Complaint Review: TMobile USA - Internet

Hi,

I’ve had a horrible run around getting either of my T-mobile purchased – at full price – iPhones unlocked by T-mobile. I am not alone as a quick search of the internet will reveal. Even the T-mobile seem have every other post about getting full price phones unlocked. I bought my 5S at T-mobile on Sept 19 because they were the only place with them in stock and line at the Apple store was a mile long. All the talk on the internet at that time was that while the T-mobile 5 was locked the 5S was unlocked at T-mobile as the story went that Apple was selling the T-mobile version as the unlocked model. The rep at the store lied to me and said the phone was unlocked and so I bought 2 – one for a friend.

My argument is that the “uncarrier” marketing strategy is a sham. What effectively is happening is that I’m paying full price for the device and for all intents and purposes I’m under contract with them for the life of the phone. There may be no actual contract but if I can’t use my non subsidized phone on any other carrier it amounts to a “contract”. I forfeit the value of the phone if I want to switch. Even AT&T will graciously unlock your phone after 60 days on postpaid. A former customer can easily request an unlock.

With T-mobile even though the policy as written seems straightforward they deny unlocks willy-nilly citing reasons that are pure lies. Again a quick internet search will reveal the infamous “7 day rule” that acts as the default reason for denial. That reason should really read “because we didn’t feel like unlocking your fully paid phone”.

With Verizon my phone unlocked out of the box.

Tmobile may be marketing itself as the most liberal carrier but their unlock denial history would reveal that they are in fact the most draconian of carriers. Their pricing is good and their CS is good, but they have an insidious way of making sure every device they sell accrues revenue to them.

I’ve requested an unlock 4 times in the past 2 weeks and I keep getting the blanket “7 day” denial. Different reps tell me different stories. Some say it must have been used once within the 7 days prior to the request (which is how it reads to me in English) others say it must have been used every day for the 7 days prior to the request. One even said it must be used 7 days after the request. It’s like they need to make up a story to cover for that nebulous “7 day” denial. It’s not just me, it seems to be happening to a lot of people.

I’ve asked them about their policy for former customers, wondering if it may be easier if I cancel service with them. I’ve asked them about their policy for customers with overseas travel plans. Nothing I hear from reps jives with what I’ve read. The way I see it for intents and purposes if you buy a phone from T-mobile it will be locked for life. Sure you could waste hours upon hours of your life calling and writing worrying about it, but is that why one pays $650 for a 16GB iPhone? If you add in the time you waste, and we all have an hourly rate for our time, the phone ends up costing over $1000 if after all that aggravation and frustration they actually do eventually unlock your phone.

The fair thing to do is to unlock the phone on the spot for those who pay in full. Again some internet posts have stated that this is a policy of T-mobile and requires an original receipt from T-mobile to be faxed to them. Some report that they get some denial reason and others that it works. I probably will be able to find my receipt but I’m not sure if the company should have a record of my purchase and my account being moved over to the SIM that the phone came with. Do I need to go back to that particular store and investigate their ability to print me out a new receipt? It’s just a crapshoot and total waste of time and huge runaround.

I’m at the point where I want to sell every T-mobile phone I own and just get an unlocked one from Apple and never ever do business with T-mobile with the understanding that they are actually the most unfair of all carriers masquerading as the most friendly carrier.

Thanks for reading this and I hope that maybe you could paraphrase this so that your readers don’t fall into the trap I did.