My purchase experience as ATT customer

[RobbieRobski]

Bought this after work yesterday. At first the guy said he couldn't sell it to me without a plan. I told him I wanted to buy it outright so I could use it on ATT. He said they could but they'd have to charge me an extra $30 extortion fee. I agreed.

I didn't actually open it for a couple of hours but by the time I did I realized I needed a new sim because it requires nano sim.

Went to ATT to get a new sim and the phone was carrier locked. I went back to TMobile talked to the same guy I bought it from, he said they can't unlock it only Alcatel could. He asked if I wanted the number so I could call or if I wanted him to do it. Well since my old sim was already deactivated I asked him to do it for me, however by this time it was 8pm they were just closing and Alcatel was already closed too.

So 12 hours later I called Alcatel and they said they can't unlock it because they nave nothing to do with carrier/network unlocking and they insist that I contact tmobile. They said if tmobile insist Alcatel is responsiblem that we could conference call and Alcatel would tell them they can't do it.

So I called TMobile and spoke to someone with a horrible headset that kept cutting out unless they spoke really loud... but even though I told them to speak up because of the issue they had a hard time doing so. Ultimately they insist that they can only network unlock the phone if I have a plan. And that I have to go back to the store.

Needless to say, I'm not happy about TMobile and their employees lack of knowledge concerning unlocking policies and practices.

My local TMobile doesn't open until 10am so I have to wait.

I'll update you when I'm able to drive down on my lunch break.

 

[Bob Hanson]

Definitely the carrier that unlocks not the manufacturer.
T-Mobile's policy is available at SIM Unlock Policy | Unlock Your Mobile Wireless Device | T-Mobile

 

[libra89]

Wow, that sucks :/ I do hope that this would be sorted somehow.

Thank you for sharing your experience, as there are a good amount of people here not on T-Mobile and they would like to have this phone too.

 

[eddieDOTexe]

It's absurd how much tmobile employees don't know.

 

[dorelse]

hmm...I don't know if this helps or not, but I just unlocked my GS6 without any interaction with a t-mobile human, or even a SIM in the phone. I used the t-mobile app on the phone, hit 'Request Unlock' and it unlocked itself. Obviously I had a wifi connection so it could communicate with t-mobile to make sure it was paid off, etc. This was on a completely reset phone with none of my info on the phone.

I don't have my Idol yet, so I can't see what the t-mobile app does on it...point being though, does the t-mobile app provide that functionality?

 

[RobbieRobski]

I'm assuming GS6 = Galaxy S 6? Yeah as far as I know, there is no windows phone unlock app. Only Android.
There is a TMobile app installed but I'm 99.9% sure that is for account management only. However seeing as I only have an ATT sim (I left the tmobile sim in the box) I can't actually check. I'm hoping I can go to TMobile within the next hour.

 

[RaRa85]

Sucks that this happened to you but my best advice is to get all the information you need before making a purchase next time. These employees can be so in the clouds sometimes that they don't know what's happening especially if it's not one of the popular choices. It sucks that we have to do the research ourselves but that's the best way to ensure you get the correct information. Hope you can get your phone unlocked to be used with AT&T. Also I would suggest trying one of those old phone unlocking services. I used to get AT&T phones unlocked for T-Mobile many times when they weren't available on the network. They usually only run about $20-25 and work as promised.

 

[RobbieRobski]

TMobile refused to unlock the device without first being on their network for 40 days. This is bull****.

The price of the phone was $469
They sold it to me at $499 because I told them I was planning to use it on ATT.
So NOW if I wanted to have them unlock it I would basically have to be on their network for 2 months.
Why would I pay the extra $30 if they still couldn't unlock it.

I'm gonna unlock it through a 3rd party. The staff was super friendly and extremely helpful in trying to call their people several times. But TMobile just lost some favor in my book.

I'll post back when I get it unlocked and also if I decide to challenge them on the extra 30 bucks they charged.

 

[editguy]

Sadly,T-Mobile's weak point is their retail stores staff. They seem to be very poorly trained and know very little about their products and services.

 

[ttsoldier]

Following this thread.

 

[RobbieRobski]

Here is the conclusion.

The price of the phone is $469.99 ONLY IF you stay with T-Mobile for 24 months.
The price to just outright own the phone is $499.99. What a joke that they only discount 30 bucks for a 2 year commitment.

T-Mobile absolutely WILL NOT UNLOCK UNLESS YOU ARE ON THEIR NETWORK FOR 40 days.

I signed up for the ****tiest plan possible which is going to cost me either $13 or $20 in total (they couldn't exactly confirm). Something about the cheapest plan costing only $3/mo but minimum in store payment is $10. So, in 40 days I'll be able to unlock the phone.

I tried a 3rd party unlocker, the phone is too new for them to unlock, they didn't have the codes.

Even though I do not use T-Mobile (sadly their network in my area just doesn't cut it), I have sung their praise quite a bit because of the impact John Leger has had on the industry.However this experience has been completely ****ty and I am a sad pathetic ****** for putting up with this. The only positive part was the extremely friendly, though slightly undertrained staff.

 

[Player Piano]

Sadly,T-Mobile's weak point is their retail stores staff. They seem to be very poorly trained and know very little about their products and services.

And if you call their customer care they aren't much better. Very seldom do you ever get to speak with someone who has something of a clue.

 

[kaktus1389]

Sorry to hear this. Maybe a bit irrelevant, but there are problems with undertrained staff everywhere, not just in US. In the country that I live in I went to a tech store to see if they have the MS Display dock, and they had a Lumia 950 XL plugged in it and to the monitor to demonstrate Continuum, but when I asked staff if they have that there they had no clue about what I was talking about, even they had one just a few steps away and that it was listed on their website...

 

[etad putta]

The blame here lies with the OP. Have some solid information on what you are buying before spending $500. Buy an unlocked phone that works anywhere or be ready for the potential problems of a carrier locked device. An expensive lesson learned.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Here is the conclusion.

The price of the phone is $469.99 ONLY IF you stay with T-Mobile for 24 months.
The price to just outright own the phone is $499.99. What a joke that they only discount 30 bucks for a 2 year commitment.

Now maybe they mislead you or maybe there is more to the story, but T-Mobile tells me there is absolutely no additional fee or commitment to use their service to buy the phone for the $469.99 price. I am currently on T-Mobile and not using a T-Mobile phone. If I buy it, I can unlock it in 40 days and I can walk away from T-Mobile any time after that. For someone not on T-mobile already, there would be any applicable fee to START a service but no commitment to stay with the service even for one day. You would need to have service for 40 days to unlock.

I am thinking the 24 months you mention are only if you don't buy the phone up front but rather want to make monthly payments, in which case, then yes you would have to stay with them for 24 months (or however long you will be making payments) but even then I would expect you could pay it off any time you wanted and walk away.

 

[RobbieRobski]

I tweeted @TMobile earlier and their help team contacted me. After 3 hours of back and forth, and almost 1 hour of it in real time. It appears they are attempting to unlock it. They said to wait 24 hours - 14 days. So stay tuned. I'll post back with the results.

 

[ttsoldier]

I tweeted @TMobile earlier and their help team contacted me. After 3 hours of back and forth, and almost 1 hour of it in real time. It appears they are attempting to unlock it. They said to wait 24 hours - 14 days. So stay tuned. I'll post back with the results.

24hrs-14 days? that's a weird time frame lol

 

[swbf2lord]

As an employee of T-Mobile, I can say this:

All our phones are sold locked, regardless of the price you pay. Typically, even after you pay full price, there is a usage requirement on the device, before we'll unlock it for you. Now, that being said, it is possible to go through other channels to have that expedited. Ultimately, the rep likely should have informed you that the phone was locked. To this day, I've never sold a phone to a non-customer for full price, because of that. Once they know it's locked, and won't work on their carrier, they'll either consider coming to T-Mobile, or another phone.

 

[el_mono70]

Good luck with that. I am in a similar situation. I checked some online services. Perhaps its still too early to try to get an unlock code. One online source mentioned the Idol 4s, just not the Windows version. Fingers crossed, though I think its just a matter of time until we can get unlock codes.

 

[ttsoldier]

As an employee of T-Mobile, I can say this:

All our phones are sold locked, regardless of the price you pay. Typically, even after you pay full price, there is a usage requirement on the device, before we'll unlock it for you. Now, that being said, it is possible to go through other channels to have that expedited. Ultimately, the rep likely should have informed you that the phone was locked. To this day, I've never sold a phone to a non-customer for full price, because of that. Once they know it's locked, and won't work on their carrier, they'll either consider coming to T-Mobile, or another phone.

But what about the people who are not from the US and who want the phone and will not consider coming to T-Mobile.

Me for example, I will be in the us this week and all I wanted was to pay the full price, get the phone, request an unlock, and leave.

Why must that be so difficult.