Nothing against Catherine Zeta Jones; she’s a great actress and beautiful woman, but she cannot sell me T-Mobile phones & service even if she personally knocks on my door.

I say this because with my recent experience with T-Mobile, I found out that they have the WORST customer service I can ever imagine, and forces anyone who buys their pre-paid phone to be a customer although there was never a contract written.

I recently purchased a tri-band cell phone in a local retail outlet here in Dallas. When purchasing this phone, I gave the following information about my needs. “I want a cell phone that I can take to Europe, purchase a local phone card (simm), and have it work from that number.

The sales person told me, “Sure, no problem.”

Now, at this point, I must explain that I had not decided on any type, model, manufacturer, or cell phone service provider at all. I was just looking for a piece of equipment as far as I was concerned.

I was then shown a wall of phones and T-Mobile was among them. I noticed all the phones were packaged with various service providers. This made sense, because phones don’t work without a provider.

After reviewing the phones based on ‘look and feel’. I chose a phone that was ‘prepaid’, and appeared to be small enough to fit the job.

When I saw it was from the T-Mobile provider I told the sales person, “I do not want to be a T-Mobile customer.”

The reply was, “No problem. You can buy that (pointing at the box in my hands) ‘pre-paid’ phone. Then you can just switch the simm out when you get to Europe.” I was satisfied and purchased the phone.

So, the phone went to Paris. And, upon arriving in Paris, we discovered the phone was locked. Not knowing what ‘locked’ meant, we did a bit of research.

I found that the phone works with a ‘T-Mobile’ simm card only. This was disheartening, since the T-Mobile simm card would have an American number on it, and the phone calls would cost many times more per minute than a local simm card.

This is NOT what I asked for. But, this WAS what I was sold.

I distinctly remembered hearing, "No problem. You can buy that pre-paid phone. Then you can just switch the simm out when you get to Europe."

The phone returned to Dallas. When I called T-Mobile’s Customer Care Department, I was told the following, “Unless you are a T-Mobile customer for three months, and you have purchased time on the T-Mobile simm card that came in the package with the phone during the last 30 days, we will not unlock your phone.”

To say that I was shocked is an understatement. I paid for the phone fair and square to the tune of $200, which is the full price. I did not sign a contract saying that I want to be a T-Mobile customer. And now, I’m being forced to be their customer? Something is not right here.

Where was this information when I said, ‘I do not want to be a T-Mobile customer’? Why didn’t the sales person tell me that little tidbit?

And, why won’t the customer service people in something called ‘Center 32’, help me to contact a person high enough in the company to answer these questions?

As a matter of fact, why won’t they even give me a phone number of someone in T-Mobile that can fix this problem, instead of demanding that I become a customer and purchase something from them 60 days from now, in order to ‘not be a customer’.

I can only guess, that the ‘something’ I have to purchase, will have a minimum price tag on it.

I would like to thank Missy and Andrew in ‘Center 32’ for making me the most-unhappy ‘non-customer’ in T-Mobile’s history of existence.

If you believe you are worse off than me, and have never been a customer of T-Mobile either, I’d like to hear about it. If it beats this, I’ll even print it.

I’ve recently learned that T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom are partners. I wonder; if I had purchased a simm card from Deutsche Telekom, would it have worked in the phone as a local number. Perhaps the sales person could have told me that.

I do know this for sure. This was a complete and total failure on the part of the sales person, Misty, and Misty’s supervisor Andrew, to resolve this problem. When I asked to speak with anyone else about the problem, I was told ‘No’. Andrew actually said, “I’m the only one you can speak with.”

So, upon his failure to help me stay a ‘non-customer’ and still have his company keep the amount of money they made from the original purchase, I’ve decided to return to the store, give the box, paperwork, and anything else that came in the box back, and ask for my money back.

Yet, on second thought, I decided to keep the phone as a memento when I was an unsuspecting consumer and believed the pretty face of Catherine Zeta Jones telling me that T-Mobile is the best.

Meanwhile, I have to put T-Mobile on the very short list of companies that I do not want to deal with ever again! There are only two on the list and both are cell phone companies – AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile.

When it comes to customer service from T-Mobile, they start from the basis of “Let the Buyer Beware”. If we can sell you something unfit for your uses, it’s because we don’t care if you didn’t ask us 500 questions about the equipment.

Apparently, if you say “I want an unlocked cell phone” here in the US, you will be told, “We do not sell unlocked phones”. If you know differently, I’d like to hear about that as well.

I have heard there are ‘underground groups’ of companies that unlock cell phones for a small fee. It makes me wonder if the policy of companies like T-Mobile, are worth the paper they are written on.

Perhaps it’s time for T-Mobile to rethink their customer service as well. I would welcome the chance to give them a few examples. One of them being, fire Misty and Andrew. I think they can do better with the money the company pays these people.

I would like to make sure everyone that reads this, does not leave thinking that I’m just ragging this company. Recently, this headline appeared.

T-Mobile Given Highest Customer Satisfaction Rankings in All Regions Surveyed

However, after checking into this, I found that this is basically the same as saying, “We have the fewest complaints of the used car sales men that only sell lemons.”

So, congratulations T-Mobile, you get the fewest complaints from your industry. Your industry is the most complained about industry in the U.S. Perhaps you and other companies in your industry should rethink that as well.

Or maybe, it’s time to write to my State and U.S. Representative and Senator so that Congress can ask the FCC to do something about this.