T-Mobile Bait and Switch scam on December 2021 "Free" upgrade to IPhone13 + airpods

I've gotten scammed for the 2nd time now - shame on me!!!  The first time was in November of 2020 when we were told the new phone we were upgrading to was on a free promotion.  We continued to be billed and kept being told after 2 billing cycles, you will see credits each month.  NEVER HAPPENED!!!!  Trying to reach anyone who will help in impossible.  Nothing but a run around.  Then, in December 2021, we also fell for the FREE IPHONE 13.  Both of my daughters traded in their perfectly good phones (one of which we actually paid $150 to fix the screen so we could trade in).  I am now being charged for one of the phones and I continue to be told this was a buy one get one deal.  Why in the HELL would I do a BOGO deal when they had a free promotion for the phone!!??!!  I am now going through the same hassle as before.  They have you sign so many papers and sit in their building for so long (we were there a total of more than 6 hours over two days!) that you don't know what is going on.  Despite the repeated assurances that "both phones are completely free - I promise" we are once again paying for what was supposed to be a free phone.  I WOULD LOVE FOR SOMEONE WHO CAN ACTUALLY HELP FROM TMOBILE TO CONTACT ME AND FIX THIS.

Sorry to see we are not alone.  We have been T-Mobile customers since 2018.  We wanted to reduce our bill and switched over from AT&T.  Service has been okay, at times spotty and frequently slow downloading. 

In April 2020 we upgraded one of the i-phone 8s for the 11 with a promotion they were running.  They never applied the credits.  We had to jump through hoops and after several months they made good and we were satisfied with the outcome.

But now...here we are again!

We upgraded to Magenta Max to qualify for the free I-phone 13 pro promotion in November 2021, expecting an improvement in service.  Totally scammed.  The rep I spoke with yesterday apologized for the rep that originally processed the order saying she was sorry they didn't fully explain the promotion and there was nothing that could be done since they complied with the promotion.  I was assured many times over  by the original rep processing the order that the phone would be free and the charges billed would be credited each month.  As it turned out, we only received partial credits.  I would never have committed to 30 additional months plus "upgrade" to Magenta Max since we are still experiencing dropped calls and areas with spotty service.  VERY disappointed with T-Mobile!!  I will be seeking legal advice in hopes to resolve this matter.  

I was hit with almost the exact same thing. Mine was trade in my iPhone 11 and get $800 in credits on an iPhone 13, 13pro or 13 ProMax. When I sent my iPhone 11 in I was given a 250.00 credit that they put toward my phone bill, not the new iPhone 13 ProMax and now get a monthly installment credit of $19.17 for 30 months which is $575 not $800.00 Plus they offered free AirPods by charging me $130.00 and then told me that I would get a $130 visa card. The problem is that I was never told I had to go on line and fill out a requdest with a Promo code to get the $130. I just kept waiting for the visa card to arrive and when it didn't in three months I called and was told there was nothing they can do because the promo was over and I didn't submit my request in time.  I cant wait to switch over to AT&T 

DTH wrote:

Same thing happened to me. The promotion in December 2021 was iPhone 13 on us with trade in and free AirPods.  I traded in 3 iPhone 11s and and iPhone 8.  I am being charged for 2 phones was told that the promotion in December 2021 was buy one get one free.  That there's nothing they can do.  They cannot find any promotion in December for free iPhones with trade in.  They apologized that the person I spoke with didn't properly explain the promotion.  They were running commercials starting around Thanksgiving 2021 for free iPhones and now they can't find the promotion.  Totally ridiculous.  I only switched to TMobile because of the free phones.

Yes this happened to a lot of people. I was also scammed by T-mobile! I have pictures of the promotions as proof but they still said it was not  ON US but there was an amount attached to the model of the iPhone being returned. Which is not true. They hid the information to the public so we would send in our phones to find out later they we were not going to get iPhone on them but only get a portion credit from the iPhone we sent in, this is BAIT AND SWITCH! 

Oh my God, I'm glad we're not the only one taken by this shell game. We went in and were offered three iphone 13, two of which would be credited with $26, monthly credits, and one partially credited that would end up being a $9.40 payment. And now we are stuck with "the promotion was a buy one, get one free" explanation whenever I call. I did talk to someone last week who went through the motions of fixing it, with no real change: me phone credited, one payment for the phone, and one partial. 

Same thing happened to me. The promotion in December 2021 was iPhone 13 on us with trade in and free AirPods.  I traded in 3 iPhone 11s and and iPhone 8.  I am being charged for 2 phones was told that the promotion in December 2021 was buy one get one free.  That there's nothing they can do.  They cannot find any promotion in December for free iPhones with trade in.  They apologized that the person I spoke with didn't properly explain the promotion.  They were running commercials starting around Thanksgiving 2021 for free iPhones and now they can't find the promotion.  Totally ridiculous.  I only switched to TMobile because of the free phones.

For promotional trade ins (meaning higher trade in than fair market value), here is how the math works:

• As long as you get the quote for your phone model with accurate condition, you should get the full amount. For example, if the promotion tells you the trade in device qualifies for $1000 for your selected new device, then that is what you will get.
• Once you accept, your phone will get assessed "fair market value" as decided by TMO 3rd party trade in service Assurant. For example, let's say FMV says your phone is worth $500 even though you qualified for $1000 trade in.
• The $500 FMV will be spread over 24 months statement credit. In this example the monthly credit will be 20.83. Your last credit will be a little more to true up rounding.
• Since the $500 in monthly credit does not cover your $1000 trade in promotion, TMO will issue you a one time $500 bill credit up front on your next bill.
• The monthly credit and the one time up from credit will equal $1000.

Now for what you get charged for your new phone is a little confusing:

• Let's say you buy a $1000 new phone and that makes the trade in basically "free". However, you still have to pay sales tax, shipping, and activation. You get charged this up front and cannot use credits to pay for it, This does not show up on your bill since you have to pay when you order your new phone.
• Now what you basically have is a zero down, zero interest loan over 24 months so you will be charged $41.67 per month with the last payment a little less to true up rounding to total $1000.

On your first bill, you will see the following:

• One time credit of $500.
• Monthly equipment installment charge of $41.67
• Monthly trade in credit of $20.83

On your 2 of 24 bill and onward thru 24 of 24 you will see:

• Monthly equipment installment charge of $41.67
• Monthly trade in credit of $20.83

If those on this thread did not get the up front credit and the monthly credits fall short of the full credit promised, then there is definitely a problem and you might want to escalate directly on TMO twitter help thread.

Hopefully this information is useful. I've traded in promotions many times and it always calculates out to the exact amount as promised. I have to admit though a couple months after trade in I do occasionally go "WTF why am I being billed for this phone?". I just forget that I got the offsetting credit up front in one lump sum.

Well my sister told me they lie and I thought well they all do that. Apparently T-mobile is banking on the victim being to put out to pursue legal action I just wanted to share that I have had the same experience and I am filing with the bbb the fcc and state's attorney today and I'd like to remind everyone that you like I'm going to be doing can file in small claims court over this good luck to you all it's a shame our public officials don't hold companies accountable when they steal from us the burden is on us and if you don't pay the corporation regardless if you dispute it the burden is placed on the citizens also never trust a corporation or a politician 

Gerd wrote:

My Family has been scammed by T-Mobile!  1st mistake: In early November we switched from AT&T to T-Mobile.   2nd: Mistake:  Fell for the so called “Free” IPhone 13 upgrade scam!   

I traded in/sent them my perfect condition i-phone 12 pro max for a i-phone 13 pro max and was told I would received $1000  in installment credits over 30 months

I traded in/sent them my wife’s perfect condition i-phone 12 pro for a i-phone 13 pro  and was told I would received $1000  in installment credits over 30 months 

I'm now being charged  $36.67 - 15.50 credit for each phone. So being charged $21.17 for each phone per month.    

If you do the math they gave me $465 each for my phones.

The promotion was $1000 credit on any I-phone 12!  They lied!

My local store employees verbally guaranteed we would get the full $1000 because that was the promotion!

I'm still fighting to get the full credits.   Next step is filing a complaint with Better Business and taking legal action filing a class action lawsuit. 

 
If you’ve experienced something similar with this promotion they ran in Dec. 2021 I would love to here your comments.

Gerd wrote:

My Family has been scammed by T-Mobile!  1st mistake: In early November we switched from AT&T to T-Mobile.   2nd: Mistake:  Fell for the so called “Free” IPhone 13 upgrade scam!   

I traded in/sent them my perfect condition i-phone 12 pro max for a i-phone 13 pro max and was told I would received $1000  in installment credits over 30 months

I traded in/sent them my wife’s perfect condition i-phone 12 pro for a i-phone 13 pro  and was told I would received $1000  in installment credits over 30 months 

I'm now being charged  $36.67 - 15.50 credit for each phone. So being charged $21.17 for each phone per month.    

If you do the math they gave me $465 each for my phones.

The promotion was $1000 credit on any I-phone 12!  They lied!

My local store employees verbally guaranteed we would get the full $1000 because that was the promotion!

I'm still fighting to get the full credits.   Next step is filing a complaint with Better Business and taking legal action filing a class action lawsuit. 

 
If you’ve experienced something similar with this promotion they ran in Dec. 2021 I would love to here your comments.

Omgggg wow!! This literally happened to me and I’m surprised to see how many other people this has happened to!! HOW DO WE FIX THIS!!!

Scammed 3 times by three different TMobile reps in the Philippines. All of my calls were recorded by Tmobile so there should be absolutely NO refuting the content of the conversations and the promises made by the reps.

4/21/2022 I spoke to "Rodica", sales rep at the Philippine call center to get info on switching my mother's ATT cell plan to TMobile. She promised the following:

FREE iPhone 13 ProMax 128gb phone if we switched to Tmobile and took the 55+ Magenta Max Plan for $65/mo on autopay. Sounded great so we signed up for this promotion with her.

Later that afternoon, we received email receipt for installment payments for $1199/mo!!

4/21/2022 3:25pm ET I called Tmobile and got the Philippine call center again and spoke with "Jason". He apologized but said that there was no such promotion...PERIOD. I told him that this was a classic "bait and switch" and told him to cancel this account and "DO NOT ship the new phone." Jason told be "too late, the phone has already been shipped and I'm sorry sir about any confusion on our end but there is no such promotion that Rodica told you about. I will email you the UPS tracking number information." He never emailed anything. He told me "our email server is not working. I'm sorry sir."

4/22/2022 at 11:15am ET. I called "order support" and got the Philippine call center again and spoke with "Niel" Employee # 555500. He told me the following: "when you turn in your old iphone 6, you WILL receive a $400 credit for that phone. He was adamant that this was the truth and he promised to email me written confirmation of this. He never did. Niel also promised that the $400 credit would appear on the next billing statement. I believed him. Stupid me.

4/25/2022 We received the new iphone 13 promax and I successfully activated it with the Tmobile SIM card.

4/26/2022 I called Tmobile from the next iphone 13 promax using 611 and got the Tmobile call center in Birmingham, Alabama and spoke to "Sugar".  She apologized and informed me that there was NO $400 credit to be applied. She did however tell me that there would be a $200 credit (divided over 24 months and applied on a monthly basis).  She said in the future that in order to speak with USA Tmobile support, I should call 611 from the iphone.

From what I've read above, this is classic bait and switch done by Tmobile call center in the Philippines. I don't know what to do going forward other than filling out the Tmobile complaint form.

If I had this all to do over again, I would have taken Mom's phone to the AT&T store in person and wheeled and dealed there. I will NEVER in the future do business over the phone with Philippine call centers.

TMOBILE….PLEASE read this complaint string by so many customers who have been duped by the Philippine call centers! This is all simply WRONG and you really are responsible for making all of us whole because we've been hurt financially by your representatives in the Philippines.

Let’s go!!