Suncom

Suncom

Recently I was ported from ATT wireless to Suncom. It has been an absolute nightmare—no matter how often Harry Connick Jr. tells us that Suncom cares about its customers (and this is very frequently if you spend a lot of time on hold with this company, as I have lately), the truth is that the service is extremely poor. First, reception on Suncom’s network is miserable. I see the message “no network available” far more than I care for. I never had this problem with ATT wireless. But this is not the greatest grievance that I have. The truth is that Suncom promises more than it can deliver and that its employees do not appear to be informed about the product they are selling. Since I travel a lot it is absolutely essential that I can use my cell phone in Europe. That was a major reason why I selected ATT wireless; it was one of the few companies operating in NC that offers this service. When Suncom began approaching me as a soon-to-be ex-ATT wireless customer I asked on at least three different occasions if there were roaming agreements in Europe. I was assured that I would be able to call in Europe and with this information I decided to make the switch. Well, last week I found myself in London and Amsterdam with a cell phone that was worthless. There was no international roaming, which was most annoying because pay phones are harder and harder to find and not at all convenient. My wife approached Suncom about this and, amazingly, heard four different stories: (a) Suncom does not offer any international roaming; (b) it only offers this in Canada and the Caribbean; (c) it is setting up arrangements now but they are not in place yet; and (d) I should not have any problems using my cell phone in Europe. After I returned from my trip I finally spoke with a manager and it turns out that (c) is correct. But even on July 1 an email communication with my wife indicated that “The following countries have been identified as countries in which SunCom customers have the ability to roam:” and it then went on to list both the Netherlands and the U.K. Clearly Suncom had promised more than it could deliver. But what astonishes me even more is that out of four well-meaning employees I got four different stories. What is Suncom doing in its customer rep training? Meanwhile they have agreed to let me out of my contract, no small feat I gather from various complaints that I’ve read about this aspect of the company. But I am still extremely unhappy because they are requiring me to stay on for a month when I am forced to find another carrier so that I’ll be covered when I am traveling. Not only that, it is clear that Suncom talked me into a contract by misinforming me about something they knew to be a key concern for me—international roaming. Why am I bound to a contract for another month when they clearly did not hold up their end of the bargain? Moreover, here too one of the customer reps painted a picture very different from reality: if Suncom could not deliver international roaming he thought I could get out of the contact quickly. I wish Suncom would invest less in those highly irritating and empty commercials with Harry Connick Jr. and more in customer rep training and better coverage. If Suncom cares about customer service I haven’t seen it.

Marco

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