My fiasco with T Mobile

M y wife and I have a basic plan,every two years when we renew,they send us two new phones. Mrs. liked the old one better so that gave us a brand new extra. Her brother lives in a remote area of PA where they dont have cell service ,so obviously he never got one. Because he was meeting us in Vegas and because he does drive to other places I got the bright idea that maybe if I sent him the extra new phone ,he could buy minutes for it. I called T Mobile and they told me no problem as long as he went to T mobile. He took the Phone to the only T Mobile dealer in Altoona Pa which is a guy in Target. These people were totally useless ,tried to sell him a two year Verizon plan telling him 'sure they have service where you live" except when his son who has verizon visits ,he has no service. So they nailed him $30 for so many minutes and told him he has to actvate the phone him self calling a number and giving them codes on the outside of the box. Of course this didnt work so I called TMobile and they told me to send him back and get an actvation kit from the dealer. He went back and they told him that they dont have one and that he would have to go to Phidelphia to get one.IDIOTS !! so at least he got his money back .End of part one

 

Part Two

I went to my local T Mobile dealer here in NJ and they called my Bro-in law in Pa ,got his info went into the computer and told me the phone was actve.The charged me $10 for 30 minutes ,not bad. They gave a print out with his number on it. When we got to Vegas we tried to call him ,no luck when we met up with him the next morning we tried his phone,still no good. We found a TMobile dealer on Spring Mountain,they said the number they gave us in NJ belonged to someone else and that I bought minutes for someone elses phone. They called NJ and nothing really got resolved. So I took the phone home with me,went to TMobile and explained the situation,they admitted their mistake. I told them just give a refund and we'll just forget the whole thing. They told me that they cant refund my $10.70 ,but they will get the phone working. So I said OK do that and I'll it back to PA. Then they told me that I'd have to pay another $10.70 to do this ,WHAT!!.So despite being really mad ,rather than taking it out on two young women I went outside told this tale to TM obile and they took the money off my next bill. Whats the moral of this story? Dammed if I know anymore.

 

I was told Target's cell phone store was run by Radio Shack. The moral of the story is no good deed goes unpunished. Good of you to hook your bro up with a phone though, you're a good man Charlie Brown.

For anyone else reading this, consider a Net 10 prepaid phone, they are cheap and reliable, $25 for 750 minutes that expire in 30 days. Other prepaid plans are available. Net 10 is part of Trac Phone and owned by Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim and they buy minutes from ATT and Verizon and re-distribute.

 

Yep, had a Net10 fone, really crappy service, went to a TracFone, acceptably crappy service.

I'd go with the TracFone at this point.