Why I Use T-Mobile

Lots of people have piped up about abstract issues in the AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile. I think it's a horrible idea, and my reasons are pretty concrete.

Several years ago, I became a Cingular (now AT&T Wireless) for 10 days. I wasn't happy with their service, and I went back to T-Mobile. I cancelled my $20/month unlimited data plan within their 14-day cancellation period, and the monthly data fees should have been pro-rated. Instead, I got billed for over $3,700 of off-contract data usage. I had done a handset exchange on day two, and the salesperson didn't update their database properly to show that the new handset was now on the contract.

I spoke to a sequence of people in Cingular customer service, and every single one agreed that the charge was incorrect. In spite of this it took nine months, a long-standing ding on my credit report, repeated contact with their executive complaint group, and ultimately the threat of a lawsuit before they got the matter fully resolved, even though it was never in question that the error was theirs.

I'll leave aside whether their off-contract usage was sensibly priced, and whether such a pricing structure wasn't inherently usurious at a time when smart handsets were new and often didn't offer any way to fully disable their data usage if the customer did not need that. AT&T, Inc.: We Scare Because We Care.

Today I'm once again a very reluctant AT&T customer for my iPad, but all of our handsets remain on T-Mobile. Setting aside my minor billing mishap, the reasons are pretty simple:

• T-Mobile customer support answers the phone at hours when I can actually call them. AT&T doesn't.
• AT&T's customer-service has improved since my last run-in with them.
• In my experience as a user, AT&T doesn't reliably honor their roaming agreements. I've only found this to be true where T-Mobile service was dicey and AT&T offered four bars. Thankfully, it's only a problem at Disney World and my parents' house, and only for the last decade or so.
• T-Mobile offers handset and device options that AT&T is slow to implement. No current-generation Android tablets seem to be contemplated over at AT&T. It reflects a different attitude about their respective customers.
• T-Mobile's international roaming in Europe is priced very reasonably. That's useful when I travel.

The last point also explains why I'm not a Verizon customer - their phones don't work in Europe at all.

As a reasonably happy T-Mobile customer, my concern with the proposed merger is that as they consolidate operations between the two organizations, AT&T will retain the wrong customer service group, the wrong management team, and the wrong product management team. Other than those small inconveniences, the merger sounds like a fine idea.

Where's Lilly Tomlin when we need her? One Ringy-Dingy...