T-Mobile - "Our dedicated team of customer care professionals are here to help"* *(If you pay us $1000)

As noted on their page https://www.t-mobile.com/customers/customer-care you may think that the front line shift towards customer centric support and personal attention is their goal. After this experience (that is still ongoing), missing talking to my son Christmas Day, New Years and then being through weeks of sorting out what should have been a simple warranty return transformed a hopeful transition into 2021 to a nightmare that I wish upon no customer.

I debated a great deal in writing this article with the hopes that there would be a glimmer of hope from their higher echelon of "customer care experts" and while their front line staff couldn't have been more polite and kind it is apparent that T-Mobile intends to only maintain a fa?ade of customer care insofar as they are able to shirk responsibility for their mistakes.

TLDR: Even with meticulous due diligence, measured and clear requests, the continued false assurance from representatives you potential customer can safely have 0 confidence in T-Mobile customer care beyond the hardworking front-liners who are not empowered to help their customers.

This journey begins with my iPhone XS Max having a radio issue that after troubleshooting with T-Mobile meant a new replacement (via warranty) would be needed. I promptly received my phone, packed the old one neatly back into its coffin with documentation and could not have been happier to have gotten things ironed out so quickly. COVID being as it was and still is complicated shipping matters so when I received a message from T-Mobile stating I would be charged a non-return fee for my device several weeks later I ventured to find my device to get it where it belonged which was apparently T-Mobile's warehouse.

I physically took the device to one of the few open T-Mobile stores and explained the situation to their manager who kindly reached out to T-Mobile to attempt to see how we could get a new shipping label. I was told I would get one in my email and simply take it to be shipped. 24 hours passed, no email, I called and asked what the issues was and was referred to Assurant (The insurance carrier for T-Mobile insurance returns). I entered details and sent messages via the mytmoclaim.com as instructed, already confused as to why I was dealing with a new return request. This degenerated with the height of impersonal communication using the portal page. Here is how the exchanges went.

-

"Hello Parker R. Snyder,

Thank you for contacting Assurant. You should receive a return shipping label via email within 24 hours. Once you receive it, please print it out and follow the instructions included with the return shipping label.

Thank you for allowing us to serve you, we appreciate your business.

Brandi

Assurant Mobile Services"

-

24+ hours passed and I inquired yet again. "How can we help you? Received follow-up message from Brandi in response to my inquiry, however I have not yet received an email with the shipping label. Assurant e-mail Message follows: [concatenated]

-

Hello Parker,

Thank you for contacting Assurant. I apologize for any inconvenience to your shipping label Upon review of your claim we sent you shipping materials along with your replacement phone, to ship your damaged phone back with a  Return Tracking: 92020XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX If you did not receive or having issues with this tracking number what I will do is send another label to your Email address [email protected] Please allow 24 hours to receive to Email If this is not a good Email address please contact one of our representatives to help assist you to providing a different Email address or if you rather have one faxed please let us know a fax number. Once you get follow directions that comes with your new label. I would take your package to post office or shipper do not drop off in a box could get lost. If you need further assistance, please contact us 866-866-6285

Thank you for allowing us to serve you, we appreciate your business.

Pam

Assurant Mobile Services"

-

As you may have deduced I am not the [email protected] contact, nor did I ever mention another address beyond my gmail account which is required as you fill out the mytmoclaim.com contact us page.  

I followed up almost immediately informing them that I wasn't this individual, don't know who they are and that if they send any shipping details via email that they should use the one I provided in the contact page and then reiterated it in the contact us message.

"How can we help you? Received follow up message from Pam (below) referring to my email address incorrectly to send a new shipping label. I do not know where the address mentioned below came from, but it is incorrect. PLEASE ENSURE REPLACEMENT LABEL IS SENT TO [email protected] This is the address I provided on the phone yesterday to a representative before getting disconnected. Again, please send the updated label so that I can return this device to [email protected]"

-

Lo and behold a return message followed by a label. I thought progress was finally being made. Seeing as this had now extended into December and my T-Mobile account in jeopardy of being charged $1000 for a non-return fee I felt relieved, but it was not a feeling that would last.

-

"Hello Parker R. Snyder,

Thank you for contacting Assurant. You should receive a return shipping label via email within 24 hours. Once you receive it, please print it out and follow the instructions included with the return shipping label.

Thank you for allowing us to serve you, we appreciate your business.

Victorian

Assurant Mobile Services"

-

Place your Deerstalker hats back on reading Sherlocks, and see if you can spot the new discrepancy.

"Hello Samantha VXXXXXXX, Assurant Phone Returns has provided 1 shipping label for your convenience.Print your label by 06/14/2021 using one of these options:Print label yourself.OrFedEx Office locations can print label for you by scanning barcode below from your mobile device.Note: Once you view your label with an option above, you may only use that option to print or reprint within 5 days of accessing the label.Shipment summaryShip to: Assurant Phone ReturnsRecipient Phone: 71726XXXXX Item description: Mobile DeviceReturn merchandise authorization (RMA): 489XXXXX For shipment questions or expired label access call 6613768829."

Yes indeed, wrong phone number, wrong name. The mysterious Samantha strikes again, however since the label was due to the correct address for their return center and wanting to absolutely get the device at least in the hands of those who can make sure all is well I proceed and shipped (successfully this time) the phone.

During this ordeal multiple T-Mobile customer service experts continually espoused "Don't you worry." In response to my pressing queries regarding the fact that I was paying my normal phone bill, but the values of course were now going to be offset by $1000 dollars because they hadn't cleared the non-return.

More "Don't you worry." statements were calmingly cooed to soothe my already mounting concern by the T-Mobile experts.

Merry Christmas, your account has been suspended. All of the "Don't you worry" statements fell cold and flat when the suspension message appeared and my frustration spilled over into what most of you who know me is represented by an unrelenting tenacity to solve this issue and get to the bottom of this, not just for the bill being so wildly out of sorts, but for a device that was literally amidst $0.00 balance on its purchase.

Happy New Year, don't you worry, your account is suspended again.

At each turn of disconnection profuse apologies for what every agent on the phone saw as a calamity of paperwork, their own Insurance Provider accidentally attaching MY return to a random individual with a completely different model iPhone, initiating a "Handset Search" that came up empty. I pondered how on earth with a delivery receipt from FedEx showing it arrived, the IMEI information of the phone, the unceasing conversations to ensure I was collecting all of my due diligence this could be such an outrageous run around.

Mystery Solved (ish) - Coming so very near purchasing a plane ticket to vindicate myself to T-Mobile and proving that this phone was indeed shipped and not a box of Pet Rocks from a stocking stuffer I had several conference calls with both T-Mobile and Assurant, each of which found it more important to claim it was the other side's problem. Assurant failing to find my IMEI and device even after validating they physically received it, but show no record on my claim. T-Mobile falling back on "We did two handset searches and came up empty, we can't do any more." The less than stellar translation of "Not our problem"

I stopped and asked tersely if they would look under the Mystery Samantha claim....Sure Enough there it was, my IMEI attached to someone on the other side of the United States with a claim *ONE DIGIT OFF* from my own. My elation was so great I could hear the chorus of angels through my bluetooth headset. A mistaken digit can happen and does happen, a lack of concern for customer service and truly trying to resolve an issue out of my control unfortunately followed.

You see, after they received the device at Assurant and "processed" it tying it to the wrong claim put it into the "RMA return" bucket as it were, which differs apparently from T-Mobile's Warranty Return which is also apparently a different warehouse. With the help of a supervisor at Assurant who was one of three truly helpful individuals we found where the device finally was...Made into Soylent Phone and recycled. Now, no phone to show for the effort, but at least confirmation WITH T-Mobile ON THE PHONE that it was indeed Assurant who processed the device incorrectly resulting in their inability to ship it to the correct warehouse as recycled phone dust doesn't ship well.

"Mistakes were made, lessons were learned." I had thought, so willing to forgive the hours and hours of toil, the suspended phone account, the interruption to my work and explaining that there was indeed a Heath Robinson machine of complex "oopsies" occurring to my superiors and finally the sheer herculean effort it was to simply figure out where this device was to end this. My hopes and my good nature were yet again expertly dashed by the T-Mobile team who "Had my back."

"This falls outside of our 60 day return window." I mentally snapped, the scales fell from my eyes and with the Assurant Supervisor on the phone AND with the T-Mobile representative hearing the Assurant Supervisor indeed inform him that this was an Assurant mistake came back with what I suppose was their "Customer Care" response you see above. After further pressing and the T-Mobile representative relenting to see what could be done replied after a goodly 30+ minute hold (a pittance hold by my now adjusted standards)

"I can make this go away."

If I could track down the original shipping label from the device that was already problematic the first time through, which is why I requested a new label, then went to the T-Mobile store, then engaged the Assurant side of matters at T-Mobile's behest. They would be inclined to drop the $1000 non-return on a device that was no longer financed, subsequently destroyed due to their own sets of errors in procedure.

Here we are today, February 2nd one day before there can be no more "Collection holds" on my account and I won't be able to restore service. As a fun fact, since my account is now "past due" (again by only the disputed amount not the normal bill) I am apparently in the "You don't get to talk to a person on the phone" mode in the T-Mobile IVR so even if I wanted to attempt to gain assistance or get answers from

Your dedicated team of highly trained experts is here to help with next-level customer care. No bots. No bouncing. No BS. Just real help from real people, on your terms.

I am just out of luck. With a seriously ill family member, changing providers wasn't an option as it would interrupt my ability to reach out with changes and updates given the speed at which these things can change.

Don't you worry, this can all be avoided by simply avoiding the move to T-Mobile and seeking a team of folks who's company follows their own front-line mantra.