I cancelled my previous plan with another provider and got on a family plan with my girlfriend to save a little money. She's been with T-Mobile since 2000 with zero problems... I have had nothing but problems since I joined T-Mobile.
Problem #1 - Number Porting Clown-Car:
We decided to add a line to my girlfriend's long standing T-Mobile account, and asked to port my number in. We received new devices, she keeping her original number, and mine having a temporary number while the port was in process. Three days later, my phone still had a temporary number and her phone number had been removed and my number ported onto her line. We went into the store 2-3 times, called customer service from home and the store 2-3 times, and 3 days later they told us to switch sim cards and eventually the temporary number would become her original number. By switching sim cards, all billing info and contacts went onto my phone, and the customer profile info was backwards online and in the customer service records. It took about a month to straighten all of this out and wasted a bunch of our time.
Problem #2 - Text Messaging? Who Needs It?!:
Once I received the sim card and began using my phone number for calls, I quickly discovered that I was only able to send and receive texts with T-Mobile and Verizon customers - none of my business contacts, friends, or family using another carrier could successfully send or receive texts from me. I called customer service and was transferred endlessly, spent hours on the phone with tech support and on hold while they tried fixes, and to no avail. Each time I called, I had to start explaining from the beginning as if I hadn't called three times already with the same issue and simply wanted to follow up on a trouble ticket. We tried resetting the connection, all of the device troubleshooting, and supposedly the port was investigated and was found to have been successful...
As all of the "understanding" and "sorry" from T-Mobile didn't fix my text problem, I persisted and continued to call and waste hours of my time on the phone with tech support people and customer service people. Nothing was done, ever to fix this.
I went into my local store for a third or fourth time for the issue to visit the sales person who had been trying to assist me (great guy, also irritated with customer service and tech support for the run-around... he's been on the phone with me to help half the times!). He didn't know what else to do, so he bought me a gift card for a coffee shop out of his pocket as a friendly gesture, and tried to give me a new sim card... again.
The current state of my messaging since this sim card swap is as follows:
-I can text message anyone with any carrier and they will receive it
-I can receive only T-Mobile incoming SMS messages
-I can for some reason receive incoming MMS messages from most carriers, but not all
-T-Mobile persists in "understanding my frustration" and being "sorry for the inconvenience" yet does not fix the problem
Problem #3 - Wait, I Pay YOU For Service, Right???:
As I have stated, this problem has not been fixed. I have called T-Mobile's customer service and tech support departments at least 25 times, wasted approximately 20 hours of my time between store visits and phone calls related to attempting to resolve this, and have explained the problem 1-3 times per phone call / store visit... I'll let you do the math on that one. I have absolutely had it - there is no reason besides the threat of an early termination fee keeping me with T-Mobile with the kind of lazy, disinterested customer service that has been shown to me throughout my time with T-Mobile, and if that's all that's keeping your customers loyal there might be a "Going Out Of Business Sale!" on at your local T-Mobile store soon.
I work in a service driven industry, and understand that great service creates a great reputation and customer loyalty. There are idiots and people who you can do nothing to please, but I am neither. What I want is for someone in one of the 5,000 call centers across the country to take personal responsiblity for the fact that T-Mobile is failing one of its customers in terms of contractual service as well as customer service, and take care of the problem. If I could text message, I would have no problem... I honestly might even forget the horror of six months of drama to get it fixed while I am busily getting texts from customers, friends, and family.
My advice to any customer service executive who may - as completely unlikely as this is - condescend to actually read what your customers are saying, is this: ditch the script, and take care of your customers. So simple it sounds stupid, but everyone on this forum says the same thing about the fake, robotic apologies and lack of action or ownership for service failures.
Conclusion:
My new phone took an unfortunate spill, and despite the case is now broken. This is completely my fault, and I bought insurance for this exact reason. However, as buying a new phone would extend my contract for 2 years and T-Mobile is unwilling or unable to solve my problem, I'm stuck buying a new phone and starting a new service contract with another carrier... my phone number is on my business card, so getting a new number is not an option.
The thing that grinds my gears most about this is that T-Mobile will now assess an early termination fee to my girlfriend's account for my cancelation of this line, and as I will have terminated my account will likely lose access to the account to argue my way out of this. Meaning, ultimately we will have to pay $200 or whatever it is, or face collections and damage to my / her / our credit.
That said, I would like to have the ETF waived. I am working on it now with my local store, but I am not sure how much they can do as everything seems out of everyone's personal control at T-Mobile. If it hits my account and they won't remove it, I am considering hiring an attorney to sue for the recovery of the fee and legal fees. The Better Business Bureau will also hear about this - failure to provide contractually agreed to service when payment is collected, and then I am charged for breech of contract? I'm inclined to believe they will agree.
***Note to T-Mobile Moderator: do not waste your time with a reply to this thread or with a PM that expresses your apologies for my frustration and inconvenience, or one that directs me to a support link where I "may" find a solution to my problem. Please only reply with substantive commentary or a real, legitimate solution to the ETF question as it's too late on the text issue. Thank you, I appreciate your understanding and concern with my service problem.***