Bye Bye T-Mobile - Why I switched

Just thought I'd publish a little breakdown of the reasoning that led me a loyal (6 yrs) customer of T-Mobile to switch over to the iphone and AT&T.

* Step one: Court early adopters and then completely leave them swinging in the wind. Back around this time about two years ago I was super excited, this brand spanking new open source software was being introduced to the mobile world: Android. I was on board from the get-go, signed up early and received the phone in November. I was in love, in fact I still love Android but unfortunately T-Mobile must not. One after another I saw Verizon, Sprint and Att advance the mobile phone market, while T-mobile came out with sh*tty variants like the mytouch3g and the like. What a bummer and a total inertia killer - nice move T-Mobile.

* Step two: Nice Hours you keep T-Mobile. Three days ago my phone went on the fritz at work, started endless reboot loops...time to head to the store for some information/answers. After work I had dinner, took my dog for a walk and then decided to head out to the T-mobile store. Man was I shocked when I got there at 8:01 to a rep closing the door: "We're closed!" I was told. A little pissed I head over to Radio Shack which just so happens to also sell phones and is open to 9:00 (as is Walmart, Target, BestBuy)

Step three: Pricing- This is one that actually blew me away. While speaking with the much nicer phone reps at Radio Shack I noticed that the price of a Samsung Vibrant was actually cheaper (instant rebate) At the corporate owned stores they still expect you to send in a rebate. Rebates WTF nobody does rebates still do they? Guess who doesn't f*ck with there pricing via rebates apple/ iphone - pay the $199.00 and taxes and walk out. Samsung Vibrant upgrade pricing at amazon $149.00, Samsumg Vibrant price to walk out at T-mobile store more. I feel bad for the corporate sales reps, all day long they deal with pissed off customers and when it comes to selling the phones they have one hand tied behind their back.

T-mobile you need to fix this best buy, radioshack, target, walmart and amazon shouldn't be able to beat your pricing.

Step four: Useless online support- the online chat representative after 20-30 minutes essentially communicated that they have no real authority and I needed to call a retention specialist. That's a problem when you only have a cell phone and your phone constantly reboots when making voice calls. Yesterday at work I called on my work line and was told that they could offer me the Samsung Vibrant ( a phone I was considering but not excited about) for $149.00. Problem being I couldn't pick this phone up at a store, I had to wait two- three days shipping which would actually be 5 days with the weekend. I was told I could get a loaner from the store but the last time I got one of those it was crap dumbphone....not a good solution.

Here's how you could have saved me:
Give your store reps the power to save your customers.
Give store reps the power to price match your third party retailers
Stop treating your early adopter and loyal customers like shit (android/sidekick) by not releasing solid updates to product lines
Retail hours are till 9:00 PM 10:00 PM during peak holiday season
Get rid of rebates they're a stupid pricing tactic