On Us with AirPods promotion & rebates

Hey there, I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble with the rebate site.  You’re right, there have definitely been some issues with it but I’m confident the web teams will have it sorted out soon and you’ll be able to complete the AirPod promotion.  

Also, while there are some employees who frequent this community as well as dedicated moderators, no one here has access to your account and I encourage you to reach out to T-Force via Facebook or Twitter so they can assist you further.

I just tried the promotions site and it also seems to not be working for me BUT I’m sure they are fixing it, because I switched from AT&T to T-Mobile this year and got a new iPhone 12 and Apple Airpods was able to redeem a rebate for the AirPods before. I just upgraded another device I had for a similar promotion w/ free Airpods.

Also, to the person complaining that the promotional credits are spread out over 30 months, they explain that multiple times when you sign up and it’s in the details on the website when you sign up for the promotion. Don’t blame T-Mobile because you don’t know how to read. You’re still getting a free phone so what are you complaining about? Verizon isn’t going to pay off the phone for you or give you a free phone, they’ll only give you $500, in the form of a Verizon gift card, when you trade in your device, which is less than half the price of a new phone, and if you read the fine print (which you clearly don’t know how to do) you still have to stay on their plan for at least one year or they’ll charge you the $500. All carriers have some sort of condition for you to stay with them for a certain period of time as part of their promotions. That’s how they get you to stay. 

The rebate site still is not working. No estimated time to have this fixed.

Someone had trade in old phone for new phone?? And pay the remaining balance of the new phone??? I need to know if you can do that and still get the credit for the old phone in your account. 

It was an absolute mess having to switch from Sprint to T-Mobile. Couldn’t get any updated phones with Sprint so forced to switch to a more expensive plan with T-mobile after 23 years with Sprint, Promised this airpod promotion was a great deal and so easy. They did not provide me with the airpod code the website is requesting. There is no way I would have accepted switching to T-mobile if I had known it was going to be this much of a hassle. I feel like I just received a bait and switch. How do we get our money back for these AirPods?!?! 

We tried every possible configuration of serial numbers, model numbers etc found on the airpod box, airpod case and even the tiny numbers the airpods themselves. None of these took as there were not enough digits and nowhere that said it was an IMEI#  As a last ditch resort we put in the IMEI# found on the Iphone13 box and it went thru. It said my submission has been received and it would take up to 8 weeks for the rebate and I could check back in 24 hours to check the status. Time will tell if what I did was right or not. 

SECONDLY, to address this:

"T-Mobile pushes the un carrier never any contract. So if you have promotions that lock you into contracts for 30 months, you don’t get to advertise being the un carrier with no contracts. It’s misleading."

In 2016, Moshe Farhi, who ALSO didn’t read the fine print, filed a class action lawsuit against T-Mobile for misleading advertising, when he was billed for the remaining balance of his device after cancelling phone service. This lawsuit was DENIED by the courts because:

IT IS CLEARLY STATED HERE THAT THE COST OF THE DEVICE IS SEPARATED FROM THE COST OF SERVICE. Not only that, even if youdidn’t read that on the website (which, by the way, took two seconds of Googling to find this) IT IS EXPLAINED WHEN YOU SIGN UP for the phone plan that the promotional credits are spread out This is NOT misleading, you just didn’t do your research.

Actually it’s not clear that IMEI number refers to the IMEI number on the IPhone, even when you just posted the excerpt from the website. The leaflet handed out at the store detailing with the Airpod rebate program similarly does not mention anywhere that the IMEI number is found on the Iphone or the Iphone box and NOT the Airpods or the Airpod box they came in.

When you are getting a rebate on Airpods... why would you automatically think that you would have to look for it on the IPhone?. That doesn’t make logical sense. I even Google searched “Where is the IMEI number on Airpods and there was a lot of answers and misleading information as to what an IMEI number is.

Usually when you have to apply for a rebate on any product that you just bought, the normalcy is to submit a product number, a Serial Number or similar type number that was on that product or it’s packaging alone and not on some other product it is affiliated with. The T Mobile website does not say or imply anywhere “THE IMEI NUMBER IS THE ONE FOR YOUR IPHONE” The instructions were not clear or concise, when it could have and should have been. 

I switched from Sprint to T-Mobile and upgraded to 4 IPhone13Pros.  I got the AirPods on us promotion and asked all the questions because I seem to get burned every time I upgrade.  Now they are telling me that only 1 of the AirPods are eligible for the rebate.  Not one person that I talked knew this.  The first person told me that that were all free all I had to do was pay the taxes.  Another person told me after I saw the charges on my bill, that I will be credited double next billing cycle.  We got disconnected in the middle of this conversation and she never called back.  The next person then tells me that I have to apply for the rebate and didn’t even know that until she was reading it as we were talking.  She was disappointed herself because she got the AirPod promotion for her family.  Then she tells me that I have to do a rebate for all 4 AirPods.  While trying to apply for rebate which was not working she reads further and says that I am only getting the rebate for 1 of the AirPods not all 4. So I ask for a supervisor because I am furious at this point.  Well the supervisor said that I to send the other three back if I don't want them and only because I didn’t open the boxes. The one box that I opened can not be returned.  Trust there’s more to this saga because I was on the phone for hours.  I trusted that the sales persons knew what they were doing and I didn’t have the promotion in front of me, however I asked them to tell me everything I need to know because I have been burned before. So if I ask you to tell exactly everything that I need to know then don’t lie to me with a bait and switch. I didn’t want to go with T-Mobile because of their reputation, however I think all of these carriers have bad reputations.  I still can't believe this happened because I spent so much time asking all the questions from the beginning.  I was on the phone so long that the salesperson gave me a curtesy credit for taking so long.  

At this point I wish I would've stayed with Verizon.  So much wasted time trying to fix errors made on my account.  Now the next screw up is the apple headphone rebate.  Denied and I've been on hold for almost an hour already.  I want a refund for those earpods as we would've never bought them! 

Logging back into this thread to address a few things:  
AIRPODS DO NOT HAVE AN IMEI NUMBER, which I can’t believe has to be said. You are supposed to use the IMEI of the PHONE which was purchased as part of the promotion, and AGAIN this is explained on the website, in the same section where they explain that the promotion is spread out in monthly bill credits:

 

Thanks for this post! But I must say this I have been with T-Mobile for 3 years and sometimes T-Mobile is not clear as they should be.  You state it the instructions are on the website.  That’s if you can find it. Sometimes T-Mobile burns the lead and you have to do a deep dive to find info on promotions and rebates.  I went to the T-Mobile store to ask how do I do the rebate? I was told if I had purchased at the store they would have done it for me. I was told that the phone representative should have done it. Called in and the phone representative had to research herself on how to submit and where to find the 15-Digit IMEI # on the AirPods. I was told it is inside the charging case where you put the AirPods. Lo and behold I find some tiny, tiny, tiny writing in faint grey writing. WHY? Who and the heck can read this? Not even my 11 yr old grandson with 20/20 vision.  Even she was unaware that the promotion is asking for the iPhone 15-Digit IMEI # because the form doesn’t state that fact. Also, I ordered the AirPod Pros and was sent AirPod 3 because the Pros are out of stock.  They did this without giving me the opportunity to decide if I even wanted the 3’s, which I don’t! Thank you for your post.

I upgraded 3 lines to 3 iphone 13s and submitted 3 airpod reward requests.  Today I was told only one request can be approved based on the following reason: 

• The limit has been reached for the number of payouts for this account on this promotion.

I clearly remember the promotion said each account could receive 3 rewards.

Why does T-Mobile do this to its customers?  If T-Mobile only wanted to provide one reward for each account, why just say so in the promotion?  I could buy airpods from other places with much lower prices.