So for the first time ever, ive gotten service with a post-paid big mobile phone company, in this case tmobile. Prior to this I always just did pre-paid MVNOs, bought a year at a time of whatever via Mint mobile or ting, or tello or whomever for half the price of what it would cost through tmobile or verizon.
I went with tmobile proper for a couple of devices this time around. What a god fucking awful experience.
I went to their store, and they are only allowed to have one phone out of their corporate safe every 12 minutes, and the safe regularly malfunctions, so you sit there waiting for 12-24 minutes assuming you're the only customer just to buy a device. They arent able to access inventory to even know if they have the device in the safe, or access other stores inventory. I had the same experience at 3 stores, so this isnt just one store fucking up, its corporate policy fuckup.
Then it takes 30-45 minutes to activate the service and the device, and it regularly fails along the way. Then they charge you 40 dollars "convenience fee" for the privilege of this fuck-awful experience
With the MVNOs ive been with in the past, they send me a free sim... i poke a 12 digit code from that sim into their website, it activates my service, and im done.