T-Mobile USA has Horrible Customer Service

I’ve always had nothing but good things to say about T-Mobile customer service.  I would call up and their representatives were always nice and helpful. 

That is until recently.  Fortunatly I haven’t had need of T-Mobile customer service very often, and was dismayed to learn that something has changed.

If you call tmobile from your phone (either their 877 number or by dialing 611) it doesn’t actually call anyone, but instead opens the t-mobile app which has links to things such as checking your minutes, viewing your bill, etc.  It then also has a link to dial support.  If you press the link, it will dial support, which is their new fancy automated system.

The system asks what you’re calling about.  It suggests you can say things like “check usage, pay bill,” etc.  If you ask for a representative it tells you that it needs to know what you’re calling about first.  No matter how many times you ask for a representative, it will not connect you.  And so you tell it what you want:

Me:  “android update”

T-Mobile:  “Just to be sure, you’re calling about hotspots, am I right?”

Me:  “no”

T-Mobile:  “My mistake.  Let’s try this again.  . .”

Me:  “software update”

T-Mobile:  “Just to make sure, you’re calling about downloads, correct?”

Me:  “kind of”

And finally it connects me to a person. 

I called a few weeks ago to get some information about different plans and their pricing, to see if there was a better deal out there for me and my rather unique phone usage situation (I need one line with text, voice and data, and one with just voice).  I explained to the representative what I wanted and no matter how many times I explained it, or in how many different ways, he just wasn’t understanding my simple question, which boiled down to, “are there any new plans which would keep the service i have now and lower my bill?”.  After offering me several more expensive plans, I finally gave up, thanked him for his time, and hung up.

And so now my phone, (G2X) didn’t receive the gingerbread update it was supposed to.  LG’s website has a way to manully update the phone, but this requires a Windows PC, and being a Linux user, means I can’t do it (easily).  So I decide to contact customer support.  I email them using an address I find after a google search and get this message in return:

Notice:  Important changes to our e-mail program starting Jan 10th:

You spoke and we listened!  Due to overwhelming feedback, our e-mail for Customer Care is transitioning to live chat support. We?ve found that you are more satisfied with chat, and get your issues resolved in less time with chat.

Starting Jan 10th, e-mail will no longer be available for support, but you can still chat live with one of our online specialists. You can also get online help from other customers in our Community Forums (http://forums.t-mobile.com), or use our self-service options in My T-Mobile (http://my.t-mobile.com).  As always, 24/7 support is still available by dialing 1-800-937-8997 or 611 from your T-Mobile phone.

Which means I can’t do it from my phone.  Okay, so I wait until I’m at a computer and I go to their live chat.  Here’s the screenshot:

Why suffer through the convenience of E-mail when you can have a chat service that you can’t access? 

Which lead me to call them again.  After going through the hoops of their automated service and establishing that yes, I actually had a legitimate question, I finally get through to someone.  This person seems both polite and competent.  She tells me that she needs to transfer me to another department.  I say okay, and she makes the transfer.  A few seconds later I am greeted with the sound of the call disconecting.

And so, I call back, go through the same rigamarool with the automated system and this time am successfully transfered to the ’2nd level support’.  I explain the issue and am put on hold for 10 min. after which time he explains that the Gingerbread update for the G2X was pulled due to instability issues.  Which makes the communication from T-Mobile on their support forums rather confusing.

In any case, it is clear that T-Mobile wants to make it as hard as possible to actually contact support.  They make it easy to give you resources to solve your own problem, but if it is obvious that your problem is not one of their standard issues, then you’re shit out of luck until you have half an hour to spend on the phone.

Come on T-Mobile.  What happened?

Recommended Reading: Sum; Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman

I just finished reading Sum; Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman.  I highly recommend this book of short stories.  Hit the link to read a few of the stories, you won’t be disappointed. 

New Shape Cats Love!

This is what I feed my hedgehog.  He likes it.  I know that because he gets excited when I give it to him, and he eats it.  That’s pretty much the extent of my knowledge as to how he feels about it.  But recently I noticed they had changed the shape of the food from what I remember as being roughly non-circular to circular.  My suspicions were confirmed when I noticed the bag advertised that it was in a “new shape cats love!”

Here’s the abstract of the study performed to validate this statement:

Cats were asked to express their cat food preferences. A list of cat foods of various sizes, shapes, and styles was provided. The cats’ responses were recorded and analyzed. Claude is a food driven feline and he said this study was important.

. . .

I realize that there probably was an actual study done to determine which shape cats find most appealing (which is disturbing enough as it is).  But if someone studied it than surely they must have been trying to solve a problem.  Were cats unhappy with the shapes we had been feeding them?  They’re one of the oldest domesticated animals – surely we must have been doing okay.  What need could have possibly warranted this study?  Have they simply been upset with the shapes of their foods up until now and just been too polite to mention it?

In any case, I suggest asking your cat (or hedgehog as the case may be) if they are satisfied with the shape of their current food, and if not, try switching to something round.  I hear cats love it.

Vote GOP

Respect vs. Tolerance

I had a conversation tonight in which it occurs to me that the other party involved was making the mistake of confusing respect and tolerance.  I had made it clear that religous beliefs were not something I had much respect for – in part because of religion’s intolerance.  I was then accused of being intolerant because of that opinion.

The difference is that I am not trying to force my beliefs on anyone, I’m just arguing that I should be extended the same courtesy.  But when lawmakers ban gay marriage because their book says it is wrong – that is a blatant violation of the separation of church and state.  When I say that they are ridiculous for believing that gay marriage is wrong, I am not saying that they don’t have the right to choose not to marry someone of the same gender.

I wonder how many decisions are made by how many people have an impact on my life that I’m not even aware of.  Seemingly infinite.  I wonder how many of those decisions are made because of the input of the person’s invisible friend . . .

USSA – No Way!

This comparison brought to you by Rush Limbaugh.  Coincidence?  I think not.

With all the allegations being tossed around by the right wing nut jobs I find myself wondering where it all comes from.  What does it say about American culture that this seemingly large number of people are so unabashedly ignorant?  Just today I came upon some people with signs protesting the health reform currently being considered in congress.  One of their signs pointed out that the plan we all about killing old people, and another preached against socialism.  Both of the people were what I would consider to be elderly and it was entirely likely that they were receiving medicare benefits.

Someone told them that these things were true and they didn’t care to look into it for themselves.  They want to hate it so bad that they will latch onto anything, regardless of how ridiculous it is.  When did reason stop being a virtue?  Was it the rise of consumerism that was the demise of intelligence?

I don’t think Glenn Beck should be fired for calling Obama a racist.  I find it utterly depressing however that he isn’t taken off the air because of low ratings.  The fact that there is a market for him – that people like to hear what he has to say regardless of how many times he has proved himself a clown.

Does Canada have any vacancies?

Comcast – Get with the Program

Here’s another item to add to my already long list of things I hate about Comcast:

Why can’t they limit the list of channels in their channel guide to only the channels they’ll let me watch?  I don’t pay for HBO or any of it’s 87 spin off channels, so why do I have to scroll through them on the channel guide?  I have a feeling it is because they hope that I will see that The Princess Diaries is playing on HBO and that if I were only to order those channels I too could be enjoying it.  In reality it just makes me that much more bitter at Comcast every time I see the “for ordering info, please press “info”" message appear on my screen.

I understand, it is easier to just give everyone the same list of channels and let them remember which of the zillions of channels they are allowed to watch – but that hardly seems like good customer service.  In fact, I used Comcast’s online chat feature to ask if there was a way to limit the list of channels to only those I pay for, and after having to convince the customer service representative that I was not in fact having an issue with my remote (that’s always their first question, probably because their remote is the worst designed piece of shit on the planet) they eventually suggested that I try turning off the closed captioning . . .

It’s 2009 people.  It’s a digital service which means that somewhere there is a computer controlling what I see.  I know there is also a computer that knows exactly what I pay for.  Just link that shit up man!

And don’t get me started about the design/functionality of their DVR.  Sweet Jesus.

Republican Teabagging Threesomes

From what I hear the Tea-bagging parties held this past April 15th were somewhat of a let-down.  Which is surprising because while I have never been to or seen a tea-bagging orgy party, I can’t imagine how they would fail to be at least more popular than they reportedly were. 

Jon Stewart’s take on teabagging.

Ok, so whomever decided that encouraging people to teabag Obama was a perfectly benign slogan – well, it may be compared to the conservatives next great campaign – 2m4m.

Oh god, the homo storm got me!

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/224789/april-16-2009/the-colbert-coalition-s-anti-gay-marriage-ad

Colbert’s parody of the Gathering Storm anti-gay marriage commercial.  Priceless

New Mexico Bans Death Penalty

From the Huffinton Post:

SANTA FE, N.M. — Gov. Bill Richardson signed legislation Wednesday repealing New Mexico’s death penalty, making it the second state to ban executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

There was a time when I was a supporter of the death penalty.  But now we must realize that the death penalty is only viable when it is used by an infallible system.  No system will ever be infallible.

I’m also not convinced anymore that the death penalty is moral even within our theoretical perfect justice system.  I believe in rehabilitation instead of punishment.  Surely a society is judged by how it treats the worst of itself – and mayhaps we should keep that in mind.

Michelle Obama, She’s so Dreamy

Kate’s commentary on

Commentary: My crush on Michelle Obama

 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/03/cafferty.first.lady/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

NEW YORK (CNN) — I think I am developing a crush on America’s first lady. Michelle Obama is more compelling than her husband. He’s good, but she’s utterly fascinating.

Mrs. Obama has blown away the stale air in a White House musty from eight years of the Bushes. It’s like the sun came out and a fresh spring breeze began wafting through the open windows.

It’s the people’s house, and Michelle Obama totally gets it. So much so that she has taken to inviting people in from the streets to see her home. Nice touch — one completely lacking in her recent predecessors. Wow, the little lady sure is good at welcoming her husband at the front door with his slippers and pipe. She’s a regular Susie Homemaker

Watch her when she visits a local school and you see the warmth and affection she instantly triggers in people. Kids are pretty much totally honest with very good BS-detectors. If they sense you’re a phony, forget it. But around the first lady, they want to hug her and laugh with her and tell her stories. She is good with children, as all REAL women are. Not like that bitch Hillary, who liked to kick kids in the face.

You can see the same qualities these kids recognize in her daughters. She is the consummate mother as evidenced by the poised, polite smiling children she and her husband are raising. I have four daughters, and trust me — they don’t turn out like the Obama children without devoted parents.

New to the Washington neighborhood, Michelle Obama has taken it upon herself to go around and introduce herself to the people in the various agencies of government. When’s the last time a first lady did that? I don’t ever remember it before. And during her visits she listens rather than lectures. And people respond to her. Finally, a woman who just listens and doesn’t go around TALKING all the time. It’s about time!

She was raised on the south side of Chicago by blue-collar parents. She went to Princeton University, and Harvard Law School. But in many ways she’s still a kid from the south side of Chicago, and that’s what makes her special. She knows exactly who she is. Is this paragraph actually celebrating the fact that she won’t get uppity ‘casue she “knows where she came from”? Isn’t this nearly the exact language used by racists to celebrate the house servant?

The Obamas bring a humanity and humility to their tasks which sets them far apart from the run-of-the mill phonies who populate Washington. It’s exactly what the doctor ordered for this wounded nation.

Michelle Obama’s unassuming, but dead-on, sense of style has the fashion press gushing all over itself. And she is pretty. Good thing, ’cause being nice and being pretty is what being a woman is all about.

Her arms are becoming the stuff of legend. Who appears sleeveless on the cover of Vogue, let alone in front of a joint session of Congress while her husband delivers one of the most important speeches of his life? And the reviews were rave. REALLY?!? You are proud of her because she doesn’t wear sleeves? What about her career, her education, her opinions? She sure as hell isn’t showing any of that, but you’re happy because she is showing her arms? WTF!?!?!?!

Cindi Leive, the editor of Glamour magazine gushed, “Oh my god! The first lady has bare arms in Congress in February at night!” If she keeps it up, Seventh Avenue will soon stop making women’s clothes with sleeves.

Ok, I admit it. When it comes to the first lady, I’m smitten.

Throw Your Shoes at Bush

this is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen:

President Obama

John McCain just gave the best speach of his campaign . . . he really shouldn’t have saved that till now.  Oh well.  It’s great that Obama won – I voted for him despite my beliefs.  He’s not perfect.  He’s better than McCain . . . but how many issues do I have to disagree with him on before he losses my vote?  I guess now it doesn’t matter, I just hope he doesn’t fuck shit up.

Respect Life? Respect Honesty

I recently commented on an older posting regarding the confederate flag. This has made me think of another symbol that I have been frustrated by: the “Respect Life” license plate offered by the state of Colorado. This specialty plate was created after the Columbine incident, purportedly as a way of commemorating the event and raising funds for the survivors.

However this plate has clearly come to stand for something else entirely. Despite becoming one of the most popular specialty plates in the state, selling nearly 90,000 plates over the past 8 years and raising more than $2 million in state fees, the plates have resulted in less than $12,000 in contributions to the Columbine fund. Other specialty plates require the driver to make a donation to the benefiting charity, while the “Columbine” plate only suggests a donation.

I am just amazed at the fact that this plate was able to sneak in under the guise of standing for the Columbine tragedy while the design makes nearly no reference to the event itself. The design of the plate came from one of the parents of a student who was shot, and chose the phrase “Respect Life” as a summation of all that had gone wrong. They gave cryptic answers when asked about the plate’s relationship to the abortion debate: (emphasis added)

“Our nation has always had guns, our nation has always had children, our nation has always had adults,” began the statement. “I believe what our nation has not always had is parents murdering their children, and children murdering other children and their parents.

“An ingredient that has made America different in the past couple of generations is changes towards the understanding of what is right and wrong, what is good and evil,” continued the statement.

“I believe that they will not find the source of our nation’s character flaws in their children, only a reflection of themselves. As kids we hear what you say, but we see what you do. It is my hope that these Columbine Respect Life license plates will in some way help the adult society to find the true sources of this evil and to find solutions to the serious problems within America,” he concluded.

There is not a single person who could look at this plate and claim that it stood for anything other than a pro-life agenda. This phrase is also available on plates in Missouri, but there the donation goes to a pro-life organization.  Several other state have similar plates that use the phrase “Choose Life” instead.

It depresses but does not surprise me that we allowed this thinly-veiled propaganda into our state. It makes me even more sad to think that parents would exploit the violence against their children as an opportunity to push a separate political agenda. If you want a pro-life plate, at least be honest about what you are doing.

News

I found this either amusing or sad, that the two lead stories on DenverPost.com were the two accidents on I-70.  One is about a dead pregnant woman and one is about beer that survived in a separate crash.  At least the woman gets a larger font than some free Keystone Light.