Wednesday, April 09, 2008

T-Mobile Kinda Suck

OK, my first run in with T-Mobile sucked. I tried to order the Web And Walk USB Stick yesterday, expecting it to be delivered today. I checked my spam filter today, and found this from T-Mobile websales:

"Unfortunately, we were unable to gain verification of your identification and address details using our online systems."

They were unable to make a £2 payment and then refund it. I phoned them up, talked to a very unfriendly and completly unhelpful chap, tried a different card and that failed. I know both cards have credit, so it's not me, it's their shitty address verification system. I am astoundingly angry at T-Mobile at moment. I think if their "customer service" rep was less abrasive and actually helpful I'd be a bit pissed off, but nowhere near as angry as I am now. I don't know why people make a song and dance about UK Call Centres - I'd rather speak to someone helpful in India than the jerk I spoke to in the UK.

I'm in 2 minds about saying "fuck 'em" and going with Vodafone. Especially as I'll be trapped with people for 2 years (which wasn't that much of a concern before this, as years ago I was a Mercury/T-Mobile subscriber and never had a problem with them). If it wasn't for the temptation of free WiFi, I'd be on Vodafone's website right now. Once I calm down I'm going to pop up to the T-Mobile store in town at lunch time (I'm working from home today, thinking that the USB stick would turn up). If that doesn't go well, I will be off to Vodafone.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Free Coffee From BT Openzone

Todays post brought a free coffee at Caffe Nero voucher from BT Openzone as BT Openzone is now to Caffe Nero what T-Mobile is to Starbucks.

Speaking of T-Mobile and BT Openzone,I still haven't heard from BT Openzone as to when I'm supposed to choose the new plan. I've pretty much decided to go with the £5 a month plan from BT Openzone and the £15 a month plan from T-Mobile for 3G + WiFi.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

AOL PhoneLine RIP

While catching up on my reading, I came across this, and a quick check of the homepage for AOL PhoneLine confirmed it - it's gone. It been replaced with "AIM Dial Out", which, as the name implies, doesn't have dial in capability.

I'm not surprised PhoneLine died - if after 30 days there was no activity you lost not only the number, but the ability to get a number for that screen name. So if you wanted to try it again you had to create a new AOL/AIM account. I understand wanting to monetize a service, but that level of inconvenience is just shooting yourself in the foot. And the way it used SIP but wasn't open didn't help either.

Oh well, I said a year ago that it was little more than a toy VOIP provider.