Monday, March 31, 2008

T-Mobile Hotspot down - what to do

I've been a loyal T-Mobile hotspot or T-mobile wireless hotspot user for several years and every so often, I arrive at a Borders or a Starbucks T-mobile hotspot to find their t-mobile hotspot wireless access down or impaired. When this occurs, I usually try the connection on both my Apple iPhone wireless connection and my laptop to ensure it's a tmobile hotspot failure.

Here's my advice.

Rather than calling T-mobile hotspot customer service, go to another Starbucks. Their system will not allow their technicians to reboot and their system rarely detects a system impairment. In addition, the local Starbucks manager does not have the workflow or the authority to call to report the t-mobile hotspot failure.

I hope that this experience is different once they switch to AT&T wireless data. However, if you do spend the time to report the error to T-mobile customer service, make sure that you ask the technician for a credit ($20.00). Your Starbucks Manager may also give you a coupon for a free coffee of your choice. But for the hour you spent on the phone, it's probably not worth it!

I'm going to think about buying that AT&T 3G wireless card. I wish AT&T had a bundled plan for our iPhone wireless calls, access to their 3G and wi-fi networked!