T-Mobile

t-​mobile sucks!!!

The motto of this T-​Mobile store might as well be «How To Avoid Assisting Customers Effectively.»
My wireless card went on the fritz last week. I stubbornly kept trying to get back online because I didn’t want to make the effort to go to the T-​Mobile store. Partly out of laziness, partly out of fear the only solution would be that I had to buy a new card. The Boy finally convinced me that we should take it in after five days of no service. Given the time of day we chose, battling Buckhead traffic down Peachtree to get to the good T-​mo store I usually visit seemed silly when there was one much closer, by Chastain Park.
[Cue Julia Roberts to the snotty salesgirl in «Pretty Woman»:] Big Mistake. Big. Huge.
First off, there is one customer, a mailman, paying his bill. And delivering Girl Scout Cookies to the clerk. Who proceeds to open the box of Tagalongs and start eating them, still chatting with him, telling me it’ll be «just a minute» through her mouthful of crumbs.
The other clerk just looks at us and goes back to talking with his buddy leaning next to his register.
Cookie Chick finally asks what I need, then responds to my request for help with a wireless card by saying, first, «I don’t know about those. I just started a week ago,» and then, «Did you call customer service?» Uh, I explain, that’s why I’m here now– they told me to go to a store.
Cookie gets a manager, who comes out and asks me the same thing. «Did you call customer service? They really are the ones who should help you.» Maybe so, but isn’t there a better delivery? At least a pretend-​to-​try-​to-​help section you studied in training?
I give Ms Manager a Look Of Displeasure. She just looks back at me, and offers nothing. «Do you know the right number to call for customer service? You can look it up online. Or I can try to find it for you.»
I can’t GET online, ma’am, I want to scream. So, yeah, if there’s a different or alternate number I should know, that would be Very Helpful! Instead, I look at the Boy, who’s trying not to laugh because he sees how aggravated I am and knows I’m about to lose it. I look back at her, decide trying to either get her to actually be helpful or fix my problem are both unlikely to happen, and tell her what all of them had been wanting to hear all along: «You know what, don’t worry about it. I’ll find the customer service number myself. Thanks for your help.»
[Conclusion of the story: later that night I spent two hours on the phone with CS, after starting with 611 from my cell. .. and it turns out «there have been outages due to weather in the Atlanta metro area.» Following instructions, I just kept logging back in and out until the card started working again. .. ]