I wish I had read this discussion thread before becoming a T-Mobile customer two months ago. I had no idea that deceptive practices and useless customer service was the rule and not the exception. I will add my own T-Mobile horror story to the rest.
Let's start with the deceptive sales practices that take place in T-Mobile stores.
I was dissatisfied with my previous wireless provider, so I started shopping around. When I went to the T-Mobile store, I specifically told the sales person that I was looking at T-Mobile and one other provider because there was supposed to be a corporate discount through my employer. We looked at phones and we priced 3 replacements phones (a Samsung Galaxy S3, a Samsung Galaxy Relay, and a I forget the name of the 3rd phone, but it is a standard cell phone, not a smartphone). In addition to the pricing for the phones, she shows me the plan pricing. We look at value plans. She shows me the most expensive ones, of course, and I let her know that I wasn't looking for all that; so we narrow it down to 2 plans--one has unlimited talk & text for about $60, the other has 1000 shared minutes with unlimited text for about $50. This plan would cover both smartphones and there would be an extra $5/month charge for the basic phone (which would have 500 minutes/month). Then, because the plans she showed us did not include data, we would need to purchase data plans for each phone at $20 each. I repeatedly asked her what we would be looking at for a total monthly price with all of this--the Value Plan, the 2 data plans, the monthly charge for the basic phone and the cost for the phones (which is broken down into 20 monthly payments). She swore up, down and sideways that the monthly bill would not exceed about $160/month (give or take taxes, fees, insurance, etc.), and this amount did not take into account the discount that she promised would be added to the account. She also said that there would be no activation fee...and the S3 was supposed to have received a free movie uploaded to it.
After shopping another provider, and discussing it with my son, we decided to go with T-Mobile. The 2 providers were very close on everything, but T-Mobile won out...probably because of the free movie he would've had added onto his phone.
We went back in to the T-Mobile store, and after waiting for about 30 minutes, the sales person got to us. I reminded her of everything that she had promised previously, and she agreed to it all. I kept asking about the discount and she kept promising that it would be added and reflected in my first bill. As she started programming the phones, she "ran into a problem" : the Value Plan she had been promising us--1000 shared minutes for about $50--was not available to us. She pretended to really be having a hard time understanding the accent of the T-Mobile rep she was dealing with over the phone, and to just make it "easier for us" (meaning my son and me), we should consider going with the Unlimited plan. Besides, she said, "they would charge you extra for your data plans if you went with the 1000 minute plan." Well, why? She couldn't explain it...it was too difficult to understand. For me or for her, I wonder?
So, it's late and the store is about to close and she's rushing us through the details and I instantly feel regret, but I don't go with my "first mind" and tell her to forget it all. We leave with our new phones and a sense of foreboding.
I get my first bill and it's for nearly $400!
First, there was no corporate discount. She didn't even bother to verify it like I kept asking her. And the later it got, the more excuse she had not to check, but she was "sure of it." Then, the activation fees for the 3 lines was not waived like it was supposed to be. I believe that was also a part of the non-existent discount program. I called T-Mobile Customer Service to complain about this situation, and the representative I got kept telling me there's nothing he can do. I do wish T-Mobile would throw that lie away! There is plenty you CAN do...you guys just don't WANT to do it. You want us to feel like we're trapped and we just have to stick it out 2 whole years with you!
I call the store and ask about this discount situation. I get the run around, then the sales person (when she finally returns my call) feigns shock & awe at the situation and agrees to credit the activation charges. "Unfortunately, there's nothing [she] can do about the discount."
Since being a T-Mobile customer, I've experienced 2 unexplained outages (we could not dial out, nor could we receive calls on our phones), several dropped calls, poor signal quality in wide-open spaces...and my last bill was over $200! (A far cry from the $160 she promised.) And my son never got the free movie uploaded to his phone!
To make matters worse, or at least to make me a little angrier, my son was charged a "Roaming Text" fee of $0.20 for one of his texts. Why were we charged for a text when we have unlimited texting? And how is it roaming when we are in our coverage area? So I call Customer Service and the representative starts by telling me she's not sure what she can do. I told her exactly what she was going to do...she was going to the credit the charge and she was going to make sure it didn't happen again. No, it wasn't a lot of money, but I'm determined that the only unexpected charge I'll have from T-mobile is the Early Termination Fee when I decide that this is not worth the trouble I've had to endure in the 2 months I've been a customer.
I would never recommend T-Mobile to anyone. As a matter of fact, I warn people away from T-Mobile.
I can't believe there is no recourse for people who have been cheated by T-Mobile. Does this have the makings of a class-action lawsuit, maybe?