Coverage & Contract

[jyo]

I have been a loyal T-Mobile customer for many, many years. Up until now, I have never had a big issue with them.

My coverage at home is terrible, but I use UMA the majority of the time, and just live with the occassional lack of coverage.

I know, however, have been traveling on a frequent and regular basis to a location about 40 minutes from my house. I don't receive service during the majority of the ride there, and once at the location, I don't receive any service (either inside or outside). Obviously, I hate paying for phone service that I can't even use, and it scares me to think that I don't have service in the event of a car accident on the way to the location, etc.

T-Mobile admitted that coverage in that area was "not good." They opened a service ticket for me, but unfortunately, they will not be getting better coverage in that area in the near future.

I don't really want to leave T-Mobile, as I am happy with them, but, I think it might be my only option. The question is...is there any way that I can get out of the current contract? I don't feel that I should have to pay to get out of a contract because the carrier can't provide service to me where I need it.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[big_d093]

You could try cellswapper.com

I recommend you look into this..everything is legit and easy..

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[BlackBerry Brian]

Originally Posted by jyo

I have been a loyal T-Mobile customer for many, many years. Up until now, I have never had a big issue with them.

My coverage at home is terrible, but I use UMA the majority of the time, and just live with the occassional lack of coverage.

I know, however, have been traveling on a frequent and regular basis to a location about 40 minutes from my house. I don't receive service during the majority of the ride there, and once at the location, I don't receive any service (either inside or outside). Obviously, I hate paying for phone service that I can't even use, and it scares me to think that I don't have service in the event of a car accident on the way to the location, etc.

T-Mobile admitted that coverage in that area was "not good." They opened a service ticket for me, but unfortunately, they will not be getting better coverage in that area in the near future.

I don't really want to leave T-Mobile, as I am happy with them, but, I think it might be my only option. The question is...is there any way that I can get out of the current contract? I don't feel that I should have to pay to get out of a contract because the carrier can't provide service to me where I need it.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

This is the EXACT same situation I am now in.

I changed jobs about 2 years ago and it requires me to travel all over the place in my area, 50 mile radius give or take.

Seems that anywhere I go that's just the slightest bit out of the metro area, NO SERVICE, there are two places I go on a regular basis that I have no service for 40 miles of the trip.

I rely on UMA at home, at my office and at two of my friends houses, because at all 4 locations I get 1 bar to no service switching constantly.

This only became a problem when T-Mobile discontinued their roaming agreement with AT&T in my area, then I realized just how bad T-Mobiles coverage really is.

So, my aunt is with Verizon, I had her add a line for me for 10 bucks a month and I got a Samsung Convoy flip phone activated on it, with it I have not YET found a place that I don't have service.

I watch the service bars on it every time I travel out and I can't find a place that it doesn't have service.

I have been with T-Mobile going on 9 years now, I have GREAT grandfathered prices and have always gotten GREAT customer service that will be hard to walk away from, but I will be completely honest here...

As soon as Verizon has a Storm 2 refresh, Storm 3, Torch, or any other worthy BlackBerry running OS6 I am switching myself and my wife over to Verizon.

Even though I pay way less for more services on T-Mobile than I can get with Verizon, how do you put a price on your phone working when you REALLY NEED it to work?

[Jedi2dope]

This is not meant to be mean in any way, shape, or form.

You sign a contract for a reason. Any company that makes you sign one agreeing for service is doing so to basically force you to pay should you change your mind. In defense of T-mobile, you knew what the service level was like before you agreed to another contract. So, in the nicest way possible, you are S.O.L.

All that being said, I completely sympathize with your situation. If you have only one line and have a long way to go on your contract, you might be better off paying your early termination fee (ETF). It's $200 per line, however, so if you have a lot of lines..... ouch!

Otherwise, ride it out and start looking at other companies when you have a month or so left.

Again, sorry for your problem

[48593039584729]

SOS is a problem mostly concealed to BB's (yes, of course coverage is low but newer BB's don't handle this well) show when in low coverage areas, SOS/going in and out of service. Lots of people complain about the newberries reception. They all went downhill and wonky after 2007 (or so). This isn't going to make a non-existant signal appear but it's something to consider before paying an ETF on one or multiple lines.
http://forums.crackberry.com/f100/se...8900-a-160331/

That said if you need an "emergency" phone, you can get a PagePlus prepaid cellular phone. The minutes are about 10 cents each or less and you can use most Verizon phones with the service.

[jyo]

Originally Posted by Jedi2dope

This is not meant to be mean in any way, shape, or form.

You sign a contract for a reason. Any company that makes you sign one agreeing for service is doing so to basically force you to pay should you change your mind. In defense of T-mobile, you knew what the service level was like before you agreed to another contract. So, in the nicest way possible, you are S.O.L.

All that being said, I completely sympathize with your situation. If you have only one line and have a long way to go on your contract, you might be better off paying your early termination fee (ETF). It's $200 per line, however, so if you have a lot of lines..... ouch!

Otherwise, ride it out and start looking at other companies when you have a month or so left.

Again, sorry for your problem

Yes, I did know what service was like before I signed the contract. But, I had ways to deal with it (I.e. UMA) so that I could still get service. I never had to travel at all outside my city's metro area, so I never realized how bad service would be in other locations when I really needed it.

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[BlackBerry Brian]

Originally Posted by jyo

Yes, I did know what service was like before I signed the contract. But, I had ways to deal with it (I.e. UMA) so that I could still get service. I never had to travel at all outside my city's metro area, so I never realized how bad service would be in other locations when I really needed it.

Same exact situation here, I used to always be "in town" or in a UMA area or on AT&T roaming, my situation changed and I was like WOAH, this sucks!

For the record, both of the lines on my account are out of contract, I'm just waiting on a new BlackBerry worth signing a contract for with Verizon to make the switch.

[Jedi2dope]

Originally Posted by jyo

Yes, I did know what service was like before I signed the contract. But, I had ways to deal with it (I.e. UMA) so that I could still get service. I never had to travel at all outside my city's metro area, so I never realized how bad service would be in other locations when I really needed it.

And again, this is why I say I sympathize with you. However, take your lumps, and learn your lesson for next time.

[jyo]

Originally Posted by Jedi2dope

And again, this is why I say I sympathize with you. However, take your lumps, and learn your lesson for next time.

What lesson was I supposed to have learned? Most carriers force you to sign a contract before you get service... How is the customer supposed to know that an area that is listed as "covered" on the company's coverage map really doesn't get service??

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[Jedi2dope]

Originally Posted by jyo

What lesson was I supposed to have learned? Most carriers force you to sign a contract before you get service... How is the customer supposed to know that an area that is listed as "covered" on the company's coverage map really doesn't get service??

Well, according to your first post...

Originally Posted by jyo

T-Mobile admitted that coverage in that area was "not good."

This is how you would know that you aren't going to get good coverage :/

[BlackBerry Brian]

Originally Posted by Jedi2dope

This is how you would know that you aren't going to get good coverage :/

He was told that after the fact when he called customer service, NOT before he signed his contract.

When his situation changed, he realized the same thing I did, the coverage out of metro areas is non existent.

The problem is lack of towers and T-Mobile has NO plans of adding ANY towers ANYWHERE, only upgrading speed on existing towers.

[jyo]

Originally Posted by Jedi2dope

Well, according to your first post...



This is how you would know that you aren't going to get good coverage :/

Sorry my first post was confusing. They just told me that recently, AFTER I was already in the contract. But, when you look at their coverage map, it is all green in my area, which is supposed to reflect coverage. So, basically, their literature isn't in line with their true service area. Their coverage map basically shows service in all of southeastern WI, which isn't actually true in the real world.

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[Jedi2dope]

Originally Posted by jyo

Sorry my first post was confusing. They just told me that recently, AFTER I was already in the contract. But, when you look at their coverage map, it is all green in my area, which is supposed to reflect coverage. So, basically, their literature isn't in line with their true service area. Their coverage map basically shows service in all of southeastern WI, which isn't actually true in the real world.

In that case, it certainly adds more credence to your initial complaint. Again, I realize I may be ruffling your feathers and please believe me, I am not trying to troll. I do sympathize with your plight.

The problem is, it is just one of those... things in life. Those things where you get screwed because you didn't have all the information you truly needed to make an informed decision. It is partially on you however, it is also on companies that prey on consumers by making you sign 2 year contracts. Most everyone's phone is outdated within 6 months as it is.

So, this is why I say take your lumps and learn. Check coverage in your area before you sign something. Use your buyer's remorse period (14 days with TMO) to check out coverage in the areas you may be visiting.

Truly, best of luck to you and the other person posting here who is in the same boat.

[dchawk81]

See if they'll let you cancel. Some companies will understand and let you off the hook sans-ETF due to a change in situation.

There's no way a person can possibly know how their service will perform everywhere, and it's rare that a person can predict that their life will change and therefore will need to be in a poor or non-coverage area in the future before signing.

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[Pyrus]

from my understading in the things i have learned form workingw ith tmo your ETF should dimish over time if you pay your bill on time and the closer you get to the end of your contrat your ETF goes down (in my opinion they do this as a way to get out of being able to remove your ETF) but even if it doesnt you should atleast be able to get it reduced even if you cant get it fully credited or removed but in future sight and i tell this to everyone with ccoverage issues buy a prepay phone from the compay your trying to switch to and use it for like a month before you make a decision then your not under contract and you can test the network where you going to be useing the most and get a good idea of what the real coverage is like