- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
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So here's the TL;DR.
I have a 22 year old son who is a college student. About a year ago, he wanted a new phone and my goal is to have him self sufficient. He saw the price on TMobile for the iPhone 14 he wanted and it was too much for him, so he checked on eBay (Brand New) and got one for just under $100 less. Fast forward to last night, he's supposed to take a test online for school, which requires his phone. The phone is showing SOS, which means basically, it's shut down. He's puzzled and calls TMobile support. They tell him there is a huge balance on the phone and many others bought with it at the same time by the same person. He's puzzled... what do you mean? Basically, someone walked into a TMobile store and scammed them with a big purchase of phones to turn over on eBay. They never paid (first payment default). Without notice TMobile shut it down after we've been customers for 6 years. He couldn't take his test and hopefully can explain that to his professor.
I called TMobile and they told me the only solution is for him to buy a new phone from them. $800+
This solution came out after I was escalated to an Indian manager (in India) that hung up on me when I asked why their failure to do due diligence in selling their phones is affecting their good customers. I had already looked online and this event is not a rare one. They don't warn you, they just shut you down. They could easily run a data query on their phones and shut downs and warn customers that never missed a payment. Hell, I could write the query myself with an ETL data job for any data sources they are using in about 30 mins.
Now they all have this policy, so don't buy a phone outside your carrier anymore. I am headed to Verizon this morning to see what their deal is on a new family plan for the hot wife, son, and myself. If I have to pay a few grand, I will just to remove myself from the shitty support of TMobile. Apparently, they are the worst at checking credit as they were motivated to take over the market, which they did a real good job over the years of growing.
I have a 22 year old son who is a college student. About a year ago, he wanted a new phone and my goal is to have him self sufficient. He saw the price on TMobile for the iPhone 14 he wanted and it was too much for him, so he checked on eBay (Brand New) and got one for just under $100 less. Fast forward to last night, he's supposed to take a test online for school, which requires his phone. The phone is showing SOS, which means basically, it's shut down. He's puzzled and calls TMobile support. They tell him there is a huge balance on the phone and many others bought with it at the same time by the same person. He's puzzled... what do you mean? Basically, someone walked into a TMobile store and scammed them with a big purchase of phones to turn over on eBay. They never paid (first payment default). Without notice TMobile shut it down after we've been customers for 6 years. He couldn't take his test and hopefully can explain that to his professor.
I called TMobile and they told me the only solution is for him to buy a new phone from them. $800+
This solution came out after I was escalated to an Indian manager (in India) that hung up on me when I asked why their failure to do due diligence in selling their phones is affecting their good customers. I had already looked online and this event is not a rare one. They don't warn you, they just shut you down. They could easily run a data query on their phones and shut downs and warn customers that never missed a payment. Hell, I could write the query myself with an ETL data job for any data sources they are using in about 30 mins.
Now they all have this policy, so don't buy a phone outside your carrier anymore. I am headed to Verizon this morning to see what their deal is on a new family plan for the hot wife, son, and myself. If I have to pay a few grand, I will just to remove myself from the shitty support of TMobile. Apparently, they are the worst at checking credit as they were motivated to take over the market, which they did a real good job over the years of growing.
