Hello,
In late December 2018, I switched over to T-Mobile as a new customer with two lines. On January 14, 2019, my friend (who is an individual on my T-Mobile account) went into a T-Mobile store and "upgraded" their phone (their previous phone was stolen in a foreign country and needed to be replaced ASAP). To highlight the importance of having access to our cell phones: my friend is a commercial airline pilot who is "on call" and when called on for duty, must respond to the phone call within 20 minutes. I am an investment banker who has urgent calls/emails flowing through to my phone every few minutes that I'm not at my desk. Our cell phones play very important roles in our careers and day-to-day activities.
As my friend walked out of the store with their new phone, their phone was "shut off" due to a SIM card error on the T-Mobile employee's end. Shortly thereafter, my phone was "shut off" and I was unable to make/receive phone calls and texts. I called the T-Mobile store to try and get ahold of my joint account holder (since I thought he may be there, and I could not get ahold of his cell phone). The employee who answered was the one who assisted my friend said "Oh wow I have no idea ... can you have your friend come back into the store?". My entire afternoon was ruined in an attempt to contact my friend and get him back into the T-Mobile store. In the meantime, my friend received a call from his employer (and he was not able to respond within the 20 minute time frame since he had no idea he was being contacted), and I was unable to perform my job duties. After my friend was able to enter back into the T-Mobile store, he was told that I would be without cell phone service until I implanted a new SIM card. So I had to go out the rest of my entire day and night without a cell phone.
My friend has now received a "mark" on their record with the employer since they were unable to respond to a work call. I had to drive home (my work is 50 miles away from home) at night on one of the country's most trafficked and dangerous roads, without the ability to contact anyone in case of emergency.
I need to know now if this is going to be typical of T-Mobile. Do I need to prepare monthly (or whenever) to not have a cell phone for the entire day? Does my friend need to expect to lose his job in the future when T-Mobile decides to not allow him to receive phone calls? I need to know so that I can relocate my services back to another provider.
And the only thing I receive is a dumbfounded apology? I am appalled at the way this T-Mobile store decided to handle this situation. This entire situation could have been prevented if the associate completed their job correctly in the first place. And now, we are the ones who had to pay for that mistake. I need more than an apology, and I need a letter from T-Mobile detailing this error (this error should be already detailed on my "customer notes"; and the representative at the store should be able to validate) so that my friend can forward to their HR department. This is completely unacceptable.
