u l t r a m o o k i e

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still happy with my MetroPCS phone and service. It’s just that over the last two days I’ve been a bit frustrated with MetroPCS. I even went phone and service shopping, but there’s nothing out there just like MetroPCS. So what happened? And what got me to stay?

Last night around 5:45pm or so my MetroPCS phone just stopped working. I got a clear all-bars signal, but the second that I tried to make a call the phone would lose all signal. The same thing would happen when someone would call in. The phone would have strong signal, but the second an incoming call was trying to ring the phone, the phone would lose the signal.

I thought it was a temporary thing, so I plugged the phone in to recharge and went to bed. I hoped that the service would be OK in the morning. Well, in the morning the phone was still acting funky. Behaving just like it did at night.

Calling MetroPCS’s phone line 1-888-8metro8 got me nothing but the generic automated phone service hell. The technical support areas were all automated and generic. There was no way I could get status or help with the phone from a real human.

I finally got fed up and decided to go through the activation choice, which I knew would have a live human on the other side. A Kimberly helped me and she got my phone number and go a hold of a supervisor for me to talk with. They did not know what was happening, but they did something to get my phone to start working again. And they put in a trouble ticket with the engineering team to have them look at this area. They were not too helpful, but they were extremely friendly and tried the best that they could – and that’s all that I ask for when I call tech support.

The phone worked fine for the afternoon. That is until 6pm rolled by and I tried to use the phone again. It started happening again. The same symptoms. So I called the number again and went through to the activation line. I got a nice lady named Kimberly, different lady, and she was really helpful in trying to get my phone to work. I commend Kimberly for taking the extra time to help me out. In the end the phone was still a bit finicky. She said that it’ll take up to 72 hours for the engineers to take a look at the network. And she told me to hang in there and if things did not get better by Monday to give them a call back. So, I’m hoping that things will get better.

Yea, the phone support didn’t help that much with the actual problem, but they were really friendly and they tried their best to help me out and that is what keeps me happy about the company. I know that they just entered this market and that they are probably still experiencing some growing pains. I think I will stick it out with them and see how it all turns out since there is no contract with them, I could pick up and leave for a different company at anytime, but I think I will stick with them for a bit longer.

Eileen and I did go visit some of the competition to see what they had to offer at around the same price point. I was pretty disappointed at the offerings. I was even more disappointed in the people selling the phones and the service. At around the same price point as MetroPCS, T-Mobile and Cingular could only offer 1000 anytime minutes – with no other minutes like nights or weekend. T-Mobile offered another plan at $39 that was 600 anytime with unlimited nights and weekends. Cingular offered another plan for $39 that was 600 minutes anytime and 3000 nights and weekends. T-Mobile’s minutes were nationwide with roaming and free long distance. Cingular only covered California, some Nevada, and some Washington. Not much when compared to the all-you-can-talk service offered by MetroPCS at under $39.

The image of a cars salesman was set in the last few decades as the sales shark – the dude that was aggressive, annoying and abrasive when they tried to sell you something. I think that this decade that image should be moved to the cell phone salesmen. The guys that I dealt with were so freaking aggressive that the experience made my stomach turn. The last experience though made Eileen and I laugh out loud because these guys were so hilarious. I guess it’s just what the money can hire, but it would be nice to see more professionals selling phones than youngin’s.