T-Mobile
Pros Cheap phone bill.
Cons Bad reception and cheap phones
The Bottom Line There is no purpose in getting T-Mobile because you can't even have a 10-minute conversation without your call dropping. So if you can avoid subscribing to this cell phone service provider, please do so.
Before I subscribed to T-Mobile, I had been subscribed to Nextel. But, I cancelled my Nextel service in November of 2003 because I did not want to pay their high phone bill anymore. But on February 14th, of this year, I decided I needed to get another cell phone, just in case of an emergency. Especially since I have a child.
Since a friend of mine had T-Mobile, I decided to get it. She had told me the price is $39.99, and you get 600 anytime minutes, with nights and weekends free. "Great" I said, "it fits right into my budget". The only thing she did not tell me, is how good or bad the service was and I didn't even bother to ask.
The first phone I had was the Samsung R225m:
When I bought the phone everything was good on the first day, but it was the next day when all my problems began. I had been receiving voice messages, but not the phone call. I could not understand it, so I tested it myself. I called my cell phone from another phone and the phone did not ring, but my voicemail picked up. So I left myself a message. About five minutes later, I received an indication signal stating that I had a new message. Now according to my phone, I should have received the call because all my bars were up, meaning that I had reception. I did not try to take care of the problem, because I thought it was just the area I was in.
Two days later, the same thing happened, only this time I was in a different area. In fact, I was in another city. So I decided to call Customer Service. When I called Customer Service, they didn't even try to help me over the phone. All they told me to do was take my phone to a T-Mobile store and have them check my SIM card. Now, I am furious because this was a time where I really did not have the time to do that. So weeks went by and I still had not gone to the T-Mobile store.
One night I was going home and I decided to make a phone call. Wrong decision, because there was so much static in the phone, I had to hang up. The next night I decided to make a phone call again. Only this time, the call did not last two minutes because the call dropped, meaning the signal faded. This was the final straw. If it weren’t for the fact that I'm in a year contract with them, I would have dropped them, just like my calls. Anyway, I went to a T-Mobile store the next day and the salesman that was dealing with me, told me I needed a new phone. I was so upset, I did not even ask why. All I knew is that I wanted a phone that I could have a decent conversation on.
So the next phone I bought was the Motorola V66:
Now I bought this new phone thinking that everything would be all right now, since that is what the salesman told me I needed to do. Well he was wrong. Not only was my service still horrible, the phone he sold me was defected. I did not have the phone a good two days before pieces of it literally were chipping away. I could not believe it, because I had never seen anything like this. There were phones that I dropped on the ground and in the toilet, but they did not break nor did pieces of the phone chip away. It got so bad; I had to buy another phone.
My current and last phone that I will ever buy from T-Mobile, is the Nokia 6010:
Okay, so I told you about the bad reception, poor customer service, and the defected phone. And one of my thoughts was it must have been the area that I was in. Well guess what? I found out that this not only happens in New York, which is in the United States, this also happens in other Countries, like Palestine.
I was in a bomb training class, and the instructor was a New York City Police Officer. His name is P.M. and he was talking about Suicide Bombers. One of the stories was about a 10-year-old Palestinian boy. His family was paid twenty dollars by a group of radicals in late 2003 or early 2004. The twenty dollars was for the family to sacrifice the little boy, by having him carry a knapsack of explosives, and blow himself up, along with other people. Now for this to happen, the radicals gave the little boy a cell phone, and when they call the phone, the explosives were suppose to go off. Fortunately for the other people who were going to be hurt or killed, the explosives never went off. This was because the boy had a T-Mobile phone and there was no signal. So as you can see, this does not only affect an area in the United States, it also affects an area in another Country.
Besides the story that I just mentioned, which had a good ending, the only other good thing that I can say about T-Mobile is that my phone bill is cheap. Other than that, they are the worst cell phone company I have ever dealt with. A good cell phone would not chip away for no reason, it is suppose to be durable with a long lasting battery. And the service should be like a house phone. It's supposed to be a device that can be used for communication when you're not home. More importantly, it's supposed to be a reliable source of communication just in case of an emergency, when you can't make it to a payphone. So the reception should be clear without your calls dropping.
When my contract is over, I am definitely going to cut my service off and pick another company. I probably will go back to Nextel and pay the extra money. At least I know that if there is an emergency my phone will work. I know for a fact, because the day of the blackout (08/14/2003), when other cell phones were not working, mine did. Well at least the walkie-talkie part of the phone did, and I was able to get in contact with my roommate, so that she could pick me up.
So please take my advice and do not get T-Mobile, because you will be disappointed and aggravated.
Posted at Nov 30/2004 12:59 PM:
Admin: This works very well for this assignment. You've looked at some clear standards, and applied them with detailed examples.
A
