23. September 2009 by [JP].

Background information.

In addition to my personal account, i’m also responsible for a business account that has 6 blackberries and 2 windows mobile smartphones, which averages about $900 monthly, all lines are out of contract.

And i’m pulling ALL of them from t-mobile, because i’m officially pissed off.

Friday, I ordered a Mytouch. Dispite giving them the promo code for Kickoff24, I still was unable to get it for the 99.99 pricepoint. I ended up paying $200 for the phone, and renewed for 2 years.

Monday night I recieved the phone. Charged it overnight and was using it since this AM.

Problem #1. Despite the fact that this (El Paso, TX) is a major metropolitan area, as well as in the top 100 largest wireless markets, 3G is still not fully rolled out here. In fact, El Paso is listed as fully covered by t-mobile, HOWEVER, less then 30% of the city (Geographically) is actually served by t-mobile 3G equipment.
Again, T-MOBILE LISTS THIS CITY AS HAVING 3G COVERAGE, HOWEVER LESS THEN HALF OF THE CITY IS COVERED BY PHYSICAL 3G EQUIPMENT.
… At my parents house, which is near the center of the city, in an older, upper middle class neighbohood (understand, we’re not in the middle of nowhere, or at the edge of a fast growing city) there is no 3G coverage. Heck, at their westside store, there is no 3G coverage.

Problem #2. My phone, when it was taken to a 3G area today rebooted 6 times. One of those reboots caused it to hang on the green spash screen. A battery pull reset the phone to normal, and i disabled 3G because of it. During troubleshooting, they determined the software version was up to date, and the phone was likely bad. They advised me to do a factory reset, which resulted in a lockup at the splash screen again. They said to take it to the store for a possible swapout. No problem, took it to a store. They agreed that the phone itself was defective, however, since it was ordered thru telesales, they couldnt swap it. They made the phone call to care for me, handed me the phone.

Problem #3. The rude agent at care informed me that in order to get a replacement, i would have to:
-Ship the phone back at my expense.
-Wait until its recieved and processed.
-Be billed for a new phone to ship to me ($22 if i wanted express).
It was unacceptable to me that i’d have to PAY for a replacement for a failed device AND be without a device for at least 2 weeks

Problem #4. I called to cancel this contract and return the phone. I was told that they can replace it, and offered me a $50 credit for the inconvenience. However, when she tried to process the replacement, she was told that because i’m in the 14 day buyer’s remorse period, that theres no way to replace it, i’d have to send it back. Again, at my expense, and i’d be without a device for 2 weeks or longer. Oh, and it might take up to 60 days to refund my credit card for the price of the phone, and longer for them to issue a check for any positive balance on the account.

Fine. I’m packing and shipping this piece of crap back tomorrow. I’m calling VISA and filing a chargeback for the purchase price (Defective equipment/not as described) and letting them deal with t-mobile for me.

I’m also posting this thread on a few forums to get the information out there. Its a sad day that a formerly good, customer-oriented company like t-mobile has policies that made it that hard on the customer.

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16. September 2009 by [JP].

And now that i’m back…

…At least back in El Paso.
Might as well sum up my trip.

Didnt want to take i-40 because of construction. I figured that i’d either take the old highway, or come down to El Paso and see Zach for a bit, then head out. Apparently there was some really bad weather on highway 60, so I totally said no to that idea, i dont want to be in bad weather on a mostly deserted highway.
Ended up hitting Las Cruces with rain nipping at my heels. Filled up the fuel tank completely, and went across to the starbucks to look at weather and radar maps. Julia came to meet me briefly, and we plotted Nessa’s birthday gift (evil look).
Rain came down HARD and knocked out power to parts of Cruces, and it was getting worse, so at a light spot, i headed out. I cancelled the El Paso idea, because they were getting hit hard with a thunderstorm as well, and was going to cross THRU las cruces to get to i-10 and head west… but because of the power outage, the main road thru town was a parking lot, so I managed to u-turn over a median (and watched an ambulance behind me do the same thing, but less gracefully) and get back on the interstate headed north to albuquerque. I exited at Hatch, and took the old highway to Deming, then got on the east/west interstate and kept on going.
Grabbed a soda and 15 bucks worth of gas in South Tucson so I could get to Phoenix, because Sam’s in Tucson would be closed by the time i got there. Made it to Ashley’s and slept with kittens attacking my feet.
The next day, when I woke up, she had left keys for the apartment and the outside gate by my phone, so I went off to aquire food, fuel, and wash the bird crap off the jeep (because i parked under a tree)
Got a cheeseburger and a big ass soda for breakfast, washed the car, and got about half a tank. Then I managed to find a record store selling advance tickets for the show, and went and got a pair. Of tickets. Ashley and I went to lunch at the small burger joint by the building she works at, then I wandered when she was at work.
When she got off, we went to Starbucks for coffee (and a blueberry strudel muffin) to relax for a bit, then went to a Sportsman’s store so she could see and handle the pistol that she wants to get.
Later on that night, went to Josh’s house, then went to In and Out Burger.
Saturday morning afternoon, we got up, showered and got dressed, filled up the Element (15.9 gallon tank!) and headed to Flagstaff. Got hit with heavy rain on the way up there, stopped at a Starbucks in the middle of nowhere to pee, and get assorted caffinated drinks, then kept on going. More heavy rain, more lightning. When the rain cleared, I saw smoke in the distance in the mountains in the general area of where there had been some lightning activity, so I called AZ DPS to report it. Apparently, they had a previous report of a lightning strike in that general area, but i was able to narrow it down to a much smaller area to check, and they were going to send crews.
Got to Flagstaff, located the park, parked, and enjoyed a few of the early bands. I pretty much just lay down in the grass and enjoyed it, she wandered a bit, and we both got up and got closer to watch Thriving Ivory.
Had dinner in Flagstaff at Mia’s recommendation, then headed back to town. She went to sleep, i went to wander around Phoenix for a while.
Sunday was pretty much a lazy day. We drove to that part of Scottsdale so she could buy a phone to replace hers, and grabbed a cheeseburger while we waited.
Monday, I set off to Apache Junction to nose thru court files and records for a bit, then came back to Phoenix, had a late lunch with Josh and hung around there for a while before heading back to Ashley’s.
Tuesday, ate lunch with Ashley at the pizza joint next to the burger joint, then I went to get gas, then got lost headed out of town. Eventually got to Tucson, topped off my tank, and headed towards Cruces. Stopped at Julia’s house to steal back my jacket that she borrowed on thursday, got a cheeseburger, and headed home to El Paso.

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