1 post tagged “pay wifi”

Paying for it at the hotel

I've learnt a lot of valuable lessons recently.  One that I'm going to share now is WiFi and er, paying for it.  Whilst in New York I paid for it twice (WiFi that is) and didn't get anywhere near my money's worth.

When looking at accommodation one of my main criteria (other than not having rats or cockroaches) was that I had access to WiFi and that it was included in the price.  I must've messed up as the place I stayed at charged quite a hefty sum for it.  Oh well, I thought, I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet and pay for it.

Wrong, wrong decision!  It barely worked.  Some days it didn't work at all.  Was it any help asking at reception?  No, they wouldn't have a clue and that would waste more time.

The worst thing was I found on the last day, just before I headed to airport, that at the front of the lobby there was a free WiFi spot (possibly a neighbouring business).  There was a few outlets, a comfy sofa and views on to the street (not great but okay for people watching!).  Had I realised that at the beginning of my stay I sure as hell wouldn't have paid for a service that didn't work.

The moral of the story?  Sometimes FREE is better.  We're led to believe that paying a premium for something ensures us a better service but, you know what? That's simply not the case!

Paying for it on the street

Whilst out and about I wanted data capability as well.  I investigated my cellular options and I, er, didn't have any (well not realistic ones!)  So what next?  Well I was looking for something like either The Cloud or BT Openzone (two WiFi providers in the UK.)  Could I find anything like that?  No, nearest I could find was T-Mobile's which seemed to have far less coverage than in the UK.

I bit the bullet (again!) and went with T-Mobile.  You'd think that would be as easy as popping in to the nearest T-Mobile shop.  You'd be wrong!  Not all T-Mobile stores can set you up.  Why?  Who knows!  I eventually tracked down one that did but they only had one assistant that could set this up and so I queued.  More wasted time as it turned out...

When I was eventually seen I was fortunately talked out of going with the 7 day option and was sold the 24 hour one instead.  Very fortunate as it turned out.  Why?  Well I was never able to connect.  I followed the procedure on T-Mobile's site to the letter and each time it came up with an error at the end of the process.

As soon as I was able to I fired off an email to their support desk.  I got back an automated reply.  The automated reply was actually rather amusing.  Here it is...

We appreciate this opportunity to work with you regarding your request. We currently are responding to requests within 24 hours.

I'm glad they appreciated the opportunity, maybe I should've charge them for my services!

Next day I decided to go back to a T-Mobile store and was informed that I had to ring up T-Mobile to sort the problem out, it couldn't be resolved any other way.  I tried to explain that I was from abroad and the cost of the call on my cell phone would end up more than the money I'd spent on the 24 hour pass.  That was met with a shrug.  Ho hum...

A couple of days after I got a non-automated letter from T-Mobile.  Yaay!  But wait, what's this...
 

Thank you for taking the time to contact T-Mobile regarding case 1452983.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused. Please give us a call for us to try and assist you with this issue.

If you have any further questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact us at anytime at 1-877-822-7768.

T-Mobile, you've just told me to do what they told me to do in the store!  What's the point of a support desk if your advice is nothing more than what is listed on your website (when login fails) or in a T-Mobile store?

By the time I received this reply I did actually have a US PAYG phone so I guess the call wouldn't be too expensive but there was little point calling the number.  Why?  By the time I received this I had lost my laptop as well as the T-Mobile print-out that had my login details!

Conclusion time...

If you can get it for free, do so.  If you can't, think long and hard about whether it's worth paying for.  This experience has put me off paid WiFi for good.  Once I get a replacement laptop I will simply stick to 3G in the UK.  Far easier, far more flexible and it works!  It's everywhere in the UK and there isn't any painful setup procedure.