Difficult Experience - advice sought

On 1/1/22, I woke up to an absence of LTE service on my older (S7e) device. It was afflicted with low signal bars and stuck in roaming mode. Despite that this older phone does 4G just fine and seems to use it exclusively, I'd been receiving nag alerts from T-Mobile via recurring text messages to upgrade to a new device or lose service. They originally suggested that my device would no longer work after December 31st. But I was convinced it would continue to work, since it does 4G so nicely. Well, I began to think twice about the issue once I noticed no LTE service on New Year's Day. So I called T-Mobile customer service to determine what was actually going on.

I was connected to a female cs agent. I reported the network inaccessibility issue happening in my area. She transferred me to another female representative who checked my local tower status. Both representatives were quite pleasant and friendly. After investigating the network status, the second agent told me there was a local tower in my area that was temporarily out of service but that it should be back in service within no more than one week. Before the call ended, she mentioned an offer for me to upgrade from my current device to a newer one. I didn't pay a lot of attention because i wasn't terribly interested in anything other than getting service back from the inoperative local tower. She thanked me for being a customer since 2016 and told me I was eligible for a free phone and gave me a list of android devices from which to choose (since I'm an android person).

Actually, the free phone offer aroused my interest a bit. But I told her I needed to investigate which phone from the list would be best for my needs. I thus told her I'd have to phone back in a day or so. With that understanding, we cordially ended our conversation.

Well, I did some light research on the devices offered (via YouTube vids, printed reviews, etc.) and called T-Mobile cs back the next day (January 2nd) with some further questions. This time, I was connected with a cs agent named "Van". I asked him some upgrade-related questions concerning the offer I was presented with the previous day. He asked if he could place me on hold for a short time to go check my promotional offer status. I replied that doing so wouldn't be a problem. He returned to the call and advised me he'd learned I was indeed eligible for the free android phone... but as well said I was eligible for an additional line free of any monthly charges, plus for a free smart watch, and even for a free tablet. Honestly, I was a bit skeptical about all of this free stuff being presented to me. I've been out of my contract for years and it crossed my mind that this somehow might be an attempt to get me back into one. I paraphrased Van and he confirmed that my understanding about all mentioned items, including the 'free' android phone, the 'free' new line, as well as the smart watch and tablet was correct. I pressed him on the watch and tablet, though, telling him I couldn't imagine they would be provided without a monthly service contract. He then admitted if there were a contract it would be only for the watch at around $10/mo. His response gave me a bit of a bad vibe, thinking that the rest of his offer might be flawed as well.  

So Van then asked if I would allow him to initiate the order. Please note that I was really only interested in the free phone and the free line. I told him that I planned to first check the availability of the offered devices through the local T-Mobile stores in my area and as well continue where I'd left off on my device research. I also told him that he was free to call back later in the day and I should then have a decision for him one way or the other. He agreed and said he would phone me back in one to two hours. About 90 minutes later, I received a call from 1-800-777-4681 (which shows to be a T-Mobile number). But it only rang once and no one phoned back thereafter. That call was to my wire-line (the number I'd provided him with for purposes of call back).

Shortly thereafter, I received a call on my cell phone. Strangely, it was from the same T-Mobile representative I'd spoken with on January 1st. I told her about the one-ring call and asked her to confirm my understanding of the free stuff offered me. She confirmed everything that Van had said to me. She also said that I could use the smart watch and the tablet as stand-alones but that they would be extremely limited on what they could do. I thanked her and told her that I was going to see if I could find the free phone I preferred at one of the local T-Mobile stores, and we ended the call.

On January 3rd, I was unable to locate my preferred device (from the list of free phone models) at the local TMo stores. I thus decided that I would simply try and order the device through the T-Mobile call center. I was connected to a representative named "Mark". When I explained the situation and my plan to him, he informed me that I had no free phone coming, and certainly no free line. This was frustrating to me and I think I fairly well expressed such frustration to Mark. He made effort to deflect my frustration but ultimately told me he would treat this as a special circumstance and offered me a free phone anyway - despite that he'd claimed I was not eligible for one. I found this all peculiar, but I accepted the phone he offered (mainly to be done with the matter).

The following day, January 4, I was still upset and decided to log-on to my T-Mobile/Sprint account via the Sprint website. I noticed that there was a "free virtual line" now sitting there under 'Devices' and that it had an assigned new phone number. This was in addition to my existing active device and line with my long-held mobile number. I was pleasantly surprised to see the description of "free virtual line" and that it showed a cost of "$0.00/mo" ... just as every T-Mobile agent (except Mark) had been telling me would be the case. So I decided to call T-Mobile yet again to try and learn whether the first TMo agents were being straight with me or whether it was instead Mark (who had denied all that they'd expressed), yet still ordered a free phone for me (go figure!). I was connected with a representative named "Ogie" this time. I filled her in and after reviewing my account she confirmed (or at least asserted) that the first agents were correct about the entirely free phone and added free virtual line and that Mark was incorrect.

Next, since I finally became convinced that the original offer was accurate and my account info on the Sprint website seemed to confirm this, I purchased a brand-new additional phone to use on the free virtual line and activated it. (Note: The free phone TMo agent Mark ordered for me will replace my S7e on my original line.) So I had two phones for two lines... at least that was my plan.

Well, last night I had some problems with unwanted apps being pushed to that brand-new phone I mentioned above. I thus called TMo support and was routed to the OKC support center. This was unrelated to my issue described above but the OKC support person mentioned that she noticed my second line was scheduled to be cancelled in a few days. Well, that was just great! Multiple TMo agents tell me I've been given a free line, my account shows that I have a new free line, TMo agent Mark says 'no' you don't have a free line, and an OKC team support member tells me the free line is now queued to vanish in short order. What a fiasco!

So, what do I do next? I called in again to TMo cs and expressed this cluster-flub as best I could. The agent basically responded to me with Mark's viewpoint, that I was never eligible for a free line and basically ignored the question of: Why do I currently have one on my account then? After our inability to reach an understanding, the agent passed me to his supervisor, "Sol". She echoed his (and Mark's) position, that I don't qualify for a free line and will thus have to pay for every additional line on my account. That would have been fine if they hadn't told me I was being given a free line and then placed one on my account. I actually bought a new phone just for that free line. A true bait n switch scenario it seems :(

Ultimately, after some expression of frustration from me, the supervisor offered to give me a monthly credit for the cost they now claim the line will entail. She said the credit will be continually applied for 24 months, with a note to renew it at that time. But how can I trust that this will be honored. She wouldn't send me a hard copy of the resolution description via email. I do have a reference number but, based on what has already happened, I can easily foresee at some point in the future T-Mobile telling me that the agreement is not possible and that even if she assured me of the fix that she didn't have the authority to set a permanent adjustment such as this one. By the way, it's my understanding that all TMo cs phone conversations are recorded. If that's true then anyone with access to the recording can review them to confirm that everything I'm describing here is exactly what occurred.

Is it too much to ask for people to be honest and to strive for reasonable accuracy? Is making effort to coordinate on facts too much to expect?