Jonathan's Universe

Posts Tagged ‘rates’

So awhile back, I switched from Sprint to T-Mobile. It started out with me needing to get a new charger for my sprint phone because mine was lost and I couldn’t bring my mom’s charger with me when I went to South Carolina. I then walked out with a new plan on the T-Mobile network.. and a new phone. But I’ve had some grievances.

First, let me say the good thing. Their customer service for the most part is simply amazing. Their reps are always nice and do seem to care about you. One time I got an extra 300 minutes for the current pay period after talking to the representive. That was pretty cool. But again, they are really polite and ask you about your day. Friendliness is really important. Good job T-Mobile.

Now some caveats. The reception is horrid. I don’t get service in my house. Except on the arm of my couch I am sitting on now. And that’s sporadic. I also sporadically get service in my bed room on the first floor. As for the basement.. where the TV and comfortable couch is? Not a shot. Even places outside, I don’t get reception  on certain places of my porch and even the sidewalk outside my house. In my office, I barely get reception, I usually have to leave my office and go into the hallway to make or receive phone calls.

Second thing is their network infrastructure. I have a question, when you call someone and they don’t have service, what do you expect to hear? Their voicemail? A busy signal? With T-Mobile, if a subscriber unexpectedly leaves the network (ie, loss of signal, battery dies), any calls received don’t go to voicemail. At least not usually. More often than not, people get a busy signal. Only after an extended time of not having service does the network decide “oh, this person is unavailable, route callers to voicemail.”

You see, when you turn on your phone, your phone probably says “Registering with network” or something to that effect. This is your phone saying, “Hi, i’m a phone. I’m apart of your network. this is information about me.” The network keeps track of your “position” (which cell tower you’re on, etc) and the like. Now, if you shut of your phone (while you have service), your phone tells the network that it is leaving. Now people will be directed to voicemail immediately. If you lose service (or otherwise adbruptly leave the t-mobile network), the network still thinks you’re “there.” So when someone calls, it sends the caller to nothingness, hence the busy signal. It’s quite horrible. Especially when I’m in my house and my dad is trying to call me to find out what I want for dinner. Boo T-Mobile.

I have unlimited text messaging. I can text any US (maybe canadian?) numbers as many times I want (up to like 3,000 per month or some “acceptable fair use” amount). This is cool. I can’t dial short codes. These are the “send a text to #### for your vote” type services. This means I can’t a) request songs at my local radio station b) I can’t use twitter via my mobile device (the way it is intended to be used) c) i can’t use facebook via my mobile device. I try sending a text to one of the respective services, and I get a reply instantly back saying something to the effect, “This feature is not included in your service plan.” T-Mobile, come on, throw me a friggen bone here. So now I have to pay an extra $5.99 for “unlimited internet access” so I can use twitter and facebook via the web, instead of text messages. Kind of irritating. I’ll be starting that in my next pay period. Boo T-Mobile.

Okay, this problem probably effects many carriers. I don’t know. I want the ability to block certain numbers from calling/texting me. I mean really, I was getting texts from this.. person.. and I had no idea who they were. I called customer service and asked if I could prevent this person from texting me. Their suggestion? “We could change your number for $15.99 that has to be paid upfront.” Seriously. How hard is it to add that to the network structure? Simply a check to see if incoming data (whether it be SMS/MMS/phone call) is coming from a phone number that is on the intended recipient’s block list. Boo T-Mobile.. and probably most providers.

So I think in a year and half when my contract is over, I’ll be getting an iPhone. Maybe. The plans are a little expensive. We’ll see.