April 03, 2004New Cell Phone Plan?I'm looking for a new cell phone plan ... Last week, I wrote about the unfortunate results when my daughter discovered that she could use Mom's cell phone to instant message with AIM. Unfortunate = $150 cell phone bill ... Okay, so to be exact, it was $147.95 in usage charges, plus another $16.33 in taxes, surcharges, and assessments. With this particular cell phone plan, instant messaging is ticking nightmare. With my fingers crossed (just for luck), I called T-Mobile's customer service line to see if they might be able to show me some kindness. After piloting through T-Mobile's voice mail system, I was connected to a T-Mobile customer service rep. I explained the situation to Stephanie, who patiently listened to every word of my pathetic story of cell phone plan abuse. Finally, she said, "hold on a few minutes and let me see what I can do." After sitting on hold for what seemed like twenty minutes Stephanie came back on and kindly explained that she couldn't fix the problem. "I even talked to my expert and they can't do anything," she said. Now I'm not sure what an expert is (in this case), but I wasn't really happy about whatever this expert was expert in. I can tell you that the expert was successful in one thing ... shortening my timespan as a T-Mobile customer. Stephanie was very pleasant, but the only thing she said she could offer was two add-ons to the existing cell phone plan that would allow for either 300 or 1000 text messages per month on the phone. These add-ons cost $2.99 or $6.99, respectively. Not only could T-Mobile not do anything about fixing the bill, they couldn't do anything to shut off instant messaging on that phone. That's putrid, IMHO. So, seeing as how that phone is only one month away from its one-year anniversary, I'm shopping for a new cell phone plan. One that won't bury us in instant messaging charges. When Stephanie asked if there was anything else she could do (since she wasn't allowed to do anything in the first place), I said yup, I need help with my T-Mobile Sidekick, since it hadn't booted in over a week. Stephanie transferred me to another department, where lo and behold, another (much more helpful) Stephanie got my Sidekick booting. (So that's what the reset button is for!). I've been pretty happy with my Sidekick over the last year and a half. The service plan is excellent ... all you can eat data for $39.95 ... including unlimited text messaging, email, web browsing, and AIM. The second Stephanie also mentioned that she could put our other phone into a T-Zone service plan ... something different than what the first Stephanie offered. She also said that I could individually block incoming messages to avoid those five cent per message charges. It's all too confusing! My Sidekick service plan is super simple. I dig it. But the service plan on the other phone just seems like it was engineered to dupe unsuspecting folks out of their hard earned cash. Why should the phone company act like a casino? Especially when it's so easy to jump from one cell phone company to another. Update 4/5 - More on the Cell Phone Kid |
