Does T-Mobile have a “Bill Credit” Problem?

Disclaimer: I have no financial affiliation with T-Mobile, other than as a current customer.

I switched to T-Mobile last year, and I thought I’d give an update on how things are going.  The good news is that the T-Mobile service continues to be solid.  I live in a good coverage area and I consistently get LTE service.  If there is one thing I could change, I’d like for T-Mobile to improve (or get rid of) their system of “bill credits”.

Let’s talk bill credits for a minute.  As most people know, T-Mobile runs a lot of great promotions.  In fact, I switched to T-Mobile because of the “4 lines for $120 promotion” and “trade in your iPhone for a new iPhone” offer.  With the trade-in offer, you get a new phone but it’s not immediately paid for.  In reality, you get billed each month for the phone and T-Mobile gives you a “bill credit” to offset the cost over 24 months.  The plan promotion works in a similar way. The plan for four lines costs more than $120, but you get a “bill credit” to offset the difference.

T-Mobile and Their Bill Credits Nightmare

If your T-Mobile bill credits post correctly, congratulations.  You are one of the lucky ones.  Why?  If you google the topic, it turns out that a number of people have run into T-Mobile bill credit issues.

I didn’t fare much better.  I expected my first two bills to be off since it can take “up to 2 billing cycles” for bill credits to show up.  For me, it wasn’t that the bill credits weren’t showing up.  The problem was that only half the expected bill credits showed up.  I didn’t know it then, but it turned to be a T-Mobile billing error.  I recently received a text message containing the following:

“You may not have received a one or more T-Mobile bill credits for your free line(s) offer due to a system issue.  We are sorry this happened and have fixed the problem.  You will see a one-time credit adjust on your next bill, and then correct monthly credits going forward.”

This wasn’t the first “error” text I had received from T-Mobile.  I  received a text from T-Mobile last month indicating that their system had miscalculated the bill credits for some customers who participated in the phone trade-in offers, and that there would be an adjustment on my bill.  While I am glad that T-Mobile is proactively fixing issues, the series of errors did not inspire confidence in their billing system.

Where Things Stand

While all the T-Mobile reps were consistently pleasant and understanding, it can still be frustrating at times.  Sometimes they couldn’t figure out the problem and had to escalate (which is perfectly acceptable).  Other times, the response was slightly less convincing, “It should automatically be fixed by next billing cycle” (It didn’t).  Fortunately, after multiple conversations with T-Mobile, I’m finally expecting my 4th billing statement to post correctly.

I imagine that bill credits issues must be frustrating for the front-line staff as well, since it seemed to be a known issue that some of their systems are dated.  I certainly hope T-Mobile has plans to upgrade their systems to be able to track the bill credit process better.  Let’s just put it this way:  As friendly as the folks are at T-Mobile, I really don’t want to call and explain what I think my bill should be.  Truthfully, even as much as I like T-Mobile’s promotions, I  am kind of sick of bill credits.  I would prefer it if their billing is just more straightforward.

At least, it shouldn’t be this complicated.