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I have been a faithful customer of T-Mobile for 4 years now, having switched from Orange and I must say I have not been disappointed. Over the last number of years, I have had almost no problems with the service. I am currently on the "Flext 35" scheme, which means that I pay £35 a month, and for this I receive £180 credit, which can be spent as I wish on text messages, picture messages, voicemail and phone calls to UK mobiles and landlines. The exact cost for each of these things can be found elsewhere online, but to give you an idea this equates to about 1800 text messages, or 900 picture messages, or 900 any-network, any-time minutes. However, the real strength of this contract is that I can mix and match my usage each month, so that if I make more calls than usual I get fewer text messages: like the name suggests, this is the most flexibility I have ever had with my contract with any network. It works brilliantly for a student such as myself: some months I find myself sending texts almost continuously, whilst other months I find myself making large numbers of phone calls to friends, family etc. As far as I know, T-Mobile is the only network to provide such a service, and no other network provides even a similar system, with interchangeable minutes and texts. As you can imagine, it might be quite hard to keep track of how much credit you have left, which is made all the easier by the (free) text sent to me weekly, informing me how much credit I have left and when my credit will next be topped up. I am also sent frequent reviews by T-Mobile, who advise me if it is worth transferring to one of the larger or smaller Flext tariffs (so far, apparently, my tariff has been perfect). The tariffs range from £34 credit (for £20/month) right up £360 credit per month, for £75 monthly, which I should imagine is designed more for businesses. As for downsides to the tariff, sadly mobile internet is not included in your credit, and this would be a helpful addition were the service to be reviewed. Another comment is that for most other T-Mobile tariffs the voicemail is included as a free service, but on Flext you are made to pay for it from your credit, which seems a little stingy. Finally, there is no rollover of leftover credit from month to month, though with the larger sums of credit (such as myself) this is less of a problem as it is quite hard to spend all the money! I recently had a problem with the service, that was actually a fault on the part of T-Mobile, and I shall use this as an example of their customer service. It was I that noticed the problem (a billing issue), and got in touch with their customer service team, who initially were contradictory and on occasion quite unhelpful (ironic, given I was calling a helpline). However, given time to mobilise, they became more than helpful - I was called back by one of their managers, who promised to take on the case for me, and who rectified all the problems as well as actually waiving one month's line rental as an apology. Compared to Orange, with whom my girlfriend is still contracted to, I feel I receive a much better service. Despite four years to improve the service, on occasions her texts still disappear into the "mobile-ether", never to be seen again, or turn up 24 hours late (quite a frustration when the text says "want to go for coffee in a couple of hours?"), and these are problems I had when I was still with them: upon bringing them up with Orange, I received a thoroughly blasé and condescending reply. In summary: - Flext is a unique tariff, offered only by T-Mobile;
- For a fixed monthly sum, your account is credited with a large sum to spend on texts, voicemail and phone calls;
- Their customer services are generally quite helpful, though it may take a little stomping and persistence initially;
- The level of service provided is of a high standard.
- Offering a personal opinion, I have been consistently impressed by T-Mobile, and would have no qualms in recommending them to you.
Staff editor, Mobile Phones Section, January 2007 |
