In November my twenty year old son purchased a VERY expensive phone through T-Mobile. It is a model designed specifically for text messaging. It cost him $299 with a two year contract. Now, it is important to note that we have had mobile service through T-Mobile for several years.
When this phone arrived, he excitedly switched everything into this new phone, signed up for (and paid extra) for unlimited texting. However, he soon noticed that it took DAYS for texts to get to him - if they got to him at all. The same was happening with any texts that he was sending.
Within a week, he was on the phone with their customer support services trying to see what the problem was. They, of course, said it was the service and not the phone and they would see what they could do to fix the problem. He continued to call T-Mobile customer service to try to figure out what was wrong.
When he switched his sim card back into his old phone, the text function worked as it was supposed to. When he put it back into the new phone, the problems would start again. He worked and worked with the telephone AND the online support for T-Mobile. They finally told him that they would send him out a new phone. Of course the one they sent him was used and had apparently not even been worked on because it still had someone else's password on it.
I finally got on the phone with their customer support people (and I use customer support very loosely here) and told them that the used phone in replacement for a $300 phone was unacceptable. The new phone was having the same problems as the one we sent back in. I explained that it had to be a problem with this new model of phone because he simply did not have any problems when he put the sim card back into his old phone.
They flat out refused to refund him any part of his purchase price saying that he only had 15 days to return the phone as stated in the contract (which was not included in with the phone - I had to look it up online). By now it was December (still not a month since he purchased the phone) and after reading the online contract, I followed what it said to do.
I wrote a letter to their Customer Relations office in Albuquerque requesting a review of the decision to not refund for the bad phone. Keep in mind that it still had not been 30 days since he bought the piece of crap - and 30 days is standard for getting a refund from most electronic manufacturers. The only reason he didn't return it withing the 15 days that they state in the contract is because he was following their directions and trying to get it to work. T-Mobile did not even reply.
I sent a second letter (registered) in February. Still no reply. According to their online contract, they want you to go to AAA (American Arbitration Association) to file any disputes. However, AAA requires you to pay a $250 fee before they will begin any arbitration hearings.
Now, my son is stuck with a $300 paperweight and a two year contract that he would have to pay almost $300 to get out of. You can bet that the SECOND that his contract is up, we will be switching service to a more reputable company. T-mobile is a bunch of frauds! They give you 15 days to return a defective phone then give you the run-around for a month! Thereby getting out of having to refund anything!
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