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Comments on "Mobilizing T-Mobile"
Michele: Tim, I didn't "attend" your conference call because I'm also pregnant (currently 34 weeks and counting!) and I've got a very active 2-year-old Deaf son to take care of.
I have already made an earlier post recommending that people contact Sue Nokes and the other writer who wrote that Fortune article directly (I provided contact information according to what I was able to find on Internet).
Good luck!
-Michele Ketcham
(Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 5:49 pm)
Michael: Sprint customer service was so BAD I left and went back to Tmobile. Bad enough that I'll never consider Sprint! Two friend switched to Sprint before I did, and were completely unable to send emails/SMS to tmobile users. They were able to communicate with other non-Tmobile users. Sprint's tech support was of no help.
Tmobile has plans that are deaf-friendly while Sprint didn't at the time.
(Saturday, December 15, 2007 at 9:38 am)
Michael: After being unable to use my SK in the middle of LA, I got a Blackberry. Problem solved. Some deaf friends have switched to Blackberry.
(Saturday, December 15, 2007 at 9:32 am)
Maisha: I used to be devote to t mobile sidekick I. And I get envy every time I ran into someone who is still using t mobile color sidekick I, a truly classic device that the only feature it had worn out is the print letters on the qwerty keyboard.
Reason I don't have it is because I couldn't charge it. Then my eyes were on sidekick II but I saw a lot of troubles about it. One of my favorite troubles is that if you left it outside, the keyboard would bend upwards. While my heart ached due to customer services that weren't helpful to me; I tried different devices. I found blackberry very useful and reliable and love its service.
I might sound like a sales representative but try Blackberry 8300 and Curve and you'll never (dare i say it!) stray away from business or personal communication access!
(Monday, December 10, 2007 at 12:06 pm)
Trudy (author): Tim, that's unfair of you to 'single' me out. I told you last week I would be unable to attend due to work and my pregnancy, but for you to keep me posted via e-mail. Sorry nobody attended, but that's probably because nobody knows who you are or what you hope to accomplish.
(Sunday, December 9, 2007 at 9:47 am)
Timothy: Sunday Morning POST.
I711 members. I was saddened to see that no one, including Trudy entered the conference call last Wednesday. I wish we could have discussed the issue with T-Mobile, AT&T, Cingualar, and the issues we have as Deaf individuals with communication. Visit "Deaf America" on "Google Groups" to address discrimination issues as Deaf individuals. I do hope to meet you in the future.
(Sunday, December 9, 2007 at 1:30 am)
Cuong: hi trudy, my wife uses sidekick under the carrier: t-mobile and i use blackberry under the carrier: sprint. my blackberry 8830 is more reliable than her sidekick even we tried to test both e-mail and text message (SMS). mine sent and received fast than hers.
i understand your 2 year contract with t-mobile. in the future, just change to carrier: sprint to use blackberry 8830 to put your mind in peace for your baby's safety because it is NOT worth to hold our breath to hope for t-mobile to make change in process. just grab what it has service to provide.
i used two or three different e-mail addresses on my same one blackberry device. fyi, if i use gmail then it will not cause 20-minutes interval slow to wait. if i use my comcast then it unfortunately cause 20 minutes. weird, gmail is faster than comcast on POP e-mail. but i found trick to set up comcast to automatic forward to my private blackberry e-mail without wait 20-minutes slow. i can still reply it back to sender without showing my private blackberry e-mail address but use reply e-mail as gmail or comcast. then why bother to be keen on sidekick.
lenora, i could recommend you to use carrier, sprint since it will be same rate as t-mobile. plus sprint did great to hire deaf to work so it is win-win as Deaf community. i don't know much about at&t so i have nothing against using at&t. i don't work or represent for sprint so it is safe for me to say that i am not bias. of course, i want verizon wireless but it is not worth for me to spend too much $ that will make a dent my pocket.
btw, congrat to your baby and wish you best health. get yourself a blackberry 8830 cuz it has nice gps build-in case you with baby get lost in car and you will know how to get out of bad snow storm. we care too much about you and your family.
cuong
(Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 2:19 pm)
Trudy (author): Timothy, could you provide more information about who you are, what this 'phone conference' would focus on, who it's being held by, and so on? You may contact me via my website at www.tswriting.com.
Thanks.
(Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 1:50 pm)
Lenora: I am a deaf woman that is curently looking into T-Mobile for a Wireless Sidekick but so far I have read that its service is slow and not reliable. The money each month is going to be a big waste for me. As you know we deaf culture depend on mostly texting messages and some Voice minutes would be helpful. My next step is to look into the Verizon LG Env that has been new and there has been alot of talk but the price wise is way high, so I will continue to look else where. My AT&T cell phone is ready for an upgrade and I do need some help at this time. If things are better with T-Mobile please forward me some information and prices. Thanks, Lenora noralm@comcast.net
(Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 1:48 pm)
candace: I live in Atlanta, GA. I've had my sidekick II for almost 3 years now. Its been perfect for me, no outages, no spotty coverage (I always get coverage where my bf and mom can't, and they are TM customers too), no need to call Customer Service about anything. The sidekick is also super durable, I cant even count how many times I've dropped it from all sorts of heights, on all sorts of surfaces. Its extremely hardy not at all like what a previous poster said about looking at the screen funny and it going blank. The only physical problem is that the keyboard has started to lift off but that is MY fault for leaving it in a hot car this past summer. No problems with KB until a few days after I left it in the car.
I dont rely on it as my primary email device, I use the browser to check my Yahoo email and it works great for that, but I dont desire email retrieval or forwarding. My only complaint about the email on the sidekick is the JUNK mail. Theres absolutely no way to filter or restrict the junk mail and I get 10 to 20 a day. Sidekick/Tmobile really needs to offer a spam/junk mail filter option!
Other than that, I hope you guys do give Tmobile a reminder that the deaf customer base for full keyboard smartphones is a HUGE business and we are not to be shortshifted!
(Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 11:10 am)
April: I contacted T-Mobile's support from thelink tht you provided, Trudy. This is what I got as reply from them:
Review Answers
We didn't find any support site articles that might answer your question. Please click "Next" below to submit your question.
Support home ›
Continue sending email ›
I continued this e-mail to them. It said tht there will be customer service rep with me, shortly. Sigh. Probably will be told same thng I was told, before-tht they don't know tht there is problem of tht area or tht they will fix it in ___ amount of time. Sigh.
(Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 1:05 pm)
April: Trudy,
I, too, have been having problems with my Sidekick device getting services it needs. I can't access my hotmail account through the same method you told us about in your post. Sometimes, it will allow me to get intoit, but I cannot send out e-mail messages at all of it. AOL is same way-even of the AOL tht I downloaded from the catalog tht is on my Sidekick device. It wont recognise all of my AOL accounts, either. I don't know why. I called and called and called. Techs told me to reroute my accounts through the Sidekick's e-mail. Not all of them will work. T-Mobile customer service rep told me tht they would fix this in two to three days. Then when they didn't, I called back. I got same reply, again. But this time, they told me it would take two weeks. It has been 3 months. I gace up on T-Mobile. *Also, many webpages won't download. T-Mobile says tht tht is normal. Sigh. TY for posting the info of where to write. I will write to them, now, about T-Mobile's bad service.
(Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 11:39 am)
Timothy: Participant Access Code for December 5th T-Mobile Organizing Conference call is 58631. Provide to Relay when calling 1-218-339-7800 on December 5th, 2007, 5:00pm 55 minute conference call.
(Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 12:00 am)
Timothy: Hello i711.com members:
CONCERNED T-MOBILE USERS and EX T-MOBILE USERS:
I have arranged a conference call appointment for us to discuss the T-MOBILE ORGANIZING for DEAF CUSTOMERS. Conference Starts on Wednesday, December 05, 2007, 5:00 PM Eastern Std Time at 1-218-339-7800 (Minnesota number) for 55 minutes. The conference will work with i711.com Deaf Relay and other Relay companies. I look forward to meeting you all. Trudy please try to attend also.
Talk to you on December 5th. I will also have a transcript of call for all who needs it. This will be the first attempt to discuss our plan of action to get better service from Cell Phone providers, including T-Mobile and AT&T.
(Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 11:57 pm)
Michele: Trudy, if I were you, I'd hit T-mobile where it hurts.
Contact Sue Nokes directly...she's the "customer service chief" for T-Mobile...her email address is: sue.nokes@t-mobile.com
And...
I'd also contact Fortune writer Jennifer Reingold and tell her what you've written here in hopes that Fortune will publish your comments. I was unable to find Jennifer Reingold's email address (but my best guess is: jennifer_reingold@timeinc.com) and according to Fortune website, you're supposed to contact either Danielle Perissi (at danielle_perissi@timeinc.com) or Erin Clinton (erin_clinton@timeinc.com) in order for them to review your comments and possibly forward to Jennifer Reingold.
In any case, if many unhappy T-Mobile customers keep emailing Sue Nokes directly and Jennifer Reingold directly (or to Fortune), hopefully it will have an impact.
-Michele Ketcham
(Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 10:05 pm)
Aaron: I totally agree! I wished there was some other way to find the loophole and get out of the 2 year contract and then get that phone from Verizon...its a new one and whew, it has everything everyone wants/needs for all users.
That's the phone we need to get...
(Friday, November 23, 2007 at 8:57 pm)
Tom: Not only that, but T-Mobile is trying to cheat me out of a $50 rebate. I complied with all the requirements but they denied the rebate, saying I did not submit the bar code from the box. Bull! I taped it to the form and made a copy before I sent it in. So upon the rejection, I sent a letter with the copy and they sent me the same rejection letter again. I strongly believe they systematically reject many legitimate rebate requests in hope that people won't bother to fight it and will just give up. It really ticks me off 'cause I pay them way more than $50 a month for three phones so why the hell do they have to cheat me out of my legitimate rebate!!!???
(Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 5:16 pm)
David: I totally agree with Trudy. I was a former T- Mobile user, but gave up after the service had too many outages, poor reception, and would freeze. I have since purchased a Blackberry from Verizon Wireless and am happy with the service as it is dependable and almost always has good reception for reliability. I highly recommend switching to blackberry with Verizon Wireless not T- Mobile to send T- Mobile a lesson. Ex-T- Mobile User
(Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 4:24 pm)
Trudy (author): Phil and Nan - It's the customer service I'm talking about here, not the pager itself. I live in an area where T-Mobile coverage is stellar, and my SK3 is pretty durable (even after dropping it several times), so no complaints there. My article wasn't to invite Sidekick bashing :) or Blackberry cheering (I like the Blackberry, too). The goal here is to see why we haven't come together collectively to address customer service/satisfaction.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
(Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 3:12 pm)
Trudy (author): A quick note: I notified i711.com folks last night of the typos in the article. Apparently when my original article was posted by the i711 folks, they did not clean up the glitches (i.e., naive/naave). Given the holiday, it'll probably be a couple of days before they fix their webpage. Nevertheless, thanks to all who alerted me to the gremlins.
(Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 3:10 pm)
Nancy: And folks wonder why I dropped the t-mobile service :-)
The "phone" would work only in selected spots - move an inch and no coverage. Spotty coverage in other states too.
Not to mention the stupid, I mean, sidekicks themselves very fragile. If you look it it cross-eyed, the screen goes black.
Thinking of getting a blackberry or SamSung ... meanwhile, I am using the Motorola Talkabout pager - it WORKS. Which is more than I can say for t-(im)moble
(Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 3:06 pm)
Phil: I'm sorry to say, you finally noticed.
I already noticed YEARS ago when I first had a problem. I quit right away and switched the provider. I never looked back.
(Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 3:00 pm)
Julie: As an interpreter for a VRS center that handles MANY T-Mobile calls, I can understand your frustration. I often find it VERY difficult to remain "neutral" in my role as intepreter (although, of course, I do!) and feel that T-Mobile is not providing their HUGE number of Deaf customers with quality customer service. I also wonder why a company that "supposedly" caters to its Deaf customers, doesn't set up a VP Customer Service center with a DEAF tech support staff! I think some of the problems might be more easily resolved if their Deaf customers were able to communicate one-on-one with tech support. Good luck in your efforts!
(Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 2:28 pm)
Steve: Been there and then switched to Blackberry and never looked back since. I feel your pain, honey!
(Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 1:00 pm)
amanda: Trudy you always amaze me in everything you say and I am going to contact not only T-Mobile but I will also have people at school (NTID/RIT, the Sidekick is the first choice for Deaf/hoh users and the Blackberry is the 2nd choice) do the same in asking for better service as I myself have lost service/connection when I have needed it the most and others at school also have complained too.
I don't like having to rely on hearing people to make phone calls for me and this has happened not just once or twice, but many many times due to service outages. Our next step should be to also deal with companies who hang up on relay repeatedly, but the biggest step we need to take is to have people from the Deaf Community start running for office so that we have better representation, I nominate TRUDY for PRESIDENT! Who seconds the motion?
amanda pulisciano
(Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 12:17 pm)
Trudy (author): The reason I haven't switched yet is because of the contract termination fee and the associated fees. That isn't the point. The point is: why haven't we banded together to complain about a company that obviously has a large (even if some think it is small in comparison) deaf/hard of hearing base? And regardless of if we are a small or big group, T-Mobile must provide full service to each and every customer, deaf or not.
And yes, I did contact Danger. They referred me back to T-Mobile, and that's what I meant in my sentence, "(And I know it's actually Danger who provides the service for Sidekicks. Doesn't matter to me.)"
Bottom line is: we need to do something instead of complaining to each other and doing nothing. Just asking for credit isn't going to work alone. That, combined with thousands of T-Mobile Sidekick users' complaints, will get T-Mobile's attention. Or not. Worth a try.
(Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 11:42 am)
phil.moos@comcast.net: T-Mobile is not limited to Sidekicks. I have Blackberry 7290 and the carrier is also T-Mobile. It's my understanding Sprint has improved its services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing so maybe you want to switch to a Blackberry with carrier of T-Mobile or Sprint.
(Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 11:10 am)
Todd: Congrats, and here's to a successful pregnancy w/o any complications. May you and Randy enjoy all the rewards of parenting, and that your wildest dreams regarding your baby will be fulfilled.
As to your concerns about T-Mobile, I'm definitely glad I'm using the Blackberry units! (I'm a T-Mobile customer, as well.)
I think T-Mobile has already reached saturation point, i.e., having pretty much penetrated the Deaf market. Hence, you don't see any dedicated T-Mobile sales reps at Deaf expo's. Our numbers are small to begin with, once you factor in T-Mobile's massive customer base. All of that brings unfortunate customer service results for Deaf consumers using T-Mobile services.
Have you tried contacting Danger? Maybe they'll be more responsive and take proactive action in remedying issues associated with multiple email accounts and other nagging issues affecting Sidekick's.
(Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 10:25 am)
David: Did you say you are having a baby in 3 weeks? Congratulations! You should have mentioned this as another reason why you need your T-Mobile to work at all times. I wonder if any Deaf T-Mobile reps will read your article and respond. Enjoy motherhoood and Happy Thanksgiving to you and Randy!
David
(Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 11:28 pm)