Never Received Expiration Notifications

**atrac286** · 07-09-2012, 08:58 PM

I have been a T-Mobile Prepaid Customer for a little over 3 years now. Every time when my minutes were expiring soon, I would receive a SMS alert message notification. In fact, I would receive several leading up to the expiration date. However this time I never received any messages at all, not even one. My minutes expired on Sunday July 1, I didn't realize until Tuesday night around 11pm when I got home from work and dinner etc. I logged onto my T-Mobile account and went to "Contact Us" to see if I could have my minutes restored since it was within 48 hours. However according to their website, their telephone customer service closes at 10:00pm EST (see screen shot). So I figured I would have to wait until after July 4 since it was a holiday. I called them first thing on Thursday July 5. They refused to restore my minutes and told them that customer service is 24/7/365. I told them that I followed what their website said which is why I didn't call. They said I should disregard what the website says since 611 is open 24/7/365. The website says both 611 AND the 1-800 lines close at 10:00pm EST. I demanded I speak to a supervisor, who barked at me that she is not responsible for the website and she wasn't restoring any of my minutes. I re-explained the entire situation to her and told her that I never received any SMS notifications about my minutes expiring. she paused...and said in her system it shows a message was sent on 6/28. I told her again, like I told the Tier 1 rep that I never received any SMS notifications. She said "what you want me to do about it?" I said "I would like my minutes restored and I would like to add $15 please". She said "that's never going to happen". I said "why not? t-mobile clearly has failed to notify me and while I am ultimately responsible for maintaining my account's expiration I would expect that your company would at least provide a goodwill gesture for $31.84 that was on my account." She said "Nope, we don't do that" I said "So what does your company do?" She said " I dunno" . I said "you don't know?" . Then she started barking at me in really fast Spanish so I hung up.

I never once raised my voice, I remained calm the entire time. I honestly cannot believe the horrendous customer service of this company, especially towards its prepaid customers. I know I am responsible for my own expiration date, but still...

**AncoraVa** · 07-09-2012, 09:37 PM

You may not be the only one who experienced this.
Been on the $30 Monthly 4g since October.
Was getting heads-up texts leading up to the beginning of the next cycle.
Then get a confirmation 'congratulations' note that $30 was debited from the balance and start of new cycle that ends on a certain date.
For this cycle, all I got was the confirmation.

**atrac286** · 07-09-2012, 09:50 PM

Why am I not surprised. It's honestly very frustrating that I lost $31.84 of my hard earned money and infuriating that it ended up going to T-Mobile without them providing me with a service that I originally paid for. While I know, as the customer and the owner of my account, I am ultimately responsible for managing my minutes...but T-Mobile is essentially making me responsible for their

1) Notification system failure
and
2) Misinformation on their website

The funny thing is (or sad, however you want to look at it) is that I won't end up switching because the Gold Status plan is the best for pay-by-the-minute in my situation. I have a work cell phone that I am lucky enough to be able to use most of the time but I keep a prepaid cell phone for calls and texts that I don't feel comfortable using my work phone.

**AncoraVa** · 07-10-2012, 08:12 AM

Upon re-reading your post, I realized your experience is more related to the thread I started to give folks a heads-up on account top-ups and the 90-day expiration rule.
http://tinyurl.com/6rt8uys
This is a tricky thing that requires closer monitoring so the account is topped up before it expires, which extends the balance another 90 days.
I topped up my account to cover three months on top of an existing balance enough to handle a month and happened to notice a line in the confirmation about an expiration date.
It was obvious little over a month's worth of coverage would be expired, $30+.
I ended up talking to a rep over the phone about this and her suggestion was to top up each time to cover two month service to avoid what you experienced.
Before Sept. 17 I need to top up to extend that $30+ balance another 90 days and will probably add only $30.
This would cover October and November.

It would be very easy to lose track if as you experienced T-Mobile does not send a warning text.

Sorry you had to experience this.
I just happened to notice the expiration notation after I topped up but nearly missed it because I was not aware of this 90 day expiration rule.

I decided not to register a credit card with them for the automatic top-up, which would be one way to avoid this hassle.
Been using Callingmart discount codes

What I posted here is the monthly service cycle notifications, not notices on account balance expiration.

**IsLand_BoY** · 07-10-2012, 10:00 AM

I feel for you. Unfortunately, I don't know if I've ever seen T-Mobile advertise expiration date alerts as a feature and if it ever was, I'm sure it wasn't guaranteed. That customer service message is either for postpaid (which is not 24/7) or outdated prior to prepaid CS being outsourced.

It does come down to the customer remembering to refill on their own. Boost Mobile is excellent at sending reminder text messages to refill, I think at 20 days, 8 days, and 2 days. Better yet is TracFone where the due date is right on the screen and the expiration dates stack; so If I have 25 days left and add a new card which gives me 90 days, I can add it now and get 25 + 90 days = 115 days instead of 90 days from today. It takes away the "I'll wait til a day or two before my balance expires to get the most for my money" kind of thing.

**AncoraVa** · 07-10-2012, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by IsLand_BoY

Better yet is TracFone where the due date is right on the screen and the expiration dates stack; so If I have 25 days left and add a new card which gives me 90 days, I can add it now and get 25 + 90 days = 115 days instead of 90 days from today.

I have one of my sons on a Tracfone, which gets triple minutes on any PIN added and it is always topped up with a 1-year card. It takes about three months for him to eat through the minutes, 99$ of that from texting.
His expiration date now reads something like xxxx, 2016!

**jattdesi** · 07-10-2012, 01:31 PM

I would say OP give it a another shot, back in 2007, I was out of north america and lost over $100 in tmobile prepaid balance after calling two or three times, I was able to get back about half of it. Like I said it took two or three times to get it done.

Sent from Bell LG Optimus LTE Running on Bell's LTE Network

**atrac286** · 07-10-2012, 03:40 PM

Originally Posted by jattdesi

I would say OP give it a another shot, back in 2007, I was out of north america and lost over $100 in tmobile prepaid balance after calling two or three times, I was able to get back about half of it. Like I said it took two or three times to get it done.

Sent from Bell LG Optimus LTE Running on Bell's LTE Network

unfortunately i tried two more times, it's a no-go.

**atrac286** · 07-10-2012, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by AncoraVa

I have one of my sons on a Tracfone, which gets triple minutes on any PIN added and it is always topped up with a 1-year card. It takes about three months for him to eat through the minutes, 99$ of that from texting.
His expiration date now reads something like xxxx, 2016!

wait a sec, the Airtime Service Time is stackable with Tracfone???

**AncoraVa** · 07-10-2012, 07:40 PM

Originally Posted by atrac286

wait a sec, the Airtime Service Time is stackable with Tracfone???

I don''t believe I said it is 'stackable' and I am not 100% sure.
Since my son is using up the 1200 minutes in less than 3 months and well before the year is up, the expiration date displayed on the phone is actually pushed back another year after only about 3 months or less after the last refilling.

Since I always buy him 1-year triple 400 minutes (which is part of the phone feature), I do not pay close attention to expiration date or how far it is being pushed back.
Nor do I ever get anywhere near his phone.
He just lets me know when he is running low and I keep tabs on him lasting at least close to 3 months on refills.

**SnowyWhite** · 07-10-2012, 07:45 PM

Yes the servjce days do stack on Tracfone and have for a few years now.
It is a great feature I think and if I ever leave T-Mobile I would get a triple minutes for life phone and stack my time.

Originally Posted by atrac286

wait a sec, the Airtime Service Time is stackable with Tracfone???

Sent from my X500 using HowardForums

**atrac286** · 07-10-2012, 07:53 PM

Originally Posted by AncoraVa

I may be mistaken on the 'stackable' part and should correct my earlier post...
I should have said 365 days from the day it is refilled, and since my son is using up the 1200 minutes less than 3 months and well before the year is up, the expiration date displayed on the phone is actually pushed back another year after only about 3 months or less after the last refilling.

Since I always buy him 1-year triple 400 minutes (which is part of the phone feature), I do not have to pay close attention to how far the expiration date is being pushed back.

Sorry about the misinformation.

actually according to some research the Service Time on Tracfone IS stackable...infinitely stackable.

in other words, if you add a card...then another card immediately after...the minutes stack AND the service time stacks. no other prepaid company does this, including T-Mobile. with T-Mobile it just extends the service by another 90 days etc.

now i'm wondering if i should leave t-mobile and go to tracfone...but i already have gold status with t-mobile.
the per minute costs with tracfone TMFL are lower than t-mobile, but t-mobile's cost per year to maintain active service is the lowest once you get gold status ($10 / yr)

decisions decisions...

i think i might stick with t-mobile since my primary phone is my work blackberry but i have this t-mobile prepaid phone for phone calls and text messages i don't feel comfortable using my work blackberry for

**atrac286** · 07-10-2012, 07:54 PM

Originally Posted by SnowyWhite

Yes the servjce days do stack on Tracfone and have for a few years now.
It is a great feature I think and if I ever leave T-Mobile I would get a triple minutes for life phone and stack my time.

Sent from my X500 using HowardForums

which t-mobile plan do you use?

**SnowyWhite** · 07-10-2012, 08:21 PM

The grandfathered $1 a day plan but I also have Gold Rewards so I can add a year service time for $10.

Originally Posted by atrac286

which t-mobile plan do you use?

Sent from my X500 using HowardForums

**whacker** · 07-10-2012, 10:23 PM

TracFone and Net10 both stack like that, Trac now having the per minute advantage with TMFL.

Nice feature, but the per minute still isn't the best, but it's certainly not the worst either! I do wish T-Mobile would just give up on their crappy per minute rates for the lesser refills, and just make everything $0.10 per minute (they could even consider pushing that down as well!), like AT&T. T-Mobile could just keep the Gold Rewards idea for the expiration interval, any refill giving you a year to go when $100 cumulative spent is achieved. But it's quite obvious they're not interested in really competing in the PAYGO market (are any of these companies?). Let's hope they don't do anything to further rock our boat in a negative way.

(Where is the Evil Cat, Snowy?!)