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

This same thing has happened to me, and I'm really pissed off about it. They did not do at all what they said they would do. This switch is costing me a freaking fortune. I regret it already and it's only been a few days. My bill is over $100 per month more than I was told it would be, and now I have to pay off the phones from AT&T. It's a bait and switch and T Mobile deserves to be called out for this deceiving business practice. I hate starting off so mad at them.

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.

We too have been a victim of the bait and switch.  It all started in Nov. 2021 when Sprint was pushing us to upgrade a phone that was still 3G.  We ended up migrating our lines to T-Mobile after 17 years with Sprint.  We traded 2 iPhone XR's and an iPhone7.  We paid the taxes and another $200 to make up for the iPhone7 being of lesser trade in value.  6 months later we are still trying to resolve the bill.  They keep telling us that the promo we were given wasn't available - even though the in-store mgr confirmed it.  They actually owe us a credit, but have suspended our business lines twice because of billing errors on their end.   Long story short - let's start a class action lawsuit.  I started one before against Gateway computers (successfully) and am ready to do it again.  These companies act with impunity and need to realize that as customers we have options - one of them to hit them in the pocket book.  I truly think they make it so difficult that people eventually give up.  If anyone is interested in joining a class action, post something on here and I will create a site for us connect.

I got scammed too! I called multiple times, went to different stores and can't get any help. I'm not giving up yet. We had 2 new iPhone 12s and was told if we hand them in we get 2 free new iPhone 13s. So that's a no brainer. Wrong. They took the phones, gave us a total of $510 of credit and gave us a buy one iPhone 13 get one free. So we have to pay 500 dollars now for the other phone. The deal was 2 free phones not one. Why else would we give them full paid for brand new phones?

Next I signed up for t mobile hone internet. They say hey u want a watch for free. I say sure. Wrong again. I was given a choice between the 44mm and the 40mm so I choose the bigger one cause I'm a bigger man. Well it turns out I have to pay $4 a month for it cause the bigger one isn't free and I have to carry the line of $10 a month. If I cancel I have to pay for the watch outright. These guys are some great taking advantage of us. 

A Ramos wrote:

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.  

 

We need to all get in on legal advise, as a lot of people have been scammed, I’m one of them! 

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.

They used the promotion as a bait and switch. I was scammed also! But I have pictures of the promotion.

magenta9940889 wrote:

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!!

It's also happening in the United States and I would not be surprised if it is happening world wide! I was scammed also by the bait and switch! 

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! 

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.

It seems there are a lot of people being scammed by T-mobile. I've been lied to also! 
I was told that the promotion stated the value of the iPhone you send in for upgrades was posted but it never showed up anywhere. We should all file a class action against them! I'll be posting in BBB also. 

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.