Formerly known as FFXFan

Hmm, seems I'm enjoying ranting these days. Must be me being alone in my new house. ANYWAY!, the following is an email I've just constructed and sent to Customer Relations at T-Mobile, along with a Mr. Taylor, the Customer Service Director:

Hello there.

I am emailing you to inform you of the poor service I received regarding an inquiry about my current mobile phone. I recently had to send my phone (Sony Ericsson W760i) away to be repaired, as the connector which the charger plugs into had worked itself loose. Upon receiving my phone from repair, I found that the letter enclosed with it offered no explanation as to how the fault had occured, only that the connector had been replaced, along with the antenna (again, no explanation as to why the antenna had been replaced, as I had not reported a fault with that particular component).

I have now today discovered that the exact same component has experienced a second fault, only three weeks after it had been originally repaired. This time around, the phone is not charging once the charger is plugged into it. I had put my W760i on charge last night, and heard it vibrate in acknowledgment that it was charging. When I went to take it off charge this morning, I found that somehow overnight, the phone had stopped charging and subsequently ran the battery down, draining the charge. As I own a W880i, I was able to test both chargers I own on both phones, and know for a fact that the chargers are not the problem. I also used three different electrical outlets whilst testing. In my mind, this can only mean that the repair job carried out three weeks ago, which I already doubted due to an update which read "Rejected at Quality Assurance" only two days before it was sent back, was not entirely successful.

This evening, I followed the steps on your Online Diagnosis Tool, and that didn't provide the answer to my problem so I contacted Customer Service. I was given a rather short apology before being told that it would have to be sent for repair again. After a request for a replacement phone, I was told that I would need to have sent it back for repair another two times in order to be eligible. Despite my requests not to be transferred to the Refunds and Exchanges department to set up a second repair job, I eventually relented after being told it was only a "2 minute wait". I hung up after waiting for well over 10 minutes with no idea as to how much longer I'd have to wait.

I've been a customer with T-Mobile for just over 3 and a half years, and until the last month or so I'd never had a problem with the level of service I've been offered. I'd even go so far as to say it was exemplary. However, I'm also not fickle enough to say that, after one poor experience, it's suddenly down in the gutter. But, and it is a but, I have to say more could have been done. I do not want to repair a phone that has experienced the same fault twice in 6 weeks. I also do not want, if possible, a direct replacement of the phone I currently own, as I am not 100% convinced that the same faults would not occur with that phone. I am prepared to accept a replacement phone of an equivalent value to the phone I currently own, and I am also prepared, if I am allowed to do so, to renew my contract 10 months early in order to receive an upgrade. I feel as though my problems were dealt with in a very "cookie cutter" manner, and the representative I spoke with (unfortunately I didn't take her name) didn't seem to want to personalise my problem, instead following the book and not deviating from it in the slightest.

I have been very unhappy with the W760i since I received it, both in terms of it's various firmware problems which upgrades haven't fixed, and the aforementioned hardware issues I've been having recently. I've also found the battery life to be very poor, and of a lower standard than my W880i, which is an older phone. I am being honest when I say that I would love to continue my custom with T-Mobile, however I am starting to have doubts that my problems with my phone are being dealt with in a manner which is beneficial to myself as a customer, and yourselves as the supplier of my phone, and I regret to say that if I don't feel my problem has been dealt with sufficiently, I might have to start looking at competitors who may be able to offer me a more personal style of Customer Service.


For your information, I contacted Customer Service through 150 on 27th August 2009 at 19:36GMT. I have also forwarded this email to Mr. Taylor, the Customer Service Director, to hopefully avoid a generic response that is issued to everybody who sends you an email.

As stated previously, I honestly hope that this can be resolved, and that I can once again begin to feel valued as a customer, and I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,
Gavin Storey

If I'm being honest, I'm not actually expecting a personal reply, and I'm certainly not expecting them to meet the rather small expectations I have of them at the current moment in time. If you ask me, I'm half expecting popping into 3, O2, Vodafone, Phones4U and Carphone Warehouse next week enquiring about what they can offer me. Still, we'll see.

I'll keep you posted,
-=Gavvie=-