tropicalfruition

I’ve been a subscriber to the T-Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot internet service for over a year. I pay quite a lot to be able to work while I’m drinking my Americanos at Starbucks and while I’m traveling all over the West Coast. But I have to say that, overall, I’m not a very happy customer. In fact, quite often I’m a really pissed-off customer!

A big reason I chose to subscribe to the T-Mobile service was because of its 802.1x “secured” wireless access. When I saw this option on their sales page I thought “Great! Now I’ll be able to access my accounts any time I want and transfer sensitive information without having to worry!”. Boy was I wrong…

Long story short, I can only access the T-Mobile secure connection about 50% of the time. Often it doesn’t even show up in the list of available networks. Even when I can login through the 802.1x it often takes about 5 minutes, or longer, from the time I open the T-Mobile connection manager to the moment I actually have secure internet access.

And when I finally get on the network, I usually get kicked off at least once or twice — often much more — and then must log back in (requiring another long wait). Obviously, this sucks when I’m trying to work. Between the frequent connection problems, the annoyingly loud music, and the dozens of little kids running and screaming around me, I’ve pretty much given up trying to do any serious work at Starbucks.

Trying to get timely help from T-Mobile customer service is a whole other story that deserves its own post. I’ve dealt with a lot of customer service people over the years but the T-Mobile Hotspot people are definitely the worst I’ve encountered.

Here’s the bottom line: I will soon be ending my stormy relationship with T-Mobile and signing up for Cingular’s new BroadbandConnect service, which looks pretty dang good. Wish me luck!