T-mobile customer service

spork_2

Note: T-mobile have their general customer service outsourced in a call centre abroad, which is always manned by polite, professional and informative staff. They only deal with general queries, so for sales/cancellations you get transferred over to the UK call centre staff, so it is their customer service skill that I am referring to.

I've had problems with T-mobile in the past 2 days to do with keeping my number while changing from PAYG to contract. The first two times I called I was cut off after being transferred over to sales (which on PAYG meant they charged me per call). The third time, I got put through to someone who outright lied to me.

I told her that I wanted a new handset on contract, but firstly as I'm on PAYG on T-Mob, would I be able to keep my number but change from PAYG to contract? She said no and that the only way I could keep my number was to port it out to another network on PAYG and then port it back. I asked her why and she said it was because they can't do it for BlackBerry phones. I said the phone had been out since November and that my friends have transferred from PAYG to contract while keeping their existing number on different networks including T-Mo. She then said that it's for all smart phones, as they come with a new SIM.

I told her that I spoke to someone in her team only last week who confirmed that transferring my number over wouldn't be a problem. She replied saying that it there has been a new change of procedures since last week and had the gall to ask whether any of my friends had transferred their number since last week (I called yesterday!). I asked her whether she could do anything for me and she had the cheek to say that she'd talk to her manager (she was probably making herself a cup of tea while keeping me on hold) and came back with 'No, sorry'.

I was getting quite annoyed at this point, so I wanted to see whether she would be more willing to give me a better contract deal than the saleswoman I spoke to last week. She did after I said O2 had a cheaper deal and she went on O2's website to confirm it and then matched it. Immediately after the phone call ended where I confirmed I wanted that deal, I realised that she was giving me a new SIM and number! So I don't know what the point of her port-out-port-in advice was either. After the call, I spoke to friends and two CS reps on 150 and an acquaintance who works for T-mobile to confirm the woman's story, and the acquaintance summed it up nicely: she was telling me "bulls*it". She completely misinformed me in order to sell a new contract and thus get a higher commission. She also gave me some guff about how they can't do 18 month contracts as smartphone manufacturers provide a 24 month warranty so they have to sell it for 24 month, which I countered with info about 18 mth pay monthly plans on their website.

The 2nd of the aforementioned CS rep transferred me over to the UK-based cancellations team - the woman there apologised and since my phone had already been dispatched for next day delivery, she said she would transfer me over to the team to talk to talk to them, but that she'd explain the situation while I'm on hold. They evidently decided they didn't want to deal with a complaint at 5pm and she didn't bother transferring me over, stating that someone would talk to the agent who misinformed me! I was told to write in to complain and I couldn't even get the woman's name or speak to a manager. They have no sense of accountability or customer service whatsoever. :mad:

So now I have the phone and will probably return it, but I'm sick of dealing with their UK staff over the phone and want to deal with this ASAP rather than by post. Is there a quicker way of making a complaint (e.g. email) ? The deal I got isn't that great either (300 mins, unlimited texts and internet, 18 months at £30/month, with £50 handset fee - which was matched to O2's deal after immense haggling), so I'm not sure if I want to stick with them now, despite being with them for years.

wolvesinwales

I must agree. I always thought Three Mobiles service was bad but after buying a T Mobile phone last week and trying to get a problem sorted out I can safely say T Mobile are far far worse.
Almost impossible to get through their automated service - my query didnt fit any of the options so i opted for the 'other' option of pressing star key only for the recording to tell you 'sorry that is not on my list' !! I eventually found on another forum that the only way to get through is to repeatedly press '0' and it confuses them into putting you through to speak to someone.
After speaking to someone i was twice promised someone would call me back which they didn't and no one had a clue how to solve a simple problem.

In sheer frustration i cancelled my contract only to then find they had sent me the software i was missing by post the next day.

You can complain using their online form but its dealt with overseas and although the staff will phone you and are more polite they are just as ill equiped at sorting problems im afraid.