Ten Lies T-Mobile Told Me About My Data Plan 237
reifman (786887) writes "Last June, my post "Yes, You Can Spend $750 in International Data Roaming in One Minute on AT&T" was slashdotted and this led to T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeting 'how crappy @ATT is' and welcoming me to the fold. Unfortunately, now it's TMobile that's having trouble tracking data; it seems to be related to the rollout of their new DataStash promotion. Just like AT&T, they're blaming the customer. Here are the ten lies T-Mobile told me about my data usage today."
Screw this clickbait (Score:5, Interesting)
The Ten Lies T-Mobile Told Me About My Data Plan
Here are the ten lies they told me during the course of the more than hour long call:
1. The first two reps told me that there was never a bug affecting data usage. Eventually, the supervisor acknowledged that yes there had been (as I’d been told in January) but that it had been fixed.
2. They said maybe it was my fault – that I just didn’t realize how much data the iPhone 6 uses despite having had it on my account since September 2014 with four consecutive months under 3 GB.
3. They told me my phone had slowed because I’d already used my 3 GB plan data and 3.5GB of my 10 GB data stash (which activated at the end of January). But their website showed this was clearly not the case.
What the T-Mobile Website Showed
Perhaps he mistakenly was combining the plan data and data stash usage (3.45 GB) but he continued to repeat that it was 3.5 GB from my data stash. Still later, he told me I had used up 6.5 GB of my data stash.
4. Then, they told me their website usage data was up to 3 days behind. When I told them that the website was already including most all of the data from today (2/20), my call was at noon, he said it was up to 24 hrs behind.
feb220
Data usage on 2/20 from T-Mobile Website during the call
Here’s what it says tonight:
5. Then, they told me that my entire data stash was gone because when I switched plans from Unlimited to 3 GB, I lost my data stash – ignoring my pleas that their January account tech had made the plan switch to fix the bug with billing in January.
6. They told me there might be a problem with my iPhone which they would help me troubleshoot. I told him I was hesitant to begin troubleshooting with someone who was quoting me statistics that didn’t reflect the reality shown on their website.
7. Then, the supervisor told me that perhaps I didn’t need to worry about this because the plan would reset tomorrow on the 21st because it’s a short month, not on the 26th as it always has. Here’s what the website showed:
What The T-Mobile Website Showed
8. Then, the supervisor told me my phone has only been using my DataStash (not my plan data). Again, the website:
9. They told me that my phone has been using up my entire DataStash over the past several months. The DataStash didn’t begin until late January.
10. And perhaps the last lie came at the beginning of the call, a voice said the call would be recorded for quality assurance. The jury’s still out on that one.
Data-counting and accountability (Score:5, Interesting)
If you sell apples by the lb you have to use a set of scales approved by the government. You have to show that it has been checked and correctly installed.
So, why does this not apply to bits and bytes?
So many users see odd calculations and billings from so many companies that one should think it was obvious by now this isn't fair...
Something fishy (Score:4, Interesting)
I have this issue of Rogers Wireless connecting to my phone across the Niagara River and charge me roaming. For some reason T-mobile is not able to stop it. May be they are owned by the same company or what not. So every time I go to Niagara Falls I can expect roaming charges. They have always been prompt in reversing the charges. It is typically 5$ to 15$. Just call, "say I have never been over the border" and the rep would reverse the chargers.
Looks like the poster got some great publicity due to the earlier post about 750$ a minute roaming charge from AT&T. I think it is possible he was very diligent in checking the usage and fees and managed to get the under paid and uninformed phone reps to say things that he managed leverage into another highly visible "10 lies from T-mobile".
Also T-mobile does not have over usage charges. It just throttles the connection speed. Even the throttled speed is 128 kbps which is good enough for google maps turn by turn navigation.
I usually side with the small guy against the corporation all the time. Now I wonder if I am being gamed by this poster.
Re:Here's one (Score:1, Interesting)
If you don't like the lies, don't but a 'smart' phone. These things happen because the customers make it successful.
Slightly rephrasing the motto of capitalism: *Maximize the abuse the market will bear.* This is what the reality reflects. Creating a buyers (consumer friendly) market will take a little effort, but it can be done.
Don't cry about this shit. Get your money back and buy a $30 Nokia, problem solved.
Re:Article bad web page design (Score:5, Interesting)
A curse and a pox on web sites that use such low contrasting schemes. The article may have been interesting, but I'll never know what he intended to say because I simply can't read it without getting eyestrain and a massive headache.
I agree 150%! I will often close a web site nearly immediately if it has piss poor graphical design. By the way, have you investigated if your browser has the option to turn off page styles? In Firefox selecting the View/Page Style/No Style menu option will turn off the crappy graphic decisions made by the web site author, if you really need to view the site.
Re:Screw this clickbait (Score:2, Interesting)
4. Then, they told me their website usage data was up to 3 days behind. When I told them that the website was already including most all of the data from today (2/20), my call was at noon, he said it was up to 24 hrs behind.
feb220
I work with this data every day. It really *could* be up to 72 hours. Under particular conditions. If your phone does not hang up with GSM/CDMA you will not get the data usage until 24 hours have passed. At which point your carrier will hang up the phone and your phone will call right back in 1 second later. The backend processing could take up to another 48 hours. LTE may not hang up at all for up to one month but *may* send in a usage interim summary every 3 days.
The reality is more like 1-2 hours. I have seen as fast as 20 seconds. I have one customer on a system that does 40k connections a day (bug in their firmware).
The data it summed up on AAA connection end. Which is where the 'usage' comes from. Billing does not track what you did. Just how much. Inside the core routers they do track where you go (as they have to route it). Front of house does not look at that data at all. In fact they can not access it. It would probably take ages to find someone to actually dig out the logs and then get permission to do so. As they are NOT supposed to do it (even though it is pretty easy to do)...
Re:heres another lie. (Score:5, Interesting)
Your data plan doesnt take into account advertisements which are basically subsidized at your expense. It doesnt count the silent data collection performed by most apps, or silent updates performed in the background.
Those updates offer you the option to defer them till Wifi.
More to the point, most geeks object vocally when carriers try to look at what you're doing. T-Mobile doesnt. They provide a pipe. What sites you visit, how big their ads are, and what apps you download-- none of that is their problem. If you use their pipe, they count the data.
Its worth noting though that they dont charge overages, you just lose LTE access when you cross your limit. Oh no, cry me a river. Maybe you want to look at deferring those updates till wifi, or quit watching youtube over LTE, or (gasp) upgrade your plan. T-Mobile's plan is so much better than any other carrier, its laughable, and here you are complaining that theyre not DPI'ing you to detect what the ads are.