Fun With T Mobile

Or, How T-Mobile Gave Me Something to Be Mad At, When I Needed to Be Angry

tl;dr Today I was getting frustrated with my (lack of) connectivity in the back of my parents’ house and so I decided to check out T-Mobile’s site to see how much it would cost to turn my iPhone 6 into a mobile hot spot for the month. This was not easy. In fact, I still don’t know how much that would cost for sure. Some people in the forums said $15 a month, but I couldn’t find any way to add it to my account with any official pricing. I also don’t know if it’s a feature I can add on and then take off later when I’m back home and don’t need a mobile hot spot. (“Need” being defined as “I’m really really sad right now, and since I can’t seem to get online with my laptop I’ll go spend money I don’t have using my phone.”) T-Mobile was kind enough to let me do a survey after I finished using their site, so I decided that I would give them the benefit of my years of experience as a web designer and online systems engineer. Lucky them!

As you can see, the feedback form was quite long. There were over 20 questions all told. most were like the above screens with numerical answers where I rated my feelings. I tried to be honest. Then I got to the first “give us more feedback.” And I let them have it.

Please tell us about your difficulty with the log in process

your password rules SUCK. I created a very secure password using your site in the past, and then today, it tells me that some of the characters are not allowed. Um, come again? How did I create the password in the first place? So then, I try to change the password, and of course, it has to be 15 characters or less - not the 20 that I like to use. PLUS, the site won’t let me copy and paste my 15-character generated random password that is stored in an encrypted password safe into the box. I have to manually type it in. So I mis-type it. Then I mis-type it again. By the time I got it typed in correctly I was fuming. Your passwords should be allowed to be secure. The most secure passwords include special characters like <, >, &, (, ), ^, etc. There is a TED talk that explains this. Go look it up. Plus, we should be able to copy and paste the password into the field, so that we can use encrypted password safes and not have manually type the long, random string of characters in manually. Let us keep our account secure. Putting the types of rules and limitations you have on them makes the passwords LESS secure in the long run.

Yes, Block Me from Changing My Answer, That is Customer Experience At Its Finest!

But right after I filled them in on their sucky passwords, I got to the question “How would you experience your navigation experience on this site today? (check all that apply)” I accidentally chose the first answer (my finger slipped on my mouse).

And once you choose the “I had no problems” answer, you are not allowed to change it!

Yes, you read that correctly. If you select that answer, the form grays out the other answers and you cannot uncheck it. It felt like Big Brother was watching and once I said something positive I was not allowed to take it back. “No backsies!” the form should have shouted.

And Don’t Forget Navigation—It’s Not for Clicking on the T-Mobile Site

When I got to the question “Do you have additional comments about online improvements you would like?” I told them that the “are you sure” feature when clicking links is really more annoying than helpful.

Every time I clicked on a link while logged in, the site would then pop a message saying “do you really want to leave this page?” Um, YES, that’s why I clicked the link. And frankly, I find it disingenuous that when I clicked the “I had no difficulty navigating / browsing on this site” answer on the question above, I then could NOT correct that. Are you guys TRYING to piss off your customers?

I mean, sure, I’ve mis-clicked a few times, but I have a back button for that. And I’d guess that 99% of the time (okay maybe 80% of the time in this time of grieving) I am able to read a link, decide I want to visit that page, and click on it to go there without needing the extra hand holding of an “are you sure?” alert.

Don’t Get Me Wrong, T-Mobile Isn’t Any Worse Than Any Other U.S. Mobile Carrier

As I told them in the “Do you have other comments” feedback area:

The problem is that when it comes to cell carriers in the U.S. you have a choice between rock or hard place. All the companies are jerks to the customers. T-mobile just seems to currently be the least annoying.

I don’t know if that’s the kind of high praise they are looking for. But perhaps they can make a silk purse out of the sow’s ear like BBEdit, who’s tagline is “It doesn’t suck.®”

Edited to Add: SERIOUSLY, T-Mobile????

What’s Going On

You may be wondering why I need someone or something to be angry with right now. I am writing this post in my Dad’s room as he is dying. I am very sad.

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• Annoyances
• Cell-Phones
• Dad
• Grief
• T-Mobile
• Internet