Well it is time for the cell phone adventure update. I have had the ‘thing’ for close to a month and half now and though I have been using it I am not that much closer to liking it yet. In the words of Jay Sherman “It stinks”!
I just got off the phone with a service rep named Brandon who by the way was very pleasant and patient with me. I must say that the one thing that T-Mobile has done right is to teach proper customer service to their phone representatives.
So why was I on the phone to a service rep and why did I need a patient one? I got a letter in the post today that said I was denied my sign up rebate. Everyone should know that the rebates are part of the deal to get you to sign up in the first place. I hate rebates because they make me do extra work that should just be done at the time of sale automatically. Businesses love them because it does drive sales up and they know that a certain percentage of people will never actually fill out the paperwork and send it in. Well brother, if I am going to be suckered into a sale because of a rebate, you better believe I am going to send in for my rebate and it better be worth the trouble or you won’t be seeing my business.
So now my rebate is in question and I am just a little upset. The letter says that they do not honor rebates for purchases made through discount places such as Wal-mart or Sam’s. I bought mine through Costco where they have an authorized dealer and they are the ones that gave me the rebate form with their dealer numbers on it and they are the ones that gave me copies of my receipts to send in. It was all part of the deal.
So the letter gives me an 800 number to call if I had questions about said letter. If I were to call using the new cell phone just recently obtained I would have to call during business hours and utilize airtime minutes to correct the situation. I called on the land line and was glad I did because I then went through the normal service call process, that is, I got to talk to a computer that didn’t understand a word I was saying. Computer answering systems have reached the height of uselessness. They don’t know what you want, the choices they offer are pointless for most items and eventually I end up talking to a human anyway because, that is what I really wanted and that is what I really need in most cases. If only there were a quicker way to get to that point. The computer did give me instructions on where to go online and there I could talk to another computer that wouldn’t listen any better, I’m sure. What is the use of having a phone if even the phone company wants you to deal with a computer over the internet?
So after going through a long process of select one to continue in English and so on, I finally made it to the holding line to talk to a real person. The hold music was the worst ever. I know it was supposed to be relaxing but I felt like I had been trapped on an elevator that never got to the next floor and the elevator recital was on an endless loop that played the same section of annoyance over and over and over and over. Other than a dead spot where the phone would drop the sound level every so often, I would get the traditional “all of our operators are busy helping everyone else but you” computerized speech to let me know how truly special I am. I was just about ready to fling the phone though the wall when Brandon came on the line.
Now computers I can be rude back to rather easily and was being rather loud into the phone talking back to this computer, but humans are humans and I tried not to let the upset carry forward into this new conversation. Brandon helped me transition by being patient and apologetic. I appreciated that response to my frustration and so we were able to get right to the point, even though I did quickly tell him how irritating the hold music and computer interface was.
Brandon looked up my problem and quickly found that I was correct and they were wrong. He told me that this was a common error and has happened quite often, something to do with the way it is coded in the system. Of the two phones bought on the same day at the same time, and the two forms sent in at the same time with the same information in the same envelope, one worked and one didn’t. Brandon verified some information and quickly got things resolved and gave me a new tracking number and we were on our way.
The question arises in my own mind now as to whether this was a legitimate error, or was it an intentional play done as a second attempt to get a customer to forgo a rebate? I want to give the benefit of the doubt and choose the former because there is the possibility that when I had to change my assigned number the day I got the phone that this could have created a glitch. Still that seed of doubt is planted and I will be watching for further developments.
As I have said before, the phone business model needs to change as there is still much room for improvement. This is one business where the proper initiative could bring a true change in the whole phone world and it wouldn’t take much.
So to make this a real update, the Blackberry Pearl is less than grand. We are still trying to learn some of the features and so far it seems to have less capability than I was hoping for, or maybe it just doesn’t do any of them in a really stress free productive way like I was hoping. I haven’t really figured out a lot of short cuts like you can with most computer programs. Our address books are still far from being built because it seems to take a long time to do it directly into the phone and we haven’t figured out how to do the computer interface correctly yet, but one day hopefully I will find enough time and patience to try again. The keypad for input on the phone has two different settings, the traditional multi tap and since there are more keys it should make for a quicker input, or another way that tries to guess what letters you are inputting based on the possible words you are trying to spell. The latter is the default setting and it seems that my attempts to use it have produced about 50% more key punching than is needed.
The Motorola H700 Bluetooth earpiece that I got is only moments away from being taken back. The sound from the speaker has kind of been distorted from day one but not bad enough for me to get too upset. The mic used started out fine but seems to be getting worse as time goes on. Some people I have talked to on it have made mention of the fact that they can certainly tell when I am using it and have gone so far as to ask me to switch to the handset. If there is any wind while using it either driving or walking let alone while riding a bike it becomes practically useless. The whole point of having a hands free set is to be able to do things with your hands while still being able to carry on a conversation but if you have to put done what you are doing and pick up the phone then it has lost its purpose.
The Blackberry Pearl has voice command recognition which means you are supposed to be able to talk to it and it will perform certain functions like calling someone from your address book or dialing a spoken number. In conjunction with the H700 earpiece this should be a very useful tool. As time goes on I am getting more and more frustrated with it. I have to raise my voice more and more to get heard and have even cupped my hands around my face trying to direct the sound into the mic. Sometimes that works but most times I just feel silly.
You push the button on the earpiece to summon the phone and a voice says “say a command”. You then tell it to call a person in your book and lately it will repeat itself asking me to “say a command” again. I speak louder and try again and it questions me “did you say call Bob mobile”. I find myself saying sarcastically “No”, which if I am lucky enough for it to understand goes on to the next wrong guess at what I said. Often times it will come back and say “Sorry, no match found” then proceeds to hang up on me and make me start all over. This is for the items that are in my address table. For a straight number, it makes the most outlandish guesses and if I’m not careful it will go ahead and try to dial them, long distance or not. You have to be in ideal conditions for this thing to work properly and I was hoping that with time there would be a learning function that would make it work better with my voice as it got familiar with me or me with it. It seems to be getting worse. I am not sure which unit, the earpiece of the phone, is to blame but I think I will start with the earpiece and see.
I understand that there are worse units out there as well as much better units than this but they are well into the hundreds of dollars and I am already beginning to think I have put way too much money into this venture. On a scale of 10 I would have to give this a 3.
So what about coverage? This is where I am still better off than the AT&T phone. I don’t recall being dropped yet and that includes the being in the several places the AT&T did drop the call. That said, I have still found some dead spots where I had to go elsewhere to find a signal. Some places were understandable, but some were not. If I think about it very long I should probably be amazed that there is as much coverage across this great land as there is.
The first bill came and it was even more shocking than I had prepared myself for. About double what I wanted it to be, but this is the first one with all the rotten start up fees and even more rotten taxes and surcharges. At this point I would probably still quite right now and cut my losses and say lesson learned if it was not for the two year commitment with high exit fee to T-Mobile and my commitment to my wife. She wanted me to have one and so I do, and to be able to reach out and talk to her whenever I want or need, for this I am glad. There are some days that go on way too long without taking a break and hearing her sweet voice. I guess I will keep on with it for now.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
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