PSA: Folks be very careful if you get an offer from T-Mobile, it's very possible they won't honor the original deal. Yes my post pertains to a Metro to T-Mobile switch, but fine print is everywhere, and T-Mobile agents might not tell you about it, they certainly didn't tell me.
TL;DR: The title of post plus some extended details about the situation and a rant about how bad it's getting for us humans because of the phrase everyone's accepting as reality now - "I'm sorry, the system won't allow me to change that."
Details: So I was offered $800 off of a $900 phone to switch from Metro to T-Mobile. I told the representative I'd max out the Metro bill I just paid for. He said fine, overall I'd have 30 days to reverse the deal if I wasn't satisfied.
I ported over last night, (there was shipping related delay in getting the phone as well) and I saw my detailed first bill this morning. Turns out T-Mobile would pay $200 less than promised in the promotion, my bill said I would owe $300 over 2 years instead of the $100 promised.
That didn't work with me at all as I have a limited amount I can spend on a monthly bill and every little bit counts. So I called and spent an hour with a couple of T-Mobile reps and ended up with Dwayne. He told me that because the port had been done more than 15 days from when I had been offered the promotion, my account had mistakenly applied a lesser promotion that would have cost me triple the $100 I was originally told.
He said he would be mad if he were in my shoes, and after some time, told me that he spoke with a supervisor who escalated my promotion and said that it would take effect within 1 to 2 billing cycles.
Problem solved right?
Not so fast.
I thanked him and it would have been the end of it, except he called me back 10 minutes later and said in effect, "Sorry, you have to stay with us and we're going to charge you $300 instead of $100 or we're going to bill you for a phone we won't allow you to return even though you haven't even opened it yet." (He said it turned out his supervisor said that the system wouldn't allow him to add the originally promised promotion that I had just been told was added)
I'm still within the 30 day buyers remorse period. The original rep never said anything about some supposed fine print printed somewhere saying my original promotion was only good for 15 days, nor did they say anything about not being able to return the phone past 15 days. (Never mind the phone is so new it wasn't even available before last month)
I couldn't be more unhappy. I would really like to leave T-Mobile out of principal, but if I do then they will send me a bill for $900 for an unopened phone I absolutely can't afford.
So now it looks like I'll have to stay with a cell service which has no problems keeping an extra $200 of my money in their fat corporate pockets. What a great first impression of T-Mobile, I've only had the service about 12 hours now.
I am so sick of hearing human beings say "I'm sorry, the system won't allow me to do that." All this talk of AI and how doomed humanity might be? We're already in an awful place because I've spoke to a number of reps over the years and the refrain is the same - if "the system won't allow you to do it," there is nothing us humans can do about it.
I think our corporate overlords now have an important ally in "a system" that no longer can be changed. Gone are the days where I would speak to reps and they would say, "I agree that sounds awful, let me fix that for you," and they absolutely would. Sounds like the definition of a good customer service agent, trying to do the right thing and being able to their job.
Of course it's only likely to get worse. Pretty soon we won't even be talking to humans anymore, it'll just be AI agents. Not that there's much of a difference now. If human beings can't make the slightest change in "a system," really, what good are we?
I remember having an issue with some other service earlier this year where I got the same response - "the system won't allow me to do that" - and I told the woman, "then that isn't exactly ensuring your job security then, is it?"
If human beings already can't override the system, then what good are we? I think Dwayne was genuinely happy about being able to resolve my issue, at least temporarily. But now he's unhappy because he knows he's part of an unchangeable system that will make his customers unhappy because there's nothing he or any of his coworkers can do to change it.
And of course I'm unhappy because I'm left with the Sophie's choice of sticking with a brand new cellular provider that just robbed me of $200, or if I wanted to leave it would cost me $900. It's depressing AF.
30 days buyer's remorse, hah! It's 15 days at the moment, they never tell you that, and don't think "the system" won't change things for the worse in the future. And it looks human beings are no longer empowered enough to be able to change the system, most likely guaranteeing their limited shelf life as useful customer service agents.
Why bother having human beings in the equation to help right wrongs for fellow human beings when they are no longer empowered to do that? It will be much cheaper for corporate to have AI tell customers that the system can't be changed.
Anyone thinking of moving from Metro to T-mobile with one of these deals, you have my condolences if they alter the deal. Looks like I'm stuck with having to pray that they don't alter it further.