T Mobile, you may want to read this

It’s been quite sometime since I’ve come across a company that deserves my time to actually sit down and file a long complaint about. I’d like to point out here that if you’re thinking of using T Mobile as your cell phone provider, I’m simply expressing what I went through and nothing else. The following takes about 15 minutes to go through but I assure you its well worth the read and it will educate quite a few out there!

On Monday 6-23-14 I went to the T-Mobile website and chatted with a Jennifer on the chat icon. I explained that I was looking for a Smartphone so that I could use it as a hotspot for my laptop in my home and we texted back and forth for quite sometime. Two days later by chance I got Jennifer again on the same website. By this point I’d become aware of T Mobiles ‘Test Drive program.’ This was a new adventure for T-Mobile where they would send out a new Apple iPhone 5c and one could use this phone for just under a week. Along with T Mobiles unlimited data, phone calls and texting within the U.S., it was a great way for me to get an idea of how much data I would use.

The main conditions were that one must return their phone, undamaged within a week to a T Mobile retail store. While in this chat room with Jennifer on this particular Wednesday mentioned, I asked certain questions to make sure that there was no small print or hidden fees that I’d be unaware of and she said there wasn’t. As long as the phone was undamaged and returned within a week the money would be put back into my bank account. During this chat, I asked Jennifer, “Where would I return the phone?” The simple reply was:

“”””Jennifer: Thank you for waiting. The nearest authorized store in your area is the WalMart_5303_Prescott, 1280 Gail Gardner Way, Prescott, AZ 86305””””

If only I could have foreseen into the future at that very moment and realized what a nightmare this journey with T Mobile was going to be I never would have gone ahead with this Test Drive program. It would have saved me one hell of a heartache.

After my relevant questions were answered I asked Jennifer to stay with me in the chat room while I went to the Test Drive T-Mobile website. I went ahead and placed my order.

Two days later on Friday 6-27-14 the phone arrived at my home. At the time my son and I were driving back from a long road trip so the iphone was left with my neighbor. The following morning, Saturday 6-28-14, I called T Mobile to get some help in setting up the phone.

I was on the phone with Shaneka (sp) and later, Richard for an hour. Everything on the phone seemed to work fine but neither of our two laptops could get on line with the iPhones’ hotspot. Richard informed me that the towers were being worked on in Prescott, AZ.

A few hours later I called back and talked with Jamol (sp) in Albuquerque N.M. for another hour. He too, couldn’t get the hotspot to work from the iPhone.

The following morning, Sunday 6-29-14, I spoke with Tina at T Mobile. After an hour of trying different things, she concluded that it was the sim card that was bad and if it wasn’t that then it was definitely the phone itself. “Go to your local T-Mobile retailer and pick up a free sim card, it’ll be on record that we’ve spoken and that I’ve authorized this.”

Jennifer had told me in our chat on the web (the previous Wednesday) that our local Walmart was the T Mobile retailer and I could get a sim card there. This would also be the location where I was to return the phone when I was through on Thursday 7-3-14. When I called Walmart and was transferred through, Ron’s words were, “We don’t carry sim cards and T Mobile needs to update their data banks about this.”

Calling T Mobile again I spoke with Jason who said this was a first for him. Even if T Mobile mailed out a free sim card, it would arrive too late for me to use it. Jason put me through to his supervisor Diane, who after listening to this mess then transferred me through to Jonathan. This is where this story completely turns itself around and gets one hell of a lot worse. Jonathan told me, “I’d have to drive to Anthem, or Flagstaff AZ not only to get a sim card BUT TO RETURN the phone itself.” Now I was in shock and I assured him that I wouldn’t have ordered the phone in the first place if I hadn’t of been ‘misinformed.’ I never would have signed up for such an offer if I knew that I’d have to drive 170 to 190 miles round trip to return it.

Jonathan transferred me to a supervisor called Raymond at site 125. This is new to T Mobile and this location deals with the Test Drive itself. After a long talk Raymond concluded, “We gave you incorrect information. We will be using this account to rewrite this policy in case this situation comes up again.” I kindly suggested that a UPS shipping label be sent to me so that I could return their iPhone because this was their error and not mine. He replied, “We don’t send out shipping labels!” My next suggestion was to credit some money into my account (from which T Mobile had on record) to pay for shipping; he told me they couldn’t do that either. Raymond said he would call the next day at 1:00 p.m.

On Monday 6-30-14 I called the T Mobile headquarters in an attempt to explain this situation to someone higher up in corporate. I was given an email address to which I ‘might’ get a response within ‘2 days.’ Might I add here that the phone was due back in 3 days, so to me this was cutting it too fine! (Technically I did have until July 4th but this being a holiday, I’d always looked at it as if I only had six days.) I was transferred to 1 800-318-9270. Here, I explained all of the above to an Angie Marie who finally put me through to Bethany who was a supervisor.

Once again I explained my dilemma from beginning to end and after being put on hold a few times I was offered an address to where I could mail the phone, but “I” would have to pay for shipping! Bethany even said to me, “I take full responsibility that we gave you misinformation,” but was still unwilling to help. My main concern here was that the phone worked but I couldn’t guarantee that it would arrive at its destination the same way to which it left my home. If it arrived damaged ‘would I have to foot the bill?’

Raymond called next and gave me an address in Fort Worth TX to mail the phone back to. I suggested to Raymond that I mail the phone out with $700 insurance in case it got damaged along the way. He told me to mail the phone out ‘without insurance’ and that T Mobile would take full responsibility for it. Might I add here that I didn’t feel comfortable with this at all? Right there and then I started to package the phone up while I was on the phone with him. Raymond informed me that he was going on vacation the next day and would call me back on Wednesday July 9th at 2:00 p.m. my time. He said that I’d gone through enough and that he’d been talking to the executives higher up at T Mobile. He personally felt that I should be compensated for everything that I’d gone through with T Mobile up to this point. I had to agree with him.

Also five days prior, the infamous Jennifer had told me in our chat on the website that there was no need to return the Apple headphones, charger or cable when I returned the phone. When I asked about this while I was packing up the phone to be mailed back, I was told, “I’d be charged if they were not in the box upon arrival.” Yet again, misinformed by T Mobile to which I, the customer would have been asked to foot the bill!

Raymond never did call me back on the day and time specified by him. I even called T Mobile on Tuesday July 8th, the day before he was supposed to call me, only to find out that he was in fact in the building even then. Brian a supervisor below him said that Raymond was too busy to talk right then but would call me back later that day. He never did call back, what great customer service eh?

Jimi Poe, a lady who works in the CEO’s office called me on Tuesday 7-1-14 in response to my email to the president. She assured me that a $25 debit card would be mailed out the NEXT day to cover my postage and expenses. I’d also like to add here that six days after Jimi had supposedly mailed out the debit card, concerned, I left a message on her voice mail stating that nothing had arrived in the mail.

Jimi never responded to that message. The following day, Tuesday 7-8-14 I called again and only later that day did Jimi return my call. She said that the debit card had to be preapproved first and that it had left that very day, hence ‘six days after’ it was supposed to be mailed out. Firstly if it had to be preapproved then why didn’t she say that on the phone when we first spoke, instead of telling me it was being mailed out the following day? Secondly, it would have been nice for someone at T Mobile to have informed me of this ‘six day delay,’ isn’t that plain common courtesy.

The debit card arrived at my home some thirteen days AFTER we had originally talked on the phone. The debit card wasn’t mailed out on Tuesday July 8th like Jimi had (secondly) stated; it was in fact postmarked July 11th from the same city from which it had left, hence three days after we spoke on the phone that day.

Two days after the iPhone had been mailed out from Prescott, AZ (Wednesday 7-2-14) the mail carrier in Fort Worth TX, found no one at T Mobile to sign for the package that I’d sent. So it continued to go on his route with him. Would this story ever end? Finding this out via the tracking number on the Net, I called Brian at site 125 to sort this out with the post office and the destination building in Fort Worth, TX. Only because I’d called when I did and thanks to Brian’s intervention, was the package delivered later that day.

On the morning of Wednesday 7-9-14, I called T Mobile and asked to be transferred across to site 125, which is the Test Drive part of T Mobile. Every other time of being transferred I’d ask for Brian and someone would find him within a few minutes. On this particular morning the lady on the phone at site 125 had no idea whom Brian or Raymond were. I even gave her Raymond’s personal ID number and this still meant nothing to her. Frustrated, I gave up and called T Mobile again and asked for a supervisor. When one wasn’t available I simply explained to the Cecilia, whom I was after at site 125.

The first thing that she said to me was, “If you want the phone number for the Test Drive Center, its 1-855-694-1564.” Why couldn’t any other person at T Mobile up to this point have given me this simple phone number? Even when I’d asked Raymond for a contact number to the Test Drive Center he never indulged this information to me. Having this number would have saved me so much time, instead of being put on hold each time and then being transferred. After Cecilia listened to my whole story she put me on hold and when I was transferred through to Site 125, Aventa came on and said “I hear you’re interested in the Test Drive.” “No I’m not,” I replied. Talk about complete miscommunication!

For twenty minutes I got absolutely nowhere with this individual. She assured me that basically if a customer like me in this situation, had dealt with a certain T Mobile employee or employees, after you get off the phone with that individual/s, they have no idea who or where that employee is. According to her that employee can’t be called, emailed or found. How backward and ridiculous is this and what a complete waste of time this is for the poor customer who is calling back and trying to continue on with the same person with whom they last spoke with.

Asking me to explain myself and my story I told her from the beginning that there was nothing she could do even if I did tell her the whole thing and that I simply needed to talk to Brian or Raymond. “Tell me what’s wrong and I’ll try and help you,” she said yet again. Finally I WASTED yet another twenty minutes or so explaining this whole story from beginning to end, only to get, “Oh there’s nothing we can do. Sorry about that. We’ll just use this example to help others in the future.” I replied “And what did I tell you right from the beginning, “Telling you this story would be a complete waste of time. I need to talk to Brian or Raymond!”

Continuing from this story above, just to express how disorganized this company is Raymond for the first time completely flaked out and never did call me back on the date and time that was prearranged for Wednesday 7-9-14 at 2:00 p.m.. After making a few more calls, Raymond called back on my birthday, hence Thursday 7-10-14. When I told him of the appalling performance of his co worker, Aventa from the day before where this individual didn’t know him or Brian he said, “Any supervisor would have known who I was in our building. Also if any operator had looked at your Test Drive account it would have clearly stated who I or Brian was.” Need I say anymore here!

Raymond said that he would call back the next day at 1:00 p.m. my time. By then he would have concluded with the powers that be, what compensation I would be getting for everything that I had gone through up to this point.

The next day I was home all day and my line was clear from 12:50 onwards (and my cell phone which is my primary number was on) and Raymond never called. THREE HOURS after Raymond was supposed to call, a message was left on my cell phone. I was on the landline at the time because I’d given up waiting for him. I called back 5 minutes later to the Test Drive Center (now having a direct line from Cecilia) and I was told that Raymond was on the phone. I gave both of my phone numbers to the lady with whom I spoke and asked if Raymond could call me after he got off of the phone with a customer. “Raymond will call you once he gets off the phone,” I was told. “Yeah that’s what I was told a few days ago and he never did,” I replied.

Raymond did call back and told me that on Monday 7-14-14 the powers that be will be mailing out a prepaid visa card to me for compensation for all of the hours of my time that had gone into this mess up to this point. The amount was unknown. It was concluded that Raymond would call me back on Monday at 10:00 a.m. my time. I’d asked him to do this so that I could get the tracking numbers of the envelope that was supposedly being mailed out.

On Saturday 7-12-14 I also called Jimi Poe’s voice mail at the CEO’s office. She works Saturday through Tuesday until 5:00 p.m. PST. I called her at 2:00 p.m. P.S.T. explaining that after ELEVEN DAYS, her so called debit card for $25 still hadn’t arrived at my home. Jimi Poe never did call back to either of my phone numbers on Saturday, Sunday or Monday and even to this day. She did the same thing to me the last time I called and it took me two messages then before she returned my call. As said above the prepaid card did arrive some thirteen days after we had originally spoke.

On Monday 7-14-14 Raymond for a third time now didn’t call me at the time that he had prearranged. Half an hour late, I got Raymond’s call and he said that today in Washington State, a prepaid card of an amount unknown was going to be mailed out to me. He said that there was no tracking number and that it was going to be sent out using the post office. He said that he would do a follow up call in a week if the envelope hadn’t arrived. I told him if it arrived before then, that I would call.

On the morning of Tuesday 7-15-14, I went on line to check my bank account and my heart almost dropped. T Mobile had a pending charge in my bank account for the amount of $758.44. I was absolutely furious. I called my bank immediately and spent another half an hour on the phone with them whilst filing a claims form over the phone. Teresa told me that I had to wait until the money hard posts and once it’s taken out of my account then it’s off of the pending position. So basically I have no access to this money and this could be the case for the next 10 days. She gave me a merchant authorization removal number for my bank. I was told to give this to Raymond at T Mobile if I got a hold of him. He or someone there could call this number and stop this charge.

I was talking to Raymond within 5 minutes of my previous call and I was far from happy. Raymond said that all of the phones from the Test Drive Program end up at Fort Worth, TX. They’ve had the iphone for THIRTEEN DAYS up to today, yet in all of that time my borrowed phone still HASN’T been scanned. Then to throw more fuel into the fire, I’m then told that this could take up to SEVENTY TWO more hours to sort out. Raymond said that they have to search the whole warehouse to find my phone. Once they verify that the device is in the building and it’s been scanned and inspected, then the hold will be removed from my account. Or lets be honest here, the money may have already been taken out by that time!

Surely common sense would prevail here. Why wasn’t my phone scanned in and inspected when they got it. It’s been almost two weeks now and still nothing has been done. Due to this, I have to suffer because I have no access to a large amount of money in my bank account because T Mobile hasn’t processed the phone. I have bills to pay! Is this what T Mobile does to their customers, simply lag on their end once they receive their phones back and then take funds out of accounts to make peoples lives a misery?

On Thursday 7-15-14, my UPS driver delivered an envelope to my home. It had been sent overnight by T Mobile. Inside this envelope was the long awaited, so called ‘compensation’ from T Mobile. All in all I’d say this ordeal has taken about 17 hours out of my life so far. I’d talked to friends all over the world about this, most were in shock, some were mortified and others were lost for words and couldn’t believe how a company could treat a human being in such a way. Most anticipated that I’ll get around $50 at least for what I’d gone through. Opening up the envelope I was shocked to find a $20 prepaid debit card.

Later on this particular evening I checked my bank account on line. T Mobile had officially taken $758.44 out of my account. Need I say anymore about this company!

Complaints were filed with the BBB on 6-25-14. Then the Attorney General of Washington State and Consumer Affairs on 7-15-14.