T-Mobile Voicemail Cock-Up

[jonny round boy]

I'm self employed, and went to a job this morning as agreed at the beginning of the week. To cut a long story short, the customer wasn't in when I got there, but she'd given me a key to let myself in. Did the job, and just as I was finishing she came home and said she'd left a message on my mobile yesterday, cancelling the job!!!

Checked my voicemail manually, and there was the message. In the past, on this contract and every other I've ever had, I've received some kind of notification when someone's left a message. But not this time, and the customer is (quite rightly, I suppose) refusing to pay, as she insists she cancelled the work.

Rang T-Mobile to complain, and got an automated message, saying that due to the success of their new talk plan/ad campaign, all the operators were busy, and could I ring back later! Didn't even get the option to hold!!!

I find it appalling that they can basically say "we don't want to talk to you as an existing customer, 'cos we're too busy dealing with calls from new customers"!!!

Anyway, finally got through via another route, and guess what? Not their problem, apparently. I asked for compensation, and they wouldn't even entertain the idea. So now I'm out of pocket because their system failed in some way. It's not a lot of money to be honest, but it really ****es me off that they can do this, and then treat me in that way.

I have sent a strongly worded letter of complaint to them, but I'm guessing I'll never hear anything from them about it!

Rant over.

[sequenci]

I used to work at Vodafone and they've had similar issues in the past too. It is worded in the contract that they will not accept liability for issues with the network and that it will go wrong from time to time. However my experience also tells me that the last thing T-Mobile will want is adverse press, This has the hallmark of a great press story and I would hope you would get reimbursed.

[jonny round boy]

Thanks, actually it's the automated message that got me the most. To pretty much announce that they don't want to deal with existing customers because they're overwhelmed with new ones is downright disgusting. And that was their 'Customer Service' dept!!!

[sequenci]

Originally Posted by jonny round boy

Thanks, actually it's the automated message that got me the most. To pretty much announce that they don't want to deal with existing customers because they're overwhelmed with new ones is downright disgusting. And that was their 'Customer Service' dept!!!

it's the insane competition. the mobile firms are making more and more call centre staff redundant to save costs. it's a bit of a farce.

[Rich44]

tbh if I was in that situation and that had happened to me I would have expected to at least pay something for the work done its not your fault you didnt get voicemail, its not like its renouned for being a reliable thing to use.

Was it a very big job? It might be worth trying to at least negotiate with the customer even if its just to cover your costs, anyone with an ounce of conscience would offer something for your time and effort

[jonny round boy]

Just realised I never posted a follow-up to this, so here goes:

I got a phonecall from someone at T-Mobile (one of the managers) in response to my letter. She said that she was dissapointed I felt that way, blah, blah, blah, and that the automated message I got was badly worded & that they had changed it. She also said that the initial voicemail problem was probably due to a technical problem they had on that day, but that they couldn't know that for certain.

She was very helpful & offered me half of the compensation amount I had asked for (which I accepted without argueing, as I thought they would do this so I'd doubled the initial amount anyway!) meaning I'm not out of pocket now.

She also gave me her full name and direct phone number, in case I ever had any problem in the future.

Another result!!!

As a direct result of this site, and having won all of my bank charges back, I had decided I was going to complain more often, whereas I would in the past have just accepted things. It's going well so far!