A New Era Emerges

It's been an eventful week.  Lots of running around and getting things done.  We closed on our new property on Friday.  We are now official home owners in Hernando, Florida.  WOW, we now have multiple properties.  We are very blessed.

We spent Saturday with the sellers.  Training on the irrigation system, seeing what they will need to leave behind for us to clear, keep or donate.  Walking through the orchard and learning about the care of the trees, and which ones need to be removed.  Meeting some neighbors and making new friends.

We are slowly learning the lay of the land and the area which will soon be our new homestead.  Bruiser accompanied us on our trip to show him the property.  He exhausted himself walking the property, investigating the pond, tractor, and sheds.

Now we begin the task of clearing out our current home.  We need to decide what we keep,sell, donate, leave and pass on to the kids.  After 17 years in our current home there is a lot of stuff to declutter.  The kids will be renting the house, so what we don't take right away won't be an issue, we have some time.

Right now it's all about research and learning what I need to know about having a hobby farm.  Chickens, bees, pigs, orchard, vineyard, vegetable garden, goats.  Good grief there is a lot to learn, but I'm excited to begin this new chapter in our lives.

Frustration and Disappointment

My Experience with T-Mobile and T-Mobile’s Corporate store #9324

 (8712 W Hillsborough Avenue, Tampa, FL 813-249-5016)

I’m writing to share my recent experience with T-Mobile.  Let me first say that I have been a loyal T-Mobile customer for 14 years.  On September 26, 2014 I  visited T-Mobile’s corporate store # 9324 located at 8712 W Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa.  My purpose was to upgrade my I-Phone 5 to the new I-Phone  6 using the JUMP program.  My son (DS), Daughter (DD1) and Husband (DH) were with me, as both DS & DD1 wanted to upgrade their phones as well.  So my transaction at T-mobile looks like this –

                                   JW (me) JUMP from Iphone 5 to Iphone 6 – turn in my white Iphone 5 received credit on the purchase of a new Iphone 6 (white).

                 DD1(daughter #1)– Jump from IPhone 5S to Iphone 6 – turn in her black Iphone 5S for a Black Iphone 6

D                               DS(son) – Adds his previous Verizon line to my existing phone plan He purchases the new Iphone 6 (128 gb) and keeps his Iphone 5 that was already paid off

Our service by Rep at the T-mobile store was labored.  We were there a long time.  This rep was slow and inefficient.  We didn’t think much about it at the time, as every encounter at the T-mobile store seems arduous and inefficient.  It was a busy day with lots of people coming in to purchase the new Iphone 6.  During the purchase process T-Mobile turns on and sets up the new phone and then transfer’s date from the old phone to the new phone.  Eventually, I’m given a receipt for my purchase, and we leave the store with new Iphone 6’s and Iphone 5’s left at the store.

In October/November DH noticed the bill was higher than normal (our bill went from $158 avg monthly billing to over $400 avg monthly billing) and made an outreach to customer service.  Customer service indicated that it could take 2-3 billing cycles for the correct billing to appear and the phones to be credited correctly.  So we waited. We have continued to see bills over $400 every month since.  DH asked DD1 to take care of it as the issue was with her phone (or so we were previously told).  Over the course of Jan-current, DD1 has talked to the T-mobile customer service via mobile, visited the T-mobile store at Citrus Park Mall, and visited the store where we purchased the phones.  All with the same run around.  T-mobile customer service tells you it’s a store issue, T-mobile store at Citrus Park Mall indicated we needed to return to the store where the phones were purchased.  Store #9324 tells us we need our receipt.  Round and round we go.  Finally I’d had enough.  I asked DD1 to take care of this issue Today (May 29, 2015)  now let me tell you about the experience…

DD1 shows up at the store and starts texting me the issues – She speaks with the Retail Associate Manager.  DD1 reports that he is going through their physical records, and returns that there is no proof that the phones were ever turned into the store.  This is skeptical as he is back and forth about not having or being able to see previous sales receipts, and no inventory of phones ever received, yet he’s showing DD1 documents indicating that there were no phones.  He tells her we didn’t do enough to rectify this issue and can’t provide proof of the phones so there is nothing he can do.  DD1 and the Retail Associate Manager go round and round, and eventually he indicates that this is our fault for waiting so long.  Meanwhile, I call T-mobile customer service and explain the story above about the phones and Jump and the issue with my bill.  The rep, transfers me to a retention specialist who offers me two options. 1) return to the store where the phones were purchased or 2) write a letter or email to customer relations detailing the issue. 

I am completely unsatisfied with the result, and I head to the store. By this time I’m really upset.  NO ONE at T-mobile has offered any assistance, no one has attempted to research my issue.  No one has taken any accountability for an error on the account.  On a whim I call customer service back, I’m so angry and frustrated I’m in tears.  Rep #0840259 answers the line.  I lay out my story, express my frustration and tell her I’m totally appalled at the customer service I’ve received thus far.  T-mobile has taken NO responsibility for the corporate store, the store takes no responsibility for an employee’s error, and they infer that we are at fault or lying about turning in a phone. She provides the necessary concern and sincerity to me and believes me then soothes me with a promise of research and hope that potentially a resolution may exist.  I’m on the phone with her an hour.  During this time She has completed research and can verify that both phone line IDs have not been used since 9/26/2014 validating that we do not have the phones. She is also able to find in the warehouse using the phone IMB # that DD1’s phone was received by T-mobile.  She advises that my phone is unaccounted for, but why would the store only ship back one phone when two were traded.  I can’t tell you the relief I’m feeling at this point and hopeful that the resolution is in sight.  All I want is my phone bill adjusted to show the proper monthly payments.

While holding for CS Rep  to complete whatever actions she needs to take, I go into the store and talk to Retail Associate Managr.  I ask for the Manager and district manager’s names.  He tries to tell me this is my fault and I explain to him, that the error was definitely on the store and the poorly trained associate.  I advise him that I will be there when the store opens on Monday morning. He assures me I can see the Store Manager at that time -

CS Rep returns to the line with the following resolution –

1)      A full refund and payment has been made by T-Mobile paying off DD1s’s phone

2)      She provides information to me about how it will appear in my bill and when I can expect to see the credits in the system

3)      She advises that I will still need to see the store manager for the correction to the bills for both phones however she has credited my phone with 3 months of payments.

4)      She tells me the full account number, the amounts on each phone and the dates to retro the correction back to.

5)      She advises if I’m unsatisfied with the store manager’s response to my issue and/or the district manager’s I should call into customer service while still in the store to have this cleared up

So there is still more to this saga and I will continue to report my experience. 

At this point, I’m hopeful for resolution, but I’m doubtful it will be initiated by a corporate store that takes NO accountability for it’s associates error and attempts to shame and belittle valued customers.  I also realize it takes more than 1 call to customer service to receive any help, and that T-mobile overall does not take accountability for the corporate stores.  This issue could have been resolved at any number of points during the last 8 months but T-mobile has left me with doubts as to the type of company they are and even though Amber was a ray of sunshine and helpful and everything a customer service rep should be, I’m still pondering leaving T-mobile over this issue. Maybe Verizon or AT&T will value me more as a customer.

6/1/2015 So- Today

As instructed by rep @ T-Mobile customer service – I returned to the store #9324 on Hillsborough to speak with the Manager regarding the credit to my monthly payments for both telephone lines.  I arrived at 10:15am and was told that the manager is not in the store and would call me on Wednesday after he’d had time to research the issue. Once again this store failed to meet the expectation I was led to believe on Friday.  I was assured I would have the opportunity to meet the store manager today, but unfortunately the manager does not want the story from me directly and is avoiding taking responsibility for his store.  I called T mobile customer service and spoke to a CS Rep who was nice and reviewed the account.  I explained my conversation with the CS Rep  from Friday, my issue with this corporate store and that they failed to meet my expectation yet again.  She indicated she would process the refund for the monthly payment back to the purchase of the new phones, and would file a formal complaint against this store. How can you show such indifference to an issue in your store?

 I’m left wondering, why I had to go back to the store in the first place?  Couldn’t the CS Rep have taken care of all of it on Friday?

I will check my account on Thursday (allowing for time for payments and refunds to be properly adjusted in the system) and will post an update.