Forum Discussion
T-mobile refusing to give me my credits from a promotion I qualified for
Just a heads-up, this will be very long. Don't know how to tldr
In late May, I decided to migrate from sprint to t-mobile because there was a running promotion that stated that I can receive a free Galaxy S21 in the form of $800 recurring credits over the span of 24 months if I opened a new line (didnt matter which plan) and traded in an eligible phone that would qualify for them.
So I went with my brother to a local t-mobile store to trade in my S10 and his iPhone X; both phones qualified for the $800 trade in promotion. My brother is the account holder and has been a loyal sprint customer for something like 5 years at this point so his account was in good standing, therefore he qualified for the promotion. My brother had to mail his phone out for the trade-in because it wasn't fully paid off but in the end, we both received the S21's at the store. The problem, however, was that T-Mobile sent the mailing kit to our previous address (we had moved a few months earlier) and it didn't occur to us until about 2 weeks later.
My brother went to the store to inform them of the situation but they said they couldn't do anything on their end because his PIN wasn't working or something, and that in order to reset it he had to wait 30 days. He waited 30 days and went back to the store, same issue, only this time the staff couldn't even sign into my brother's account because they were getting the same errors we were getting when trying to access the site ("Whoops! Looks like our wires are crossed!")
At this point we've noticed that we're being charged for each of the phones. I call customer care and I learn that the promotion was never applied to the account. They told me because one of the 2 phones weren't traded in, the promotion didn't take effect on any level. So I traded in my s10 for free essentially. However, after lots of back and forth, they finally applied a lump sum of $350, which will be part of the $500 in credits I'll be recieving for the CURRENT trade-in promotion, instead of the $800 in credits I was supposed to receive from the promotion at the time (late may). Keep in mind, the current $800 trade promotion requires you to start a new Magenta MAX line, when before the magenta type did not matter.
Customer care told me the promotion I was talking about was available only for 1 day, and that it was a typo on T-Mobile's end. I did a lot of research before going through with the trade in and that particular promotion was being talked about A LOT on forums and on Reddit for a couple of months, so what the supervisor from customer care was telling me was blatantly untrue. Not only that, but I can see the promotions from previous dates on Wayback Machine! I'll post the links, and even attach some screenshots.
1. This is what the CURRENT promotion looks like:
https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/samsung-phone-deals
Note the "MAX"
2. This is what the promotion looked like when I applied.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210523051210/https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/samsung-phone-deals
Note the absence of "MAX"
3. As a reference, this was the ORIGINAL promotion from February.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210208034631/https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/samsung-phone-deals
Note the absence of needing to activate a new line
There's a pattern. As time went on, the more stringent the promotion became.
I understand that my brother should have been more preemptive on his end, but I get the short end of the stick here because I traded in my phone hoping I'd be getting recurring credits for 2 years that would essentially be paying off the S21, but instead the lump sum I received will be going towards the entire phone bill, and will cover the total cost for about 2 months, which means I still have to pay off my S21 for the remainder of the 24 months anyways.
The fact that all of these agents and that one particular idiot of a supervisor keep telling me that that promotion never existed is infuriating me. What can I do? Can i file a claim or something? I feel misled, cheated, and taken advantage of. Thanks in advance to anybody who decides to help
Here we are in July 2023 and I am dealing with EXACT problem. Signed up as new customer under a promotion $830 credits for 14 pro max. Ordered deep purple. Received black but also 128 vs 256 go so had to send it back. They received my 12 pro max and the incorrect phone in June. I see a balance of $693 owed this month. I've called 15x to ask it be removed. Every rep tells me something different but ends with "wait a billing cycle". I have a 760 credit score and they say don't pay and it'll all work out. So yesterday I called again because I'm getting past due emails. This rep tries telling me that the promotion was invalid now because it's a different phone. Say WHAT?!?! You sent wrong phone. I've done. Everything asked and they do nothing. My plan is $80/mo or $75 w autopay. My CREDIT under promotion brings my equipment charge from $29 to $7.25 for a total of $82.25. They still can't get it right and now they applied $140 trade credit to that amount and still charging me over $550 for the phone that is under the promotion. Their mistake shouldn't be my problem. The rep yesterday told me not to call for 7 days that he's going to personally fix this. Why do I have a feeling this is more BS? Anyone have any suggestions? I
Get credits and promises verified by cooperate.
A store employee misinformed us that our Magenta military would qualify for $200 per line transferred from Verizon. After 1 month without approval of the credit, a call to cooperate revealed this was never true, ONLY Military Max accounts qualify. They will not honor the misinformation, despite electronic proof (he electronically requested credits the day we signed up), which are visible on our T-mobile account.
Moral of the story:1) call cooperate and confirm all details/action from instore T-mobile employees. Corporate will reference their written advertisement or contract as what's enforceable, and they will not enforce what an employee said. They will just offer to reprehend/retrain that employee for their mistake, but no financial compensation for mistakes.
- Don't wait to confirm details with corporate. Ignore the spiel "just be patient, these things can take 30 days to approve". You have 14 days for buyers remorse period, not 30 days. So if there's a dispute and you want out, its 14 days.
I also was misled and cheated by T-mobile's promotion. I traded my iPhone 11 for the the iPhone 13. I've had to call T-Mobile numerous times since I got the plan which was an August 2022. One of rep entered the wrong information for the phone I traded in. When I called to point out the mistake they said it was a generic text it didn't matter what phone you traded in it will be the same information for everyone. When I called again to dispute the amount they valued my phone nobody said anything about my find my phone app left on the phone. They told me my rebate would be applied to the bill.
When I called to follow up on the rebate because I noticed it wasn't applied to my bill. I spoke to a rep and they tell me I am not getting anything bc I didn't turn off find my phone app on the phone I traded in. I told them I did because those were the instructions that were given to me and told them why wasn't this mentioned sooner the many times I called. I said check your notes I've called many times for this issue. I was gaslighted even by the supposedly a manager. I told them to send my phone back and they said they won't. Why would they need my phone is supposedly it cant be used.I called Apple and they told me that if I didn't turn of the find my phone app on iPhone 11 it would show on the iCloud and on the find my phone app. It doesn't show on either. My phone was stolen by T-mobile.
Did you check the actual wording for the trade in? Usually you get bill credits over 24 months. There's always a hook for the "free" phone promos
We also got robbed by TMobile. Took the 'FREE" offer for the Iphone 14, took my iphone 11 as a TRADE ($800) for the iphone 14, my husband had a very old phone, so he got supposely also a FREE Galaxy S22, we specified and re-specified we did not want a contract, suposely no contract at all, also asked a million times, are these phones that we can take anywhere if we don't like the service, YES YES YES NO PROBLEM we were told. The service has been horrible, and the internet horrendous, had to change the Gateway 3 times, it seems the internet goes off at night. Now decided we don't like this service and want to change companies.
Now the HAPPY (sarcasm) ending.
Come to find out, our phones are locked for 24 mths, because they are paying themselves for these phones, ( I don’t get it at all, what the heck does that mean?), So what happenned to my ($800) older phone that I traded in?. We are furious with this company and feel that they stole from us, it has all been stories and lies since day one, mind you, we have only been with them for 2 months, I feel they stold my older phone ($800).
DO NOT, and I mean DO NOT, go with this company.
OK. In fairness to T-Mobile, I reviewed my account and discovered that I actually did get the discount. My apologies for acting like a drama queen. T-Mobile gave me the deal I bargained for.
Thanks for your post. I just realized that the same thing happened to me. I kept thinking they were charging me too much and that my phones should have been paid off a long time ago. I feel like I have been robbed by t-mobile and am embarrassed that I am just now discovering this. I do not have time to even try to work this out yet. Unfortunately, I am busy enough that I have just blindly been paying instead of questioning. I will try to call t-mobile next week, but may not have enough time. Meanwhile, my pocket gets picked with each monthly payment.
I traded in 6 phones on Dec 17th and was promised credits to my account. The credits were not applied correctly or in the correct amounts and talking with the representatives they lack integrity and follow through. It has been completely frustrating and I refuse to give up. I want them to due what was promised.
Yep, I've had the same issue here. T-Mobile is basically stealing people's money.
They screwed my entire plan up too after I split off from my dad's account then merged my girlfriends account to mine. They said everything would be good and that we would both we getting 800 each for our s10 trade ins for the s21 ultra. She put over 400 down and with the promo still owes over 500$??? I put nothing down and owe 799 (this is almost 8 months later). Tmobile and their flamboyant service is the worst. They care more about the survey than they do about correcting their math. They ended up giving me some random amount of credits they pulled from their a** which, without, I'd owe like 75$ just for one phone. Absolutely absurd. They've been fuc**** up my family's bills for the last 7 years. My dad's account has been receiving credits of -150$ for months now and we can't even access it. They will atleast give us those credits, that's a lot of money stolen otherwise.
