Is It in My Head?

- 16 Aug 2014

I was thinking about this in Potrero

and Campo

again today. Those are two places where my car didn't have radio reception on a drive I took in August, let alone 4G service from T-Mobile.

It's one thing for a cell service company to overstate their coverage as T-Mobile has - after all, these companies have scant consumer protection agencies watching them. Further, you can't use what you think are regular means to resolve disputes you have with them if you have a problem. On the other hand, you'd think that a feature in an app might work or be repaired to work that you pay $10 a month for. You'd be wrong about that, too.

People buy micro SD cards for their cellphones to make room for the junk (ahem, Amazon) that their service provider or manufacture forces on them that goes in to internal memory. We use the external card for make up for what the service provider doesn't give - like 4G service in San Diego's back country or along Interstate 15 from Barstow to Las Vegas. Slacker has greater concerns, like dodging royalty payments.

If a user can download enough music to listen to for a drive across the desserts of the Western USA where cell service is scant, Slacker would have to pay a great deal in royalties. That's why they don't fix the bug in their code that won't allow most users to save music to external storage. It's also why tech support jacks up and glazes over users who request it.

Last week, when I started the app, it asked me about my satisfaction. I replied with the same complaint that I had on 23 July, the same topic that this blog is about. I was told that they will pass the request on. I have no confidence that Slacker will act on my request ever. I will have to make a plan to find another service as a consequence.

Dear T-Mobile,

I'm sure that you think that I'm a dunce for the omission in my last reply to you. I should have replied to you Stop putting machines out to do what people won't be bothered to do themselves.

I suppose that you will continue to insult my intelligence (sic) by thinking that I will give my opinion for free to a company that netted approximately $35,000,000 last year AND I pay $ 180 for service monthly because of the typo in my last SMS to you.

Regards, Ken

We know that T-Mobile has violated the law so often that the National Labor Relations Board has consolidated the complaints against the company and is requiring it to defend its illegal actions nationally. And still, the company decided to vote against a proposal that would have brought T-Mobile’s intimidation of workers out of the shadows and provided a comprehensive report about labor rights violations to investors and consumers. That is unacceptable!

Join me in telling the company that we will not tolerate this and that they need to do right by their workers, investors and consumers!

Sometimes government works right.

I'd like think that you were paying attention and acted at my urging: thank you, followers.

AT&T’s plan to take over T-Mobile is about gouging consumers, destroying a competitor and firing an estimated 20,000 American workers.

We at Free Press have warned about this from day one. Now, in a letter that was inadvertently leaked, one of AT&T's own lawyers has confirmed it. The letter reveals the merger has nothing to do with expanding AT&T’s coverage to 97 percent of the country – the main argument the company has made to gain Washington’s support – and everything to do with eliminating the cheaper T-Mobile option from the marketplace (and laying off half of its workforce) to pad company profits.

Every AT&T argument about the supposed benefits of this merger has now been proven wrong. As AT&T’s case unravels, President Barack Obama must speak out against this dangerous deal.

Sign this letter to the president and let him know that we can’t afford to lose tens of thousands of American jobs just to keep AT&T happy.