if I hadn't just bought two brand new phones I'd cancel t-mobile!

[jewels1983]

Me and my husband have had t-mobile month to month service for about 3 months now (well me 3 months and him 2). We decided that this month we were going to do the unlimited family plan on both the phones so we can talk, text and we can both do internet whenever.

So I went to the store to exchange my phone which has been having issues (long story and I ended up not getting an exchange because he again tried giving me a run around and exchanging me even for a Comeback). So we went to change our plan.

My usual bill is due the 10th and my husband the 14th I went in the 5th. The guy on the phone set it up, told the store employee our new bill for the month was $201, he transferred him to another employee who qouted him a price of $265. So after arguing for about an hour the employee got transferred to a supervisor who qouted him a price of $324!

After about an hour and a half of the employee arguing with t-mobile they agreed (they being t-mobile) they were mistaken and took our payment of $201 and we left the store thinking we were good until March.

So today I have more issues on my phone, which I had called 4 times last week with issues of my phone turning off by itself and texting not working. Thursday when I called the woman told me if what I did didn't work than they would exchange my phone. So today I called about more issues on my phone and they blackberry department said there was no record of me ever calling on phone issues and they couldn't just give me a new phone unless they have record of me having prior issues!

Also I got the recording saying I owe $63 by the 15th of this month to keep my service active so after dealing with the phone issue I had to call customer service and argue with them for 45 minutes. They could not honestly explain to me what the extra charge was. They kept saying that it was rolled over from what would be owed for the bill coming up. Whichmakes no sense we are pre paid we pay our bills a month in advance so why are we being billed for advance when we already pay in advance and are not even late.

Atleast I got got a $20 credit but their run around and lack of concern really are aggrevating. If I hadn't spent over $600 on two brand new phones I would seriously reconsider staying with their service.

[JustPlainJef]

Changing phone contracts can always cause issues. And every now and again people find a lemon in a batch of phones. But it's been said before. Making a decision based on emotion is a bad idea.

If T*Mo isn't keeping track of your calls, start making a call log yourself. Document everything.

[jewels1983]

Originally Posted by JustPlainJef

Changing phone contracts can always cause issues. And every now and again people find a lemon in a batch of phones. But it's been said before. Making a decision based on emotion is a bad idea.

If T*Mo isn't keeping track of your calls, start making a call log yourself. Document everything.

it's not emotional it's based on what we've witnessed every time we've called t-mobile. Making a call log is not useful I was able to tell them what day and time I called yesterday and who I spoke too and it does not matter unless they have the record there.

If they can not honestly explain why they are charging us so much money how can we trust the company? To us it feels like they are screwing us over, over charging us. Why would they admit friday they made a mistake and accidentally over charged us and than once we leave the store tack the bill back on, after we had just paid $200 in the store. Our plan we upgraded to is $139 a month so they already recieved an additional $60 from us at the store and are charging us an additional $62 for what? They can not explain what the additional $60 was for or what the additional $62 is for.

I'm sure if you felt you were being overcharged and lied to by a company you would be pretty peeved and looking to switch too. And actually I've gone through 4 bad phones in a period of a month. So that must be a pretty bad batch of phones that they had there.

[halw]

Don't you have 30 days to cancel contract? Could you have your phones unlocked and activated on another GSM carrier? Possibly even sell your T-Mobile phones and go with other carrier's phones & plan?

[jewels1983]

no we are month to month, so we have to pay our bill a month in advance. I don't know how we could get the phones unlocked either. If we did sell our phones the most we could get was $350 for them (and they are both less than a month old). We don't do contracts so we would have to pay full price for a phone.

Last night I did call and the man sent me out a new phone but it won't be here until thursday and my husband went into the t-mobile store we paid our bill at, turns out we got not just the $20 credit we were promised but they gave us a $40 credit since my husband did tell t-mobile that we will probably be going with another carrier. So friday we are only having to pay $22. So it's not that bad.

The guy at the store was able to get a simple explanation and it's much more relaxing to us. Apparently they charged us so much but extra but it comes out of our next months bill. So we should only have to pay about $70 but we will be going into the store to pay the bill because he said he will argue with them if they try to charge us full price. So I don't know why noone else was able to tell us that but today they were able to tell a sales associate in plain english.

[TequilaAddict]

Use the online chat whenever you have problems, so you can save a copy of the
call to your computer. It will have the date and time and the name of the rep that
helped you, as well as what issue you called about.

[Seminoles4Life]

Originally Posted by jewels1983

Me and my husband have had t-mobile month to month service for about 3 months now (well me 3 months and him 2). We decided that this month we were going to do the unlimited family plan on both the phones so we can talk, text and we can both do internet whenever.

So I went to the store to exchange my phone which has been having issues (long story and I ended up not getting an exchange because he again tried giving me a run around and exchanging me even for a Comeback). So we went to change our plan.

My usual bill is due the 10th and my husband the 14th I went in the 5th. The guy on the phone set it up, told the store employee our new bill for the month was $201, he transferred him to another employee who qouted him a price of $265. So after arguing for about an hour the employee got transferred to a supervisor who qouted him a price of $324!

After about an hour and a half of the employee arguing with t-mobile they agreed (they being t-mobile) they were mistaken and took our payment of $201 and we left the store thinking we were good until March.

So today I have more issues on my phone, which I had called 4 times last week with issues of my phone turning off by itself and texting not working. Thursday when I called the woman told me if what I did didn't work than they would exchange my phone. So today I called about more issues on my phone and they blackberry department said there was no record of me ever calling on phone issues and they couldn't just give me a new phone unless they have record of me having prior issues!

Also I got the recording saying I owe $63 by the 15th of this month to keep my service active so after dealing with the phone issue I had to call customer service and argue with them for 45 minutes. They could not honestly explain to me what the extra charge was. They kept saying that it was rolled over from what would be owed for the bill coming up. Whichmakes no sense we are pre paid we pay our bills a month in advance so why are we being billed for advance when we already pay in advance and are not even late.

Atleast I got got a $20 credit but their run around and lack of concern really are aggrevating. If I hadn't spent over $600 on two brand new phones I would seriously reconsider staying with their service.

Unfortunately, thats the bad part of month to month contracts, you pay full price for the phones, actually, being in a contract would be better, you know what your are to pay on a monthly basis, hence the contract. Had you have signed a contract, you would have to got the phones for cheap, and if they were screwing you around you could cancel and go else where. In essence, you paid the termination fee for the phones by paying $600, and you continue to pay them monthly on top of that. Had you have signed a contract, you could have used that as leverage when dealing with t-mobile, they rarely let customers terminate their contract without trying resolve the issue. You sound like you are going stay with t-mobile because you paid $600 for the phones, really you signed a contract, you just didnt realize it, by spending $600 up front its hard for you to walk away, so actually you feel stuck, just a contract. Contracts are cheaper in the long run, besides your going to need a phone anyways, if not, you can always terminate the contract it would probably cost less than the $600 you paid for the phones. They are less likely to help you if you are paying month to month, but I do hope you get it fixed!

[jewels1983]

well right now we can not have a contract, our credits not the greatest. We had a contract with t-mobile and they weren't any better. We left our contract with them about a year ago.

Just because we're not on a contract does not mean they should treat us unfairly since word of mouth is their biggest seller. The way they treat us why would we reccomend their service to anyone? We'll see how this goes if things don't get better we will have to change carriers.

[NorrisCell]

Originally Posted by Seminoles4Life

Unfortunately, thats the bad part of month to month contracts, you pay full price for the phones, actually, being in a contract would be better, you know what your are to pay on a monthly basis, hence the contract. Had you have signed a contract, you would have to got the phones for cheap, and if they were screwing you around you could cancel and go else where. In essence, you paid the termination fee for the phones by paying $600, and you continue to pay them monthly on top of that. Had you have signed a contract, you could have used that as leverage when dealing with t-mobile, they rarely let customers terminate their contract without trying resolve the issue. You sound like you are going stay with t-mobile because you paid $600 for the phones, really you signed a contract, you just didnt realize it, by spending $600 up front its hard for you to walk away, so actually you feel stuck, just a contract. Contracts are cheaper in the long run, besides your going to need a phone anyways, if not, you can always terminate the contract it would probably cost less than the $600 you paid for the phones. They are less likely to help you if you are paying month to month, but I do hope you get it fixed!

I see what you were going for, but this makes no sense. If they get screwed with now, they cancel. If they get screwed on a contract, they cancel. How exactly does being on a contract make the the amount of the bill more consistent?

If anything, they would be more willing to help you because they won't get a termination fee if you cancel.

[Seminoles4Life]

It makes perfect sense, if you read her post, she said she doesent want to switch carriers because she paid $600, t-mobile is not losing any money if she walks, so they dont care. Had she signed the contract, she would have got the phones for probably $100 bucks for both on 2 year contract. If she wanted to cancel she could pay the the termination fee, which would be less than $500. T mobile and any other carrier is worried about their customer turnover rate, so if she signed a contract, they are more likely to help her resolve her issue, which is what the post was about. Signing the contract and canceling, would have been less than the $600 she paid. Its a mood point because she didnt sign a contract. I still think that T-Mobile and any other carrier, should take care of their customers, regardless if they sign a contract or pay month to month.

[NorrisCell]

Originally Posted by Seminoles4Life

It makes perfect sense, if you read her post, she said she doesent want to switch carriers because she paid $600, t-mobile is not losing any money if she walks, so they dont care. Had she signed the contract, she would have got the phones for probably $100 bucks for both on 2 year contract. If she wanted to cancel she could pay the the termination fee, which would be less than $500. T mobile and any other carrier is worried about their customer turnover rate, so if she signed a contract, they are more likely to help her resolve her issue, which is what the post was about. Signing the contract and canceling, would have been less than the $600 she paid. Its a mood point because she didnt sign a contract. I still think that T-Mobile and any other carrier, should take care of their customers, regardless if they sign a contract or pay month to month.

No, it still doesn't make sense. I read her post and understood exactly what she said.

T-Mobile is losing her revenue if she cancels, regardless of her contract status. Turnover means a lost customer. It doesn't mean "a lost customer who was in contract". Losing a month-to-month customer still counts against them.

Generally speaking, care is more responsive with non-contract because they have zero future penalty for leaving. The cost of the phone is a sunk cost, whereas a termination fee is an avoidable cost if they do not break contract.

Let's say she grabbed two 8520s. $280 each without contract. $80 each with contract. $200 difference is the exact cost of the termination fee. Even if we take your example with a $100 difference, that difference would be eaten up in the three months worth of being on the more expensive Even More plan.

Finally... "moot" point

[TequilaAddict]

Originally Posted by NorrisCell

No, it still doesn't make sense. I read her post and understood exactly what she said.

T-Mobile is losing her revenue if she cancels, regardless of her contract status. Turnover means a lost customer. It doesn't mean "a lost customer who was in contract". Losing a month-to-month customer still counts against them.

Generally speaking, care is more responsive with non-contract because they have zero future penalty for leaving. The cost of the phone is a sunk cost, whereas a termination fee is an avoidable cost if they do not break contract.

Let's say she grabbed two 8520s. $280 each without contract. $80 each with contract. $200 difference is the exact cost of the termination fee. Even if we take your example with a $100 difference, that difference would be eaten up in the three months worth of being on the more expensive Even More plan.

Finally... "moot" point

Great explanation, Norris.

[cliffr39]

Originally Posted by Seminoles4Life

It makes perfect sense, if you read her post, she said she doesent want to switch carriers because she paid $600, t-mobile is not losing any money if she walks, so they dont care. Had she signed the contract, she would have got the phones for probably $100 bucks for both on 2 year contract. If she wanted to cancel she could pay the the termination fee, which would be less than $500. T mobile and any other carrier is worried about their customer turnover rate, so if she signed a contract, they are more likely to help her resolve her issue, which is what the post was about. Signing the contract and canceling, would have been less than the $600 she paid. Its a mood point because she didnt sign a contract. I still think that T-Mobile and any other carrier, should take care of their customers, regardless if they sign a contract or pay month to month.

I think it's actually more the opposite. If you pay the full price of the phone T-mobile knows you have no contract... no (forced) reason to stay. As you said they worry about turn-over. With a contract over someone's head (especially multi-lines) they know there is a lower chance of the account being closed.