T-Mobile HORROR Story

I just had one of the worst customer service experiences of my life. I'm posting my story here in the hope that someone can give me some advice on what to do, or that someone from t-mobile might read this thread and help me out (Mods if this is the wrong forum, please let me know).

My T-mobile plan came with a very basic phone but since it was the first cell phone I'd ever owned, it seemed cool enough. But on 3/25/2008 I decided to get a slightly better phone, the Nokia 6133 and keep my old one as a spare since it was way past the return date. Not long after I bought the 6133 it completely died on me. The screen kept going black and it would only let me make emergency calls, when it worked at all. I tried re-seating the battery, memory, etc--nothing doing.

I had not physically damaged the phone and my local T-mobile dealer here in Oregon agreed to let me return it on 4/25. I got a slightly better phone--the Nokia 6133--as a replacement. I started using it and it was definitely better than my old phone. But now the upgrade bug has got me. I start thinking I should save my money and get something REALLY fancy, like a smart phone.

So I decide to return the 6133 and save up for something better. But how much time do I have to return my current phone? The T-mobile website says 14 days from the date of the original purchase. But does that start with the date I bought the first phone, the one that died on me? Or does it start with the purchase of the upgraded phone--the one that actually works? When I bought the new phone the girl who sold it to me said she thought I had until 9/25 to return it, but she didn't seem too certain either. I find my receipt and read the fine print and I still can’t figure it out.

So I called the 1-800 T-mobile customer service center yesterday to ask how long I had to return my current phone and the customer service guy I talked to didn't know either. He put me on hold for a minute to check and when he got back on he told me I had 14 days from the date I bought the WORKING phone to return it. Great! I have this Friday off so I can return it then.

Today I'm at work and I start worrying about the possibility of not being able to return my phone. (What can I say, I worry a lot). I think I better double check, just to be certain. So I spend a good part of my lunch hour on hold with T-Mobile customer service again. And the same thing happens--the woman I talk to isn't sure, so she puts me on hold, she gets back on the line, and tells me that yes, I can still return my working phone.

I ask if I can get some sort of confirmation and she says she'll put a note on my account in case there is any problem at the store. Great! But then she tells me that I have until the end of business hours TODAY to return the phone. I tell her I'm at work and I don't get off until 10 pm --the T-mobile store will be closed by then. She says she's sorry, there's nothing she can do.

I manage to beg off work early. I go home, grab my phone and my receipt and drive a half hour or so to the T-mobile store.

Can you guess where this is heading ... ?

I show the T-mobile guy behind the counter my receipt and he says the deadline to return the phone was actually YESTERDAY. I'm too late.

I tell him I spent my lunch hour on the phone with T-Mobile customer service, they said that I had until today to return the phone, and that I asked them to put a note on my account DOCUMENTING that I had until today to return it, PRECISELY so I wouldn't have to go through any hassle like this. I tell him I left work early so I could meet the deadline they told me.

He acts like he doesn’t believe me. I very politely ask him to please check my account for the note. He says his computer is off so he can’t look at the note. He seems kind off mad about it. It’s getting near closing time and I can understand his wanting to go home so I politely ask him to please turn his computer back on and just check for the note. He grudgingly agrees to do so and reads the note. Then he says that the person who wrote the note made a mistake. That they must have thought there were 31 days in April but there are only 30, and that’s why they said I had until today to return it.

I tell him I don’t know anything about that, I don't know what was in their minds, I only know what they told me, which is that I had till today. I tell him that the girl who sold me the phone also said something about my having until the ninth to return it. He asks me her name so the manager can have a talk with her. I tell him I don’t know her name.

He tells me it is too late for me to return the phone. He tells me that only a manager can override the something-something and the manager isn’t there. I ask him if there is someone he can call. He calls someone and spends a few minutes on hold. He asks me a few more questions. Then he tells me that since T-mobile told me the wrong return date, they will give me a $20 credit on my phone bill. But I don’t want the $20 credit. That won’t even cover the time I took off work to get here, much less the $200 I paid for the phone. I just want to return the phone. He says it’s too late. I ask when the manager will be back. He says not till Friday. He gives me the phone back and says he will have the manager call me, but the way he says it, it’s obvious that the manager is just going to say the same thing.

Now, I work in customer service. And I know that if my company gave a customer a documented return date on an item, my company would HONOR that return date. Even if it was off by ONE day. I also know we would apologize to the customer for the extra hassle we might have caused him or her. But not only does T-mobile refuse to honor the return date they GAVE me, not only do I get no apology for my time wasted and money lost, but I get treated very COLDLY, like I’ve come in the store to ask for spare change. I know how rude and unreasonable some customers can be and I’ve taken great pains to remain very polite in seeking to return the phone--I even thanked him in the end, though now I wish I hadn't--but it makes no difference. They already have my money—and that’s all they seem to care about. It doesn’t make sense to me: they get to keep my $200 and lose me as a customer for life? Will that really work out well for them in the end?

Thanks to any of you who managed to read all of this. I know it is very long and somewhat rambling. But this experience has left me a little shook up and I had to share it. If any of you have any advice that might help me I would greatly appreciate it. I’ll let you know what happens on Friday, but I don’t have much hope.

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Originally Posted by rickyhansen5

Yeah, I have heard alot of horror stories like this before. EVERY company though gets there fair share. They seem to all be alike.

Not all alike... My wife blackberry Pearl trackball quit scrolling down last weekend and she bought the phone at Best Buy with a 30 day return policy. Problem was she bought the pearl 6 weeks ago. She took it back and told them the problem. They took that phone back and gave her a new Pearl.
I had also taken my Sidekick back after having it over two weeks and told them I wasn't happy with the Sidekick and swapped for a Blackberry Curve too. . Best Buy seems to be a good place to do phone business.

I haven't heard any horror stories lately!

That sounds like a nightmare. But good for you, I wouldn't let that go without a fight either. It would seem that companies nowadays only have dollar signs in their eyes and have lost sight of the fact that the customer is always right. Especially the fact it is documented on your account only solidifies what you are saying. T-Mobile fumbled and dropped the ball period. It doesn't matter how many days are in the month or if it was a leap year or what. If anything the representative that told you you had so many days to handle the matter and wrote the note in your account should be penalized for being incorrect, not you. But hope you have good luck with that.

Well time has passed so hope you tell us what happened in the end and hope everything worked out for you; its awful when you work in customer service and find out other persosns are not as efficient as you are.

I saw your post and I would like to reply.

The 14 days to cancel service and return equipment is from when you originally purchased the phone.

It is NOT from when you got the working phone. Exchanging or replacing with another phone does not reset the 14 days you have to cancel the service.

When you called the T-mobile number, they were incorrect in telling you that the 14 days starts when you get the working phone. T-mobile Customer service does make mistakes. T- Mobile customer service should have explained the 14 days to cancel was when you originally started the service. This is the fault of T-mobile and not the store. T-mobile customer service poeple dosent always know and will make verbal promises and you are now stuck with the service.

I'm sure the store would like to help you, but they cannot make T-mobile give one extra day and so they cannot go one extra day. The store was correct in stating that they did make the mistake, and T-Mobile will give you extra minutes for free for the mistake, but they won't give you the one extra day to cancel the service and return equipment.

customer service is sometimes really bad..

WOW...that definitely is a trip..

I think we've all had our ups and downs with t-mobile....

Check out bestbuy!!...they really do rock!
good luck

That really does suck but actually you have 14 days from when you started your account to return the phone. Even though I think now they extended it to 20 days. If you purchased it online or the phone then you have 14 or 20 days from when you receive the phone but if it was in store then yea it starts right when you purchase and walk out with the phone.
But ugh I really do hate when one person tells you something and then you go back or call and you find out the original person had lied

T-Mobile sucks, I lost calls all the time. I now have verizon & I always get reception where others dont.

I doubt if who ever is thinking that they will be sorry for the lost clients. Masses useing phones and buying new and switching from one service to another. People just are like people. The same about service that is run by the people.
That just happens.

I haven't heard any horror stories lately!

Thats why i solve this problem to begin with. I am the type where i always want a new phone. So..... Considering T-Mobile is a GSM carrier i just go out and buy a used phone and put my sim in that and viola! Thats how i got my Nokia 5310 Xpress Music and i Love it!

I am involved in a customer service nightmare with T-Mobile. I’ve tried dealing with them to no avail. First I spoke with “Ralph” from the “office of the president.” I’ve also written to their media relations department, Robert Dotson, Brian Kirkpatrick, Susan Nokes and Hamid Akhavan, all of whom have ignored me. All I want is something fair and simple, yet the are they have dug their heels in and are being completely unreasonable—and have been quite deceptive to boot!

My 19 year old daughter has not has good luck with her T-Mobile phones. She had a Razr which gave her problems on many occasions. She eventually switched to a Wing—the source of her current, ongoing problem.

My daughter has gone through several Wings. In the beginning, they were replaced with refurbished units. She dropped one and paid the insurance claim out of her own pocket. Her current Wing (a new unit), which she received a few months back, started to give an error message saying it was out of memory, repeatedly froze, etc. It finally stopped working altogether. Research on Google shows that this is common problem with this phone. The tech at a T-Mobile store said that there was nothing they could do and suggested she go to Wal-Mart and get a pre-paid phone until she got a new Wing!

I tried reaching Ralph from the “Office of the President” (877) 290-6323 x-341-8022, several times. After leaving many messages, Ralph finally called me back. He said, “If the account number isn’t left, I won’t return the call.” To me, that is NOT customer service. All he would have to do is to look up my daughter’s records OR call me back! Finally, Ralph got back to me, then my daughter. Initially, Ralph told my daughter that he would exchange her Wing for any other T-Mobile phone. She was pleased to hear this. My daughter went to a T-Mobile store again and tried out different phones. Because of her needs and the shape of her fingers, etc., she settled on the G1.

When my daughter called Ralph back and told him the phone she wanted, he told her that she could have any phone EXCEPT THAT ONE! I’m sure you can imagine her disappointment—and outrage. He offered to give her a Sidekick 2008 (quite old) or a Dash (even older—and one she doesn’t like). These are not even close to being in the class as a G1 or a Wing. He said that she could get the G1, but she’d have to pay for it—and offered her a “discounted” price of $179.99. I then spoke with him and expressed my disappointment and how it was insulting that even though she had a flawed, lemon of a phone, she’d have to pay even MORE money for a different one—one that was also close to a year old technology-wise. I asked for his supervisor to call me.

Jennifer Martinez (877) 290-6323 x-8011 called me the next day. She basically reiterated the same offer, making it sound like we were getting some amazing deal, saying that “retail” price on the phone was $399.99. This was absolute deception, of course, as hardly anyone ever pays the “suggested retail price,” and, the T-Mobile website offers the very same price of $179.99 to ANY new customer!

I declined Ms. Martinez’s offer and told her that I would be contacting other people. She said that “I could feel free to do so, but they would tell me the same thing.” Now, I understand empowering employees, but when they come off as sounding like even the owner or CEO can’t or won’t do anything they won’t do, it just sounds ridiculous.

Apparently, my letters trickled back to Ralph, who called me and clearly indicated that he was authorized to speak on behalf of all of the executives that I had written to.

Among the many absurd things that he said, he told me that he could not (or…WOULD not) contact my daughter when I called him the first time, since I didn’t’ leave her cell number, since there were others with her name in their system. I told him flat out that as far as I knew, there are NO other people with my daughter’s name in the world! I again wrote to T-Mobile asking for some type of proof of this. The fact is, Ralph refused to be proactive and just make a simple phone call to me. He tried to cover his tracks with this ridiculous statement. Ralph also told me that the $179.99 was a huge discount—the only thing that that my daughter qualified for. It seems that T-Mobile is more is more interested in getting new customers than keeping the ones that they have.

This situation has been going on for over a month. My family has had an account with T-Mobile for many years. We’ve paid T-Mobile thousands of dollars through the years. My daughter’s Razr and now her Wing have given her problems. I’ve tried to resolve this fairly, yet they refuse to budge over $200—and an old phone—one that’s already being updated!

I appreciate the chance to share this information with your readers and let them know that the vows of great customer service by Susan Nokes and her team are nothing but lip service.

Interesting and I have a Wing too.