In November I travelled to the US for DEMA 2009 in Orlando. During a stop over in LA, I signed up for a T-Mobile HotSpot account so that I could get access to wifi at a range of locations around the States. I signed up for the month-to-month advanced payment option.

Today I logged into the T-Mobile website to de-activate my account, and found that there was no way I could terminate my account in the "Account Management self serve" area. Thumbs down to T-Mobile - they seem happy to make it easy to take a customer's money, but they have no easy was to terminate an account.

I found the contact section, intending to send an email, and instead got onto a web chat. I was quickly connected to an operator named Cavin, who was polite and helpful. I explained my situation, and he advised that I would have to call and speak to an operator. Reminding him that I was in Australia, he took the initiative to contact the hotspot team on my behalf, relaying the questions using the webchat. In a few minutes I had a confirmation number and confirmation that my account would be terminated at the end of the current (pre-paid) month.

Thanks to Cavin and T-Mobile for being customer focused. Thumbs up for your customer service.

Customer Experience Lessons

1. If you offer an account management self service area on your website, offer a full range of option for customers to manage their account.
2. Empower your customer service officers, like T-Mobile did with Cavin, to actually serve customers, especially when they fall outside the normal rules
3. Be polite and helpful. Customers appreciate this!