Would that I could give zero - or negative - stars! I can see that quick in-and-out fixes are this store's forte...but woe to anyone who needs actual customer service, accuracy in billing, account setup, or answers beyond, "there is nothing I can do."
Let's begin with the shopping experience. The store is busy. Really busy. Expect a wait in the neighborhood of 10-20 minutes. That doesn't bother us. They are cordial and get us on their list and with a rep as quick as they can. So far, so good.
We are upgrading two phones into a business account. Not that tough. I want the S5 (I still loved my S3), but the clerk (Amr) talks me out of it, saying it isn't that great of a phone for the money and that it gets a lot of complaints. Odd that none of my research showed that, but I defer to his judgement. I mean, it's his job to know these things, right? I explain how I use my phone - mainly for travel - and what features are most important - such as a good camera and GPS. He points me to a phone that would save me quite a bit of money. Okay, not bad. Let's do this.
THREE HOURS later, keeping in mind that they have no bathroom nor refreshments, they are still trying to set up our account. First they have to make several calls to wherever to port our numbers and whatever else they were pretending to do. Then they mess up the credit limit thingy and have to start the paperwork over again, each clerk giving us a different answer as to what is going on. Finally, our guy runs my card and has an issue with their POS printer. (I know it means point of sale but in this case it means something else entirely.) He keeps swiping my card, insisting that the charge would not go through. I finally confiscate my card fearing how many times the charges did actually go through. The printer spits out enough pages to rival the phone book.
Finally, tired, thirsty, hungry, and a little cranky, we leave with our new phones. We go to a restaurant where I check my bank balance just to be sure I have one. Yep, I was charged three times for a total of nearly $600 OVER the amount that I should have been.
I return to the store. Amr (who is actually the store manager) insists that there is nothing he can do. These seem to be his favorite words in the world. He must have recited them 20 times during our brief, fruitless encounter. He. Did. Nothing.
Back to the restaurant, where my husband has already ordered and eaten, I get on the phone with the bank. It takes quite a while to get everything squared away, but the bank assures me that within the next 2 days my account should be back to normal. I don't know about you, but I don't have $600 sitting around doing nothing that I can just let float around in the ether, which means our rent is going to be late. Now we are 5 hours into our phone buying experience, several hundred dollars down, and a big fat mess in my bank account.
Fast forward to receiving our very first bill. The amount that we were actually charged is missing from the bill, showing as past due. Rather than just charges for the two deposits for the phones - which, as you know, we paid up front (three times over) - we are charged 4 times for 4 phone lines. We have only two phones. Did I mention the past due fees?
I call T-mobile because I want to avoid having to go back to the craphole of a store at all costs. What does the evil sadist on the phone tell me? They can't "see" any of those charges and are unable to do anything on their end, so I must go back to the store to avoid disconnection and further fees.
Cue Darth Vader, "NOOOOOOOOOO!"
With tears in my eyes and hatred in my heart, I return to the store at 9:05 am, knowing that they open at 9, and hoping to avoid another long wait in line just to speak to someone who doesn't know how to do his job. I notice on the way in that one of the windows is boarded up due to a bullet hole. I am not surprised. I also notice that I am one of several people waiting outside the still-locked door. We are finally let in, past the "Open at 9" sign, at 9:17. Yes, I was angry enough to monitor the time.
I ask for the manager. I get Amr. I remind him who I am. You'd think that after spending the entire day together and jacking up my bank account in epic proportions that he'd remember me, but I guess he screws things up so brilliantly and so often that I'm just a face in the crowd. I show him all of the paperwork and our messed up bill.
I'll give you one guess what he says.
I am not a violent person. Honest. I feel that I should be commended for my restraint, because this smarmy-smiling, parrot-voiced, useless POS (and I do not mean Point of Sale) basically said it sucks to be me and even rounded it off with a nice, no-eye-contact, "Have a Nice Day, Ma'am."
Only one bullet hole. Hm.
Called TMobile from the parking lot & kept demanding the manager's manager until I got, I'm sure, one step from the CEO before I got satisfaction: corrected account and a free S5.