I would give the Almaden Plaza store ZERO STARS if I could. After receiving several notifications from T-Mobile regarding a free upgrade to a 5G cell phone, I called this store to ensure they had the specified phone. Kanwall answered the phone, but proceeded to carry on with a parallel conversation at the store. I had to repeat myself at least three times, because he was clearly not listening to me. When I asked if he was talking to me or somebody else, he told me that I would need to physically come to the store so he could check my account and answer my questions. He also identified himself as the store manager in a self-important manner, as if that excused his rudeness. Since the other two T-Mobile stores closest to me did not have the phone in stock, I drove to this store.
When I came to the store, Kanwall told me that, in order to upgrade my phone, I would need to switch to a plan that would increase my monthly payments by $35/mo. I showed him the notifications from T-Mobile, which did not mention any need to upgrade my plan. He could not care less.
After leaving the store without solving the problem, I contacted T-Mobile Customer Service and Achilles added a notification to my account indicating that the upgrade did not require me to change my current plan. I contacted the Almaden Plaza store, and since Kanwall was gone for the day, I spoke with Rebecca. I explained that I had come to the store earlier to upgrade my phone, and Kanwall refused to do so without selling me a plan upgrade, but T-Mobile Customer Service had added a notification to my account that an upgrade to my plan was not required in order to get the new phone (as a switch deal for my old phone).
Rebecca then told me that Kanwall made the rules at HIS store. Apparently, the Almaden Plaza T-Mobile store is franchise-owned by a rude and self-important person, who cares little about honoring T-Mobile's promotions/plans.
The good thing about this bad experience, is that I now know that the best way to get top-notch customer experience at T-Mobile is by going to a Corporate store (which is owned by T-Mobile), not a franchise store.
After my bad experience at the Almaden Plaza T-Mobile franchise store, I went to the T-Mobile corporate store at Oakridge Mall. Soon enough, I was leaving the store with my new 5G phone, free of charge, while keeping my current plan. Ed also made the phone transition seamless, by transferring all the data from my old phone to the new one. What a difference!
I take this opportunity to give a shoutout to T-Mobile's excellent customer service, in particular Achilles, and their 5-star 3G phaseout plan, which is helping people who cannot currently afford to upgrade their cell phone to 5G. I have been a loyal T-Mobile customer for over 7 years now, and greatly appreciate how they value my business, even though I do not have an expensive plan. Here is to another 7 years! read more