It's been absolutely amazing. Over the last few years, whenever we've written a story about some of the shenanigans taking place inside T-Mobile Corporate and third-party stores by reps who were in fear of losing their jobs, we'd receive emails from others confirming our articles. These missives would come from T-Mobile reps, former T-Mobile executives, and customers of the carrier. This was much-needed validation because occasionally we'd receive harsh and even vaguely threatening emails telling us that we were way off base.
T-Mobile is reportedly looking to use the T-Life app for all transactions
The other day, my colleague Abdullah wrote an article about a T-Mobile rep who said that T-Mobile has a goal of forcing the vast majority of all customer transactions to be made over the T-Life app. This way, the carrier can eventually close all of its stores, fire its reps, and have subscribers control their accounts via the T-Life app. Sure enough, another T-Mobile rep got in touch with us to let us know that the story was right on, He has been a rep for T-Mobile for five years and tells us that "T-Mobile is forcing the T-Life app to be used for everything, from phone upgrades to add a (sic) lines."
If a customer comes into a T-Mobile store and is an authorized user of an account, but doesn't have permission to use the T-Life app, the rep is forced to call Customer Care. During the call, the T-Mobile employee has to request that the customer receive approval to use the T-Life app, regardless of how much extra time this adds to the length of the transaction. This rep also told us a little secret about how T-Mobile tries to get you to buy more expensive accessories through the T-Life app.
It seems that when using T-Life to buy accessories, the highest-priced items are placed at the front of the selection screens. Cheaper accessories available in stores are placed in the back or are not displayed in the app at all. And god forbid a T-Mobile rep process an order without using the T-Life app. In that situation, a rep must report to the proper managers why the T-Life app could not be employed for the specific transaction.
Acceptable reasons for not using the T-Life app to handle a transaction in-store include a customer's use of cash, a customer having a T-Mobile business account, or the customer's phone being broken. In these cases, the rep is not held accountable for the failure to employ the app, according to the letter we received. Yet, we recently wrote about a rep who used the broken phone excuse when explaining why he refused to help a customer who came into his store.
The plan is to end the commission-paying system at T-Mobile
Any other reason for not using the T-Life app is unacceptable in the eyes of management. Speaking of management, this rep says that the suits at T-Mobile Headquarters understand full well that forcing reps to use the T-Life app to complete transactions will lead to salesmen departing the company. But this seems to be exactly what T-Mobile President and CEO Mike Sievert wants.
Openings created by reps who are leaving or are canned for not using T-Life will not be backfilled according to the rep who sent us the letter. He says that the carrier will downsize its workforce and turn its stores into locations where customers can only get support for their devices but cannot purchase new phones. The bottom line is that this will be the end of jobs that pay commission at T-Mobile.
The rep who sent us the letter is concerned about his job and the jobs of his co-workers and made that clear at the end of his letter when he wrote, "I'm scared for my job. I'm scared for my coworkers job."
We have asked T-Mobile for a comment on this story and if one is received, we will update it