Well, as you may know T-Mobile has recently introduced the T-Mobile @ Home where you can keep your landline # and use their router equipped with a SIM card and you can make calls for $10 a month. Basically it is the same VOIP service that is provided by Comcast, Vonage and others, but for a cheaper price. I have been a T-Mobile customer for 6 years now and have been very satisfied with their service. I had heard about this when I was in a T-Mobile store in June and was excited about the technology.
I signed up for the service on Saturday 7/12 at a T-Mobile store in our neighborhood. I saw a brief demonstration and saw how easy it was and figured I could save $20 a month by switching from Comcast. Little did I know that this would turn into a nightmare of epic proportions with no real answers from T-Mobile, Comcast, or Linksys.
First, I found out that it would take 10 days to “port” my number over from Comcast. I was not too worried about this, but this has been a problem. I also realized that my current phone (a 2.4 Ghz) would not work with the T-Mobile @ Home router. So I upgraded to the V-Tech model sold by T-Mobile. The V-Tech phone is a nice phone with unbelievable sound quality, especially using the speaker phone. When I purchased the V-Tech phone on the 19th, I was told that if my number had not been “ported” over by Tuesday, to come back in and they would get to the bottom of it.
Tuesday came and we found out that we cannot receive any incoming calls on our landline, but we could make outgoing calls. I went back to T-Mobile and they said that this was a sign that the “port” was in process. They checked and said that the port had taken place… They decided that it was probably a SIM card issue and after they tried to call @ Home customer service and we sat on hold forever, they gave me a new SIM card and figured that would solve the problem.
I got home and had a few things to take care of and then I tried again to no avail. I called T-Mobile Customer Care and they had me do the usual power cycle of the cable modem and router, etc. When they were stumped as to why the Phone light would not illuminate and I had no dial tone, and that the SIM card was showing that it was installed but not registered, they passed me off to Linksys. Did I mention the fact that I sat on hold for 30 mins again before a live voice answered!
I called Linksys and talked with a nice guy who sounded like he was overseas somewhere. He had me do the same stuff with the router and the cable modem and then he had me take out the SIM card and put it in the other slot (the router has two SIM card slots). Same result, SIM shows being installed but not registered. He advised me to take the SIM card and the router back to the T-Mobile store.
I went back again today (Wednesday) to the T-Mobile store and explained my situation to someone else again for the third time. This gentleman was a bit more helpful. He took the SIM cards and tested both of them. He also called Customer Care and did not have to wait 30 mins and explained everything to them and he decided that it was a router issue. He replaced the router and sent me home with a new router and a supposedly working SIM card. Well, you guessed it, same result, nothing. Router works great with the Internet, but still no dial tone, no ability now to make or receive outgoing calls (I disconnected the Comcast phone equipment to make sure that it was not interfering with the T-Mobile stuff). No blue light illuminating for the phone, no dial tone. I checked, double checked and triple checked everything!
It is almost 11:30 pm and I am extremely frustrated because I cannot get this fixed. I am going to try again tomorrow morning and see what they say this time. Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed with T-Mobile and hope that they will fix this soon. I am wondering if they rolled this out too soon without working out all the bugs.
Stay tuned to see what happens with this nightmare….