[Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Amin Sabet:
If you are within the 14-day Buyer's Remorse period, you do not need to wait 6 months. Just cancel your FlexPay plan under Buyer's Remorse. They will refund your payment. Then go to a T-Mobile store and start new service with a non-contract postpay plan.

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For anyone who wants to feel my pain, this is how I found out:

I bought my Nexus S without contract ($529 at Best Buy) and called T-Mobile to activate service. At that time, I was told that FlexPay and post-pay without contract would give me the same features, and I chose FlexPay.

After a week of Google Voice voicemail mostly not working, I Googled and found the threads about FlexPay not supporting this feature. Called T-Mobile phone support and had the following conversation:

Me: Hi, I bought a Nexus S at full retail price less than a week ago, activated a non-contract FlexPay plan after being told it had all the same features as a post-pay plan, but have come to find out that this is not true and that the FlexPay plan doesn't fully support Google Voice, which is one of the advertised features of this phone. I would like to switch to a non-contract postpay plan.

T-Mobile Representative: I would be happy to assist you... In order to be eligible for changing from FlexPay to a postpay plan, you should have 6 months of on time payments and...

Me: That makes no sense. I just bought the phone. I am within my return period for the phone at Best Buy, and I am within my trial period with T Mobile. I'm entitled to cancel my plan altogether and start a new one, right? So why can't I switch plans?

T-Mobile Representative: I would be happy to assist you. In order to be eligible for changing from FlexPay to a postpay plan, you should have 6 months of on time payments and...

Me: Did you really just repeat exactly the same thing to me? Did you understand a word I just said?

T-Mobile Representative: I am sorry for your frustration. We have certain eligibility requirements. In order to be eligible for changing from FlexPay to a postpay plan, you should have 6 months of on time payments and...

Me: I would like to speak to a supervisor.

T-Mobile Representative: I would be happy to get you to a supervisor, but there are very few supervisors available right now. It may be better for you to go to a T Mobile store for help.

Me: My closest T Mobile corporate store is pretty far away. I'll hold for a supervisor.

I then held for about 20 minutes with the representative occasionally checking in with me to ask if I'd rather go to a store instead of continuing to hold. I finally gave up and called back. Got a new representative this time.

Me: I just called and explained to someone my predicament. She showed no understanding and repeatedly read eligibility guidelines to me. Hopefully you will comprehend what I am calling about. Please refrain from reading me any eligibility guideline involving waiting 6 months.

T-Mobile Representative #2: Sorry for your frustration. How can I help you?

Me: I bought a Nexus S at full retail price less than a week ago, activated a non-contract FlexPay plan after being told it had all the same features as a post-pay plan, but have come to find out that this is not true and that the FlexPay plan doesn't fully support Google Voice, which is one of the advertised features of this phone. I am within my return period for the phone at Best Buy, and I am within my trial period with T Mobile. I would like to switch to a non-contract postpay plan.

T-Mobile Representative #2: I would be happy to assist you. In order to be eligible for changing from FlexPay to a postpay plan, you should have 6 months of on time payments and...

Me: This is very frustrating. I am within the 14 day Buyer's Remorse period entitled to cancel my service with T Mobile for a full refund. At that point I could start new service as postpay. I could understand if you were to tell me "I understand that what I am telling you makes no sense, but unfortunately my system does not allow me to do what you ask"; however, you showing no comprehension and repeating these eligibility criteria is very frustrating.

T-Mobile Representative #2: I am sorry for your frustration. Our eligibility guidelines specify that in order to be eligible for changing from FlexPay to a postpay plan, you should have 6 months of on time payments and...

At this point, I said goodbye and disconnected. It was some of the most unhelpful customer support I had ever encountered. I can only assume that those workers are not allowed to express any thoughts which aren't written on the page/screen in front of them.

I drove to my local T Mobile store, and the support there was top notch. The representative there explained that the phone support training was very limited and that in order to get what I wanted with them, I would have to have called and said "I would like to cancel my service under Buyer's Remorse", cancel, and then set up new service (which would be much easier to do with a new SIM, so better that I came into the store). Apparently, the training of the phone support was such that they were to do anything possible to avoid canceling a customer's service, so they were not going to suggest that as the solution for my issue.

The in-store customer service representative then called back the same folks I had just spoken to at phone support :rolleyes: and had them cancel my FlexPay plan and refund all that I had paid (that's how Buyer's Remorse works). He then promptly set up non-contract postpay service for me, and I walked out with working Google Voice.

The T Mobile phone support experience made me thing twice about sticking with T Mobile, although the excellent in-store customer support made up for it at least partially.

Verizon phone support is so much better. For starters, I called Verizon on Christmas day and got a US-based rep without any hold time. The T-Mobile phone reps had clearly been outsourced, although this would not have been an issue to me if they had been helpful.

Here's how my conversation went with the Verizon rep:

Me: I got a new phone with T Mobile and would like to know what the early termination fee would be for my Verizon contract which ends in April.

Verizon Representative: That fee is $280

Me: Ouch. Can I drop the data plan from my contract?

Verizon Representative: Unfortunately you are required to have a data plan with that particular phone (HTC Incredible). If you won't be using the phone much, you could pay for the $15 data plan, which gives you 150MB, instead of the $30 data plan you are currently using. Do you or someone you know have an old Verizon phones which is currently not in use?

Me: Yes, why?

Verizon Representative: You can associate your Verizon plan with a non-smartphone and then stop paying for a data plan.

Me: Great!

She then helped me change over to the other phone and also saved me a few extra bucks by putting me on a family plan with my wife. Bottom line is that for the next five months, instead of paying $70/month for a phone I'm not using, I'll be paying $20/month for that phone thanks to a thinking customer representative who did more than read to me from a script.