Did a T-Mobile rep lie to a customer to keep him from leaving the carrier? (UPDATE)
UPDATE:After speaking to T-Mobile, the carrier has informed me that the nation's second-largest wireless provider has come to the conclusion that this was a honest mistake on the part of the phone rep and there really is no evidence to conclusively say otherwise.
The original story starts below:
When someone wants to leave their carrier and move to another wireless provider, they request a transfer PIN from their current wireless firm. This code, which can usually be requested through a carrier's app, can be used to authorize the porting over of the customer's phone number. Today, a good Samaritan was helping a T-Mobile subscriber leave the carrier when he noticed that the T-Mobile app did not have an option that would allow the customer to get a transfer PIN.
Unable to find a place on the T-Mobile app where the customer could request a transfer PIN, the customer decided to discuss the situation in a chat with a T-Mobile phone rep named Kevin. According to the good Samaritan, Kevin started "begging" for the customer to stay with T-Mobile.
Kevin tried to get the customer to stay, but this attempt failed when the customer wrote back, "No, I would like a transfer pin." And here is where Kevin started to make matters worse for the T-Mobile customer. Typing out a series of directions to follow, you can see in the screenshots that we've embedded in this article that the T-Mobile employee identified as Kevin told the customer to select the checkbox next to "Port Out Protection."
The problem here is that "Port Out Protection" is a feature that is used by T-Mobile customers to prevent unauthorized transfers of their accounts. It's a great feature as it prevents an attacker from moving a T-Mobile customer's account to another carrier without his or her knowledge. If something like that were to happen, the T-Mobile customer could find himself locked out of his own account and phone, and find his banking, securities, and credit card accounts wiped out.
"The problem is no one with T-Mobile or Metro wants to eat the cancelled line on their metrics. That’s the elephant in the room. T-Mobile is becoming the Wells Fargo of the phone companies. It’s going to hurt them eventually just like it did WF."-Reddit subscriber GuaranteeWide7607
Used properly, "Port Out Protection" is an important security tool for T-Mobile customers. Used incorrectly by a T-Mobile rep, it can make it hard for a good Samaritan to help a T-Mobile account holder from receiving a transfer PIN. The good Samaritan wrote on Reddit, "So here I am, trying to detangle this mess. This seems just petty and predatory against customers wishing to leave."
The helpful pal also had a good suggestion for other T-Mobile subscribers looking to get a transfer PIN. Don't look for it in the app. Instead, call 611 from your T-Mobile phone and go to number transfer center to obtain a transfer pin.
The big question here is whether Kevin was lying to the customer on purpose to make it harder to leave T-Mobile, or whether he was just not knowledgeable. Which sounds more likely to you? As another Redditor pointed out, no T-Mobile rep wants to have his numbers hurt by a customer dropping his lines and account and leaving the carrier. It all comes back to the metrics. It's another example why T-Mobile needs to take the industry lead and change how reps are compensated in this industry.
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