T-Moble Sidekick Outage Outrage!

Is this REALLY still going on?

2009-10-20T04:05:00.000-07:00

They offered a free month of Data, but it's not really free when it's not working all month long!

They offered me a free month of voice, but I have not been able to use my phone all month because I have no idea who I'm calling!

Not really free now, is it?
Why is this crap still going on?
How much more patience does TMobile really expect their customers to have?

I worked for two internet companies in the past. If we had an outage this long, we'd all be fired and replaced by consultants.

One month service credit.

2009-10-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

I called into T-Mobile after reading that people are receiving one-month credits, and after dealing with the customer service rep for over 5 minutes, telling me the same thing over and over again, I asked to speak to a supervisor. Whilst I never got to speak to the supervisor, the rep put me on hold for a couple of minutes and said the supervisor agreed to credit me for a full month of service.

While I understand there is a business aspect of all of this -- and TMO is trying to minimize their losses. If a customer is calling in... explaining that the loss of their contacts disallows them to even utilize the voice part of their phone to its fullest, and requests a month credit, why not just apply it? Why do I have to request a supervisor?

I have been a TMobile sidekick only customer for 2 years (@ $29.95/mo) and a voice/sidekick subscriber for another 2+ years ($75.00/mo after taxes). That's $696 + $1800 = $2,496 they have received from me. Since their service took a nosedive, why not just credit me the $55 to make me happy in hopes that maybe, just maybe, if they complied -- I would continue with TMO for another 10 years and they would get another $9,000 from me?

T-Mobile backing out of the $100 customer card?

2009-10-15T04:15:00.000-07:00

T-Mobile now reports that Microsoft is able to retrieve lost sidekick data. With that comes a new FAQ with the following verbiage. Is it me? Or does it sound like, if they retrieve your data, that you won't be getting the $100 despite the near 1-month loss of data?

Will I still receive the $100 Customer Appreciation Card?
Customers who experienced permanent and significant data loss will receive the $100 Customer Appreciation Card and we expect to have those customers identified by 10/27

T-Mobile still deleting, editing, and banning users

2009-10-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

T-Mobile's moderators on the Sidekick forums are still editing and deleting messages and banning members. They provide a website for updates for sidekick users, they provide a thread for us to vent, and then they selectively remove posts and ban people? Not cool. They are hurting their image more and more by me. I've considered attempting to acquire a Blackberry and continuing service with T-Mobile, but their response to this outage is going from bad to worse to... worser (I know, it's not a word, but what's worse than worse)? :-|

Free Blackberry? No increase in monthly fees? One user reports.

2009-10-14T05:05:00.000-07:00

It's hard to figure out who is telling the truth on the forums or not... but one user reports that after threatening to cancel the contract, TMobile offered him (or her) a free Blackberry 8900, no increase in price for the data plan (he was a customer for 5 months, so there would be no increase regardless), and will also receive his $100 gift card. I find it interesting, however, that this message was edited by "Dan" who is a moderator on the TMobile forum. What did Dan add or delete to this post? I wonder.

$100 Gift Card, Good Start

2009-10-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

While I believe the $100 gift card that T-Mobile is offering is a good start, the fact of the matter is -- our data service is still not properly functioning.

One of the comments on my blog had the right idea. T-Mobile should be offering us all:

1. A similar phone, MyTouch, or Blackberry -- for NO charge. The phone we already paid money for and is supposed to be working is not working and it's their outage.

2. A similar plan at no additional charge. I have had a sidekick for 4 years and pay $19.95 for unlimited data, internet, etc. Our bills should not go up because their network suffered an outage rendering our devices' data useless.

3. Some sort of compensation for the loss of data, not to mention the time it will take to rebuild our contacts. I would never rebuild my contacts on the sidekick network. It has proven itself untrustworthy. I lost 4 years of information. The $100 compensation is a good start. However, those of us that have been with them for longer should get more. The longer you've been a customer, the more data you lost and the longer it's going to take to rebuild that information, if you ever can.

My data has been reliably entrusted to TMobile for 4+ years. We enter information into our handsets and we pay Tmobile to back it up every month. Who knew that each time you turned the phone off and on that the information is wiped out and retrieved from the backup on T-mobile/Danger's servers? I don't think anyone knew until now. Hell, the word Microsoft didn't even come up until the outage! I had no idea that Danger was acquired by Microsoft.

Banned Again! Time to renew my IP address and get another username.

2009-10-12T11:56:00.003-07:00

I posted the fact that T-Mobile is deleting messages selectively and banning people and guess what? I got banned AGAIN!

It's baaaaaack

2009-10-12T11:44:00.000-07:00

I guess someone changed their mind. The thread is back!

http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/board/message?board.id=Sidekick2&thread.id=15470&page=186

Woah, they deleted the entire thread!!!

2009-10-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

3700 messages of frustrated Sidekick subscribers of 10+ days have been deleted from TMobile's forums. This is a sad, sad, sad, thing.

Invitation to Class Action deleted

2009-10-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

Another message that was magically deleted.

P.S. My opinion on class action lawsuits is that they are useless. The lawyers make all of the money, the customers end up with about $2.50 each?

TMobile Forums -- Messages being Deleted!

2009-10-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

Looks like I'm not the only one whose messages are disappearing on the T-Mobile forums. A few minutes after I took a snapshot of this page, this message was deleted presumably by the T-Mobile moderators. They are trying to silence us!

Who to contact?

2009-10-12T03:40:00.001-07:00

This T-Mobile outage has affected every single sidekick customer. So many people have called T-Mobile, frustrated, because T-Mobile is not offering anything beyond a free month despite the damages we suffered from their negligence. I have seen some people satisfied with an offer of $149 for a new MyTouch phone if they signed another 2 years. Why would you PAY another $150 and agree to 2 more years of service with a company that just lost ALL of your data? So where do you go from here?

1. Ask for a supervisor. It seems like the customer service reps have limited power here. A supervisor can do more for you. If they, too, are non-compliant, ask for their supervisor too.

2. Contact T-Mobile's Legal Department. People are yelling breech of contract, which this is not. However, this is definitely negligence on the part of T-Mobile. T-Mobile Wireless, Legal Department, 12920 SE 38th Street, Bellevue, WA 98006-1350.

3. Contact The Washington State Attorney General's office at http://www.atg.wa.gov/ ... this will file an official complaint with the state of Washington. They will put pressure on T-Mobile to answer you with satisfaction.

4. Contact your own state's attorney general. They will have less power than the WA state attorney general, but log a complaint anyway! T-Mobile owns stores in every state even though they are headquartered in Washington.

5. Contact the FCC. You can access their website at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html

Be detailed in your complaints. What happened? Who did you speak to? When? What did they tell you? And exactly what resolution you desire.

Don't bother contacting the Better Business Bureau. They are not a government agency and have no power. They merely take a log complaints. T-Mobile already has an "F" rating with the BBB.

T-Mobile Outage Outrage

2009-10-12T03:30:00.000-07:00

T-Mobile Banned me from their forums because I was voicing my opinion about their outage and suggesting customers contact the Washington State Attorney General's office. I am disgusted, not only by the sidekick outage at TMobile, but because

T-Moble strung us along for 7 days of reassuring us that our information will come back before they told us that they pretty much lied.
They were not updating us on a regular basis about anything at all.
They lost our information. Everything. 300+ contacts - numbers, addresses, email addresses, 30+ important notes, 20+ tasks -- calendar with important dates, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

At this time, they have offered one free month of data service. This outage has cost me a lot of money as I use my sidekick for business. I will not be silenced by T-Mobile and I will continue to voice my opinion and actions here. I suggest no one allow T-Mobile to get away with this. You deserve proper reimbursement and a free new comparable phone without having to pay another dime a money for it.