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The TMobile SideKick Saga

Allow me to chronicle my experience with the TMobile SideKick while I sit and wait for a new one to arrive to replace the dead one sitting dark and lonely.

Feb 7th: I jump on Amazon.com to take advantage of the great deal. $50 for an SK after rebates. It says "Usually Ships in 24 hours" Excellent! I'll be surfing wirelessly and IMing from the car in mere days! And even better, I'll have it for my long road trip on the weekend of Feb 21st. I place the order for the $256 SK + shipping and handling.

Feb 8th-21st: I wait and wait and wait. Amazon delays my order, I call and complain, they refund my 3-5day shipping costs (a whopping $6.98). They say that the SK is Back Ordered. I complain some more. I keep checking my order on Amazon and my bank statement online. Suddenly I'm billed for the $256 and the order ships. After traveling between Texas and Tenn a few times things finally get sorted out and FedEx upgrades me to Priority to try to get it to me within the quoted time. Finally it arrives mere hours before I hit the road for said roadtrip. In the car the gf drives, I unpack, plug in to my acdc converter, activate in seconds, and I'm instantly online. I'm in love. (don't tell the gf :) I use the SK that Friday night, a tiny bit on Saturday, and then some on Sunday and Monday.

Feb 24th: Monday around noon, I'm driving to work, the gf calls, we talk for a minute, I hang up, notice the battery is low, so I turn off it off so the whole thing doesn't die. Little did I know it would never power on again. I try everything, hours spent on websites/forums/etc. trying every trick in the book (except the one where you open the case), and even the battery drain trick over the next two weeks. Nothing works. I call TMobile immediately when I get home. They (Pam) start off by saying "Take it to the nearest TMobile store and exchange it" but then she realizes that I bought it from Amazon and the response is call Amazon since it's within the 14 days of purchase.

I call Amazon, they're happy to send me a new one to replace it. Oh wait, let's check availability.. Oops "Not in Stock or Discontinued." My options are I can exchange it for another phone (which is NOT what I want) or I can wait and see if any become available. I decided to wait a bit and see if TMobile can help me.

I call TMobile back up and talk to Marcia. She's great, she understands Amazon is out and she's going to send me a new SK in 3-5 days. Excellent! I get off the phone excited, beaming to my gf about how nice TMobile service is.

Thursday, Feb 27th: I come home from work, and right on time is a package from TMobile in my mailbox. Only it's a little small. I open it up and find only a "hands-free kit." What the heck is this? Time to get back on the phone.

Call TMobile: Elaine says that the order was specifically for a "hands-free set" and was obviously a mistake. I explain the story to her, and ask if I'm getting billed for all this downtime. She says she'll suspend the account so I won't get billed anymore and she's going to send a prepaid label so I can return the handsfree set at no cost to me for the mistake. She then transfers me over to Amazon for more support and see what they can do for me these days.

Call Amazon: Jamel and I talk for awhile, I finally cave and say I want to return the whole thing (thank god I held off on the rebate coupons). He says he'll send out a prepaid label as well and I can return it for a full refund (which will credit to my account in 4-6weeks after arriving at Amazon). I don't want to cancel my service and lose the SK but it looks like it's come down to that. Wait, let's try something.

The TMobile Store 20 minutes away: I walk into the TMobile store and explain the situation to the guy working there. He repeats the "Amazon sold it, it's their responsibility" story. I ask him if he has an extra battery charger to check and make sure it's really my unit and not the charger cable. Yep, it's my SK. :P I've brought my checkbook for a reason though, I'm ready to see if I can get me a nice deal on an SK in store there that I can take home. He says it would be $250 plus a $50 rebate. I guess I'll pay the extra $150 to have this device I've fallen in love with. As I reach for my checkbook, I ask him if I can just transfer over my service from the old one, SIM card and all. Nope, turns out that since I have service already the device would cost me $350 with NO rebate. My checkbook stays in the pocket and I head home.

Call TMobile: back at home, I call up TMobile again as a last ditch effort. I get transferred to Wayne the technician. he's happy to exchange it for me after hearing my story and how I'd like to remain a TMobile customer. He asks if I want the 24-48 hour shipping for $15 extra. Sure, I'm even wiling to shell out more cash if it means I'll get this resolved finally. Things sound great, I double check and confirm that he is sending me a SideKick and not some accessory. I even get a tracking number. I hang up the phone content that I've made the right decision to stay with TMobile and try to get this worked out.

Tuesday, March 4th: Ok, it's been 120 hours (granted it's been about 72 business hours) and still no SK in the mail. Hell, I even stayed home from work when I felt a little bit sick on Monday, expecting to have my new SK to play with. Nothing. No mail, no package, no phone call, no email. I call up TMobile to see what the deal is. I give Brandy my order/tracking number, she looks it up and says that they're backordered 6 days. What?!?! Wayne assured me I would have it "by Tuesday at the latest."

So now I'm here, almost a full month after I've ordered the SK, almost two weeks without a working device, and $200 I'm missing because I was counting on a nice rebate. I'm waiting to see who gets here first, the SK replacement from TMobile, or the return prepaid label from Amazon. This will decided my fate. If I do end up returning the SK to Amazon for a refund. God help me if TMobile tries to charge me a cancellation fee for my account. I purchased an SK because I specifically dislike cell phones. I will very rarely use it for it's cell phone features, it was the web and IM features I bought it for. I have been unable to find a comparable product at a similar price, and would not want to drop down to an ordinary phone just to live out my contract and shell out $480 for nothing. This is my saga. I felt it needed to be voiced. The moral of the story is whatever you take from it. Don't get me wrong, I love the SideKick, I just wish I had one that worked.

One more attempt, I called TMobile to see if it would be possible for me to just take the SideKick down to the local TMobile store and exchange it. Brett, as he read from his notebook, said that I was now out of my 14 day period and that my only option would now be to wait for this backorder. However, amidst his canned apologies for my inconvenience, he was nice enough to give me 100 free bonus minutes credited to my account that I won't be able to use.