Sidekick Outage Relief: $100 Gift Card, Maybe Some Data Back

Microsoft’s loss of contacts and other personal data for T-Mobile Sidekick users following a week-long service outage continues to anger and frustrate, while T-Mobile tries to placate with compensation. T-Mobile had already offered a month of free data to all its users in exchange for the outage. Now, the carrier’s extending another olive branch specifically to users who “experienced a significant and permanent loss of personal content.” For those people, T-Mobile will provide a $100 gift card, good for monthly bills or any other T-Mobile product or service. The carrier will automatically send details to affected users, so no action from the consumer is necessary.

Meanwhile, Computerworld reports that some users may get their data back. “Recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible,” a Microsoft spokesman said. Indeed, some Sidekick users have already said that the data has reappeared on their phones. Of course, with $100 in credit going to anyone who doesn’t get their data back, the pressure’s on Microsoft to salvage as much as they can. They’ll need that money for the inevitable class action lawsuit that will follow. Meanwhile, T-Mobile has at least temporarily stopped selling the Sidekick, just in case all of this negative attention has piqued your interest. [via Boy Genius Report and Computerworld]