T-Mobile Cancellation Experience

With all the bitterness going around about AOL’s cancellation (I mean “retention”) process, I thought it would be nice to share a positive cancellation story.

I’ve had a HipTop Sidekick Color device with a data-only plan from T-Mobile for the last 3 years or so. I primarily used it when I was going to be away from my computer or on the road. My primary mobile phone service is through Verizon. Last month, I upgraded my LG VX7000 phone to a Palm Treo 700p. The Treo does everything the VX7000 did, plus everything the Sidekick did, so I no longer had a need for the T-Mobile service. I sat down, took a few deep breaths, as I usually do before embarking on a cancellation call, and dialed T-Mobile’s 1-800 number. Their automated system asked me for my T-Mobile account number, and then asked me what I wanted to do. “Yeah, I’d like to cancel my account,” I said to the robot, fully expecting it to apologize and ask me to repeat my request. It nailed it… “Just to confirm, you’re calling about canceling a service?” the friendly female computer voice asked me. “No problem, I’ll get a customer service representative on the line right away. If you enter the last 4 digits of your Social Security number now, we can verify your identity.” I spoke the digits, and it got them. Immediately, someone picked up. The pleasant-sounding lady verified why I was calling, and then said “I can certainly help you with that, although we’re sorry to see you leave.” I got ready for the “retention” script to kick in.

She asked me why I was canceling, and I mentioned that my new phone (through Verizon) had made my T-Mobile service obsolete. “The new Sidekick III is out, and it is a much better phone than your old Sidekick” she said. Oh boy, here it comes, I thought. I tried to stop the retention pitch by saying that I just got a Treo. Amazingly, it worked!

“Oooh, how are you liking that Treo?” she gushed, obviously a fan herself. Wow… she actually listened to what I said, realized that there was no way she was going to be able to convince me to stay, and was still nice about it! After a bit of chit-chat about how helpful the Treo is in getting organized, we talked for a minute or two about when my last bill would come and how much the pro-rated amount would be. She updated my credit card’s expiration date, as it had just expired last month. She mentioned in passing that if I changed my mind and wanted to reactivate the account for myself or for a family member in the next 90 days that there would be no activation fee, and then she wished me a good day.

Total time of the call, from the time I pressed “dial” to the time I hit “hang up”… six minutes and twenty-nine seconds. Six and a half minutes to identify myself, verify I was who I said I was, change my credit card info, cancel my account, get verification of what the last charge would be and when it would go through, and I even had time to talk back and forth with her about how cool the Treo is!

If only their coverage were better… their prices are low, and their customer service is fantastic. Anyway, thought I’d share. People are always posting their negative experiences, but the positive experiences seem to be ignored.