T-Mobile Outage in 2009: How did it impact your life?

What action can we take against T-Mobile?

FACT: We had no service with our T-mobile for 2 weeks
FACT: They are giving us ONE MONTH of credit.

FACT: “informing you that your lost data could not be retrieved. ”
FACT: If you have wisely made a SIMS card backup. To get your address book back go to the address book. Go to the menu, click settings, and go to import SIMS contact (NOTE, this only works if you made a copy of your address book upon your SIMS Card)

FACT: I have been a Sidekick user ever since it came out and this is the longest services lost I have ever received.

Unfortunately, T-Mobile has become the whipping boy for this fiasco as the visible face of the loss. This loss was not T-Mobile’s fault unless, and only unless, the knew that there was no backup of the data being made and chose to ignore that fact. The fault lies with the companies who maintain and tried the disastrous update of the SAN servers, Microsoft/Danger and, possibly, the company doing the actual update depending on who was supposed to be responsible for the backup of the data.
T-Mobile has been stepping up to the plate to offer a month’s free data service but any further liability should lie with Microsoft.

My SIM card (which only holds 200 contacts) got wiped out because the Sidekick I have was giving me trouble before the outage (a precursor to what was about to happen, perhaps.) T-Mobile CSR is the one who told me do a reset on my phone! I had over 250+ personal contacts lost and 700+ business contacts; most of which are irreplaceable even by sifting through the past years of printed bills which is what I’m left doing. My contacts were backed up online with the Sidekick Interface but of course that’s down too. T-Mobile is refusing to even replace my phone which has now become a $300 fish tank ornament. It’s useless. Many of us have filed complaints with the FCC. A $20 data plan credit is nothing in terms of compensation. This fiasco has disrupted my life. I understand T-Mobile is the end-partner/user of the Microsoft/Danger server system; however T-Mobile is the one to whom I pay my bill to every month therefore I am holding them accountable for making this right with me.

One thing I do NOT agree what t-mobile is doing is that they are still charging the 200 dollars cancelation fee. That is just not right.

Well – to not repeat my story on every thread in detail. The sum, I’ve been with T-Mobile since they were Voice Stream in Chicago back in 2002. I’ve had a sidekick since 2005. I lost all of my contacts and information, including emergency contacts which I did not having on Tuesday morning which also almost cost me my job. I took the suggestion of one of the previous responders and filed a complaint with the FCC. Personally, one of three things needs to happen in order for this to be rectified: either 1. My contacts and information get restored – and a credit to my account (I have been promised a credit for both sidekicks on my family plan.) 2. I noticed the sidekicks are no longer available on their website – suspicious as it is, I have a theory that if they are under contract, Danger/Microsoft/Sharp will not be renewed or dropped all together – which leaves us existing users (still deciding on how to go about this) without a service. So they’d have to give me $$ amount equivalent phone to make up for it. I paid $500 for this phone, I pre-ordered the first wave of these back in May of this year, so good luck with that. Or 3. They are giving people the option to cancel their contracts without penalty, something they were not doing 3 days ago – so that’s new. Regardless, all of my history with this company is going to be wiped and I’ll have to start over with a new company and get railed with whatever obscene charges they have for plans these days (I’m on a grandfathered plan) AND I’ll have to buy a new phone, again this one is barely 5 months old and I paid $500 for it. So they can let me out of my contract AND pay me $500 to get out of it.

Some how, I don’t see any of this happening. So I’m researching any class action lawsuits going on to make one of those 3 above things, or something to that effect, happen.

Thanks for your feedback everyone, we’ll be sure to keep you updated on this, especially if theres any word from the FCC.

Additionally, On 10 Oct 09 they promised their consumers another update today (12 Oct 09). As of 8:29 EST they have still not updated us. They also deleted one of their main forums where consumers were posting and chatting with one another regarding all of these issues. They are digging themselves into a deeper black hold of poor customer relations. Not a good move T-Mobile.

Another suggestion is to alert your local State Attorney General’s office as to what is going on in addition to the Washington State Attorney General’s Office (since that is where T-Mobile is based out of). There has been much talk about class-action lawsuits as well.

I DON’T LIKE THE FACT THAT MY SIDEKICK IS STILL MESSED UP/ DAMAGED..I CAN’T GET TO MY CATALOG ON MY PHONE. I RECEIVED EMAILS SLOW..SOMETIMES I DON’T EVEN RECEIVED THEM.. MY PHONE WILL CUT OFF BY ITSELF…MY CONTACTS ARE NOT EVEN STORED ON THE TMOBILE WEBSITE..IM GONNA TAKE THIS PHONE AND THROW IT SO HARD…IM MAD CUZ I CAN’T DO ANYTHING ON MY PHONE…IM PAYING FOR THE INTERNET AND CAN’T EVEN USE ALL THE WEBSITES..THIS IS SO RIDICULOUS….UGH