T-Mobile Wireless USB Rocket on Mac OS - Prepaid No Contract

by Diane
(Athens, GA)

DON'T BELIEVE ANYTHING IN THE INSTALLATION BROCHURE if you're using this with a Mac, starting with the Easy 4-Step set up. After an hour of my own frustration, followed by 70 minutes online with technicians who are probably very smart in their own language (not English), I finally got the thing hooked up and running. Still waiting for my prepaid minutes to load "within 24 hours."

To start with, there is no automatic installation when first plugging it into your Mac. Look for the directory on that device and run a program that will download software you need to install (side hint: make sure you have alternate internet access when doing this). Once that program is loaded, open your browser and the T-Mobile website automatically loads where you will be stymied again.


My screen showed a random number and tried to tell me that it was the device's phone number. When you attempt to set up an account you'll run into other problems--no one tells you that it cannot be done online but requires a lengthy phone conversation with someone who does not speak English. When you finally call for help they'll ask for your SIM card number but beware, the "Easy Installation" guide shows an incorrect picture for how to find the SIM card. I had to return to the store to learn how to pry the thing open (not slide, as the image shows). In that phone call, do NOT let the first person you speak with transfer you to a technician! You'll spend 10 minutes on hold only to be told that you need to speak to someone about setting up an account. That happened to me--twice.


Really folks, the 40 minute phone conversation could have been reduced to 5 minutes if I didn't have to ask for everything he said to be repeated (and repeated, and repeated). My heart breaks to think of unemployed Americans who could be trained to provide this information as effectively as the people on the other side of the world who were doing their best (but not very good) to help me. I stopped asking questions because it was pointless since I never understood the answer. The one bit of humor came when he tried seven times to say the word "English" before I understood him! And these problems were not just one technician--I spoke with four people during the ordeal and language was problematic with every one.


The real kicker came when I was told I'd receive a text message with my new temporary password but the assistant could not tell me how/where the text message would be sent. He finally decided I needed to give him someone's cell phone number so they could receive the text for me. When I got home and plugged in the USB laptop stick, I explored the menu and found a Message center where that message was waiting for me.


These types of problems are inexcusable in today's world where technological set-up should be transparent and un-problematic, even for novices. And to pretend that long painful conversations with someone who cannot speak English is "customer service" speaks very poorly of T-Mobile or any corporation. I am frustrated and insulted and outright mad--and I still have to wait a day before my prepaid minutes appear. Remember the old adage when Bell Telephone was the only game around--"We don't care, we don't have to." It's time a humane small-scale broadband service provider stepped up to the plate and did things right.

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