T-Mobile

First off let me say I’ve been with Tmobile for 12 years. Not necessarily because I like them or think their prices are good but because I’m too lazy to explore other options. Technology is just not that important to me. I only switched from a flip phone to a smart phone in 2014 and it’s been a decision I’ve regretted.
First off let me say when you buy a phone they assume you know everything. Tech stuff is just not that important to me. For me to go home and figure it out on my own was frustrating to say the least. After several months of ownership I still only knew how to do to the basics; make a call, set the alarm, get on Pinterest, the rest of the features are a mystery to me.
So the past few months it started behaving poorly. Dropping calls, switching from vertical view to horizontal even when the phone was held vertically, locking up, keyboard disappearing, etc… you get the idea. The «updates» that were constantly suggested by the phone turned out to be a fail. Error message after error message every time. This went on for months. Like I said technology is not important to me the fact that I was still able to make/​receive calls most of the time was the only reason why I dealt with this problem as long as I did. Not to mention that whenever you step inside a TMobile store you might as well bring a meal and a sleeping bag because you’ll be there all day.
My visit this past Saturday to address such issues was no exception. The sales consultant «Shane» was a pleasant young man. He explained to me in order to fix my problem he would need to take my phone back to factory settings. He proceeded to tell me photos & contacts would not be lost, only downloaded music. Fair enough. I would never have photos worthwhile on my phone anyway, but my contacts? Those were important — 12 years’ worth of contacts were on that phone. I don’t even know my own mothers phone number, get me? Muy importante! So I asked him, once, twice, THREE times that ALL of my contacts would still be there without incident. You know where I’m going with this right? Yes, Shane tells me, one, two, three times. He then proceeds to log into «my» gmail account for reasons unknown as to this day I still have no idea what the purpose of that account was BUT like I said to say I’m technologically challenged is an understatement.
To condense the experience, something that would take 15 – 20 minutes took an excess of 2 hours. Sorry but I ain’t got time for that! I would rather get a colonscopy then spend 2 hours of my Saturday at an overcrowded Tmobile store the day after black Friday. At one point I left. The length of time I was in there, not to mention the unattended children was getting to me. Upon my return I was informed that not only did my phone still not do any of the upgrades; thus the operation would be the same but ALL of my information was gone, pouf, disappeared! Apparently this happens 1% of the time and of course I was that 1%. Would have at least been nice to know that there was a chance of that happening, regardless of how slim so I could take precautions.
To add salt to the wound everything done after that point was conflicting. With the data plan removed the account was to go down to $ 35. However once I went home, got an older flip phone, and came back to get a new sim card I was told Shane told me the wrong amount, the new monthly service was $ 45. A call to the 611 yielded yet another total $ 30, and it was explained that the loss of contacts is NOT possible if he knew what he was doing and they should be able to be retrieved from the gmail account.
Another call later in the day to the store proved to be just as frustrating. The sales associate actually laughed when I told her my contacts were lost and claimed that customer service is nothing more «than a bunch of idiots working a minimum wage job» and that the gmail information I was given was not accurate.
A call to the store manager FINALLY got me an acknowledgement that they screwed up royally, and a credit for the stress and inconvenience of the situation but still did not produce my contacts. He said I would need to «contact Google» that it was no longer a TMobile situation and out of their hands. WTF?!?
To add insult to injury the next day my partner drove 20 miles one way to another Tmobile store to get me a new smart phone, which he did. Only when he brought it home the data package was not reactivated like it was supposed to be at the store prompting yet another call to customer service.
Can this company get ANYTHING right?!?