I have a few questions below this long story:
So the Wife and I dumped AT&T. Not that we hated them, but T-Mobile was far cheaper and money is tight. So we were in the store for a while talking to the salesman to make sure we understood everything about T-Mobile's service. He assured us that coverage was great (it's not and we barely get 1-2 bars, but in his defense the coverage map says it is). However, he said that its a requirement when buying a phone through T-Mobile using the 'financing' option that we MUST have the top insurance for it until we paid it off. I found out today that no, no we do NOT need to have insurance. That is strike 1, whether he intentionally did it or he was mistaken I don't care - I do NOT appreciate being lied to. The fact that the manager was right next to him upset me as well - so that's strike 2 that the manager either did not know or willingly let him lie to get us to sign up for the insurance. Well thankfully a quick hop online lets me get rid of the insurance easily enough.
Strike 3 was him telling us that the 4G coverage here (we don't have LTE yet) is faster than AT&T's 4G LTE. I figured he was lying then as well (again, intentional or not I don't know) but I was dismayed to find that with our new Samsung Galaxy S4s we get 2.9 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. Not only is that slower than AT&T's 4G LTE, it's slower than their regular 4G! (AT&T's 4G was about 3 down and 1.5 up). Now speed itself isn't the issue - that's plenty fast for streaming, really - but I think that T-Mobile should do a better job of educating their sales staff instead of making such outrageous statements about speed.
Strike 4 is the poor reception (not sales guy's fault) - however it's liveable since we can use WiFi over calling. Thankfully my place of work has WiFi, because AT&T had full coverage in the building and now T-Mobile only works on the roof of said building. And even then, again, 1 to 2 bars. I can live with Strike 4 though, since T-Mobile is cheaper than AT&T. WAY cheaper.
Strike 5 - Sales man mentioned that the call and text over WiFi worked with all devices on the T-Mobile network. This is not true as my iPhone 5 does not have that option (from AT&T but even a T-Mobile one will not have it I heard). This is unfortunate because I'm not sure I want to even keep my Galaxy S4 so I thought about using my iPhone 5 once its unlocked. Even more unfortunate is that I would need WiFi calling and texting since reception in buildings is so horrible (I rarely get reception in my house when AT&T had two bars 90% of the time).
Now onto my questions: Since there was a couple blatant lies I want to make sure I'm not getting ripped off anymore than they already tried (again, intentional or not, they should be trained better).
1. I get a 15% corporate discount. I was told at the mall T-Mobile that it is for the talk, text, and data plans. At the store we ended up getting our phones at, they said the discount only applies on the talk and text and that it was a misconception other stores have. Is this true?
2. Even though we bought our phones through T-Mobile, they still made us buy two SIM card starter kits for $10 each. That surprised me, I was under the assumption that the SIM cards came with the phones you get through T-Mobile. So is it true that we had to buy the kits or was this a deliberate misleading? If it is true, I'm cool with it. If not, I'll be pretty upset (actually, I already am) and will be demanding a $20 refund.
3. They claimed that LTE was coming to our city this year. I live in Colorado Springs. True or not?
4. They said that my unlimited data plan comes with 500 MB of tethering. True or not?
That is all (for now). Sorry if this is in the wrong place, I'm (obviously) new here. I had T-Mobile from 2004 to 2006 and loved them. I had great reception everywhere, so I'm a little taken back that reception here isn't that great as it used to be. My family has T-Mobile and never had an issue with being misled so I'm very disappointed.