T-Mobile Woes

I noticed when we got up Thursday morning that our T-Mobile 5G Internet hotspot was not working. I figured that it probably had something to do with the storm we had overnight and that it would come up eventually. It never did, so about 5 PM I called T-Mobile’s customer service number and spent over an hour dealing with somebody whose English was almost impossible to understand. If I hadn’t had it on speakerphone and Terry sitting next to me to try to help translate, I would not have known what the hell she was saying.

The long and short of it was that the device needed to be replaced, and they could send me one, which would not arrive until sometime next week. I asked if I could just take it to the T-Mobile store in Northport, where we got it and turn it in for a replacement, and she said we could. But since it’s a half-hour drive at least, I decided to call first to be sure they had a replacement in stock. The rather rude lady at the store told me that no, they didn’t do that, and she didn’t care what customer service said.

Frustrated, I called T-Mobile’s customer service number back, and this time connected with someone obviously in this country who spoke perfect English. It may have even been her first language. 😊 I apologized in advance for being frustrated and explained my situation, and she put me on hold and called the store in Northport, were they also told her they didn’t care what company policy was, they are a franchise store and they were not going to do it. She came back on the line and apologized, told me she had made a notation of their rudeness to pass higher up the chain of command, then told me she had also called the company store in Tuscaloosa and arranged for them to exchange the device for me.

That’s even farther than the Northport store and I wasn’t sure we would make it in time, but she told me that they knew I was coming and they would have it ready for me and be waiting for me. And sure enough, when I got there the manager and a gentleman working there had everything ready for me and it was a simple case of handing them the old device and them putting the SIM card in the new device and I was out the door.

You would think that would be the end of story, but you would be wrong. Back at home it quickly connected to the internet but kept rejecting our password. That took another half hour of frustration to get figured out, but thanks to Terry, we got it done.

Well, kind of. Both of our phones and our two computers in our office, which is two rooms away, connect just fine. But my other laptop and our smart TV, both of which are in the living room where the hotspot is located, won’t connect. No matter how many times we try, both give us a message “Cannot Connect To Network.” I have tried all of the usual things like rebooting the device to no avail. So yesterday I called customer service, got somebody else I could not understand, and was told to give it 24 hours to “settle in” and try again. Yeah, that ought to work even if it hasn’t settled in in the last 96+ hours.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. Suddenly I’m not so hungry anymore.

Thought For The Day – Never fear failure from trying, but always be terrified of regret for not trying.