cost of the phone.
For now I'll keep using the crappy phone I purchased a year ago (without extending my contract). I think my friend who switches companies every time his contract ends has a better idea. At least he gets a new updated phone out of it each time and gets to feel like a company wants their business. He never gets told take it or leave it!!!
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