T-Mobile Sucks (Or how I got an iPhone)

On Saturday, when my Blackberry 7100t crashed three times, I was annoyed but not concerned. It crashed a few more times on Sunday, so I wiped and reinstalled it. The phone was ok all Monday, but on Tuesday, mid-conversation, the speaker went out. I rebooted it a few times, and even disassembled it to clean it out. Nothing helped. The trusty Blackberry was toast (or jam?)

This was a big problem, since I’m on-call this week, and have some precariously-balanced systems that I expect to fail very soon.

I’ve been a T-mobile customer for ten years. I’ve paid for the insurance on my phones the whole time. At about $6/month, I’ve more than paid for several phones. I called the aptly-named “Assurion” company, who, after much wrangling, said the best they could do was to send me a new phone “within five to seven business days.” No word on what I’d do before then.

I called T-mobile customer care. After arguing for half and hour, the fastest they could get me a phone would involve signing a new two-year contract and paying $230 to “upgrade” to a new Blackberry Pearl.

“Since I’ll have to sign a contract anyway, why should I not go to the Apple store and buy an iPhone?”

“… Sir, you could do that, and we’d hate to lose you as a customer, but we don’t have a loaner program for the Blackberry phones.”

“Right. Enjoy your unemployment, when AT&T or Sprint buys T-Mobile at fire sale prices.” Click.

Oh, and yes, the iPhone is worth all the hype.