Well, here we are again. The week has flown by.
Welcome to my Friday Rants. My little corner of the week where I let loose and get things off my chest. I also link up with MummyBarrow and her Ranty Friday. Please feel free to join in, link up or comment. A good rant can be theraputeic.
This week is a little tamer than last Friday’s post. I have blogged about putting my money where my mouth is in terms of Slactivism. You can find my rant and my page on my 60 day Blackout here…
Anyway, onto what you’ve REALLY been waiting for
My rant of the week is with EE formerly know as T-Mobile/Orange.
As far as I can make up, these companies have merged or joined forces in some sort of attempt to corner the mobile phone networks it seems. Everywhere I go, I see adverts for EE, all the T-Mobile and Orange shops have changed to EE (I counted 4 EE stores in Kingston today, seriously, how many stores does one network need in one town?) and frankly, my poor little BlackBerry has suffered. I was “switched” over to EE from T-Mobile about 5 or 6 weeks ago and since then the service on my phone has been less than good. Calls drop, I struggle to make calls, my e-mails don’t send when I want them to, apps don’t connect to the network, the browser doesn’t work properly and it’s generally frustrating. Not only am I notorious for being a prolific user of Facebook and Twitter, but I also have a reputation for being somewhat attached to my little phone, and I rely on it heavily (and no, I’m not giving up my phone for 60 days, so no rude remarks thank you!)
I have rung T-Mobile, or was it EE? I am so confused, Ive spoken to so many customer service representatives recently I’m loosing track. To be fair, they have all been very friendly and tried to help, but as LSH work with RiM and BlackBerry as part of his job, he has tried all the basic tricks like re-booting the phone, checking memory/data storage etc. Iv’e checked all the settings, double checked them and then checked them again. The service on my phone is rubbish.
I’ve been in Twitter conversation with both RiM and T-Mobile, EE seems to be mysteriously absent despite my Tweeting them, and neither of them seem to be able to figure out what’s wrong, and RiM were less than helpful. Note to RiM, if your customer service is one of the reasons you’re loosing money and your business is struggling, I can understand why.
So, now I am stuck, with a phone that works erratically, and no answers. I am CROSS! I am RANTING! If I worked out how much money I had spent on line rental and service charges to T-Mobile, it would add up to a small fortune. I have stuck with them for years (partly because I’m too lazy to move and partly because their packages did come with some benefits and they’ve upgraded my BlackBerry a few times with no charge) I did have huge issues with them last year when the battery on my phone kept dying and not charging, and ended up having a dispute with them because they sent my phone off to be mended 3x and replaced it each time, no doubt at some cost, when all I wanted was a new battery, which apparently they don’t replace, which seems utterly ridiculous. I am however the female Victor Meldrew of Peterhsam:
I wouldn’t go away, until they agreed to pay for me to buy a new battery.
This was after I was not only lied to by a customer representative in one of their stores, but also their help-desk over the phone too, I threatened to report them to Offcom, and they soon coughed up the £21 to replace the battery that I had told them was the issue in the first place!
My phone is due to be upgraded in April, when my contract ends. I think I have been patient enough. I’m fed up of poor service. I will be finding another service provider. Given that I won’t touch 3 with a ten foot pole, and that o2 doesn’t work in our house (you have to almost climb the tree at the end of our garden to get any reception on o2, when I went to the O2 shop, they actually told me not to bother getting an O2 networked phone, they checked and could see how bad the network was where we are) I am limited in my choices.
So, Boo Hiss to T-Mobile/EE or whatever they are now. They have one unsatisfied customer in me. I am not alone, Ive spoken to a few friends who have had service issues with them. Maybe someone from their customer services will read this and get in touch with me….
Thanks for reading, have a good weekend!
Grrr! Very annoying. I didn’t even realise EE was these other companies. I’m with good old Tesco Mobile myself.
I have worked with O2 customer services, I was with them for 4 years(no longer now) and I think one of the reasons why they were better at what they did and less lying (although many still did), is because they were better to their staff incentive wise etc. I was with orange for a very short time adn T mobile. I felt that they lacked in knowledge and common sense, telling you what you wanted to hear. I hope that you get the issue rectified soon! Blackberry can be very difficult as they would only repair their own phones and if you tried getting through to them on their “care line” you would spend a bomb and not get through for at least 35 mins. You would think that companies would be fighting to keep their customers these days due to so many businesses losing money.
I was amazed at how blatantly they lied to me. I kept telling them it was a battery issue, but they insisted the phone had to go away to be looked at, and then replaced (with the old battery in, which of course meant the problem kept happening, it was a dud battery) and then they told me I could have a new battery, but when the delivery of what was supposed to be a battery arrived, it was another replacement phone, with no battery. When I rang them, they told me “we don’t replace the batteries” yet a customer service rep on the phone and one in the store had said they would (it was under 1 year warranty) RiM were useless. They insist on fixing their own phones, which I understand, but they also wouldn’t replace the battery, and kept insisting it was T-Mobiles problem. The battery itself cost £20, I ended up ordering it via BlackBerry’s website, and T-Mobile refunded the costs, but it took weeks to sort out, 3 replacement phones and cost me about £5 in call charges to RiM!
Wow. That is one big heap of poop they’ve given you there. I can’t STAND poor service, and am never happier sending a big long email to a company and dropping words like “ombudsman” or “ofcom”!! I hope it’s bearable for you until you can switch in April, I can recommend GiffGaff highly, but as they’re part of O2 I don’t know if they’d be any use to you… 🙁 Great post!