We've already pointed out how important the T-Life app is to T-Mobile. Some reps believe that the plan is to have the carrier's customers turn to the app to take care of tasks and resolve issues that would have required a trip inside a T-Mobile store in the past. This will allow the carrier to close stores, lay off reps, and reduce its overhead. As a result, a larger percentage of T-Mobile's top-line (known as its gross or revenue) will make its way to the bottom line, aka net profits.
T-Mobile rep had to turn away a customer because his busted phone couldn't open the T-Life app
T-Mobile reps reportedly have a monthly goal of getting customers to use the T-Life app to handle a vast majority of the tasks that reps would have handled in the past. This is such a serious matter that reps will receive a written reprimand if their customers fail to achieve a monthly goal at the end of the month. We've heard that this goal is as high as 80% although the rep who wrote about this incident cites a 60% rate.
But what can a T-Mobile rep do if a subscriber can't access T-Life? One rep, who works at a T-Mobile corporate store, had to turn away a customer who was wielding a broken phone. The reason? Since the customer walked into the store with a phone that couldn't use the T-Life app, the rep decided not to help him. The rep wrote, "I'm well aware that this is not the correct behavior, nor the behavior that the company wants to see, but this is the behavior that the company REQUIRES."
For those who think that the rep is being selfish, his comment says it all. "I don't care if your kids will starve because you can't get work without a phone, mine will if I sell you one." Can you really blame the rep for turning away the customer if helping him could result in his dismissal? This problem is T-Mobile's fault. We've shown how requiring reps to adhere to a strict list of metrics they must meet has led some of them to break the law by adding accessories, lines, cases, chargers, and insurance without consent to a client's purchase of a new phone.
The scariest part of the rep's post was his final line. He wrote, "It's not my problem anymore. I'm numb to it, now."
If you're wondering why the customer didn't borrow a phone from another T-Mobile customer inside the store, opening the app from a different device than the primary phone requires the customer enter a One-Time Password (OTP) as part of a two-step verification process. Since that code would be sent to the broken phone, such a workaround would not work. The sad truth was posted by another person who reminded the rep that "Your job isn't to help customers. It's to do what the company says."
Many T-Mobile customers miss the Un-carrier days when John Legere was CEO
At one time, T-Mobile was lauded for its outstanding customer service. Those were the days when John Legere was CEO, and it was under his leadership that T-Mobile became the Un-carrier and held Un-carrier events designed to help end customer pain points. These included events like:
Un-carrier 1.0 (Simple Choice): Ended two-year service contracts.Un-carrier 6.0 (Music Freedom): Allowed customers to stream music from popular services without using their data.Un-carrier 9.0 (Un-carrier X): T-Mobile subscribers on certain plans received free Netflix subscriptions.
Legere's plan was to brand T-Mobile as the un-carrier, differentiating the company from rivals like Verizon and AT&T, which the former CEO branded as "Dumb & dumber." While this strategy worked like a charm, I've heard from several T-Mobile reps and customers who tell me that things have changed. Instead of trying to separate itself from its rivals by solving customer pain points, T-Mobile now creates customer pain points, making it no different than the other two major U.S. carriers.
We've reached out to T-Mobile for a comment on this article. If there is a response, we will update this story.