T-Mobile Apologizes For Danger Outage... But Not To Me

from the thank-you-and-screw-you dept

A few weeks back we noted that all users of the Danger Hiptop/T-Mobile Sidekick had no data service for about a week, for some unknown reason. While service was eventually restored, the outage has still not been adequately explained (though, it probably made Paris Hilton happy). As an "apology," T-Mobile sent all Sidekick users a note promising a $20 credit and a special folder of "free" games and ringtones in a folder labeled "Thank You" on the catalog part of the device. Seeing as I'm a Sidekick user, I checked out the catalog. I use the Sidekick only for data, so all of the free ringtones were useless to me (I wouldn't use them anyway, even if I did use it as a phone). However, there were two games offered, and considering the lameness of the existing games on the device, I figured why not at least get something out of this free offering. For the past few days I've been trying to download the free games, and every time I'm told they're not available. I finally called up T-Mobile and after waiting on hold for a while and having to speak to two different representatives, I was told that these games don't work on my particular Sidekick model and, yes, T-Mobile should have filtered the emails and the catalog better and, yes, the error message should have told me that these games weren't compatible and, yes, they probably should have offered at least some games that would work on my Sidekick, but otherwise, too bad. Their only suggestion was to call up Danger Inc., and see if maybe they would do something for me. I can certainly survive without two free games, but it does seem particularly rude to offer a special free "thank you," but make it so it wasn't actually available to many of your users. It's sort of a "thank you, but screw you" response. Amusingly, the catalogue clearly labels this as "customer appreciation week." I don't feel particularly appreciated right now.
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  1. identicon
    Derek, 23 Mar 2005 @ 10:55am

    thoughts on the outage

    What kind of sidekick do you have? Is it a sidekick 2?

    The outage was totally unacceptable. Furthermore, when we lost service, I LOST ALL MY CONTACT NUMBERS. There is no reason for that. This was very very bad.

    That said, I love Danger and T-mobile. I think that the Sidekick has an INCREDIBLY wonderful interface, and packs in more useful innovations than I've seen anywhere within the mobile space. It has become my primary computer-interface--I write and read more emails on there than I do on my powerbook.

    t-mobile has great customer service, too. But I have to pay out the nose.

    1. i really wish I knew WHAT happened.
    2. i wish their service wasn't so centralized.
    3. i wish the sales platform was more open to developers

    Derek

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2005 @ 5:42am

    Re: thoughts on the outage



    Why don't you users of the Sidekick demand a pro-rated bill for the week of non-service ?

    When my ISP goes down, I deduct 1/30th of the bill for each day I don't have service.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    knight37, 24 Mar 2005 @ 10:58am

    No Subject Given

    I bet you guys are kicking yourselves for not getting a Treo. ;)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    happyw/sidekick, 28 Apr 2006 @ 10:08pm

    stop being so anal

    Calm down, it was not that big of a deal to write a bunch of cry baby crap. If you are that unhappy, go to another provider and cry to them. I'm sure you will find perfect no problem and WONDERFUL customer service. Good luck cry baby

    link to this | view in thread ]


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