Mint Mobile – False advertisement for Samsung S25 and 2 year service

I saw an offer for a Samsung S25 with 2 years of unlimited plan for $720 on their website and attempted to buy it. First the order was not going through, I called to place the order and the card kept being "declined" but I checked with my bank and all was good there and mint was charging only "$0". Called Mint again for help and they stated they have problems with their merchant to try again later, they will call me the next day etc. Next day - same issue. Later call sale "went through" but was refunded.

Over the course of 7 lengthy phone calls to get assistance and an extended talk with a Supervisor and today with Customer Service I still could not get the deal that was advertised and instead was asked to buy another model for a more expensive price and only 1 year plan instead of 2.

I spent hours and hours of efforts and frustration to go through all of this to buy the phone and plan as advertised yet cannot get it. I tried every payment method including pay pal and credit and debit card (which all work for other purchase by the way), sometimes 0$ was debited and thus the sale did not go through, the call center reps stated there was a problem with their merchant services and that they are trying to solve it and that I was not the only customer with this issue.

Then on one of the calls the sale finally went through but I got an e-mail with the order number saying "we are giving it a once over look" and I had no payment confirmation / invoice for my purchase which was suspicious. On the account the money was debited and the next day I received an e-mail stating I'll be refunded. I called again to sort it out but could not be helped and call-center staff did not know how to solve it. I spoke to a supervisor, who assured me it is being looked into and he would like to use the phone recoding as part of way to sort it out.

Yesterday 25 Aug after waiting for about a week, I wanted to try again in case the issue was now solved with the merchant but the offer was no longer available online. I called and stated that I've tried for 3 weeks to purchase this offer and that I wanted the phone for the same price as advertised. I place the order over the phone, sale went "through", I get the same e-mail of order being "reviewed" with no receipt for the purchase, and today again - I get an e-mail saying I will be refunded.

I call again and put forth my complaint as I wanted the same deal I purchased and paid money for - not a refund. The lady put me on hold then tells me the reason is the "S25" is out of stock and therefore the re-fund, none of this was mentioned in the e-mail from mint. The lady put me on hold again after "double checking" and came back trying to sell me a larger and much more expensive phone by several hundreds with a one year plan instead. I did not have the money for it and don't want a larger phone. It was even more clear that this is just false advertising as I put in more than reasonable efforts to do what was needed to buy the phone and due to company issues or handling or whatever else it was made unavailable to me until not being told "out of stock" even though advertised on the website as available for much more expensive.

I tried to find something else with her on the phone where I don't have to pay on top out of pocket as I had a specific budged for this purchase based on the advertisement. Now I got an older phone, the S24 for more expensive and a one-year plan instead of a 2-year plan with a color I didn't want and "the sale went through" and I got a different e-mail this time saying

My frustration increases the more I continued the process, and I communicated this nicely (and all this time I tried to keep my cool, even when I felt like crying or screaming I didn't) and I asked if something could be done about this, so the lady forwarded me to "customer service" and the person did not understand the situation, tried to "handle" my communication by saying they can help active an e-sim and when I explained my terrible customer experience I was disconnected from their end with no attempt to call back - clearly I wouldn't be able to reach the same person even if I tried to call again.

This is the most frustrating customer experience I have ever had with any company and even more frustrating because I used to really like Mint Mobile and their service - but Mint isn't what it used to be.

My conclusion is that it was false advertising, and I am being led on by the call center staff. I even regret buying the phone and one year service now, because I don't know that I'll have the service needed or the chance to go to another carrier. It makes me upset.