T-Mobile Deceptive practices Bellevue Washington

My old phone finally bit the dust. Because of a previous bad experience buying a phone from T-Mobile, I decided, instead, to buy an iPhone 6 from the Apple store. On Friday, January 2, 2015, I went to the Apple store in the St Louis (MO) Galleria to purchase the phone. I wanted to stay with T-Mobile as my carrier and wanted to buy the phone under a purchase plan (called an EIP), spreading the payments over 24 months. When the Apple associate tried to get into my T-Mobile account to set up the payment plan, he was blocked from doing so. After several attempts, he advised me to go downstairs to the T-Mobile kiosk and ask whoever was there how to circumvent the block. When I got to the T-Mobile kiosk, the associate there told me that I could not have an EIP with my existing prepaid plan. He said he would have to set me up with a postpaid plan. He ran a credit check on me which came back that I was qualified for the plan with 0% down. He also sold me a SIM card for $15 + tax. When I went back to Apple to finish the purchase, the associate attempted to access my T-Mobile account. He received a message stating, "Customer is not eligible for EIP financing at Apple stores. They can proceed with full price purchases or visit a T-Mobile store for financing options." He tried several times and continued to get the same message. We then called T-Mobile customer service and were unable to get the issue resolved. The T-Mobile rep did, however, offer to mail me a phone within 14 days but would not waive the restocking fee.

After that, the Apple associate attempted to run a credit check as if I had no T-Mobile account. He got a message saying that I had an existing account with T-Mobile and was unable to do so. We called again and asked for tech support. After talking to several different people -- customer service and tech support -- we finally got someone who said he removed the block and gave me a $75 credit on my account for my trouble and the trip to the store (35 miles). He informed me he was a Grade 3 tech with T-Mobile and advised me it could take 24 hours for the block to be removed. He said to call the Apple store the next day (Saturday, January 3d).

I stopped at the T-Mobile kiosk. The clerk I spoke with earlier called customer service to see if he might have screwed up and told me hadn't done anything wrong. I told him I needed a phone; what did he have that was cheap? He sold me a $50 flip phone for $30 with unlimited talk and text and waived the restocking fee. I told him I would return it on Sunday when he was at work again expecting I would have a replacement by then. hahahaha

At approximately 8:20 pm the next day (which was almost 30 hours after the block was allegedly removed), I called the Apple store. I was told they were still getting the same message. ("Customer is not eligible for EIP financing at Apple stores. They can proceed with full price purchases or visit a T-Mobile store for financing option.") I called T-Mobile to ask about it. The customer service rep was not helpful and informed me that some Apple stores cannot run EIPs, which I told her was not true with this store. Again, the offer was made to mail me a phone without 14 days.

I then called the Apple store which was closed, but I was able to talk to an Apple technician in California. He made an appointment with me for 3 pm Sunday, January 4th to do a conference call with a T-Mobile technician, an associate at the store and me. I got to the store early; one of the associates tried to access my T-Mobile account again and said the block still had not been removed. During the conference call, the T-Mobile tech again offered to ship me a phone in 14 days; again he refused to waive the restocking fee AND also said I would have to pay shipping. After going around and around about all of this with the T-Mobile tech (Caleb), he finally got it across to me that because the EIP had been set up at the T-Mobile kiosk, I HAD to buy the phone through T-Mobile. I could not purchase it anywhere else. 

On my way home, I stopped at the T-Mobile kiosk. The clerk who I had spoken with Friday was there and acted really shocked that I couldn't buy my phone through Apple. I asked him if he had ever done EIPs so people could purchase the phone elsewhere. He said, "We do it ALL the time!" He did not have the gold iPhone6 that I wanted in stock but did email all the other stores in the area to see if anyoine had one. He was the only bright spot and only T-Mobile help in all of this.

I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau this morning.

TOTAL TIME SPENT 9.5 HOURS + 2.5 HOURS DRIVE TIME.

I STILL DON'T HAVE AN IPHONE6!!!