Were Michael’s troubles with Target and T-Mobile due to miscommunication, or did someone intentionally mislead him? Everyone’s pointing fingers at each other, but the lesson is clear: if your mobile phone company tells you that you have an upgrade available for which you’re not eligible, it’s probably a good idea not to take it unless you’re able to quadruple-verify that taking the upgrade won’t lead to a data plan you can’t use and don’t want.

Michael writes:

So a while back my wife upgraded her phone. She didn’t upgrade it to a smart phone so no data upgrade was required. Just forward a couple of months and I’m on the phone with Tmobile for something unrelated. Out of curiosity, I asked when I was eligible for an upgrade. Mine was about a year and a half off, but they said my wife could upgrade now. I explained to them that she had just upgraded so it should say two years. They said there must have been some mistake and she could upgrade again if she wanted to. I asked if her upgrade could be transferred to mine and they said it could.

A month later I decide to get some more info on it, but instead of calling them back, I went to a retail store so I could talk to somebody in person about it. I decided to go to the phone area of Target and asked them if it could be transferred and she said yes. She called tmobile to be sure and they said it could be done as well. I explained that I would only want data on my line, not on both, just mine. They said that was fine.

This month, I get my bill and what do I see? I see data charges on both lines. I call the support line, asked if they could take her charge off, and no, they can’t. They seem pretty sure that it was the store that lied to me, and not them. Is there anything I can do at this point? I don’t want to get charged every single month for a data plan on a phone that can’t even use it. Please help! I don’t know where else to turn.

Other T-Mobile customers have had their unsolvable problems solved by pleading their case to the company’s executives. You, too

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