False promises and bad service

[layla888]

I had Straight Talk for years and then it started going down hill, service was spotty, customer service was non-existent, and so on. So me and my fiance decided to switch and we figured if we're going on contract we should go with the best of the best so we don't get taken advantage of.. oh how wrong we were.

I was originally just going to do prepaid but I couldn't get through the system to sign up so when I reached out through a different channel the associate ended up up selling me on a 5g do more, play more plan for both lines with the promise that not only will my activation fees be waived I'll get two $500 rebates (one for each phone)! I said why not, of course, who wouldn't take the deal? Well I never got my rebate, I was charged for activation on both lines, and when I called to find out what was going on I got a rude representative that kept putting me on hold out of spite and eventually gave me 50% off each activation fee after almost an hour of trying to explain the issue to him and him just putting me on hold every chance he got. It was like he was waiting for me to hang up so he didn't have to deal with me. I had an even worse experience with the rebates as they were both denied! When I attempted to fix this multiple times every time I was met with getting transfered around and put on hold for extended amounts of time, and never really got any help.

I eventually gave up trying  but not before they convinced me to upgrade both my phones (they were in desperate need!), again with false promises. I assumed I could use my rebates towards the cost of the phones and it would be okay, this was obviously a mistake on my part (you know what they say about making assumptions).

I was told that if I upgraded to the newest Google Pixel I would get the second one free, again who wouldn't take this deal (I really need to learn the expression "to good to be true"). They set everything up, got all the paperwork done, and then saud "oh ya you still have to pay tax on the free phone but other than that it's free". I'm like okay, they've already gotten everything ready it's fine, it's whatever, I don't wanna be *that customer*, I pay the tax. Next they show me my new bill and surprise surprise the second phone wasn't free, it was just discounted. Instead of $25/month I pay about $6/month. But again I don't want to be the type to split hairs and I just decide it's whatever, I still have the rebate right? Wrong!

Now I'm paying almost $200/month when I originally just wanted to sign up for the substantially cheaper prepaid option and I'm stuck doing so for the 3 years (I know, I agreed so there is a level of responsibility I have to take but it's hard to stay strong when they're practically cramming this stuff down your throat!) But wait it gets better. The service on my fiances phone barely works! From the moment we transfered his number we've had problems and Verizon's response has always been that the previous company just hasn't *fully* released his phone number. Verizon owns Straight Talk and it's been literally months so how does any of that make sense?

So ya, in summary I'm now paying close to $200/month for barely better service. I've had to pay way more hidden (or rather down right lied about) charges than I think you can write off as error. And I still haven't gotten any actual help from any customer service agent I've spoke to about any issue, which is crazy to me. If I knew this was gonna play out like this I would've just stayed with Straight Talk. Jokes on me for trying something new and actually trusting a company, clearly they don't care about their customer base just the almighty dollar.