Some T-Mobile reps say they have lost sales due to T-Life
There are several T-Mobile customers who walk out of the store without finishing a transaction because of the app.
T-Life costs reps some sales | Image by PhoneArena
As you probably know, starting on August 1, all upgrades and management of plans and lines will be handled by T-Life. Actually, this has been going on for some time now, leading to situations where customers coming into T-Mobile stores looking to replace a broken phone will not be sold one. That's because these customers could not access T-Life.
Some T-Mobile customers are making their feelings known about the T-Life app
A T-Mobile SiS store (store inside a store) is a kiosk or mini-booth inside a larger third-party store. You'll find these high-traffic locations inside some Costco, Walmart (2,300 stores nationwide), Best Buy, and Target. A rep at a T-Mobile SiS store revealed that this month, at his location, T-Life rolled out and mentioned how T-Mobile customers are beginning to make their feelings known about the carrier's transition to a digital wireless provider.
This rep, posting on Reddit as "Fusionhero," said that three accounts walked away because they did not like the process of having to go through T-Life for just about everything. Other reps weighed in to say how they lost sales because of T-Life.
Some reps are losing sales when customers refuse to deal with the process of using T-Life to complete an order
One rep, known on Reddit as "TrainerAngel," works at a regular T-Mobile COR store. He was in the middle of selling a smartwatch to a subscriber and asked to see his phone, probably to add the T-Life app so that the transaction could be processed as per corporate wishes. The customer refused to give the rep his phone, replying in the negative, and he got up and walked out of the store.
What should T-Mobile do?
This same rep says that T-Life has cost him other sales as well. He typed, "Like, I don't think T-Mobile realizes how bad this is gonna be; customers are gonna just switch and not deal with this."
Why Srini Gopalan wants to rely on T-Life and AI is beyond me. I feel sorry for the store personnel who have to deal with T-life on a daily basis. T-Life and AI are too unpredictable It has lost connection in the middle of help when texting with a customer representative to solve a problem and caused additional 30 minutes to solve the problem or complete froze when I placed an order. In my opinion T-Life and AI will cause lost revenue
T-Mobile customer and Reddit subscriber Guilty_Bid785
Redditor "dakbailey" wrote that he used to work for a TPR (an authorized T-Mobile reseller) and said that T-Life was forced on him before the reps at the corporate stores had to deal with it. "Can’t tell you how many accounts walked away on me," he said.
One rep says he lost 25 added lines to "obvious fraud" he could do nothing about
We always hear about dishonest salespeople "cramming" customers by adding items to their purchases that they didn't ask for. There are other ways that reps genuinely rip off customers, but there are ways that consumers can commit fraud on salespeople. For example, a T-Mobile salesman, posting on Reddit as "antihero_84" said, "I've lost probably 25 lines to eventual deacs [deactivations] that were OBVIOUS fraud that I can't do anything about anymore."
Inside a New York City T-Mobile store. | Image by T-Mobile
The idea of the T-Life app is to help the carrier transition to becoming an all-digital Mobile Network Operator (MNO). This, in theory, allows the company to let reps go, and pay less commission, close stores reducing lease payments, and bring more revenue directly down to the bottom line. But if, as many of these reps point out, they are having trouble closing on sales because of the T-Life app, is it possible that the carrier is making a mistake?
T-Mobile might not care whether its salespeople are so upset about losing customers over the shift to digital and the use of T-Life that they quit. The company will probably not need as many reps as customers visiting stores or ordering from home will be using the T-Life app.
Let's revisit this in a year to see how the transition and the T-Life app affected T-Mobile
A common complaint that T-Mobile employees have with T-Life, besides it not working occasionally, is that they don't get credit for a sale if the email address that a customer gives the salesman isn't the one they use for T-Life. That can also occur if the customer wasn't checked in properly and gave the rep an incorrect email address when using the T-Life app in the store.
Most of the reps agree that the company has invested too much money and time to call the transition a failure. Let's agree to meet back in one year and see how this all worked out for T-Mobile, its reps, and its customers.
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