:UPDATE:
Added a picture below of the 3 Amigos aka the 3 phone I sent back to T-Mobile which will now be ‘refurbed‘ again and given to some other unsuspecting customer. I wish them the best of luck and the only words of advice I can give to them is DON’T GIVE UP HOPE! My THIRD refurbished phone SEEMS to be working right now. GPS is still very flaky and not reliable. Even with updating to Android 2.2 (official Samsung/T-Mobile) the GPS didn’t work. I had to download and install the patch/fix provided by Samsung called oddly enough “GpsRestore“. Check out the full details by clicking on the link, but you can see that this is SUPPOSED to restore GPS config files for SGH-I897. But this ‘fix’ only works for a few days and then you need to run the app again in hopes of it working again. Also the gps will still randomly telling me I am moving (5-10mph) while sitting still or randomly shows that I am 2-3 blocks away from my current location. Guess I will just hold out for the next ‘fix’ or update.
First off this is ridiculously long winded and rambling. Sorry… I started typing this last night and a few hours later its complete. Its long, rambling and if anything mostly for ME to vent so I can ‘get it out’. It was written to post on T-Mobile’s Facebook wall, so its written in as its directed to them so please keep that in mind. Also, the reason I couldn’t post this on their Facebook wall is due to the 1000 character limit. Ummm, yea this post is well north of that limit. Actually its sitting above 2000+ words and over 11+k characters. Told you I was a rambler and when I get started it hard to stop sometimes. IF you make it to the end I will give you a prize, but there will be a test to make sure you didn’t just skim it or read the cliff notes. Along with this rambling post, I have already sent a DM to the @TMobile twitter account, but no follow up yet.
More after the break, since this is a HUGE post =)
So here I am waiting for a call back from the Supervisor/Manager that I was on the phone with earlier. Or preferably corporate customer care since that is who he implied he was having to refer to on my issue. Unfortunately, the 2nd replacement phone I’ve received apparently drops calls every few minutes or there were problems in their call center. But when the call dropped while on hold two other times with the general Support rep in India she call me right back before I even knew the call dropped (lack of hold music for your outsourced call centers kinda sucks since its just dead air). However, when the call dropped while on the phone with the Supervisor/Manager he never called back. Its now been 23 hours and 5 minutes (updated time prior to posting) since this happened and while I can certainly call and go through the 40+ minutes of re-explaining the situation to another 2-3 people, I would just prefer someone to call me back.
Its not much to ask for, I called them first. Actually I’ve called you guys A LOT recently. If/When my phone is replaced again it will make Samsung Vibrant #5 in less than 1yr. Went through the first two during the first two weeks when I swapped out my release day unit HOPING for a better build to correct the GPS/LAG/Random reboot issues.(didn’t work) The 3rd unit arrived week before last, but as a REFURB it was defective on arrival. It would never connect to T-Mobile’s network. It would just say ‘SEARCHING’ if I forced it to find a network it could ‘see’ both T-Mobile and ATT, but when I tried to make it connect to either it would just tell me “your SIM card is not authorized for this network”. Well this is pretty clear that its a bad phone and even though I did troubleshooting on my own, including preforming factory reset, but this did nothing to correct the SIM error it was giving. So I called Support again and after additional unneeded troubleshooting via phone and chat I was referred to local store to swap out my SIM (even though it worked just fine in same model phone). Proceed to the local store unfortuantely on a Saturday afternoon and spoke to a local Sales Rep there. The store grep was confused as to why were swapping out the SIM as it made no sense to him, but did so per the notes on my account. Since this did not actually correct the problem, he called the tech support for in store service and was transferred at least 3 times (different tiers/levels?) and each time had to explain from the beginning what the problem was, why he was calling and then proceed with roughly the same troubleshooting steps. Well, after 46 minutes in the store the in store rep hands me the phone so I could talk to the Tech on the other end. As this point I was informed that shockingly the USED unit I received was bad and they would send me ANOTHER USED phone to replace it. Surly that would fix the problem. Plus they said they would be nice enough to waive the shipping fees! This was very nice of them, I mean I’m sure I deserved to pay for the shipping to send me a new USED phone to replace the current broken USED phone. Right?
Jump ahead to this past Wednesday. I received the new USED phone and proceeded to start setting everything up. SIM card worked fine this time, hell the GPS was AWESOME (for a while then started doing its thing). I got all my apps reinstalled and setup the way I like them. I waited until Thursday to bring phone to my office to update to latest official version of Android on my lunch break as released by Samsung for T-Mobile. Unfortunately, that is where the new USED phones problems came to light. In following the step by step tutorial found here: http://forums.t-mobile.com/t5/Samsung-Vibrant/New-Samsung-Vibrant-software-update-for-Android-2-2-Froyo-now/td-p/817243 I got an error telling me:
unregistered device (this is a known issue with lots of ‘help’ online, but some for some phones it just doesn’t work and you have to use alternative)
This more or less has left this new USED phone dead in the water. It came to me with an outdated version of Android (why does it ship without the latest official version?) and not being able to update the software using the tools provided by T-Mobile and Samsung makes the phone pointless. Since the current phone I’m trying to replace was able to update using the same process as outlined in the link above I know that its not an issue with the process. . I’m not going to void the warranty to ‘root’ it like my friends tell me. I paid FULL RETAIL for the phone ($499.95) and I expect the phone to work like it should. LIKE IT SHOULD HAVE FROM DAY ONE.
So because of this error I figured ok, MAYBE just MAYBE it was a bad install of the drivers on the computer so they were reinstalled, then I removed, re-downloaded and reinstalled Kies Mini, then maybe just MAYBE I thought it MIGHT be a bad app that I installed so a factory reset was preformed. Hell I booted into recovery and wiped the cache, wipe data/factory reset and attempted to reinstall the packages to see if that would work. Unfortunately, reinstalling the packages failed ?? Possible bad phone from the get go? So rebooted the phone and proceeded to get on CHAT with Support (still on my lunch break, but this is not much of a break if you ask me) After asking rep to review my notes she asks what I have done from a troubleshooting standpoint and I explain and she is sympathetic to my plight when I tell her that I really don’t want another new USED phone. She tells me that I will need to call your outsourced call center where english is not their first or second language and they can help me further. I don’t remember if I actually begged on the chat for her to help me so I would not have to start from scratch, but there was nothing further she could do or authorize and that I would need to call to have them waive the expedited shipping fees.
I proceeded out to my car with my fully charged phone and called T-Mobile’s outsourced call center and proceed to ask for a Supervisor. From working in a call center I know that when a customers first words are they want a supervisor that the call is not going to be an easy one, especially if the Sup on duty doesn’t want to take the call. After having to provide all the information I just confirmed via the IVR she proceeds to try to help. I state I am more than happy to wait on hold until a supervisor is available as I am on my lunch break, have a fully charged battery and I’m in my car with my car charger so I can wait all day if needed. After being on hold 8-10 minutes she comes back and tells me a Supervisor is not avail and that she can help me. I decide that maybe this is something she can help or at least attempt to help and then explain to the Supervisor before she passes me over to her/him. Needless to say it was pointless. So I proceed to tell her my extensive history with this phone and when I am calling her today. She starts off by telling me that I will have to pay for shipping UP FRONT before they will send out the THIRD new USED phone! I tell her that is not possible since I already have 2 new USED phones sitting here that if you don’t receive back soon you will proceed to charge me $469+ for EACH OF THEM! I tell her I am not paying for shipping and that I do not want a new USED phone I want a replacement NEW phone. Either a NEW Vibrant or even better a comparably priced and featured, but less problematic LG G2x. She tells me that she will look into her system and see what she can do for me as far as swaping out the phone for a different unit. Want to guess what the phone rep offers me as an alternative? As a comparable swap?
She comes back to the phone and I am offered the LG GS170!
While on the phone I have no clue what this is and think ok, MAYBE this is just the fancy model number for the LG G2x, so I ask her to explain the features. So she does and I stop her when she gets to “its from LG, its RED and its a FLIP phone”. Yep, totally not the G2x nor its it remotely comparable to my Vibrant. I ask her if there was some confusion, but she tells me the price is comparable and that is all she can offer. I’m pretty sure the FULL retail price of $69.95 for the LG GS170 is not comparable to the FULL retail price of $499.95 for the Vibrant no matter what country or currency rate you currently work under.
Again, I asked for another Supervisor as I was getting agitated by this not going anywhere, I even suggested that if she would like, she can transfer me to a US based call center so I can bother them instead of her. She proceed to put me on hold for another 8+ minutes, during which the call drops again. She does call right back which is nice. Actually she call back right away BOTH times the call dropped when I was on the phone with her. She puts me back on hold for several more minutes and comes back and to tell me she is transferring to a Supervisor! I’m over joyed to hear that since I think I was falling asleep in my car. More hold time (3-4 minutes this time?) and an ‘American’ Supervisor/Manager picks up. He proceeds to ask what he can help me with. Wait, what? I ask VERY NICELY to please take a moment or two to review what I can only guess are EXTENSIVE account notes and then we can discuss this situation. He stated something along the lines that was not needed or something close to that and that I should just tell him what he can do for me as he reviews the notes. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I start from the current situation, jump to the beginning and fill the the gaps all the way back to covering the current issue over the next several minutes. While his listening technique needs a little work, he did let me vent and that is very important when dealing with an upset customer, he didn’t really DO or SAY anything to me while I was filling him in on the past, present and current situation. After I was ‘done’ he stated there was nothing they could for me besides sending a new USED phone. This was repeated almost word for word when I objected (scripted rebuttal?). Next he proceeded to tell me that I would have to pay for shipping up front for the new USED phone, though eventually he took that back and said they would waive the fee as a courtesy . Which again is awful freaking nice of them since I know I deserve to pay for shipping of a new USED phone to replace the two new USED phones I had already received and my second original phone that I still had in my possession. When asked WHY I got two bad replacement phones, he said it happens. When I asked for a NEW NEW phone he said that was not possible. He did say that when he put in the replacement request he would specify that the warehouse was to ‘test’ a new USED phone prior to sending it out, this way they could make sure everything was working before sending it to me. I told him that was not really good enough and I was more than happy to contact Corporate Support via email, social media and by phone. That as a customer, yes just a SINGLE, INDIVIDUAL customer, I didn’t really deserve to receive a new USED phone. Honestly, I didn’t buy a brand new, factory fresh, on the day it was released to the general public USED PHONE to begin with. I bought a TOP OF THE LINE (at the time) $500 cell phone that has never ever worked in 100% of the manner or fashion it was advertised and hyped by both T-Mobile and Samsung.
What happen next totally WOWED me, he said “I understand your frustration”. He then said, let me put you on hold and talk to someone above me to see what we can do for you. (or something close to that). Needless to say instead of putting me on hold, the call dropped. Now I don’t know if the call ‘dropped’ on my end or if he just hit the disconnect button on his end. If on his end I would HOPE it was in error, since for some strange reason, HOLD and DROP/DISCONNECT are oddly close to each other on most call center phones. But no matter how you look at it, he didn’t call me back. Its been 23hrs and 5 minutes at this point (updated the time before I posted this), but no one has called, sent a text or even emailed me to say they would like to talk to me about this. I’m sorry, but I really don’t want to go though this entire exaggerated process all over again! And I know I would have to start from scratch with another outsourced call center rep who in all honesty is just trying to do his/her job and then spend several more hours trying to correct something I shouldn’t really have to put this much damn effort into in the first place!
I do have to be honest about not receiving a call back yesterday. I actually did receive a call back from T-Mobile yesterday evening, but I didn’t recognize the number so I let it go to voice mail. Unfortunately it was NOT from the Supervisor/Manager or anyone else I could have spoken too, it was from an automated phone system reminding me to send back my previous new USED phone. Whats concerning is the fact that I can’t send back any of these phones due to their tracking is setup. If I send back the wrong phone in the wrong box my account will not be credited with the return and I will be charged the fee for keeping the phone. Whether or not I send it back, I will be charged. This was explained to me on the phone when I spoke to Tech Support this past Saturday while in the local office. So that’s another issue I have to contend with at this point. Is my account going to get dinged $459.77 x 2 or $919.54 for the two new USED phones. Guess I will have to give them a call just to find out about that, since I really can’t afford to pay an extra $919.54 right now. Actually I can’t think of wanting to pay $919.54 for something that doesn’t work correctly in the first place.
That’s it, that’s my rant. You can find my account via my name on my Facebook account or send me a message and I will provide my T-Mobile number for some one to review my account. I really hope to hear from someone soon.
Also, I would normally apologize for a letter like this being so long, but honestly the amount of time, frustration and energy I have spent on this issue I feel like T-Mobile deserves to have a little bit of their life sucked away by reading this rambling monstrosity of an email/post.
Hope to hear from someone soon.
Chuck
ps
Please ignore any misspellings, grammatical errors or misc rambling that do not overly apply to this situation.
A) I’m a little frustrated
B) It late at night and I probably should be sleeping.
pps
I do want to say that the majority of the people I have spoken to at T-Mobile have been VERY helpful. Whether on the phone or via their online chat service. The language barrier is a HUGE issue for me, partly since it is difficult to understand them and in turn difficult for me to explain what my problems are, but I think the whole principle of ‘outsourcing’ in general just erks me. I’m all about a company making money and saving money is part of the bottom line, but if your target market is in the US, you should have US based support. Not just random luck of the draw US based support or paid/premium US based support, if you sell a product in the US and you offer support for said product you should be required to offer US based support or/or primary english as a first language Support reps. Yes I know this leaves out the other languages, but for the time being English is still the primary language in the US. Also, so that there is no misunderstandings, I do not have a problem with the any foreign cultures or language. Its just a personal preference, its not a bash on any culture or language, I like everyone just the same. I’m an equal opportunity kinda guy. And although this is a blatant disclaimer so I do not upset or alienate anyone, its also the truth.
CLIFF NOTES:
T-Mobile and Samsung have shafted me once again on my replacement phone. IF/WHEN I get another replacement USED phone it will be Samsung Vibrant #5 for me! Yep 5th phone that HOPEFULLY will correct the issues I have been having. However, the current new USED phone drops calls and cant be updated due to error message (given in main section above!). Call dropped or was hung up on at least 4 times while on phone with Support today. Last time call dropped or was hung up on was while on hold with a Supervisor/Manager. Previous dropped calls were IMMEDIATELY returned by the Support rep who was apologetic for the dropped call. However, Supervisor/Manager didn’t bother calling me back and its been almost 24hrs since I last spoke to anyone at T-Mobile. – That’s the short story…..read above for all the rambling details!