T-Mobile had an offer for the Palm Mini at £19.99 which for an Android phone was perfect, we also wanted a PAYG phone as she does not use a phone much but also needed some internet access so when she's out and about she can use Messenger etc. This came with 6 months Internet free so was perfect.
So we parted with our pennies, the phone was despatched promptly and arrived the next day (so far so good).
In fact despite being part of her Birthday treats we let her have it a few weeks early so she could use it.
The box simply had a receipt in and a "Welcome to T-Mobile" A5 sheet in.
The receipt itemized the phone and the 6 month free internet.
We also purchased £10 air time with the phone which it said was pre-loaded.
Fire the phone up, set wireless up and Gmail etc and we're all sorted.
A few days later my wife goes to register the phone so we can top up on line etc. Now the fun begins.
1) It appears your not allowed to register more than one phone per person.
2) You can't register a phone to anyone under 16 *our daughter is 10.
3) Pay attention to points 1 and 2.
So my wife has to select that our daughter is 16 or above to register the phone, there is simply no other way to register it - T-mobile take note, this is really shit, I would have preferred to have our Daughters phone registered to her but obviously with parents/guardians as the overall owner for legal reasons.
We then check the balance and .... her phone (which started with £10 credit) now has only £4 left on it.
Something is clearly wrong so we check the on line balance, apparently it's being charged £1 a day for calling "1000" which by logic must be the internet?
So we call up T-Mobile from the phone (it says "call free on 150"), you get a recorded voice that you will be charged 20p per minute, we also get cut off while trying to navigate the endless menus.
After a few more tries we call from our landline, we then realize there is no option to speak to a human, the web site has no obvious option to send them an email or similar so it appears your stuck in a loop of either ending the call or pressing buttons until a prompt tells you something.
In the end we realize if we select the "I would like to leave T-Mobile" option then we actually get through to a concerned human who will obviously want us to stay.
My wife explains our situation and we are told this department cannot help and they will transfer us, "click" the line goes dead.
We call again and do the same, this time we get a human "hoorraaaaahhh", or perhaps not ! This lady then insists she speak to our daughter, we advise her she is 10 and she cannot speak to her, she insists and says she will not help unless she speaks to her.
We advise her that she cannot speak to our daughter as she is a minor and it is a breach of European law to speak to her, she still insists and says without speaking to our daughter she will not help.
I'm pretty disgusted at this stage, there is my 10 year old daughter now expected to have a chat with someone about something she does not fully understand so I tell my daughter to say "I authorize my father to speak on my behalf" - this is still not good enough, T-Mobile want my daughter to put a password on her account, we give them one but this is not acceptable, they insist on speaking to her and refuse to help.
I take the phone and explain clearly that they cannot speak to my daughter as this breaches LAW but T-Mobile still refuse, we ask our daughter to simply state the same password as we have given them - T-Mobile are now satisfied !
I am then told the reason we are charged £1 a day is because we have to activate the Internet by texting something like "AL" or "6 month free web" to a number, nowhere in the box or sheet of paper that came with it are these instructions !
All it had to say on the receipt was "NOTE - you must activate your internet before use etc etc etc" and all of this would have been avoided.
So I turn the phone off and on, send texts here and there and finally after 18 minutes (and £6 phone charge) get her free internet sorted.
T-Mobile refunded the £6 and £5 "gesture" for my phone costs but they have to accept that all of this effort and time wasted could easily have been avoided.
1) Let people register phones for their children i.e I am Parent, this phone belongs to xxxx.
2) Realize that they cannot speak to minors, this is a breach of law in every known country I can think of - what's next ? Banks calling and speaking to them to ask if they want a loan?
3) Put something, even on the printed receipt that simply says "you must activate the internet" - I am a computer engineer by trade and found this whole episode confusing, imagine what non technical people will do ?
Thankfully the charges have stopped and it's all working, the irony is that the phone is fine and the offer was very good, it was let down by incredible lack of control or process behind the scenes.
If you buy a PAYG phone with any freebies then take note of this story and check before you start using it !
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