Thinking of switching to T-Mobile? Don't.

I Hear you. The kid at the store in Boynton beach FL, stole my phone thinking I would not see that 800 trade in was not put on my bill and it say no trade in. it’s been almost 3 mos and the so called request have been sitting there since Mar 1st.   I should have waited for sprint to be gone to go to AT&T.   

T-Mobile store blatantly deceived me and refuses to take ownership over their mistake.

I joined T-Mobile earlier this year solely for a promotional trade-in plan valued at $830. I traded in my iPhone 8 in the physical store so I would be assured that my phone and plan qualified for the promotion. Between figuring out which plan to get, signing up, and transferring my data, I was in the store, chatting with the employees for over 5 hours. All the while, I was asking "Are you sure this phone, and this plan, qualifies for the promotion? If not, I don't want to sign up." The employees answer, each time was, "Yes, I promise you that you qualify. If you have any problems with the promotion, you can contact me." In fact, he even gave me his personal phone number to contact if I had any issues. I asked this question at least 10 times over the course of my visit.

While I was signing up, the employee "made a mistake" in not applying the promotion, I caught this mistake by reading the fine print of the contract and called him out on it. He acknowledged the error and proceeded to call his management to figure out what to do next. He was on the phone long enough to convince me that he had resolved the issue, and we proceeded with signing up for the plan. He ensured me once again -- "you're signed up for the promotion -- even if it doesn't show that way in your account, I promise it will be applied after one or two billing cycles." A few billing cycles had passed and I still wasn't signed up for the promotion. I texted the store employee and he assured me it would be applied after another billing cycle. I then called customer service, who assured me the promotion was applied moving forward and there wouldn't be any issues with future bills. Well, the next billing cycle came and went, no promotion.

Rinse and repeat twice more until I finally got on the phone with someone who escalated my case. She assured me this shouldn't be an issue once I submit this ticket -- "hang tight and you will hear back from us." When I heard back, turns out I never qualified for the promotion in the first place. I escalated within the call center. They still wouldn't own up to their mistake and grant the promotion.

I've now texted the original store employee twice since then, and he's officially ghosted me. I've spent 10 hours on the phone with T-Mobile trying to resolve this and am still out $830 on their shady sales tactics. I'm beyond disappointed with T-Mobile and just want the promotion, which I fairly signed up for, to be applied to my account.

All I've gotten from T-Mobile has been cheerful, seemingly helpful sales reps and customer service employees ensuring me that they've made a mistake, and that the promotion will be applied, only to have them throw the problem over the fence to the next employee, and go back on their word.

Whoever's reading this from corporate please look at my case records and see the countless lies I've received from your organization.

I just reported T-Mobile to the Federal Trade Commission, and would recommend others do the same.

They lied to me as well and now will not offer a solution other than me buying a new $900 phone when the issue is on TMobile’s end:

Deceived by TMobile and now they will not honor it. Bought a new phone while with Verizon and then months later decided to switch my family over to TMobile to save some money. TMobile acted like bringing my device over from Verizon would be a non-issue. Immediately, after transferring to the TMobile network, my text messages began failing to send. After 4 different calls with tech support, 4 times of resetting my phone to default factory mode (then reinstalling all apps and going through my healthcare organizations security to have several work apps readded to my device) and having to make two trips to the TMobile store (40 minute drive each way), my phone is still having text messages fail to send. I have zero issues with the phone, it is in perfect condition and operates flawlessly. However, TMobile’s solution to this is that I need to buy a new $900 device. How about ‘No!’. I just bought a new phone a year ago for $900 and that phone had zero issues on the Verizon network. TMobile guaranteed me that I could bring my phone over with me. Now that’s it’s not working as I was told, now they backtrack and say, “well we do have some issues with Verizon phones and typically it is with text messages or data issues”.

So you are aware that this is an issue yet did not mention it to me as a possible problem and now you want me to buy a new phone from you. What a gimmick!! The issue is on the TMobile side, it’s their network, they should be responsible for replacing my device since you told me that mine would work!! If they had been upfront about known issues with Verizon devices I would have reconsidered making the transfer to TMobile, which I guarantee is exactly why they did not disclose this information. For me, the $20/month savings between the TMobile and Verizon bills was not worth this hassle!