[blindlaw] needed to re-post.

Mon Dec 14 14:23:22 UTC 2009

I attended a seminar last summer concerning cell phone accessibility for the
blind in San Francisco.  I believe it was arranged by the San Francisco
Lighthouse for the Blind. The major companies, including Tmobile, had
representatives present, each of whom stressed theire awareness of the needs
of blind customers. 

Try to find out from someone in TMobile the name of the person who is
responsible for these issues.  

Dealing with local store people on these issues is a waste of time.  None of
them have any real product knowledge and are absolutely clueless when it
comes to our needs. 

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of William ODonnell
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 12:19 AM
To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blindlaw] needed to re-post.

This email is being sent on behalf of William O'Donnell in care of Yvetta
Scott,  The below post is lengthy; however, it is in regard to T-Mobile and
some customer service issues that she is having.
    I have been a t-mobile customer since 2005.  I am currently locked into
a contract until 2011.  My issue is the inaccessibility of both t-mobiles
products and the insensitivity toward my visual impairment by the
representatives from t-mobile.  
    I prefer a product that has both a screen-reader and a screen
magnification program.  However, screen magnification (ability to increase
font to at least 14 PT) is absolutely necessary for me to use my phone
affectively.  
    I use phones that have complete data functionality as this is my main
source of internet use especially email exchange.  Over the years, I have
had phones such as the dash, Samsung slider, and most recently, a blackberry
8320.  These phones that I have had provided the ability to increase the
font to a suitable size; however, I ran in to many technical difficulties.
These difficulties ranged from frequent system failures with the phones, as
well as the phones rebooting themselves during calls or other important
activities.  
    My problem with the screen magnification capabilities is as follows.  My
newest blackberry 9700 does not save the font changes to be applied on all
the phones functions.  In addition, when I am on the internet, and try to
use the zoom-in function feature, the words become jumbled and unreadable.
I proceeded to obtain a phone that met my needs.  This is where the problems
began with both the customer service representatives from T-mobile as well
as the account specialty department.  Over the past few months, I have had
many conversations in an attempt at finding an accessible phone for my
needs.  Many times, I have been misinformed about t-mobiles products which
turned out to be inaccessible.  An example of this was the G1 and the touch.
In a final attempt at finding an accessible phone, I visited the T-mobile
store located at 735 6TH Avenue in New York City on Friday, December 11,
2009 at 4:00PM.  The in-store representative was understanding of my
needs and spent an hour trying to find a phone for me.  In his attempts, He
contacted the customer care call center for some suggestions.  After a few
moments, a request was given to the representative for me to speak with the
customer care agent.  Although I can not recollect the agent's name, I do
recall him saying that "as the technology becomes newer, they are taking out
the feature which enables customers to increase the font size.  The call
concluded with me realizing that I must cancel my service with this company.
The in-store representative then showed me his personal HTC Touch Pro 2
which has the ability to increase the font size; however, the font can only
be increased to an approximate size of 10PT.  
    I have done some research and found that AT&T is able to successfully
meet my needs.  I am ready to cancel my contract with T-mobile As a result
of T-mobile's inability to provide an accessible phone for me.  This
evening, I contacted T-Mobile to discuss canceling my contract.  Once again,
the representative tried to offer me several phones such as the G1 and My
touch.  In addition, she informed me that "by law, T-mobile offers phones
for the hearing impaired and the blind; however, these are simple phones
that do not support data plans."  She proceeded to tell me that most of
their visually impaired customers "don't use data plans."  She told me that
I would have to pay a cancellation fee of $200.00.  I asked to speak to a
supervisor about this since I feel that I should not be subjected to pay
this fee.  She then told me that I should contact their legal department at
the following address.  T-mobile wireless: Legal department 12920
 South
East 38TH Street Bellevue Washington 98006-1350
I would appreciate any help in this matter as I feel I should not be
penalized for canceling a service that I can not use.  I can be reached via
email and help in this matter as I feel I should not be penalized for
canceling a service that I can not use.  I can be reached via email and
telephone at the following.  My contact email is yvtscott at gmail.com and my
phone number is (917)407-5666.  Thank you in advance,
Yvetta Scott

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