Fraser Speirs Cocoa and Photos

T-Mobile Terminations Team vs. iPhone

T-Mobile UK are clearly terrified of the iPhone. I’ve had a hacked iPhone running on their network for a few months now and was investigating the cost of selling that one and switching to a legit iPhone on O2, mainly to get one that will be properly supported before the SDK comes out. I called the terminations team at T-Mobile and said I was looking at switching to O2 to pick up the iPhone. What followed was the most hilariously desperate cloud of FUD I have ever been on the receiving end of.

I’ve switched networks and moved my number several times in the past and have occasionally been offered mild enticements to stay with the current network, but I’ve never heard an operator directly lie about the capabilities of a phone on another network before. I suppose they feel free to do this because the iPhone is almost unique in being only available on one network in the UK. T-Mobile could hardly disparage the capabilities of phones that they also carry.

Anyway, the operator read me their script of what was, at best, quarter-truths and mostly outright lies.

Firstly, there was a warning that “there are lots of problems with the iPhone”. What these “problems” were was left mostly unspecified, but I eventually extracted the claim that you “can’t send an email from the phone”. Then there was the claim that several features are “not compatible with O2’s network”.

Oh, be still, my aching sides.

Next, there was a hoary anecdote about a woman who switched from T-Mobile and then took the iPhone back after one day. The operator claimed that he had personally given this woman a PAC (number porting) code and then he somehow found out that she had retuned the iPhone. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had the experience of phoning a call centre and coincidentally happening to get the same operator twice in a row. I’m putting that story on the shelf between “Improbable” and “Untrue”. We rounded off with claims that the iPhone was “expensive” and “not very good value for money” - which points are at least debatable - and finally some feeble attempts to explain that there are other phones that “are just as good”. I could only laugh.

Now, there’s the usual cut and thrust of salesmanship, but it’s pretty surprising and quite disappointing to be outright lied to. Clearly, T-Mobile are very, very worried about the iPhone.

They ought to be.

As a fellow switcher from T-Mobile wanting to switch to O2 for an iPhone (I got mine in Glasgow on launch day), I also got a strange story when calling for my PAC code. I was told that the iPhone “wasn’t tested yet” and therefore did I know the risk that I was taking? I replied that this was fine and (to his credit) the guy on the call was then very helpful in getting things processed. He did also say, at the end of the call, that while T-Mobile would be happy to get me back, he was sure I’d be happy with the iPhone as it was a very nice phone!

Since T-Mobile are selling them in Germany, they really should avoid the use of FUD.

Fraser: You should have heard the FUD the media had on Friday. Some thought that 18 month contracts were unusual. They hadn’t realised the value in unlimited data. And some dimwit from ITV thought the iPhone had no camera. Seriously: we almost choked on laughter at that stage.

When attempting to get my PAC code, I got repeated calls from ‘Vodafone Retention’. They too seemed afraid.

And rightly so.

N

When I switched from T-Mobile (US) to AT&T (boooo!) I only got a minor amount of FUD - something about some super Samsung smart phone that just blew the iPhone away (uhuh, whatever). But the best part of the termination phonecall was the insane amount of flirting the t-mobile rep did to try and keep me with t-mobile. Gonna miss T-

I switched from Orange to the iPhone on O2 in the UK. First time I’ve queued for an apple launch - at the store in Glasgow there was a great atmosphere.

I rang Orange a few weeks before to sound them out about switching - I told them I’d have stayed with them if they were carrying the iPhone, and the first guy I spoke to asked me a series of questions about the iphone “to make sure I knew what it was” - but he was helpful, and then the retention phone calls started - three or four of them, which isn’t too bad. But the one that took the biscuit was the guy who, when I rang for the PAC code just kept asking stuff like “do you know it’s very expensive” until I just firmly but politely asked him to just do what I asked. They really were making a supreme effort to keep me, and while there were no outright lies there was plenty of laying it on thick about the contract and the cost.

Anyway, it’s done (or will be when my PAC code arrives!) and I love the iPhone so far. Edge isn’t as slow as I feared, though the guitar solos all sound the same, and the interface and especially the multitasking are fantastic - I love being able to keep listening to a song while browsing or emailing.

It’s stuff like this that makes me less bothered about being stuck with O2 for 18 months.

Before they were announced as the UK carrier, I was looking forward to trying out whoever else got the iPhone. I’ve been with O2 for five years, as I can’t be bothered trying to decipher potential mobile phone deals every year.

Stuff like this gives me the impression that they’re all the same. I mean, T-Mobile. You carry the iPhone in Germany and slag it off in the UK? You got any shame?

Can the next person who gets the T-Mo script record it or write it down so that we can all have a laugh..?
The backlash here in the US even got as far as Congress where someone who wanted to ride the iPhone media frenzy decided that the lawmakers needed to look at these long term contracts that Apple and AT&T were making people sign. No hint of irony that you’ve always had to sign long contracts to get any phone when it’s new, and most phones for a reasonable price. Suddenly it was news if it could be attached to the iPhone…

Got mine Friday night (didn’t queue). Showed it to some people at work on Monday, including a colleague with a Nokia N95. Saw him again today, and he’d already bought one (I assume yesterday or early this morning). This is a guy who is pretty canny about getting phones etc and had been going on about how the N95 did GPS etc. Today it was “the interface on the iPhone was just so clean, and I liked how the applications all just worked”. I think he was on Orange.

I’d say that TMobile etc are right to be worried.

Did you tell the T-Mobile guy that you were already using an iPhone? “Have you used one yourself, Mr. T-Mobile?”

- ask