T-Mobile Hotspot grumble

[jwgh]

Every so often it becomes necessary for me to work someplace that isn't my house. These days I like to go to a Borders to do this. Border's is a relatively nice working place because it tends to be clean, quiet, and if I get frustrated with a customer and have to get up and walk around for a little while to cool off I can go look at books and stuff.

But Internet access at Borders isn't free; their access is via T-Mobile, so you either have to sign up for one of their packages (but I don't have to do this often enough to make that be cost-effective) or pay $10 for a day's access.

So that's what I do. However, there are two annoying things about this.

(1) You need to have an account on http://hotspot.t-mobile.com/ to buy the Internet access, and they require that the user name of the account be six characters or greater. This means that my usual account name, jwgh, isn't acceptable. (In situations like this I just double it to jwghjwgh. But I don't see why a policy like this makes sense.)

(2) If you don't use the account for a while -- which I generally don't, because I usually just use my home Internet connection -- then your account gets disabled. Unfortunately, there is no obvious way to re-enable an account once it has been disabled, and also when an account has been disabled its account name can't be reused on a new account. This is a pain in the butt.

Comments

[nervousmotion.livejournal.com]

If there was anything I could do about this, I'd be on it in a heartbeat. We get a lot of grumbling customers that our wireless isn't free. I don't get why it's not, but hey, I just make the coffee. *sigh*

[jwgh]

I should go complain that the books aren't free.

[nervousmotion.livejournal.com]

Oh man, you totally should. Information should be free! Start the revolution!

IT CAN BE FIXED!

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Considering that most commercial locations that offer wireless access to customers do so under the aegis of a handful of companies such as T-Mobile's hotspot, it beggars the imagination that one cannot buy, at these locations or at all sorts of grocery/department stores, those plastic cards that enable one to use M minutes or H Hours of internet usage as one buys disposable cellphone usage. The username might be issued to you upon activation of your card which could be a problem if you turn over cards rapidly, but supposing you can refill the card instead, it wouldn't be. Considering that various locations want to increase their rates to prevent loiterers (different needs of a high-turnover mall Starbucks vs. a large urban Starbucks that can encourage people to hang out all day and drink cup after cup), maybe T-mobile and other such WISPs can make several rate plans, so you buy a $30 card and while it decrements plan (A) $2/hour at the low-turnover bookstore coffee shop, it decrements according to plan (D), $10/hour, at the high-turnover fast-food restaurant that needs its tables available more than it needs you to repeat your business an hour later. You buy the card for $30 and it says on the back "Look for the plan logo [pictured]," and then tells you that $30 will get you 15, 12, 7.5, or 3 hours, depending on where you use your internet.

More importantly, I can think of 10 people for whom I'd buy these for as gifts that they wouldn't necessarily buy themselves.

I'm sure the usual terms for calling-cards would apply-- minutes expire after 30 or hopefully more like 90 days or whatnot.

THIS IDEA IS FOR STEALING! Make it happen, people!

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

This is kind of like a T-mobile Uncool Spot.

Hey, I amuse myself. Oh ho ho!

Ho!