I was a T-Mobile customer for more than a decade from the late 90s until a year or two ago. I really enjoyed the experiece. I didn't know many other T-Mobile customers. That was fine with me.
One by one, my family switched to AT&T. My kids went to AT&T for the iPhone when you had to do that. I am not sure why The Gotham Gal went to AT&T but she did. So I was solo on T-Mobile and managing two bills and two plans. So I joined my family on AT&T. It's been fine, as long as you think $2000 a month for a family plan is OK.
I am going back to T Mobile. Not because AT&T sucks. It doesn't. Not because AT&T costs me a lot of money. It does.
I am going back out of principle. T-Mobile is customer friendly. The others are not. Maybe Sprint, now that it is owned by SOFTBANK, will join T-Mobile in the customer friendly aisle of the mobile carrier church, but right now they are on the other side.
David Pogue nailed it in this post he wrote in the New York Times late last week. Please go read the whole thing. It is great. But this quote from T-Mobile's Chief Marketing Officer sort of sums it all up:
Those other companies sit around trying to figure out what customer charges they can get away with. We sit around and say, ‘What can we get away with not charging the customer'?
Here are some of the customer friendly things T-Mobile does:
1) no international roaming charges. those who read this blog know that i have tried many things over the years to avoid those massive roaming charges. it can be done. i now know how. but if you are a T-Mobile customer you don't have to think about it.
2) no 2 year contract. quit T-Mobile anytime you want
3) don't keep paying the subsidy once you've paid for your phone
If you think all cellphone carriers should act like T-Mobile, I would encourage you to join me on T-Mobile. Because if all of us move to T-Mobile, the other carriers will have no choice to join them in being customer friendly. We can vote with our pocketbooks. We should. I will.
