My T-Mobile Nightmare: Buyers Beware

UPDATE: After T-Mobile read the details of my blog, they contacted me within a couple of days and offered to replace my Samsung Behold 2 that was having the problems with the new Samsung Vibrant. The phone (so far) works great, it is an amazing phone, T-Mobile made the appropriate adjustments to the bill for the new phone, and covered the shipping cost with an adjustment to our bill. In addition the customer representative was very kind and helpful.

I don’t remember ever using my blog to write a negative report about a company, however, I have never dealt with an issue as extreme or as messed up as the one I am about to share from T-Mobile.

Let me say up front, my wife and I have been with T-Mobile since they purchased SunCom and up until this past March (2010) we did not have any issues with them. I was with SunCom since 2002 and other than some coverage issues when we first switched from Alltel, we were 100% satisfied. Oh, how things change….

The Nightmare Begins:

My wife and I discovered that we were eligible for an upgrade on our phone because we were out of contract with T-Mobile (basically we were free to find a new company if we wanted to). We went to the T-Mobile Limited in Evans, Georgia to see what kind of deals they had on phones. Nicki and I were excited to finally be able to get a good deal on new phones. At times my phone would simply not receive calls, while Nicki was looking for one that had a keyboard to make texting easier.

I think what bothers me the most is the fact that Nicki and I had a sweet deal on our mobile plans and now due to deception and outright lies, we’ve lost that plan, can never get it back, and we are stuck for two years completely unsatisfied, while problems still persist.

More Headaches for Life?

We were told by the T-Mobile representative that we had to change our SunCom plan over to a T-Mobile plan in order to get one of the new android phones. This was a huge jump for us because I had been with SunCom for so long, they were giving me loyalty discounts on top of my already Un-Plan that gave Nicki and I an Unlimited family plan for less than $70 a month (before taxes & fees). Now I was going to have to upgrade to a more expensive T-Mobile unlimited plan and add unlimited data for an extra $30 per month. When we asked what our monthly bill would look like, we balked at the price. I asked if this was the best that T-Mobile could do since we had been with the company for so long. The representative said, I can get you an additional 15% off your monthly bill, so he figured up what our new monthly total would be. With this 15% discount, it was still a decent increase in our bill, but I knew the increase in technology would be worth it.

Knowing that we were out of contract, we wanted to do ourselves justice and check to see if there were better deals with other companies, so we left T-Mobile and went shopping. The only problem is, we went shopping based on the 15% discount we were promised, so when comparing with other companies, we were still getting a better deal by staying with T-Mobile. The next day we upgraded our plan with T-Mobile (under the assumption of an additional 15% discount).

The Lies, Deceptions and Headaches:

As I signed the contract, I asked the representative where the 15% discount was listed. He told me that it would not show up on the paper he was giving me because it was a loyalty discount and that it would show up on the first bill. The fees listed were just those of the normal rate plans.

Month #1: When the first bill came, no discount! I called T-Mobile. The representative on the phone told me that he can see any and all discounts that should have posted or that are waiting to post on the next billing cycle. He said there was no discounts waiting to post. I asked him what I should do and he told me that he personally would go to the store and stay there until the situation was corrected. He also informed me that the location that sold me my phone was not a T-Mobile store, that they were a dealer.

*Note: Nicki and I had no idea that this was a dealer. The store is located in a retail strip so we assumed that it was a smaller T-Mobile store. Nowhere did we see that it said they were an authorized dealer. The representatives even wore the T-Mobile pink shirts*

I went to the store and told them about the situation. Now the salesperson said that the discount wouldn’t post for two months. I took the phone representatives advice and told them I wanted the situation resolved now. The store rep said that he would check into it. What did he find? The discount had been rejected the first time. He said, “It must have been an error in the submission.” So he got on the phone to “correct” it. He was even going to call “someone” else to get us a little bit of a credit on our next bill for the troubles. When he was on the phone with T-Mobile Corporate to fix the discount, I remember him saying, “Ok” and hanging up. I asked him, “So, is everything cool?“  He responded that everything was taken care of and the discount would appear on our bill.

Month #2: The second bill arrived. Guess what! No discount. I called T-Mobile and explained the situation again. This time the gentleman said that he saw the discount and it was ready to apply to the third months bill. He issued us a credit and we ended the call.

Month #3: The third bill arrived. Guess what! No discount. Since it was a busy month I was not able to get with the local salesperson and it slipped my mind every time Nicki asked me to call them.

Month #4: The fourth bill arrived. Guess what! No discount. This time I called immediately (Saturday, July 3, 2010). I spent at least a couple of hours on the phone with T-Mobile, demanding something be done that day, and here is what I found out:

1. The “discount” I was promised was only good for “Features” not the monthly plan. So what would have been over a $20 per month discount was going to be $6 or $7
2. I wasn’t eligible for this “discount” promised to me. It was a corporate discount for Wells Fargo/Wachovia.
3. The reason it was rejected the first time is because the store rep did not submit employment verification. Why? Because I do not work for Wells Fargo/Wachovia, he knew that, and was trying to be deceptive. I found this out 4 months later from the T-Mobile phone rep.
4. The reason the discount did not post afterward and was in limbo (and this is where the situation gets frustrating and messed up) is because T-Mobile Corporate asked the salesperson for my employment verification back when I went into the store to get the discount fixed. He said “Ok” and hung-up on the lady. She fortunately marked this on my account, one of the many phone reps I talked to on Saturday, July 3, informed me about this. The salesperson boldfaced lied to me, knowing that I was not eligible for this discount, that it was not for the total monthly bill, and that the discount would never post to our bill due to his not submitting the proper forms and hanging up on the corporate rep. His final lie was when he told me everything was fixed.

T-Mobile, No Help At All:

I spoke with at least five people on Saturday, July 3, 2010. After several hours on the phone I had a migraine. One of the men who I talked to (he was supposed to be a supervisor) told me straight up after I told him the above story (for the fourth time that day). “I’m just trying to figure out what the truth is here!” The audacity! Two representatives before him pointed out that it looked like the salesperson lied to me and now this supervisor is insinuating that I am lying. What was his grand plan?

He would credit back one month of the data plan and remove the plan for the rest of our contract. I just had to go back to using my old phone. I told him I did not like his solution, but would have to talk to my wife. In my migraine induced state, she reminded me that we upgraded the phone because I had problems with it and agreed with my assessment to the man that we would be losing money (the upgrade credit we got, the additional $75 we paid for my phone, and we would not be eligible for another upgrade for two years). This supervisor seemed pleased with our losing money.

When I called back, I rejected the deal and told the representative that I was talking to at the time that we have lost interest in staying with T-Mobile. I have a friend who is a upper manager and I believe he talks up T-Mobile because he works there and he has to. They transferred me to the “Retention” department. Where the lady offered me $10 off our data plan and to upgrade our text plans to unlimited for the $5 monthly plan we were already paying. I accepted. Why? Because this was the best plan? No! I had a migraine and my family was waiting on me to go see How to Train Your Dragon at the theater, and after being on the phone with T-Mobile for several hours I had come to realize that they are perfectly okay with allowing their representatives (even if it is a dealer) to screw you, outright lie to you, and you (the customer) are supposed to be perfectly content and okay with that deal. They want you to honor a two-year contract, but they themselves do not honor their word or provide good service.

They seem satisfied that we are locked into a two-year contract that was formed from the basis of a lie. In addition if we wanted to pay what we are paying we could have done so through another company that we turned down due to the false 15% discount.

The Nightmare Continues:

In addition to dealing with all of that, my nightmare with T-Mobile now continues. My phone, the Samsung Behold 2, has a well documented problem (Noted on Phandroid too). Its so notorious that T-Mobile themselves admit that they have had several users complain about it. I have now lost all of my personal data on my memory card four times! The phone keeps saying that the external memory card is not inserted or that the external memory card is damaged. So, I have to continually reformat the disc.

I called Samsung because the phone is four months old and still under warranty. They told me there is an over-the-air update that T-Mobile needs to send me. So, I called T-Mobile. They say there is no over-the-air update ready at this time. Oh, its ready, they just aren’t releasing it yet. They claim I have two choices for a solution: #1 Pay around $40 to buy a new 4 GB memory card to replace the 2 GB card that comes with the phone or #2 Wait an unspecified amount of time until T-Mobile sends out the software update that fixes the phone.

So once again, T-Mobile is okay with me spending more money, especially on a phone that is under warranty, that I just bought, but they are unwilling to send me the needed update that makes my service and my phone work properly. They say they need to test it a little longer. How much longer? Until my phone is out of warranty? T-Mobile also claims that it would be pointless to replace my phone because they all use that software at the time.

So they can’t send me a memory card that works? Another type phone that works? Really?

So from T-Mobile being perfectly okay with their representatives lying to customers and then giving the customer the run around for hours, only to give a portion of what was promised in the first place, to now refusing to provide service that is functional or fixing a phone that is not working properly and is under warranty. I would say, do your homework and beware of what you may be getting yourself into with T-Mobile.

…From personal experience!

Nick

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