Beware of Gold Rewards from T-Mobile-To-Go

I can’t believe that a major telecommunication company as big as T-Mobline would do this. It’s called deceptive advertising.

And it is called Gold Rewards. But I let you be the judge of it. Here is a copy of the email I sent to the T-Mobile website this morning expressing my angst over the issue of my T- Mobile prepaid cell phone. I think  the program is called t-Moblie-To-Go.

I registered today so I can put my complaint in writing. I called twice yesterday and got the same answer.

I bought my phone on April 27, 2008 and right on the box, it said, reach $100 n refills and all your unused minutes will not expire for the whole year. I made sure my minutes did not expire and I always refill even if I don't use the phone a lot because I don't work outside the house.

Then sometime in December 2008, I reach $105 in refills and I got the following messages:

Your balance is now 511 minutes (89.63). As a Gold Rewards customer you receive 15% more minutes on all your refills and your unused minutes last a whole year. From this day on, I did not bother to refill again knowing that I am a Gold Rewards customer and I don't have to do it until next year.

Then comes the time bomb.

Yesterday, I was at Target with my 2-year old kid and I needed to call my husband to pick us up. Since I don't use the phone so much it usually gets out of battery. So before going out, I charged it for like ten minutes because I knew that would be enough for one call.

When I called my husband, the line said, you don't have enough money to complete this call. With the calls I made to the customer service, they told that only after I become a Gold Rewards member that my refills become usable for a year. I was shocked and outraged because I did believe that the $89.63 I have on my account would be good for a long time.

I don't know about you but with today's economy, that is a lot of money. Nowadays, everyone is working hard for money and should I have known that my minutes are due to expire, would I just let the $89 slip away? You're right I won't.

I request that the minutes on my phone be returned as there is no apology that would make this right. I have the text and there is no future tense in it. The unused minutes to last a whole year should exist the minute I reach a $100 in refill. Thank you so much.