I recently switched my cell phone carrier from T-Mobile to Verizon. Throughout this switch, I realized just how downright awful T-Mobile is. Even though I switched carriers two months ago, I am still dealing with the pink, call-dropping headache they've given me. So this is dedicated to you, T-Mobile.
1.) Send Nudes ;) Sorry, maybe next time. Because with T-Mobile, I could not send or receive picture messages. I would receive a "multimedia message" that I would have to download...except that it never would. Being a millennial, you can imagine just how stressful it was for me not to be able to engage in meme-swapping festivities.
2.) Hello? Sorry, can you repeat that? No, I heard that; the other thing you said. I am in a long distance relationship, which means I spend at least three or four hours on the phone every day. And being away at college, I also receive calls from my parents every once in a while. And since I am a human being, I receive calls from telemarketers, the pharmacy, the doctor, the mechanic, customer service, the pizza delivery person, etc. on a daily basis. But I dreaded the conversation every time my phone rang due to the audio either just stopping or being fuzzy and scratchy. I already have poor hearing, so you can imagine my frustration. (I actually had to turn on the setting for hearing-aids in order to be able to hear some of what was said.)
3.) If you didn't get my message, then who did? It is infuriating to be in the middle of an intimate conversation or an argument over text, and all of a sudden the other person just doesn't reply. But in reality, they're getting mad at you because you didn't reply to the text they sent you that you never got. That's certainly a buzz-kill.
4.) Forget group messaging. Every message in a group message was sent to my phone in the form of a multimedia message. Which means none of the messages would load. This meant I couldn't ever partake in any discussion between friends, coworkers, group project members, etc. I couldn't respond because I couldn't ever see what they were saying.
5.) What's the Wi-Fi password here? I could never connect to the Wi-Fi, anywhere I went. Whether I was visiting my parents for the weekend, in a local Caribou Coffee, in my dorm room sitting right next to my internet router, or in the lunch room on campus, I could never connect to the internet. It would take eons to load anything if I was on the internet. This meant I had to always use the internet with my data...causing me to burn through my month's supply in less than a week.
6.) Customer Service: We'll help you sometimes. Maybe. Hopefully? I spent hours and hours and hours on the phone with T-Mobile's customer service. When my account was still active, I was talking to customer service representatives on a weekly basis trying to get rid of the glitches in my phone that were never resolved. When I deactivated my account, no representative would talk to me, even after I gave them my social security number and my credit card number for verification. I called several times, and every single person refused to talk to me, even though my name was on the account and I was paying the phone bill each month with my personal credit card.
7.) "We'll get right on it!" -said no T-Mobile representative, ever. After dealing with so much crap from the company, I decided to take to social media to do some public shaming. I sent out a series of tweets complaining about T-Mobile, and within ten minutes, I had someone from the company giving me instructions on how to get help. I followed the instructions, and nothing happened. It has been about two weeks since I engaged in the public shaming, and I still have not heard back from a single representative of the company.
8.) Don't bother emailing. Okay, so if they won't help me over the phone or even through direct-message on Twitter, I'll file a complaint via email. Only problem is they don't provide customers with an email address. They just give me more numbers to call.
9.) They like to overcharge. On my last bill, they overcharged me over $50. But there was nothing I could do. The company charged my credit card 9 days before the bill was due. But then a month later, they realized that they had overcharged me, so they sent me a rebate on a debit card for $0.01. One. Fucking. Cent. I can just imagine a representative handing it to me and telling me not to spend it all at one bar.
10.) We don't want to talk. Apparently, T-Mobile can't handle the heat. They refuse to answer any mode of communication, even though I'm asking for help. Why? They know they messed up.
You done treated me wrong, T-Mobile. In fact, out of all my exes, I would go as far to say that you have treated me the worst. If anyone is stuck with this horrible coverage, I urge you to reach out. If you switch to AT & T, you still get to keep the phone you have, and you won't have to start over with installation payments on your phone. If you switch to Verizon, you just might get a free $400 gift card to Best Buy, like I did. The possibilities are endless. But just don't be afraid to switch.
