How T-Mobile lost (or stole) my iPhone 5

How T-Mobile lost (or stole) my iPhone 5

So the story started in January 2014 when I decided to move away from AT&T to T-Mobile since they had a “great” offer to cover your ETF (Early Termination Fees) if you became their customer.

I went to a T-Mobile store and talked to John, a nice guy who help me in explaining how this was going to save me some much money and how the service of T-Mobile was so superior to the competition. I bought the story.

I had my 32GB iPhone 5 and my wife’s 16GB iPhone 5 in almost brand new condition. I decided to move on and try the service, so here is how it worked:

You turn in your phone and t-mobile buys it from you. They sell you another (newer) model and that is how they make some profit on the operation. They give you a credit for the amount your phone is worth and the remaining amount is what you owe to T-Mobile. After a few months you also receive a debit card with the amount for your ETF so you can set the debt with your current carrier. Simple, right? WRONG.

I requested an iPhone 5s (since it had to be an upgrade) and John said that he only had the 16GB iPhone 5s at the store, so we could only do my wife’s phone at the time and the other one he can order and I would receive and activate upon arrival (which meant that I would have to wait and go back to the store in a few days for my phone). No problem.

I left my wife’s phone at the store and they would ship it internally to their warehouse and give me a credit to my account for the new phone. So far so good.

I followed the processed I was supposed to and for a couple of days my wife was on T-mobile and I was on AT&T waiting for my phone to arrive.

As planned, the brand new iPhone 5s arrived and I went to the store to activate it. John activated the phone and gave me a label sticker and an envelope to send the phone to the warehouse (which I had to do because I received the phone at my place and for whatever reason I couldn’t leave it at the store). So far so good.

John mentioned that it would take a couple of months to see all the credits and the ETF reimbursement to be processed.

Before T-Mobile, I was paying approximately 190 dollars for unlimited data, texts and minutes for these two phones. Now with T-mobile I started paying 190 dollars until the payment for the phones I turned in was in my account. Makes sense? Sure.

After a few months I saw that I had received the ETF for AT&T and I followed the process to cancel that debt. I also received one of the phones reimbursement for approx. 297 dollars. I still have an outstanding phone cost pending of 800 dollars (the 600 dollars - full price of the 5s and a 200 dollars remaining balance for the other one).

I started wondering what happened to my other phone? Why was not showing up in my credit? (they call it EIP)

I decided to call “Customer Care”.

My first call to customer care was on Monday June 23rd. I spoke to a representative, she was polite and I explain the situation. She put me on hold approx 5 times and after 45 minutes said that I needed to talk to the manager at the store.

I called the store and they didn’t answer. 

I called Customer Care again and this time this other rep said (after another 30 minutes and another explanation) that she was going to contact the store and the manager was going to call me tomorrow (Tuesday 24th.). The rep on the phone said this time that apparently the phone I left at the store had never made it to the warehouse. They did have a record of the phone I sent to the warehouse via mail.

Tuesday went by and I received no call. In the afternoon I called the store and an employee said that John was not working there anymore and that the manager was not in. Ronnie (the manager's name) was off on Tuesday but he was going to call me. I decided to call customer care and they said that I need to GO to the store and that Ronnie (the store manager) was aware of the situation.

I decided to visit the store on Wednesday but before that I wanted to make sure that Ronnie was there. Called a few times and nothing. I called customer care and they were able to get through and upon talking to the store, said that I should visit the store.

FYI, all these calls included a re-iteration of the entire story.

I decided to go to the store to find out why Ronnie was not calling me. I had no idea that store managers are gods at T-Mobile.

Upon arrival to T-Mobile Troy (785 E Big Beaver Rd  - Troy, MI 48083) I see a sign that indicates that they are closed (this was at 7:00, when they close at 8 supposedly) and that they were moving to another location (435 E Big Beaver Rd  - Troy, MI 48083). You can imagine my frustration. Someone is lying here but I am not sure if is the store or the customer care reps.

So I decided to visit the new location.

Upon arrival to this new location, I see all the employees though the window, eating pizza during work hours. They were in-fact moving so I asked to talk to Ronnie, who I can see with a large slice in his hand. The employee who stopped me at the door saying that they weren’t open yet, said that Ronnie was busy and he was “investigating the situation” and he couldn’t talk to me.

I mentioned to this guy that I was waiting for a call and he didn’t care. He repeated to me that I was supposed to leave my name and phone for Ronnie to call me. After all this I left extremely frustrated.

Conclusion:

1. Ronnie is T-Mobile’s god
2. Someone (no one knows who, lost or stole my phone)
3. I wasted hours and hours on the phone with a useless customer care who is incapable of resolving issues. Unless the resolution is "Go to the store".
4. I wasted hours in person, trying to talk to this manager Ronnie.
5. I still owe over $700 dollars to T-mobile for a phone one of of their employees lost (or stole)
6. Every tweet I post about t-mobile regarding this situation I receive a response from the T-Force asking “how can the be of help?” I say FIRE THEM ALL - starting with Ronnie. They are all a joke.

T-Mobile has been disappointing me over and over. I will be advising everyone I know to not use their service. I also had to write this blog to stop explaining the issue to everyone (including T-Mobile).