Waiting For Donut

Google are naming versions of Android after cakes. My G1 is currently running version 1.5 – or Cupcake – and apparently version 1.6 – Donut[1] – is imminent. Every morning when I turn my phone on I’m hopeful it will tell me that an over the air update is available. Every day, so far, I’ve been disappointed.

Today I decided to ask T-Mobile customer support what they knew. I realise that this is clutching at straws as T-Mobile customer support never know anything but I thought I’d give it a try. I sent them an email and within minutes I got their standard auto-response saying that they would answer my query within seven days.

Then, this evening they called me. T-Mobile have this really annoying habit of phoning you in response to email queries. I thought I had made it clear to them that I didn’t like this, but tonight’s support agent was so keen that he decided to call me anyway. It seems that my account is marked ‘do not call’ as he noticed that halfway through our conversation and apologised. He told me that he had the answer to my query and I asked him to tell me.

Then he said that he couldn’t tell me until I had identified myself. I was astonished. I mean, it’s not as though I was asking for private details of my account. But he was adamant that I had to give him my password before he could give me the information he had for me. I gave him the password and it took him several seconds to confirm that it was correct. He then passed on the information.

Or rather, he didn’t. Or, at least, he didn’t pass on anything useful. The information that he couldn’t possibly give me until I had given him the password, was that he didn’t know when I could expect to get Donut. That information hadn’t been given to the customer service team. He recommended that I watched the web site for news.

This is the web site which advertises the G2 with a photo of the G1. I have no confidence at all in that site. I strongly suspect that it won’t be updated until a couple of weeks after I’m happily running Donut.

I have lower and lower expectations every time I have contact with T-Mobile customer support. But on this occasion they have managed to sail easily under the low expectations I had. Asking a customer for a password in order to tell him that you don’t have the information he has asked for is just ludicrous.

Is there anyone from T-Mobile reading? When can I expect my Donut update?

Update: On Twitter, @fcw suggested trying a manual check-in – by dialling *#*#checkin#*#*. I got a few errors when I tried that this morning (Javascript socket exceptions), but eventually it worked. Well, it worked to the extent that I saw a “check-in successful” message. I still don’t have Donut though.

[1] The American mis-spelling of “doughnut”.