As a preface, I have been a T-Mobile customer since 2004. I last upgraded my phone all the way back in 2009. Last week, my four year old blackberry took a trip through the washing machine, so I decided it was finally time to upgrade my phone again. I currently am a member of two different corporate organizations that offer discounts on rate plans and phone upgrades through the Business Advantage site. On Monday of this week, I went through the Advantage site and place an order for a Samsung Galaxy S3 for 99.99, plus a rate plan for 54.00 a month, which would have been unlimited talk/text plus 500 MB of data (I'm not a big data user, so I'm not concerned about the lower amount). I went through the entire checkout process, confirmed that the one-time charge would have been 99.99 (plus tax), and my total monthly bill IN ITS ENTIRETY would be 54.00 a month with my Advantage discount. I placed my order, and I got a confirmation saying it was being processed. I have a screen shot of my desktop which clearly shows that there were no other charges other than the 99.99 one-time payment for the phone and the 54.00 a month for the service. On Tuesday morning, I got an email from T-Mobile saying there were issues with their website and that I had to call a 1800 number they provided to complete the processing of my order.
I called the number that afternoon, and the first rep I talked to said they had no record of that order, and that I would have to start over from scratch on the phone with him. I told him that was fine, as long as my initial payment was still only 99.99 for the phone I ordered plus my monthly service was only 54.00 a month after my advantage discount. He informed me that would be impossible, because Advantage upgrade orders could only be placed through the advantage website. If I completed the order over the phone with him, it would be a 69.99 down payment for the phone, my discounted monthly rate would be 54.00, but I would have to pay an additional $20.00 per month installment for the phone. I told him I wasn't interested in that offer and that I was interested in completing the order I already placed the day before. He kept on telling me that must have been a mistake, because T-Mobile no longer offers contracts that match what I ordered. While I was on the phone with him, I talked him through the exact order process I went through the day before page by page on the website, up until the point I was at the screen where it clearly stated that I would be charged 99.99 one time for the Galaxy SIII and my monthly charge would be 54.00 a month, with no installment billing on the phone. He told me I should have just placed the order through the website if that's what I was looking at. Obviously he hadn't been listening, because I already told him I did place the order through the website. The only reason I was calling him was because of the email which said I had to call the 1800 number I reached him at to complete my order. He kept on telling me it must have been a mistake, and I told him if it was a mistake, why did the T-Mobile Advantage website still have the EXACT SAME OFFER AVAILABLE?
After some circular arguing for another few minutes, he finally connected me with an account specialist who was going to help me. She apologized, and said that she could go ahead and process my order as I originally placed the day before (the reps name was Rebecca, I have her ID number if anybody at T-Mobile is reading this is interested). She said that she could offer me the exact same deal I ordered the night before. I would be charged $110 dollars after taxes for the Samsung Galaxy SIII, and my rate plan for all services would be $54 per month pre-tax. The only thing she couldn't match was free shipping on the phone, and since it was only 3.99, it wasn't worth arguing about. During our 10 minutes conversation, I asked her point blank on 5 different occasions if there was going to be a $20 installment charge for the phone in addition to the $54.00 per month for unlimited text/talk and 500 MB of data. Every single time she said the $54 would be the ENTIRETY of my bill. I requested some type of written confirmation of what she was explaining to me, but she said the best she could do was give me her ID number. She also said she was writing notes in the system which clearly explained I would only be charged $54 per month for everything. She told me that I might be charged an installment amount for the phone, but she was lowering the cost of the plan itself to offset the cost of the installment amount. The breakdown of the charges might be different, but the net amount of my bill would only come to $54 (asked her to repeat this exact sentence twice to confirm what she was telling me). If I had any questions, I could just call back in, and the rep could look at the notes which confirmed I the plan and offer i was agreeing to were essentially a price match of the order I placed the day before. The order mirrored what I had placed the day before through the website, so I told her to run it through. She said I would get an email shorty to approve an order on the phone, and that I should just go ahead and sign it so it could be processed on time. The invoice total on the phone order matched the $110 we had agreed to, so I accepted it.
About an hour later, I logged into the T-Mobile website to see if my plan and phone order had been updated. I noticed that the plan had stated I was now being offered the unlimited talk/text for the stated price. However, a $20 installment bill was now showing up on my account in addition to the $54 for the service. I knew I had to get this corrected immediately, since it wasn't what I agreed to. After I got off work a few hours later, I called back in again to try and figure out what was going on. The first rep I talked to was very apologetic, and kept on telling me that it was obvious there was a mistake and that she would connect me to an account specialist to fix the mistake since I was getting billed more than what I agreed to. I requested I speak to Rebecca again, but the rep said she wasn't available. She connected me to another rep instead (I can't remember her name, or she didn't give it to me). I explained the whole situation to her as she looked up my order. After I was done relaying the story, she told me that there were no notes from the other rep saying that I was only to be charged a total of $54 of month (including the phone and all services). I kept on telling her it was clearly a mistake, since I could remember the sound of Rebecca typing everything I said earlier today. I read off the email I received on Tuesday morning saying that my Advantage offer needed to be activated over the phone, so the only reason I called was to either activate that offer or have the rep on the phone make the same offer to me. Her response was telling me it was obviously my fault that I didn't understand the terms of the order I placed over the phone. Again, I told her the ONLY REASON I had called was to order my Advantage offer. If I hadn't been told by Rebecca at least 5 different times that my monthly charges were the same as the order I placed online, I would have told her to forget it and not gone through with upgrading my phone and line. She gave me some story about how she couldn't vouch for what Rebecca said, but if she had really said it, it would have been in the notes (and apparently there were no notes).
After she repeatedly told me she couldn't match the Advantage offer, I requested that she immediately cancel my order for the phone, refund my credit card for the $110, and anticipate me cancelling my account so I could switch to Spring or AT&T (they both have offers similar to the Advantage offer, and I had previously confirmed through a phone call that they would actually fulfill their orders as promised). She said she couldn't do that, because the order was in process. I asked her if the phone had shipped, and she told me no. However, apparently T-Mobile doesn't have the capabilities to cancel orders in process. My only option would be to wait until UPS dropped off my phone, I would refuse the delivery, T-Mobile would get it a few weeks later, and I would have to wait another 5-7 days to receive my refund. I tried telling her how ridiculous it is that I was baited and switched to a worse deal, and that they were no preventing me from cancelling my order in a timely manner (I called them with 3 hours of realizing I had been lied to on the phone). She said tough luck, and that I should just leave to AT&T or Sprint if they have better offers. My final request was th switch my plan back to the old 1500 minute Classic (which I was paying 39.99 a month for pre-discount). If I didn't have an S3, there was no reason for me to be paying for a plan which I had selected based on the phone. She also told me she couldn't do that, because they no longer offer the plan. As a final kicker, the rep actually backdated my more expensive plan all the way to March 13, so I will be paying more for services I didn't use or had the capabilities to use from March 13 to April 2.
My phone is currently being delivered by UPS today. I was told by the most recent rep on the phone I would have to refuse the delivery (apparently T-Mobile doesn't know what a return shipping label is, they only allow returns to be marked as refused).
So as a summary.
1) I place an order online for a Galaxy SIII for 99.99 one time, then 54.00 a month in recurring fees (no monthly installment bill for the phone is listed). I have a screen shot which proves this offer is the order I placed.
2) The morning after placing my order, I get an email saying I need to call in to finish my order
3) I call in and finish my order, and I am assured 5 different times the terms of my phone order matched what I agreed to the day before
4) I discover that my phone order doesn't match the advantage order I placed.
5) Within 3 hours of discovering this, I immediately call T-Mobile.
6) T-Mobile calls me a liar, tells me I can't cancel my order since it is currently processing, and they will be holding my $110 hostage until they receive the phone back from me. She also tells me that my 9 years of being a valued customer are irrelevant and that I should just leave to another carrier if they can offer better rates.
Does any of this make sense to anybody? Unless I can get something in writing from T-Mobile saying my monthly charges are $54 a month without a $20 installment charge on the phone (or I have a $20 intallment and my rate plan is $34 to make a total of $54), I will be cancelling and switching to Sprint. In a related note, one of the reasons I receive a corporate discount is because I work for a retailer that sells cell-phones. Terrible experiences like this are going to result in me telling as many people as possible to stay far-far away from T-Mobile unless their customer service matches the offer of the order I placed. I eagerly await a reply from somebody regarding how I can get screwed over like this when I did everything I could to ensure I would be billed the amount I agreed to.