Due to my lack of blogging time, My stories are backing up at an alarming pace. I better get started. Today's drama in Raquel's World will be brought to you by......
I have been with TMobile for about 9 years. I am an awesome customer. How do I know that? They tell me every time I call them and that's why I love them. Until last Friday. See I pay a larger amount for my service b/c I have the "FREE upgrade" plan. The perk of this plan when sold to me was that every two years I get a FREE upgrade. FREE! So while others around me have been purchasing these lovely phones/computers that do all these amazing things I have stuck by my Gravity b/c I knew that in June 2011 I would get a FREE upgrade. I waited and waited. The phone and customer service has been awesome for me and I couldn't be happier until about 6 weeks ago when my signal would drop out and then not return for hours! WTF?!
The most annoying part is it always happened smack in the middle of the time when I need my phone the most from 3p-6p. That is when my kids are home and I am commuting so I need to be reachable. I complained and they said I needed a new sim card. I went to the store and they gave me a new sim card FREE. But the problem remained. Got worse even. I called Tmobile to complain about the signal issue and was told that's because my phone was old?? The problem should subside when I receive a new phone. I was so close to the end of the contract I just dealt with it.
I arrived at the TMobile store two Fridays ago with about $50 in my pocket. That $50 was gonna get me lunch and maybe an accessory for my new phone. I stepped up to the counter explained who I was and gave all the pertinent info and then asked where I should look in the store to be able to utilize my FREE upgrade.
The lovely salesgirl showed me the latest greatest phones that do all this amazing stuff. I explained to her that I would actually not like the latest greatest but just a phone that was better than mine, had a great camera, was Internet accessible, and had a keyboard. After many sales pitches we agreed on the Samsung 2G ( I think) anyways I fell in love with it and grabbed a protective case for it and headed up to check out. The lady punches some ish into the computer and then says "the total today is $245.18." "Oh silly sales girl, you forgot to apply my FREE upgrade." I inform her. "I did" she says. "And the total is $245.18?" I ask. She says "yes." I said to her "you wanna get someone to help you b/c that can't be right?" She said to me "that phone generally cost $299." Okay I say confused. "I gave you your upgrade and it brought the price down significantly." she informs me. Really? I can't tell. I thought the phone was FREE? "No" she says. "Then why do I have a Free upgrade plan?" "Oh we do have 1 free phone and she shows me something that looks similar to this....
I say to her "that is not an Upgrade, that is older than the phone I currently have!" She says "well actually there is no such thing as a FREE Upgrade, it is just an upgrade option, kinda a reduced price." Ummm, no that my dear is called a sale. Not FREE upgrade. She says "sorry that's all I can do." So now I'm mad. I say "well, no, that is not all you can do. You can cancel my contract now that it is up because I can switch providers and get a updated phone for free and a cheaper service plan or better yet one without a two year commitment." She looks shocked. She hands me a secret card with a number on it and tells me to call the company and tell them I am unhappy and they can cut me a better deal. "Isn't this the company???" I ask. "Well we are limited on site." So that's what I did.
I got a lovely dude that was very nice and told him the story and how I was disappointed and he said he could help me out. He said "I can get you that phone for free." So after some agreeing to renew my contract for two more years and a bunch of other logistics he set me up with my phone, shipping it out that day and I would have it in 3 days. I did have to pay $118 on the spot but he gave me a $100 credit on my next bill so essentially I paid $18. So I was happy. Within seconds I received a confirmation text that my phone order had been placed and was on the way. The next day I received a text that said my phone was out of stock and I would be notified when it became available to ship. WTH!!! I called TMobile up and asked why did they take my money when there was not a phone in stock? They credited it back and apologized. They could not however tell me when my phone would be in stock and I could not cancel the order because I had already agreed to it and it was a "pending order". I was not happy.
Yesterday I got the text that the phone has been shipped. There better not be any issues with it, the signal, or anything else!
So just be mindful if you get FREE upgrade it does not necessarily mean it's FREE.
