T-Immobilized Further

So last night I posted this blog update about T-Mobile unfairly prohibiting the use of entirely legitimate services such as Skype and BT SmartTalk on my £10 a month supposedly “unlimited data” internet Pay As You Go package. Today another nail was hammered into the coffin of this company in the opinion of this particular primate.

I received the following text message:

Smart Packs are a new way to make the most of your credit, a £10 Pack comes with 400 texts, 100 mins and 1GB data for 30 days. Get yours today, as from 17 June we're introducing some price changes that will affect your current plan. To find out more about Smart Packs and for more on the changes visit this link online or click here for free http://m.t-mobile.co.uk/MakingChanges

So instead of receiving unlimited text and internet, albeit with a very loose definition of unlimited, I will receive only 400 texts and 1GB of data, still doubtless subject to the unfair prohibiting of VoIP software. On top I will instead get a paltry 100 minutes of calls and, to add insult to injury, it appears, should that 100 minutes not be sufficient, the cost of calls will rise from an already high 25p a minute to a ridiculous 35p a minute, that's a 40% increase! Are they mistaking their customers for sheep and attempting to fleece us?

As readers will have seen, the package I am on was clearly advertised as offering texts and unlimited internet “for life”, so how can they now violate that advertised claim? Apparently very easily, though their Twitter support team claim it was a difficult decision. Either through an entirely appropriate predictive text error or perhaps because they saw how I ended my last blog update, they are sorry if these changes cause me any 'incontinence'.

Well who needs incontinence when companies like T-Mobile are all too willing to take the piss?

Remember, this is a company who refused to sign a Code of Practice introduced by Ofcom that was designed to protect customers from unfair terms, like the blocking of VoIP services. One can hardly be surprised at their seeming cavalier attitude towards their customers' rights or the service they supply.

So what do I do? Do I continue to pay these people £10 a month, as I have done in good faith for over three years, and receive a lesser service with higher call costs and unfair prohibitions, or do I throw away well over £100 of credit I have accrued and tell them to shove it where the signal don't reach? Currently I don't know what to do. I do know that other companies, such as Virgin, don't block Skype or BT SmartTalk even though they ironically use the T-Mobile network! They also appear to offer much better value for money, so what incentive does a customer such as me have to remain loyal to a company which clearly has no intention of returning that loyalty? In such a competitive market, this is clearly not the way to treat customers.

Whatever happens, my faith in T-Mobile is badly damaged by this situation. I had previously thought them a good company offering a decent service, what I've learned in the last 24 hours has shown me that is far from the truth.