Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• T-Mobile doesn't know how to treat its customers

  It looks like T-Mobile dropped their data plan from $29.99/mo to $19.99/mo. I originally thought this was related to the new unlimited rate plans and losing the Starbucks account , but it was actually back in September (on my birthday no less). I must have missed it at the time, given that whole wedding thing. And worse, it turns out you have to actually ask for the new rate . After reading Kevin's post, I logged in to My T-Mobile today to adjust my plan. To add insult to injury, check out the options I'm presented with. For the past 5 months, I've been paying $10 more than I should have for this service. T-Mobile should have adjusted this for me automatically (as Kevin said, you can be sure they would if the price went up). At the very least, they could have told me about it via a pamphlet or during the time I spent talking to a T-Mobile representative as I was trying to get my phone unlocked for the honeymoon. They did neither, and were quite happy to let me pay $10 more a... Posted Feb 24 2008, 10:16 AM by Tim with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Rants, Gadgets, Things that bother me, Business, Marketing

• DHL Sucks

  I ordered a package from Amazon and noticed they now have an option for Saturday delivery with Prime. Excellent... What I did not realize at the time is that this ships with DHL. Every single time something has been shipped to me via DHL, something went wrong. Once, a Bluetooth module for my M200 showed up in a padded envelope that was quite literally shredded and missing half of the screws. Last time I had something scheduled for Saturday delivery it just never showed up. And of course, today was no exception. First, I noticed that the package was shipped to Melville, which is about 40 miles from where I live. I called up to find out the status and was assured that, even though the tracking system was not updated, that the package was indeed with the driver. (This was around 2pm EST - the times below are PST). Needless to say, the package never showed up. I just called up irate after waiting all day for a package that never showed up and the customer service rep told me that there was... Posted Mar 03 2007, 05:22 PM by Tim with | with 15 comment(s) Filed under: Rants, Things that bother me, Business, Marketing

• How Chase lost me as a customer

  I've been a moderately happy Chase customer for about 10 years now. I originally chose them because my father used it, and I was able to open a joint savings account under his checking account to avoid fees back when I was in high school. It was convenient from my parents' house, and it was certainly convenient in NYC. The addition of the Duane Reade ATMs was certainly nice. I say "moderately happy" because, in general, my experience has been pretty ambivalent. I've had a few problems with Customer Service, but nothing major. There was a time where the telemarketers wouldn't stop calling even though I asked to be put on their internal "Do Not Call" list. (The Do Not Call registry wouldn't apply because we have a pre-existing relationship). The calls only stopped after I threatened to take my business elsewhere and make sure that they knew it was this particular CSR who didn't ensure I was on that list. I never got another call. I have two credit... Posted Aug 07 2006, 11:40 AM by Tim with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Business, Marketing