I visited the Metro by T-Mobile store near Regency to follow up on my fluctuating monthly payments. The salesman asked how he could help me. I explained why I had chosen MetroPCS instead of AT&T more than two decades ago. I also explained the monthly payment I had expected and the payments I had made during the previous two months.
The salesman asked whether I was still a Metro customer or had transferred to T-Mobile. I told him that I was now with T-Mobile. He directed me to the T-Mobile store near Olive Garden, almost across the street.
I patiently waited in a beautiful store. As I sat there, I could not help thinking that the extra $50 I was paying above the price I had expected was helping pay for that beautiful store.
Eventually, a professional saleswoman came to assist me with a tablet in hand. She asked what she could do for me. I again explained the history of my relationship with AT&T and MetroPCS going back more than two decades. I also explained the senior promotion that T-Mobile had offered to Metro by T-Mobile customers. I understood the promotion includes two free phones and a monthly payment of $60.
The saleswoman immediately stopped me. However, before correcting me for the promotion, she first set up my T-Mobile account. After completing the account setup, she showed me that my monthly payment would be $81, including tax.
I asked why my second payment had increased to $91. She explained that my previous month’s payment had been made one day late, resulting in a $10 late fee being added to the following month’s bill. I told her that this type of unexpected charge was exactly why I had left AT&T. At MetroPCS, I paid the same amount on the 7th of the month.
I then asked whether I could leave T-Mobile without a penalty. She said yes, if I paid the full price of the phones I had received for free.
I asked how much the two phones would cost. She told me they were approximately $900 each, including tax. I pointed to my phone and asked whether it was worth $900. She explained that T-Mobile was providing a monthly credit of $75 toward the phone.
I asked why I was being charged $75 a month for a phone that performed the same functions as my $150 phone. She showed me that I was paying $0 for the phone each month because of the monthly credit. However, that did not explain why I would be responsible for approximately $1,644 if I decided to leave T-Mobile.
Calling a phone “free” while requiring the customer to remain tied to a service agreement—or pay a substantial amount to leave—is hugely different from simply giving the customer a free phone. With MetroPCS, I paid for my phone once and owned it.
The representative then complained that Metro by T-Mobile had not provided me with all the necessary information. I explained that the information had been given to me by a T-Mobile representative over the phone. She continued to complain about T-Mobile’s handling of the situation.
Since her complaints did not solve my problem, I asked the most important question: How much would I pay each month?
Her answer was that she did not know because she did not know how much tax would be added.
At that point, I realized that after more than twenty years, I had returned to the same situation I had experienced with AT&T—only this time, it had a different name.
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