Phone Services
Ocala T-Mobile Broke 95 yr/old Senior, WWII Vet’s Phone
A sales rep at a T-mobile store at 4920 E Silver Springs Blvd #106 in Ocala, FL 34470 broke a 95 yr/old Senior, WWII Vet’s flip phone and then refused to replace it. Here’s the details…
On 12/3/19 around 12 noon, I went to the T-Mobile store at 4920 E Silver Springs Blvd, Ocala, FL (store 151E). My purpose was have service transferred for a Samsung flip phone to a new Samsung Galaxy Avant which I purchased from Amazon. I was doing this for my dad who is a 95 and a WWII Veteran.
The T-Mobile rep took the SIM card out of my dad’s phone and put it in the new phone. It didn’t work, so he got a new SIM card and put it in the new phone. That also didn’t work so he took the new SIM card and put in dad’s Samsung flip phone.
I left the store and assumed it was working (since it’s reasonable to expect he’s a professional who knows what he’s doing). I gave the phone back to my dad and a while later he said his phone wasn’t working.
I then had to go back to the T-Mobile store. The same rep looked at the phone and was not able to get it to work. He got another SIM card and that didn’t work either. He then told me I’d have to BUY another phone. I told him I thought they should replace it at no charge since it was working when I came in the store and he said they would NOT do that.
I left the store and called T-Mobile’s President’s corporate office. I spoke with a lady and explained everything I’ve stated in this post plus told her I felt since their rep somehow caused my dad’s phone to be no longer working, they should replace it. She put me on hold and when she came back on told me to go back to the store talk to certain person.
The time was now around 5 PM. I went back to the store, told a rep who greeted me about my call with the lady from the President’s office. He asked other reps and no one had spoke with the lady or knew what I was talking about.
When I told him I felt they should replace the phone, the rep who caused the phone to stop working spoke up and tried to claim the phone wasn’t working when I came in the store, which was a TOTAL LIE.
My dad called me on that phone (hours earlier) before the guy messed with it and that call was captured in my phone call log. I responded by telling him I had proof the phone was working. I was then insulted by a asshole punk male (not sure if he was a customer or friend) he was talking with at his counter who yelled at me… “Feisty Huh!”
Another rep looked at dad’s flip phone, tried to get it to work and was not able to. He echoed what the other rep said… they would NOT replace the phone.
My dad is severely disabled so it’s almost a matter of life or death that he has a working phone. I explained this to them and they didn’t seem to give a damn. So my only choice was to have to buy a phone from this T-Mobile store at their Unreasonable and Inflated prices.
They also didn’t have the Samsung Galaxy Avant I wanted to get my dad so I had to SETTLE for a phone I didn’t want because the time was now around 5:30 PM AND it was the least expensive phone the store had. The price advertised on signs in store was $150, yet I was charged $179 and with tax came to $192.
As soon as I came home, I immediately filed a complaint to Better Business Bureau, to be sent to T-Mobile Corporate in Bellevue, WA.
Their attitude about this was totally different than the local T-mobile store at 4920 E Silver Springs Blvd #106 in Ocala, FL.
T-Mobile Corporate refunded the $192 and sent my dad a NEW phone at no cost to him!
IMO, if the T-Mobile store at 4920 E Silver Springs Blvd had any DECENCY and cared about the service from one of the few remaining WWII Vet’s who fought for and defended this country, they could have & would have done the same as T-Mobile Corporate.
I spoke with a repair rep at Re-Tech about this and he said he thought the guy at T-Mobile who took the SIM card out, likely damaged the SIM card reader on dad’s phone when he put another SIM card back in it.
Regardless, the fact remains that dad’s phone WAS working when I took it to the store so I think they should have taken responsibility and replaced his phone at no charge. Like they say… if you break it, you bought it.
I think the people at this T-mobile store at 4920 E Silver Springs Blvd #106 in Ocala, FL are HEARTLESS… AND I THINK THIS STORE SHOULD BE CLOSED
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Sprint Credit Check Without my Permission
I went to a Sprint store at 4757 E Silver Springs Blvd in Ocala, FL 34470 to sign up for services. The situation I wanted and was told I would be getting is that I would get a total of 4 phones by paying $190 cash for the 1st phone, get 3 more phones for free, pay the $60 activation fee for 2 lines and $64.50 per month for 4 lines.
First problem, when I came to sign up I was told by the sales guy I couldn’t get 4 lines until I was a customer for 1 year.
Next, I was told that I couldn’t pay $190 up front and then get the other 3 phones for free. The only option was to pay up to $140, then have the rest financed over 2 years. He stated that upon initially signing up for the “buy 1 phone and get 3 more free deal” I would be charged $8 per month for each phone until the “promotional deal” was processed and it could take a few months.
So being told that I could buy 1 phone for $190 cash, then get up to 6 more phones for free was false.
I then pressed him for paperwork which would state I would be getting the phones for free and the $8 per month charge would go away. He stated there was no paperwork which stated that, so I then decided to abort the signup process and told him to delete all of my information.
I thought that was the end of it but then a few weeks later I got a letter in the mail from Sprint indicating a credit check had been ran on me without my knowledge.
I was outraged because at no time did the sales guy or anyone I spoke with at this Sprint store indicate a credit check would be necessary for me to get the buy one phone for $190 and get 3 more free deal. I didn’t want any credit. I wanted to pay cash for everything and only wanted what I was told I could get.
I spoke with 3 different people at this store and have a email from one of them and in the email, there is no mention of a credit check being needed for me to get the buy one phone for $190 and get 3 more free deal.
The sales guy used a iPad for the sign-up process where I couldn’t see anything except him telling me to “sign here” and “sign here” while not property advising me of what I was signing and I was not able to see what I was signing was. The sales guy said nothing would be final and the agreements I signed would not be valid until I made a payment, never mentioning that he had ran a credit check.
I have a friend who works for AT&T Wireless who was there with me and witnessed everything who will attest that no one told me they would be running a credit check.
It is my position that Sprint’s employees had a duty to make it abundantly clear that they would be doing a credit check on me to get the buy 1 phone for $190 and 3 more free deal. All three (3) employees I spoke with at this store failed to do so.
It is also my position that this employee and Sprint engaged in “Bate and Switch tactics” by not allowing me pay $190 cash and not giving me the 3 phones for free as I was initially told and trying to trick me into signing up for a credit / finance deal I didn’t want.
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Vonage Deceptive Business Practice
Be aware that Vonage is deceptive in its advertisement and service charges
We were told that the monthly charge for phone services was $25.99 for the unlimited calls, including domestic, long distance and international. So, we signed up in October 2010. We were also told that we must use a credit card for payments. So we gave our credit card number.
Since then, Vonage has charged $33.59 to our credit card. I was puzzled by this higher cost than the advertized $25.99. When I called Vonage, customer specialist explained that this monthly charge included taxes and fees. So, I requested for the breakdowns of taxes and fees in my monthly charge of $33.59. Unbelievably, I was told that Vonage does not provide billing statements. Furthermore, the customer specialist refused to provide any information regarding their surcharges and other fees.
The difference between the advertized price ($25.99) and the actual charge ($33.59) is $7.60, which supposedly includes taxes and fees. Because this amount seems too high, I did some calculations as follows:
Federal tax at 3% è 0.03*25.59= $0.77
Ohio state tax at 6.75 è0 .0675*25.59= $1.73
Thus, total taxes = 2.50
If you subtract these taxes from $7.60, Vonage charges $5.10 for surcharges and other fees. With local phone company, I used to pay $1.46 monthly for surcharges and other fees. Thus, Vonage charges almost $4.00 more for surcharges and fees than my previous local phone company does.
To keep unfair (perhaps illegal) surcharges and other fees secret, I now realize that Vonage have used clever tactics such as charging to credit cards and no provision of monthly statements. By the way, is the refusal to provide information about surcharges and fees legal?
Paying $4 more for these unknown, secret fees is not big deal in our monthly budget, but I am appalled by Vonage’s dishonest and deceptive business practice. I am going to switch back to my previous local carrier
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