T-Mobile Experts aren't experts. What can be done?

They really are not experts.... They read from scripts including the empathetic sounding words. They are hollow and self serving. Tmobile absolutely doesn't care and their actions show this over and over.  I have had so many calls, chats, etc in the past few months and they are definitely a different company from the one I have been working with for over 14 years.  I will be leaving Tmobile soon as a result.  They won't do anything about their awful service until customers leave and they are forced to. 

Honestly, the "Team of Experts" are just the same customer service team with a new name.  The only thing that they are experts at is making excuses and finding ways to blame the customer for any and everything.  They do not know how to get things done and let me tell you, I have spent countless hours on the phone trying to get resolution to issues with billing, errors with pairing my watch to the line that I have been paying for since 2018 but have actually been able to use for 4 months of that 2 years.  They tell you to try social media but that doesn't help either.  They are the same people with the same responses.  They are also experts at not helping you but with a really nice attitude and being pleasant while blaming you for not reading correctly, or the agent not properly notating the account.  TBH I think T-Mobile is getting too big for their britches and forgetting all the customers that helped get them to where they are today!  I might as well switch to another carrier because even if I pay more, at least I have a chance at getting decent customer service!

After their business hours you will be routed to a team in the Philippines.  Don't waste any more of your time if it is after hours because they do not know how to problem solve or go the extra mile to get anything done. 

I was more curious about how you would know that they were part of a local Chicago group when you have reached support by calling the 800 number, 611, or, have used the Call Me button on the MY T-MOBILE app to initiate a support call.

There has never been an instance on any call I've been a part of where the agent revealed to me their location. They could be down the street or in India and I'd be none the wiser, other than by listening for an accent. Though, conceivably, a person in any onshore or offshore call center could have any accent.

I don't know how they determine where you're at but I just moved to Arizona and when I get back there I'll have to try calling support and see if I get the Phoenix team of experts. I still have my Illinois phone number.

How do you determine where they are?

I usually open the T-Mobile App and click on the "Call Me" and their auto-attendant rings me immediately and I am connected to an agent. Perhaps, because I had been given a pre-paid account instead of the post-paid I asked for, I was getting a foreign call center rather than domestic. Though, since changing the plan to post-paid and attempting to upgrade to ONE Plus three of the four agents I spoke with had a strong accent and tended to be unfamiliar with how to apply this plan option. Only the last one contacted, Paul, spoke with what sounded like a US accent and he quickly established the Add On for the T-Mobile ONE Unlimited 55 plan.

I noticed last night in the T-Mobile App it now shows a

     "T-Mobile ONE w/ONE Plus Family Unlimited 55"

where the day before it was

     "T-Mobile ONE w/ONE Plus Unlimited 55"

and the day before adding the ONE Plus it was

     "T-Mobile ONE Ilimitado para mayores de 55"

I guess that the "family" aspect is something that was just implemented, and it now matches what the rather argumentative agent in chat was telling me was the reason I couldn't get the ONE Plus for the Unlimited 55 plan.

The bottom line is that there appears to be a consistent issue with training, supervision, and attitude toward helping that is evidenced in customers being unable to get relatively straight-forward issues resolved in a timely manner.

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Post paid plans have US call centers and when you call you will be directed to your closest team.

Last time I called for help I was directed to the Chicago team of experts.

More likely than not the breakdown in communication is because much of the 611 traffic is sent to offshore call centers where the "experts" are working from only the "snappy answers to common questions" that are available to them on the monitor before them. Beyond that, they aren't really T-Mobile folks.

Who knows, maybe they were answering support calls for Dell last week and will be taking calls for some other corporation in the future. Suffice it to say that this level of support is adequate for most of the calls. It is only when the questions fall outside the walls of the box they are in that the breakdown occurs. Mostly because at that point they make promises that simply aren't given any priority and calls are never returned by someone who might actually know enough to address the issue.

It is budget support staff backing up the more people-friendly and/or knowledgeable staff that are too few to go around.

The offshore call center personnel likely are graded by how many calls they take, rather than expertise. They are trained to ask and answer questions in such a way that the company providing the "support" can substantiate getting their contract renewed. The goal for them is to stay in business, not necessarily to learn, and to actually solve problems. Anything they promise to be passed up to the next level, or, promise to have someone call back won't be passed on because that would demonstrate that they were unable to provide support and add to the number of calls that were unsuccessful.

If T-Mobile doesn't spend enough time monitoring, nor, following up on the complaints here (which is why each new issue should be given a unique case number) then the hired guns at the call center can keep kicking the can down the road and it will never get better, except on the data presented to support how many calls they successfully dealt with BECAUSE THEY NEVER LET T-MOBILE KNOW THE CUSTOMER NEEDED MORE HELP.

In my case I eventually got a US based staffer, Paul, who was able to get the ONE Plus added to my plan IN LESS THAN TEN MINUTES. Mostly because he actually works for T-Mobile, gets regular training, is evaluated on actual performance, and isn't half way around the world having to work around speaking English only as a second language. So, he can relate to the people he speaks with a lot better than can someone from a completely different culture.

How come there isn't any good communication between TMo staffers here and the people at 611??

Customers frequently raise very valid points here, and the ideal path would include immediate

retraining so callcenter reps aren't giving out bogus/inconsistent answers.  They could also use

to be more willing to admit when they don't know and escalate appropriately.

I just wanted to swing by to toss in my two cents, @whatsthedeal​! Your feedback isn't falling on deaf ears -- I completely understand what you mean and most definitely agree with the suggestions you made in your original post. I'm SOOOOO sorry you had to not only go back and forth via chat for a while but then it moved to a phone conversation that was just as unproductive. 😥

I took a look at the plan you currently have and the feature you're wanting. For two lines on the 55+ plan con ONE Plus and AutoPay, you should be looking at $90/month which is what it sounds like you were wanting. The exact plan name is T-Mobile ONE c/ONE Plus para familias ilimitado 55+ (TI) and if you need to reference it to T-Mobile employees, it can be found on DOC# 443182. I wish I were personally able to assist you with your account to get this added for you without as much of a headache that has already been caused but we do not have access to customer accounts via the Support Community.

Again, I'm truly sorry you've been going around in circles to have a simple question answered but please know that I will most definitely forward your feedback of how we can improve our TEX teams.