For the first time for me, I have had one of the worst T-Mobile Support experiences. Which is actually quite bad coming from someone such as myself, since I have always stuck by T-Mobile and supported or recommend them as a customer, even after 11 years or more now. What makes this even more sad, is that it is over the littlest thing you could possibly imagine, a broken charger.

It all started with their Twitter support, which many companies have now a days and it is really just the same as phone or FAQ/online support for most companies too. It is pretty much automated and they actually do not want to help you more than they do when you call them. It use to be different in the past, for example Comcast use to have great Twitter support, but the last few years that is non-existent.

It does not seem that T-Mobile wants to strive for customer service anymore. Why do I think this? Well aside from my experience, take a look at these results:

• 2010: 1st place.
• 2011: 2nd place 1st half and 4th place 2nd half of the year.
• 2012: 4th (last) place again year round. 1st half or this and 2nd half of the year or this.

That’s not a good sign at all, and things do not look to be getting better. Especially when you have issues like mine come up, or far much worse issues for people that will up and leave T-Mobile and are not loyal. And speaking of loyalty, I am even questioning mine after this experience which I will be explaining now. Then there are just more, older articles like this one, Has T-Mobile Customer Service Taken A Turn For The Worse? or others that have continue to get written more of late.

What happened with me?

I used the option to upgrade a line of mine with a free and refurbished phone, nothing special either, just a Samsung T159 flip phone. The phone works just fine, but found out the charger actually is broken, closer look at it reveals that 1 of the copper pieces inside of the connector piece is missing.

So I decided to contact T-Mobile via Twitter and they are very much unwilling to help without wasting time and money. They want me to claim buyers remorse, which requires you to send the entire phone back and then order a new one. I am not sure how this would work with my upgrade option and so forth free (I am sure something bad would have happened), then again I do not want to pay shipping either and of course, waste more time without the phone in use, which I am sure would take up to 2 weeks. Maybe if T-Mobile would give me a free month I would actually consider doing this.

The other option would be to use buyers remorse and replace the entire kit by sending that one back and we send another. ^KM

That is it, there is nothing else they can do and have said twice now the following:

I wish we had a more efficient way but currently we do not ^KM.

Yes, thanks for really nothing. Honestly, their Twitter support might as well be automated. When I asked them if I would be able to trade one at a store, this was their response:

They should sell the cables in store too :) ^LG.

Are you serious? That was their response when I asked that and to have you spend more money because they could not even ship you a working charger. You would think that refurbished phones go through additional checks, and that would include the charger as well but I guess not.

That all having been said…

I more than understand this was not the worst support anyone has ever received and that it could have been worse. But at the same time, there is no reason why even people unlike me should have to deal with this lack of support, being told to use “buyer’s remorse” and be without a phone or have to purchase a new charger when you should not have to.

UPDATE: Samsung being awesome reached out to me and already in the process of getting a new charger replacement. I should have just contacted them to begin with. :)