Ok, quick background.
My mom and brother have T-mobile contracts. When they were looking for phones, they picked t-mobile b/c the t-mobile rep said 3g was going to be available soon. So, my mother bought a new fancy 3g phone, and same with my brother.
So, fast forward a year or more later to today. Still no 3g service for tmobile in our area. T-mobile reps can't give her an answer, and are pretty much just saying "to bad". They are tired of this bs from tmobile, and just want to cancel, and switch to at&t or another service that provides 3g in our area. But, there is a $200 cancel charge.

So, my question is, Do they have a way around the cancel fee since Tmobile sold them a line of bs, and now can't deliver?

 

Did they get it in writing?

 

That's the thing. I don't think that on the contract they put down, "Guaranteed 3g service in your area". It was just the info the salesman told my mom and bother. Told them that T-mobile was bringing 3g to our area, and so, they signed up, and bought 3g phones.

 

In that case, unless T-mobile decides to be nice to them because they were mislead then they will have to pay to cancel. It sucks but you can never believe promises like that from anyone trying to sell you something, unless you get it in writing you don't have a leg to stand on.

 

Yea, thats what I was afraid of. It's BS nowadays that the sales person can tell you whatever they want, but when it comes time to deliver, they can just say to bad. Unless, that is, you want to pay them more money.
Dell pulled the same crap with me when I first got my laptop. Told me I'm SOL b/c a tech told me the wrong story. For that, I will NEVER buy dell again. Not like it will make much a difference to them though.

 

what phones do they have? i might be interested in one of them.. maybe that can help with the cancellation fee

 

Go to T-Mobile web site and check there 3g coverage. I have had T-Mobile for the last 5 years and I could not be any more happy with them, there customer service is top notch. Unfortunitly T-Mobile is still a new cell phone carrier to the us in comparison to Verizon and Sprint. But they are trying to get better, I know in the area that I work the have installed 3 new cell towers with in the last year so I know there trying. It does suck that they lied to you.

 

My wife and I have T-Mobile, I don't know much about them because my wife pays the bill, but I do know that everytime there is a problem my wife calls and eventually gets it taken care of. She has had to ask for higher levels of customer service but has never been told "no".

I think if you were to take the time and find the right customer service agent who had the power to waive the cancellation fee, you could get your contract canceled, but I do think it could take a half hour or so.

 

The problem with things like 3G service is that they are not guaranteed. You usually have the first 15 or 30 days to cancel a cell phone contract then it becomes law. They can "transfer the contract" to another user if someone wants to assume the contract. Otherwise they will be on the hook for the cancellation fee.

T-Mobile is pretty flexible but like any other company, there is only so far they can bend.

I have had them for a couple years and haven't really seen a need for 3G or a big difference in my BlackBerry. I had Sprint before and for general use it seems ok. If you crack the phone then maybe there would be an advantage...like if you were using it to link to your pc for Internet access.

Verizon and Sprint are CDMA so they will likely have the fastest services. AT&T and T-Mobile are GSM and will likely have similar services.

Good luck.