T-Mobile provides support, good vibes to its iPhone-using clientele
By Ross Miller 
posted May 9th 2009 3:58AM
posted May 9th 2009 3:58AM
[Via iLounge]
posted May 9th 2009 3:58AM
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That is how a company should support their customers, verizon wont even let you activate any sprint cdma phones :(. Too bad tmobile service lacks in comparison.
to clarify I mean coverage lacks with tmobile, customer service is most likely better with tmobile. Verizon signed me up for the 10mb data plan when i specifically told them 3 times over the phone I wanted unlimited. $1700 phone bill :), gotta love it.
sportman, did you have to pay it? you shouldnt've, especially if you told them you wanted unlimited!. If they recorded the conversation (i know my carrier in aus does sometimes) then you could ask them to pull it up and clarify the issue.
@sportman - true, but this is exactly how NOT a phone should be working. Why does the iPhone need special treatment for voicemail? Why can't it just use the normal thing like all the other phones?
@CreepinJesus
Did you even read more then 2 sentences of the article?
They changed something in their VM system which caused smartphones to get blank text messages.
"a recent update to the carrier's voicemail system caused some of the smartphones, including Apple's touchscreens, became unusable, with a volley of blank text messages dated from the future arriving instead."
It's not just the iPhone, although the iPhone was effected.
@CreepinJesus
Furthermore, the reason the iPhone may (although, as noted above, did not on this occasion) have particular problems or need special voicemail treatment is because Apple was [one of?] the first to implement visual voicemail for consumers by negotiating with the network to make it possible. Given the advance, it would be understandable if it were to handle voicemail differently, although it doesn't.
"Why can't it just use the thing like normal phones"?
Even if you detest the iPhone, you can't complain at innovation that pushes the market forward for everyone. If we all had your "it's good enough" attitude, we'd still be living in caves.
Well T-Mobile carries the iPhone in other countries so its not much of a stretch for them to support it in the US.
I am sure its much more cost effective for TMobile to support the iPhone than to loose customers to ATT and have to pay the marketing cost to acquire new customers. Dont kid yourself, its a business decision, yeah T-Mobile treats its customers a little better than Verizon but at the end its about the business.
If engadget is seeking an editor who knows how to write better than a kid who rides the special bus give me a holler.
-Anthony
You can use any GSM phone on thier network if it's compatible with T-Mobiles frequencies, 850/1700/1900MHz. This is not a case of T-Mobile servicing their *iPhone* customers, it's a case of T-Mobile servicing *ALL* their customers. Why do some people act like everything in the mobile world is in some way done to accomodate or emulate the iPhone.
a volley of blank text messages dated from the future
They're not blank, we just haven't figured out the technology to read them.
They were probably Klingon...
No they aren't
im a happy tmobile user..never a bad customer service experience....always helpful...rarely ever a dropped call
There is some serious grammatically though errors this post.
Pot, kettle?
@Samboini: Sarcasm, I think.
Despite not being its official US carrier, T-Mobile still seems to [want to] maintain an amicable relationship with all those who came over with an iPhone in tow. According to a report by The Consumerist, a recent update to the carrier's voicemail system caused some of the smartphones, including Apple's touchscreens, [to become] unusable, with a volley of blank text messages dated from the future arriving instead. Those who contacted customer service were called later to acknowledge the issue and offered an one month service credit. Said the rep, "T-Mobile, though they do not offer the iPhone, [are] committed to supporting users on their network who have them" -- not too surprising a stance, but a kind gesture for sure. The problem has since been fixed, and everyone lived happily ever after.
That's just the grammatical errors I found - editing for readability would change this around much more. Come on, proofread it.
@Zuwxiv
iPhone would also need to be the subject of the first sentence, with "its" as the antecedent. It seems less awkward for "T-mobile" in "T-Mobile, though they do not offer the iPhone, [are] committed to supporting users on their network who have them" to a singular collective noun because T-mobile is acting as a single group. "Who have them" is just repetitive, but I guess it's a quote. "T-Mobile, though they do not offer the iPhone, [is] committed to supporting users on [its] network." "Surprising a stance" should either be "surprising of a stance" or just "a not too surprising stance." I'm also assuming that those people are still living...
Sure they want to keep the iphone users happy, I bet there's at least a million +. I put my iphone on t-mobile even though it will only support edge because I was offered unlimited minutes, unlimited internet & 200 text for $42.00 per month . Now lets see AT&T beat that. Oh, when I called about the blank message issue they gave me an additional 50 texts for the month.
wow! how'd you get that deal??? I've been a T-Mo subscriber for 6+ years and I pay ~$80/month for roughly the same plan.
@David Lawrence: When your contract is about to expire, act like you want to switch to another provider and see what you get offered. They'll do near anything to keep you on.
this is why I wish I could be with t-mobile, I even have a t-mobile phone, but it's not logical to have t-mobile out here because of the coverage
We had a family plan on T-Mobile 3 years ago. The coverage was spotty, but their customer service bent over backwards for you. We wanted to stay, but we just experienced subpar coverage. We have Verizon now. Love the network and coverage, but not fun to deal with their customer service department. I just wish Verizon had a better selection of phones. Our contract is up in 3 months, and they have absolutely no winners. My brother, sister, and I have the LG Chocolate 2 and my mom has the LG EnV. All of our phones work JUST AS GOOD or even better than the current line up... and it's been almost 2 years! Sad, Verizon.
Maybe the texts really are from the future - maybe they just need the right decryption ;-) Maybe they involve someone named Sarah or John Connor ;-)
You are one Sad Sack...
I've been a content, iPhone using T-Mobile customer for a while now. It's just so much cheaper.
I've got a $35 voice plan, a $5 texting plan, and a $6 data plan. Combined, That's barely more then AT&T is charging for for *just* the voice on the iPhone.
Sure, I only get EDGE, but given I'm (ab)using a $6/mo data plan, I'm very content - it's plenty for email, Maps, non-multimedia mobile apps, basic web browsing, and tethering my laptop when I'm in a bind.
Frankly, I'm surprised T-Mobile hasn't cut off the data plan - I'm obviously not using the way it was intended. Perhaps they know it's backing an iPhone, and bringing me to task will risk pushing me to AT&T?
I've read about this story from so many different outlets, and everyone's response always seems to be the same: they all appear to be incredulous about T-Mobile's stance, or forget that T-Mobile even remains a viable alternative.
I've had T-Mobile for the past 5 years (except for a hellish 1 year stint with Cingular/AT&T), and can't imagine any better service. I call with a random question about an upcoming service, and am notified about plan changes that will reduce my monthly bill by $15! What cellular provider will willingly tell you about cheaper options?!
In the Southern California area (West SGV/East IE) I have awesome coverage (better than AT&T), when I travel with family, I get consistent coverage in rural areas (compared to Verizon), and when I make/receive international calls I get rates that are far lower than anyone expects! I have unlimited minutes, messages, and data (including HotSpot access and tethering) for less than $85/mo. That's $15 less a month than Sprint, and over $50 less a month than either Verizon or AT&T!
They have always provided awesome support for any device, whether it's an unlocked iPhone, imported S60 device from Finland or Malaysia, or updates for a comparable Cingular-branded WinMo device. There is no wonder whatsoever as to why T-Mobile always receives highest marks for their customer service in the US. I heartily recommend them to friends, and have recently brought 2 family members over from AT&T.
The only shame that T-Mobile has in the US is that their burgeoning 3G network is 1700MHz based, instead of 1900/2100MHz like the rest of Europe. I know it has to do with whitespace auctions in the US, but it makes purchasing 3G handsets a chore!
-- Patrick
Yep, when I was living in LA up until half a year ago(West LA and the Valley), I had t-mobile. And their service is excellent, their reception never failed me for the 2 years I used them. Customer service was top notch too.
I completely agree. Several years ago I wanted to change the text messaging plan on my family plan. I was going to add the 1000 text messages for $7.99 on to the two lines on the account. Well I call up Tmobile and tell them to add it, they do and everything's good. Well the next day I get a call from Tmobile and the ladies like she was the one I talked to last night and they have a promo going on that for just $10 the whole family gets unlimited texting. I was in shock, Tmobile actually called me to let me know that for $4 cheaper I could get unlimited texting for the whole family. This included the two lines I added the original plan to, as well as a third line that I didn't have a text messaging plan on yet (little sister, didn't need it at the time). Who knows how much that lady saved me. You figure eventually I would of had to add a third text messaging plan to the the third line, plus this was back when I use to text less then 1000 a month. Not now when its less then 3000. I haven't heard of any other carrier doing this.
In Netherlands T-Mobile is official carrier and they are the worst of 3 networks covering this small patch of highly urbanised land reclaimed from the sea.
So here Vodafone has a special iPhone subscription especially made for those of us who venture to our southern neighbours (Belgium) and buy ourselves unlocked iPhones curtesy of some very forward looking legislation there prohibiting phone locking to networks. Price is standard € 615 for 16GB model (in line with what other smarphones cost).
F T mobile. I bought an unlocked iPhone month ago, and my local guy still says they can't support it. F him! Probably not a corporate problem, I'm still upset though.
I've had my iPhone on TMobile for a year or so. If they give you that much of a problem, just get one of the free or wicked cheap phones and get T-Zones with it (or add it to your plan online, just select a RAZR or Nokia something as your phone.) Then unlock your iPhone and pop the SIM into it.
In the settings-->general-->network-->cell. data network, input the APN as
epcDOTtmobileDOTcom
where DOT=.
Voila. Iphone on Tmobile, no problem.
And I definitely had those text messages, it freaked me out for a week or so. I thought I was going to have to get those daily forever, and it would've been annoying. Glad they're finally showing some support.
Now if we can somehow use the server-side support for visual voicemail the G1 uses, I'll never see a reason to go to another carrier; unless the 2011 iPhone 4G is still effing locked to ATT. I want to see them go to a multi-carrier deal with a phone that supports several technologies.
goin on 3 years w/t-mobile and i'm very happy with the service. my only gripe with them is that they refused to sell me a g1 at MSRP without a contract and then told me i needed a data plan to use any of the phone's features.
the reps are probably told to say those things, but they don't need to insult my intelligence.
Actually, I work for T-mobile so I can clarify this issue.
Originally, they were selling the G1 contract-only due to the fact that they had limited supply, and they wanted customers that were signing up new first, so they limited it to that. Currently, they will sell them no-contract no problem as I do it regularly.
Secondly, the reason they said that the Data Plan is required for the G1 is because it is- To set up the phone, it has to be activated through google which requires the web browser, and that requires a subscription. From the second you turn the phone on, it needs to be activated, and shows you the android home screen and when it can connect it goes through the process of setting up gmail etc.
If there is no Data Plan on it, it will say error connecting to servers and just not work.
Hope I helped.
Why can't this be done over WiFi? To require a data plan is just a way to milk the customers. Same goes for iPhone on AT&T.
T-Mo USA may have the worst coverage of the major carriers, but it's definitely always had the best customer service.
I've been with T-Mobile for about four years now. About a year ago, when I got a new job, my company gave me a Blackberry - about two months after I had just signed a new 2-year contract with T-Mobile. I had two phones, which cost around $150 a month. Rather than make me pay the ETF, the lady suggested I convert it to one of their 'T-Mobile @Home' VoIP packages, at $10 a month. So now my two phones, a regular cell for my spouse and my @Home phone cost $60 a month. All because of their customer service letting me know all of my options, even though I'm paying only a third of what I was paying.
T-Mobile's been fantastic - I couldn't imagine going anywhere else.
Did they do this out of the goodness of their hearts?
Or maybe because T-Mobile is the exclusive iPhone partner in Germany, and has sold several hundred thousand phones there? Imagine business travellers using the expensive roaming plans suddenly experiencing outages on T-Mobile USA... can't really let that happen. Or maybe it was really just pure goodness.
Doesn't T Mobile have the iphone in other markets could that be that reason; I could imagine someone for Europe bring a T Mobile Iphone from over there to here I've done it with other T Mobile phones and they were more than willing to help me when any problems that occurred.
This is exactly why I can't bring myself to switch from T-Mobile to ATT...they are the absolute best when it comes to customer service. I just can't leave them since they've been nothing short of excellent in just about every aspect. When I've brought up the iPhone when I'm in their stores, they make no bones about being able and eager to support the iPhone. I think that's pretty cool and I'm just waiting to see the new version this summer before I pick one up and bring it over to T-Mobile.
Meanwhile, I got an iPhone 3G legitamently and no one at apple or at&t can get my voicemail to work
So that's what it was! I got blank texts from 1965 and 2012.
I was wondering what those things were...
I've always gotten good customer service from Tmobile, with and without my iPhone. Their customer service staff is generally first rate and I let them know it. AT&T would have to come up with a pretty dang good reason to get me to switch (Until then, it's buying second-hand iPhones or alternative methods of procurment)
I have been doing the iPhone on T-Mobile for almost 2 years (I like staying out of contracts) and they have been nothing but nice about my iPhone. When I first got it and set it up, the rep I spoke to about getting a couple things changed (did not need BB services anymore) was even excited about it.
Not that T-Mobile is that great of a company or anything, they have their share of annoying things they've done to me, but of the GSM providers here in the US its a no brainer. Well if 3g is not a priority for you, which it was not with my first gen.
T-Mobile has amazing customer service compared to Verizon which I previously had. They had an outage at like 2 AM, I decided to call in to see what the problem was because I wasn't getting any service. They told me they had a maintenance and just gave me an additional 100 bonus minutes for all 5 of my lines which was nice that everyone got their own 100 bonus minuets.
So when is the Pre coming out?
Upon reading this article, I called some mates of mine who have iPhones on nam tmobile and they all called customer service when they got the text messages, and they all got their next months service paid in full... I called customer service about 5 times the first day all those messages started, and they said they couldn't help me and they didnt even have anything reguarding the incedent in their database... I just called tmob and they did t know anything about paying iphone customers bills. They said as part of their policy, they CANNOT pay a customers bill, for thesole reason that his/her unsupported device is/ has malfunctioned on the tmobile network... Rubbish.
Damn, I should have called when I was getting the messages. I figured it was a bad idea calling to get support for a phone they don't sell and the only way to get it on their network is to unlock it. Plus I'm using the t-zones hack and pretty much getting $30 internet service for $5 a month.
I'm fine without a free month though since I get to use an awesome phone on a much cheaper plan than what AT&T wants.
Terrible post, Miller. Awful.
Write properly. Engadget pays, doesn't it? Isn't this a job of yours? And for that matter, doesn't an editor proofread posts?
Engadget's gonna lose readers if stuff like this is allowed to pass...
that's good to know...I thought my phone or sim was freaking out...I kept getting texts from blank, with only 2 chars in them: "£¡" and dated in September 2012...shoot...thought I was getting a pre-emptive attack from Nibiru.
I was with tmobile they had the best customer service ever ! , the only reason I left is because of the coverage , it just isn't enough for me. If they ever do change it, i will switch back asap