Same price, poorer service, fewer features.
Written: Jun 04 '01
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Pros: none
Cons: Remarkably lousy customer service
The Bottom Line: Whether you're searching for The Cheapest, The Most Courteous, The Best Coverage or The Coolest Technology, VoiceScream excels at nothing, making their intolerable customer service a "deal-killer".
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| Fatgas's Full Review: General Reviews of T-Mobile Customer Service |
How long I've been a customer: 1.5 years
How many times I've had to call CS: 15 (approx)
Minutes of my life spent haggling with VoiceScream hive-minded call-center drones: 360 (approx)
Number of VoiceScream call-center "system upgrades" I suffered through: 2
Number of times I was double-billed: 2
Number of times I was tripled-billed: 1
Total amount of overcharge to my credit card because of over-billing: $1200 (I'm was a heavy user)
"Over credit limit" charge from Visa because VoiceScream triple-billed me: $35
Letters of complaint I've written: 1
Letters of apology received: 1
Number of "for your trouble" free minutes as a result of complaint: 0
Amount of "for your trouble" discount applied to my account as a result of complaint: $0
Number of times my "free for a whole year" features mysteriously became non-free: 4
Number of suddenly dropped calls from my house: 40ish
(Please note: My house does not drive down the freeway, nor does it suddenly fall into cellular black holes.)
My complaints with VoiceScream are directed specifically at their customer service hives (also known as "call centers"). When VoiceScream was new and hungry for marketshare, their bungling and autocratic call center customer "service" was offset sufficiently by the el-cheapo pricing structure.
But now that they're in all the major markets, their prices are very similar to other cellular giants' prices, yet their reliably bad customer service has gotten even worse. For example, in my early months of cellular serfdom, the inconvience of dropped calls was at least offset by a "free minutes for dropped calls". Recently, not even a 30 minute tower outage affecting my house was grounds for some free p.i.t.a. minutes.
VoiceScream will attempt to lock you into a 12-month contract at EVERY turn. Every upgrade that makes VoiceScream seem so well-priced has a catch: you agree to put up with their awful service for 12 months. Perhaps that's why their customer service is so bad... no one can escape the 12-month contract attached to almost every upgrade they offer.
Bottomline: VoiceScream's prices aren't low. But the quality of customer service is. Other companies offer MUCH better coverage (AT&T, Verizon, Cingular), real customer service (AT&T) for essentially the same price. Don't use VoiceScream. There are better choices.
If you're just looking for a cheap minutes, cool nerdy internetish features and can tolerate poor customer service (on-hold times and in-a-hurry phone drones), go with SprintPCS. SprintPCS, in my opinion, is the new "cheap" provider. They're as scrappy as VoiceStream used to be... and their tiny network and overloaded customer service hold times prove it. But at least they distract you with huge, cheap rate plans and nifty internet access.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 60/month
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Epinions.com ID:
Fatgas
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 4 members
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