On August 26, representatives from this T-Mobile store sold two phones and a watch to my father who has Alzheimer's. He didn't need any new phones or a watch, and is unable to use the phone he currently has due to diminishing cognitive skills. His caregiver was with him at the time and attempted to inform the employee that this was a bad idea, and that my dad wouldn't know how to work a watch let on a smart phone. Nonetheless the representative pursued the sale my dad, who due to his condition, says yes to everything. So he walked out of there with a bill of about $1286 for the three devices.
Once this happened, I came into town and explained to my dad what it happened, and he was flabbergasted. Clearly, he was unaware of how much he would be paying for all of this, thinking it was all free, and when I asked him to try the phone, he couldn't even use it. This was two days after the purchase, and so we went back to the store on August 28. I explained to the current sales representatives what had happened and asked them to completely undo it. The person who helped me was not interested in the issues I was bringing up, and was talking with her coworkers about other jobs she was applying to. The whole process of returning the phones took about an hour and a half, while my dad who is 85, sat there on their uncomfortable chair, when he should have been at home, resting. The sales representative said she could not refund the restocking fees, which were $120 total (40 for each device), because the manager was "gone for a week." She didn't seem to care one bit and never at any point apologized for the previous sales persons exploitation of my dad.
On Tuesday, September 16, I came back to town and went to the store again to ask about refunding the restocking fees. I explained that the situation involves in him being sold phones and devices that he doesn't need due to both his cognitive disabilities and an employees exploiting the situation and selling him things he can't use. I pointed out that we had been there a couple weeks before and I'd asked to have those restocking fees waived, and the person who helped at the time said she couldn't waive them because the manager wasn't there. So I asked if the manager was here currently. He said yes and I said could I please speak to her about waiving these fees. He went into the back and came back out and said that she told him she couldn't waive the fees. I pointed out that I consider this financial exploitation of a person with cognitive disabilities. And I pointed out that it was one of their employees who took advantage of that. The gentleman (probably fresh out of high-school) was nice, but clearly was just doing whatever the manager told him to do. The manager was apparently too busy to come out and talk with me in person. I informed him that I would have to report them to the Better Business Bureau and give them a very bad review because of this. He seemed to be fine with that, and I made sure that he understood that I was taking the seriously. He tried to say that there was nothing they could do, and said it was a corporate thing, basically passing the buck, as though the store had no responsibility with the situation whatsoever.
Turns out later on that they didn't completely cancel the service. He still got charged one month of service for devices and lines he didn't even have any more. I consider this egregious financial exploitation of an elderly person, and personally I think they should be fined for it, to prevent this kind of abuse of elderly people in the future. read more
