T-Mobile - Error Costs Customer Time & Money
Complaint 165078 Details

I normally buy 1000 minutes per year and since I don't use my phone that much I never run out of minutes during the year. In order to avoid running out of minutes while on vacation this year I visited my local T-Mobile store on June 4, 2012 to purchase another 1000 minutes for $ 109.71. We left for the east coast at the end of July to visit my son. On the second ay out I tried to use my phone and go a low minutes warning and a prompt to buy more minutes. This didn't make any sense because I had just refilled in the prior month. Since I couldn't afford to be without my phone while on vacation because that is when I use it the most to stay in contact with my wife and make reservations.

I attempted to locate a T-Mobile office in Chattanooga Tenn. There was only one office in the general area of our motel and we wasted a lot of time driving around looking for it. Apparently that office had moved since Goggle Maps last did a survey. We left the next day for Ashville North Carolina and by that time I had on service on the phone. We did find a store in Ashville . The salesperson that helped us and speculated that my minutes had not been properly applied to my account. There was very little she could do without knowing the day we had purchased the minutes. Since my receipt was back home I had no idea of the date and apparently there are no records in you system that she could access without the exact date. She suggested that since my plan ad terminated that I buy some more minutes to get through our vacation and then we could resolve the problem after we returned home and could get the receipt. She said she had a better plan for $30 that would be all I would need for the vacation period. She gave me her card and said that she could explain the situation if necessary. I bought the minutes for $ 32.10 so I could finish my vacation without worrying about losing service.

When we got home from our vacation I returned to our local T-Mobile office to find out what happened and get this resolved. They were able to find the original 1000 minutes and apply them to my account. They had no explanation for why the 1000 minutes had not been originally applied to my account and when I asked for a refund for the plan that was sold to me in North Carolina they refused. They said that they did not have authority to refund my money but that I could take it up with the Customer Care Center. When I contacted the Customer Care Center they could only offer me $20 worth of additional minutes to my account. I repeatedly explained that since I never use my 1000 minutes per year, what they were offering was more minutes that were going to expire at the end of the year and this was of no value to me. The steadfastly stated that they can ever provide a refund for pre-purchase minute plans.

I cannot understand why I should lose $ 32.10 for T-Mobile's error. It easily cost me twice that for the four trips to T-Mobile stores, lost time while on vacation, and loss of service during the vacation when I needed it most. The incompetence of there staff and the lack of even a minimal refund for the lost time and inconvenience involved is completely unacceptable. Customer Service does not exist at T-Moble!