I have been a T-Mobile subscriber for over 6 years, so when I moved to a remote area where T-Mobile 4G service wasn't available, I decided to stay with them because I felt that I would still have good customer service as a benefit. For months, I've known that I am paying much more for my service than several of T-mobile's competitors (as much as $100/month more) but I truly value quality of service over quantity of dollars. Sadly, today I was proven wrong and, as such, am very disappointed with my decision to remain a customer and my view of this organization.
I decided to upgrade one of the phones on my account. Before placing my order online, I updated my billing information on my profile to reflect my new address. I went through the steps of selecting my new phone and making the account adjustments, as required. When I got to the billing and shipping page, I noticed that the shipping address was still my old address. The site indicates that equipment is shipped to the billing address (which, mind you, I had already updated before beginning this process), but I noticed I had another opportunity to change it when I entered my credit card information and, again, my address. To my complete bewilderment, once my order was processed I see that the billing and shipping address is the old address--the opposite of the information I had entered 3 TIMES on previous pages. I IMMEDIATELY contacted customer service and spoke with Patrick (who was very nice, by the way). He did his best to help me by placing me on hold numerous times because he could not cancel the order nor update the shipping address. I was told that although he could see that I took the appropriate steps to have my order shipped correctly, I would have to wait for the package to be shipped to the wrong address, I would have to wait to receive a delivery confirmation from UPS to see if the package was delivered or not, I would have to wait for some sort of tracking process to take place to locate the phone and attempt it's retrieval, and I would have to wait for for another opportunity to have either a new order placed or the re-shipment of the original package. Oh....and there's no telling when this process would begin because his system indicates that package may be delivered in 10 days but there's no definitive way to tell exactly how long this is going to take.....and there's nothing that anyone can do about it. And remember, I have to wait and see what happens with the phone first before something can be done. It's interesting to note that my credit card was billed for this transaction--which could not have taken place if I didn't provide my correct billing address---which seems to have magically changed. I don't expect something for nothing and wasn't looking for some sort of "prize" because of the mistake. But I don't believe that I should be penalized by wasting my time to see "what may or may not happen" before I can receive an order that I placed correctly.
To the T-Mobile organization: I realize that mistakes happen but it is wrong not to offer a reasonable solution of correction other than "wait and see what happens". Not that it matters, but this upgraded phone was supposed to be a birthday gift that will probably come too late....if at all. Your website is deficient in its operation and when challenges like this happen, you should have processes in place to ensure that the customer doesn't have to pay the penalty--especially when the fault was not their own. Apparently, my error was assuming that several years of customer loyalty would mean more than it does. I can assure you that one of us won't be repeating this error again.
To the T-Mobile community of subscribers: Don't assume it can't happen to you.