MetroPCS - what a dud

I recently did a MetroPCS shop and the entire experience was incredibly disappointing. The initial salesperson was so uninspired. She could not tell me much about the dummy phones on display. She did not describe the plan options or suggest additional features. I had to coax everything out of her! Once I chose a plan and phone, she rang up the sale and included a $6 per month handset insurance charge which she had not offered and I did not request. The return portion of the shop was just as bad. Neither of the employees knew how to make a return! The return employee (different from the purchase employee) called the owner who was clueless. She called the "manager" four times who never answered her phone. Finally she called a friend at another store who walked her through a return. The employee used her phone to stream a live video of the computer monitor to her friend, who in turn told her what to do. The return took 41 minutes! Does anyone out there have MetroPCS as their real-life cell phone service? Is the cell phone service as bad as that shop? I have done a Verizon purchase/return shop and it was great from start to finish. I never seem to have problems when I do AT&T shops either. Based on my one experience with MetroPCS, I would probably never do business with that company.

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I have metro pcs as my service provider. I think I have been a Metro customer for 8 years or so. I stay with them merely because they are sooooo cheap! I've found their corporate store are much better than the others. I have actually found this to be true with all cell phone shops I have done lately, regardless of service provider.

How cheap are they? My basic AT@T go phone is $30.00 monthly, unlimited calls and all the rest, but small amount of data which I add as needed. I don't have many apps, don't need them....if Metro can beat that,
I'd look into it. What about distance and skype?

Live consciously....

I don't have Metro but I've done a shop at one of their stores and their plan was $30 per month for unlimited talk text and data.

I did a few simple Metro PCS shops a while ago, the service really varied by location. Two of the places were horrible with long waits and poorly trained staff. The other 2 had excellent customer service and knowledgeable staff.

I pay $70 a month for 2 lines, unlimited talk, text and data.

MetroPCS is not Verizon but their prices are a lot cheaper. When I was doing the shops one store would be great and the next would be - well it did not seem that their employees were well informed about the phones and since I have done so many phone shops I knew more than them. Felt like I was pulling teeth and just hoping that they would hit some of the points.

I'm staying with AT@T, they are always informative and willing to help with my silly questions. Since I can't beat my price, why change. Being I'm not a techie, I need to go somewhere as I grow with my phone and I never have a dropped call, but will upgrade next year.

Live consciously....

MetroPCS in the bad area of town can be a really bad shop:

1. Employee REFUSES to accept the return even after I pushed back and had her call the owner twice before I left the store like a real disgruntled customer would and clearly pointed out the corporate policy and literature to them. MSC needed to have MetroPCS corp "convince" the owner of the franchise to accept the return and then I made a third trip to make the second return weeks later.

2. Store in the hood has less than $5 in the cash drawer and cannot accept my return. I needed to wait almost 2 hours for the store owner to go to leave home and stop at the bank and come to the store. I was more than outed as the Mystery shopper.

When I did the shops, they were highly bonused and I made over $500 in a couple of weeks doing them in a route around the city. Do know that they can go sideways quickly if your doing a purchase/return shop. You could be stuck holding the phone and out the cash.

note:
This contract has moved to a different MSC since I did it and I have not done it for the new MSC and cannot comment on any changes that were made to the shop.

I've done the shop twice for two different MSCs. The shops were flawless, start to finish.

There is a big poster of the USA that shows the coverage areas for Metro PCS. While waiting for my phone to get activated, I looked at the details on the poster. Most of the poster was purple. That showed coverage for talk and text. There were sporadic orange dots that showed data coverage. That was what I used to get my refund.

The activation fee is the sales person's commission, and s/he will tell you it's nonrefundable. I got a full refund both times because I said that I could not get a data signal.

Also, the add ons push the price up to what I pay with Verizon for equal service.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

Metro PCS is the "second" (discount) brand of T-Mobile. Each of four major carriers (T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T,.Sprint) owns a secondary brand as well. Cricket is owned by AT&T. Sprint owns Virgin Mobile USA. I can;t remember Verizon's secondary brands. Some of the majors have more than one secondary brand just to confuse matters some more.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

I shopped a Metro PCS recently and the employee's name tag read, "Da$hound". His performance as a salesperson was as professional as his rapstar name tag. When I asked about plans he pointed to a sign on the wall and said, "that's pretty much our plans".

I do the inquiry shops. Mostly the staff knows the details about the plans. I pay $50 month for 5 GB at Boost, would be the same with MetroPCS for one line. I could get a second or third tier phone such as LG Stylo Plus for $60 after a $60 credit for switching providers. However I bit the bullet and bought an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S5. I've owned a smart phone for about a year and have become frustrated with slow phones. I used a flip phone before and like the convenience of a smart phone.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230

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MetroPCS - what a dud

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