Alvin Wireless

I came here one time for T-​Mobile service — The people who work here are not honest, they will liar all ways the get you stuck in theirs contracts. The documents are unclear be careful to sign any thing, I specially your identity. I had too much problem, too much head ache. I do not like the services here. It is scam. No star for this business. I do not know how they this place could survive.

I wish i can give this a zero star! These ppl are not honest; they just took my money without giving me anything. Then the next day, I wanted to cancel, they ignored and refused to refund my money. Then the next month, i got another bill for 250 $. WTH! I never got anything (not even a sim card n you bill me the next month already). Deposit money is gone; I had to call in T-​monile to cancel it. WTH! What kind of business is this, why hasn’t anyone sue them!

Scammers! Don’t go to this place at all. Go to a corporate store. This is a independent store not a t mobile store. Don’t let them trick you and let the place looks fool you. They have a lot ways to eat you’re money to big to small whatever it takes. If you don’t wanna go thru headaches like me and everyone else

I wish Unilocal allow us to give negative score… I would if I could…
THIS PLACE IS A SCAM
My aunt and uncle want new phone to go with new T-​mobile service. So this is what happened:
They sold my uncle an android phone (I can’t remember the brand). It has scratches all over, but Minh (seems to be the owner) claimed that the phone is brand new. When he took it home, it stopped working. He went back to exchange it. Minh gave him another phone (also claimed it brand new), and again it stopped working after 2 days (showing black/​blue screen with Chinese characters on it). My uncle tried to set up his email and found out that someone else account is already in there. How can a brand new phone has someone email account set up?
My Aunt also want an iPhone. Minh told her that he can sell her the iphone 5 for $ 650 (not even a 5s — With a couple more bucks, she can get the brand new Apple iPhone 6.), but he doesn’t have the phone ready. He asked my aunt to put down $ 100 deposit in cash and wait 1 week for him to order the phone.
We went home and wait 1 week. Minh didn’t call, so we decided to check in with him. He told us that we have to wait another week (What? an iphone 5 and we had to wait for 2 weeks?). Finally we go to the store the week after. He gave us the phone box still in plastic «seal» (and of course Minh claimed it «Brand New»). My aunt opened the phone and found a piece of Post-​it note with hand-​written «iPhone 5» inside. (I didn’t know Apple does that). There are clearly visible scratches on the back of the phone.
At this point my aunt and uncle refuse to pay and ask for the deposit money back (because the store didn’t hold their promises and trying to scam). Minh and another lady working start yelling, cursing and calling my aunt and uncle «uneducated people» together with many bad words. My aunt and uncle left and give up the $ 100 for a piece of mind. (and they went to AT&T for brand new iPhone6’s with less hassle)
I think T-​mobile should check and validate their Authorized Dealers to see if those store hold up T-​mobile standards. Store like this use T-​mobile name to scam many people. It’s just bad business for everyone.

Scam artist! Crooks! AVOID THIS PLACE
They are an ‘authorized’ Tmobile store, yet they sell you unlocked international phones that are not Tmobile authorized! They only want your money, they do not care for your service after. They sold my mom a useless Galaxy S5 that doesn’t reach 4G LTE because it’s an international phone… They play dumb when confronted and the manager avoids you for months (go figure)… Go to a REAL Tmobile store instead and save the hassle from these liars and cheat s. I would give them 0 stars if I could, all low reviews here are real

This place is a scam! They take advantage of people by making false promises and who knows what else they are doing with your personal informations! I’m surprised they are still in business and no one is catching up to their fraudulent activities! Everyone that has been defrauded should get together to shut them down! If you need a phone or a wireless service go to the corporate store or just do it yourself online!
STAY AWAY!!!

Sometimes life happens… And I noticed in the reviews of Unilocal sometimes people give a negative review when really it is just a temporary situation with the store… this is case with Alvin wireless…
The owner Mr. Minh and I have had a great discussion about Unilocal and why his reviews were so low! This is a T mobile authorized store. Mr. Minh is a T-​Mobile authorized dealer… He explained to me that he had a temporary situation with his family and his brother was ill… His employees had to cover the store did not do a great job… So he’s working to fix that…
Though I do not use T-​Mobile… I found Mr. Minh to be very personable… His store was clean… He had merchandise that was nicely packaged… He had a Christmas tree up…
If I didn’t have such a long contract left with my current cell phone provider… I would consider switching to T-​mobile. You should try out the store if that is your carrier… Or… If you need a new carrier!
When you come here… Write your own review… And when you do see Mr. Minh tell him you read about his store on Unilocal… And Karen sent you! PS… I do not work for Unilocal… lol

I hardly ever write Unilocal reviews, but this situation just cannot be ignored. I am Vietnamese and this company is run by Vietnamese people. They advertise their business on the radio and newspapers and their main clientele are older Vietnamese people (the majority who take people for their word and do not understand much about cellphone related matters). It is shameful to see Vietnamese people taking advantage of other Vietnamese people due to their lack of understanding in these matters.
9÷17÷13 — My mom went in to get two phones repaired at Alvin Wireless. She was talked into performing upgrades on ²⁄₃ family phone lines in order to get the new Apple iPhone 5S. She signed the contract, but it was NOT signed by the other party as required on the form (agreement between two parties). She also paid $ 380 by credit card for the two upgrades. However, she told the workers NOT to do anything (fax paperwork, run background check, etc.) until her son (me) goes in and verifies the new plan options.
That night, I read reviews on Alvin Wireless and see that they have a history of scamming their customers and providing bad customer service. I tell my mom that we need to cancel and get our money back.
9÷18÷13 — Morning time — talked to Bao (Minh’s brother/​cousin) at Alvin Wireless and he stated that he is not authorized to perform a refund and that we would need to talk to the owner (Minh) and to come back in the afternoon. Explained the situation to him and one of the employees wrote on the back of the contract to «cancel contract.»
Afternoon time — Called Alvin Wireless and Minh answered the phone. He stated that he cannot do anything, that Bao is the one that helped us, so we need to go to him and hung up (no time for us to reply). We went back to Alvin Wireless and talked to two other employees. They say that Minh and Bao are not there. The two employees there called Minh on the phone and he said that we need to go to Bao and that they guaranteed he would be able to help. My mom left for Vietnam that evening, so I would need to do the rest of the talking on her behalf.
That afternoon, I went to the official ATT store and they stated that this is not the first time that they have heard complaints about this company. They state that what these Vietnamese wireless companies do is get your information (name, address, SSN) and then use that information to purchase phones and resell back at their store. A lot of people go to the ATT store to try to resolve issues that arose because of Alvin Wireless.
9÷19÷13 Store opening — Bao opened the store. He said it is ok to cancel the contract, but they would have to charge a customer service fee of $ 100 for all the work that they did (calling ATT, background check which we told them NOT to do until I came and verified things). They would refund $ 280 in cash (he did not know how to use the credit card return terminal) and nothing would be touched on our account. I agree to this and Bao starts typing up a contract for me to sign stating the refund. He goes in the back and calls Minh. When he returns, he says «we will cut you a check and you can come back tomorrow or we will mail it to you.» He states that he does not have enough cash available right now. I become frustrated because this is not what he said just 5 minutes ago. I tell him I do not accept this because he just said we can be refunded in cash today. I do not have the time to make constant trips back and forth to this company. I told him I will call my credit card company to file a dispute and that if necessary, I will take him to small claims court for additional damages. I told him that I came in so that I could give them a chance to do the right thing (my 3^rd trip there), but they continuously give me the run around. I ask Bao to let me talk directly to Minh (the owner). He goes in the back and when he returns, he says Minh does not want to talk directly to the customer and that they will hire an American lawyer.

This place is horrible cheating people in every direction. Never ever come here again.

«DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME & MONEY». That’s all I need to say and warn you.
The owner is a F… KING liar. They trick you to get the good plan, but turn out they are not as what they said when you received your first bill. When I came back to store and find the owner to ask him, but he hide in the back of the store and told his employees to tell me that he traveled or not available.
«BE AWARE OF THIS STORE». DO NOT do any business with this store!!!

People please be careful of this store, if I can give 0 star I would.
They lie about everything (plan and rebate…)
I never never come back. I think they get most of their business from the unfortunate people who don’t speak english and see their advertisement on Vietnamese TV.

Like all other reviewers, do not come here. I made the mistake of taking my dad’s advice to get my siblings and myself on a phone plan here through AT&T. Sure, it’s much cheaper, but for what price? Here they are:
1. They give you «world phones.» I don’t know what a world phone is, but AT&T does not support these phones when you buy picture/​video messaging. I paid for this service, yet cannot use it. I’ve had Alvin try to fix it. I’ve called AT&T numerous times to fix it. Zilch.
2. Actual phone service was glitchy. I don’t know if it’s due to the AT&T service or the world phone or a combination of the two, but I don’t get reception in certain areas of downtown. 75% of the time my phone calls dropped.
3. The phones and replacements you receive are never the same. My siblings and I all got the same type of world phone but we all received various types of chargers with various types of attachments and knicknacks that you need when travelling to other countries. Big red flag here.
4. There was an unknown phone number on my phone bill. I don’t remember the details, but I am getting charged for someone else’s phone. I complained to AT&T and they said that it was my third party’s fault. I figured out that though Alvin Wireless claimed that these phones were «BRAND NEW,» it came with extra baggage, which would NOT have happened if they were in fact brand new. I don’t remember every detail of this ulcer-​inducing exchange, but AT&T service was very nice to me throughout the whole ordeal, understanding that this had happened with a few other third parties where they lumped services together in order to get a cheaper rate for themselves and charge us consumers a little bit more. SHADY! I confronted Alvin and they seemed unhappy that I brought this up, and they assured that I wasn’t being charged for that person’s service.
5. Best of all, when I tried to cancel the contract, they started giving me crap. Their contract (which I read detail by detail multiple times in English) said that cancelling will be a $ 200 fee. Fine. When I got there, they tried to charge me $ 200 PER PHONE. I kept asking the lady who spoke the most English to point out where it said for each phone. She couldn’t. Maybe it said so in the Vietnamese portion, but I don’t read Vietnamese, so good luck with the English portion holding up in court! I fought for a good hour or two. My dad came in and argued with them in Vietnamese before they bargained down the fee to $ 100 for my troubles.
Never ever get suckered for the cheap deal — the contract is NOT worth it. This business is run by horrible people who cheat people who don’t know how to speak English or how America is run.

This place is a scam. They give you «used» iphones, say that it’s new and you pay for it. And all the boxes were opened. NEVER EVER COME TO THIS PLACE AGAIN! If you dont want to be scammed, dont come to this place

What a F-​ing HEADACE! Never ever go to a non corporate cell phone place!!! They seem to give you a great deal up front but its all a scam! You pretty much end up paying for EVERYTHING YOU DON’T NEED plus MORE!
Does this sound familiar: «If you sign up for 5 phone lines, all your phones will be free.» NEGATIVE on that!!! «Your contract is only 6 months long so if your unhappy, you can cancel after 6 months.» They tell you that because they want to sign you up for another 5 phone lines under another carrier! DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT do business here! Take your hard earned cash to a legitimate establishment = Corporate office.
My brother warned me that I would want to strangle someone if I decided to give this place a shot and guess what… I absolutely felt that way!
P. S. Don’t be fooled when they ask you to pay cash… put it on a credit card! A legitimate business would accept any type of payment… not this place. CASH CASH CASH equals money under the table –_–

To put it simply, my experience with this place is beyond horrible.
First of all, unless you’re vietnamese, you may as well go someplace else instantly. anyone in there barely speaks any english
Secondly, the owner is one of the biggest dicks out there and unfortunately, he is one of the few who actually spoke english.
And lastly, this place is just out for your money. they dont care what you want, because all they want is for you to open up a new t-​mobile account so they can reap their commission.
And this is me giving a generous review of this place by not saying the details of what actually happened.
Go anywhere else but here. DONE

How is this place still open for business? My dad and I were shopping around for new Verizon phones and he wanted to check out Alvin Wireless because he had heard about their promotional sale over the radio. Little did he know this place was close to basically scamming him for his money.
We came into the store firmly stating that we were interested in opening a Verizon account. They had ads up stating «Verizon Wireless Sold Here!» The little lady tried to convince my dad to switch to T-​Mobile and tried to convince ME that my iPhone was useless and unreliable considering I need to pay for a data plan. Seriously? You have the audacity to say that to a loyal iPhone user? Woman, please.
We were out of there in less than 5 minutes.

This business has no ethics, scams people by making false promises, and give people the run-​around when people ask for help. If you want to avoid headache better to avoid this place. Be warned!

I totally agree with JOV. This place is such a scam. I came here and trusted the owner Minh since he is a friend of my family and we thought he would give us a good deal. However, he has always brought us troubles and anger for the last 4 years. My plan opened with ATT via this place would end soon, and I have promised myself that I would never come back to this place again. If you do not want to be scammed or screwed over, please do not come to this place. Please DO NOT be hooked by the promotions he offers, they are all traps and would suck the blood out of your pocket. I have even received debt collection because this guy use my credit without my consent to buy phones for his store and didn’t pay money to them, so the company went after me. After many times coming to his store to ask for an answer, all he told us was wait and wait. Somehow, the collecting agent stopped bothering us, but the debt shows off on my credit report and lower my score. No one could think that opening phone lines to your family could cause you so much troubles like it caused me. I AM A TYPE OF PERSON WHO DO NOT LIKE TO COMMENT ABOUT THE BAD SERVICE, but this guy has caused me and my family so much troubles and anger that I have to speak up. ONCE AGAIN, IF YOU DO NOT BE SCREWED UP LIKE ME, DO NOT COME TO THIS PLACE.

This is not a good place to open a new wireless plan.
The people here are not organized when dealing with paperwork and their contract forms are photo scanned and not official documentation.
THIS IS A MAJOR RED FLAG PEOPLE.
They will also entice you to open a new plan so you can get a new phone (I phone 3g’s etc) for free but then they’ll offer to buy the phone back from you at a decent price. If you bite, you lose because the so-​called rebates you will receive are usually rejected by AT&T especially when something doesn’t follow AT&T business protocols. This happened to me and I didn’t receive three of my rebates since the letter came back saying that I am not legible for a rebate based on my phone plan purchase through a third party/​dealer/​Alvin Wireless.
If you come back to the store to complain, they will do the following:
1. brush you off
2. tell you to hold on and anticipate another rebate (they think you are stupid)
3. tell you they can open another plan to your liking (you face cancellation fees… wow)
4. tell you to wait while they handle another client, usually people that have fallen for this scam who come back to complain.
So save your time and money and do not shop at Alvin Wireless much less open a phone plan with a contract. I have received many headaches lately because of opening a wireless plan here and nothing have been solved. The place is a scam.
I don’t usually ridicule business shops this much but to help prevent other people from losing money and health over problematic issues purposely created by Alvin Wireless.

I was there in January after I heard that they can do iPhones for ATT without the data plan. I went in and stroke a deal relatively easily after I was told: it’s simple: you pay $ 78 for 4 lines. Everything else will be paid by the store. Love it the first day. Saw Minh, the boss, the second day. He looks like a cool business guy. Took care of a second phone return easily for me. Thought since he owns store, he cares about us, so we can trust this store.
Ever since that, nightmare starts: my phone number was ported over to T-​mobile and stopped working for a day (Was I told of this, I’ll probably be okay), but my husband freaked out because he’s not able to receive/​make phone calls for his business. Then after 1 day or two, the number was ported back. Whew, that was scary. Not ready to deal with phone number change at all.
Then, I got a huge bill over $ 300 from ATT. Thought it will be easy just to fax it in and have them to take care because they said «everything else will be taken care by them» at the contract signing. After multiple phone calls, (sometimes you will do tons of calls no one answering, or one girl picked up the phone and said will call back but never!), I finally reached someone who did some adjustment, but still over $ 250 bill. What??? that’s not what I was told!!! Called ATT, they took away the data plan. Shrinked down to $ 200. «sign», with all the phone calls and time spent, at this point, I really regretted going to this place!!! paid my bill, learned my lesson. Never never trust these people anymore…
Then I called ATT and found out my monthly bill from now on will be $ 90 instead of $ 78 they promised. Call them, no one can help, then ATT. Finally I downgraded the plan.
I tried to call Minh, the boss, to complain. Got a number from the staff, called and it was a wrong number! Called back, the girl staff said she doesn’t know his number. Then why do you give it out to your customers? If you don’t have it, how do you talk to him? A bunch of liars!
I later got a bill from T-​mobile and faxed it to the store. They said they will take care. Just got another bill from ATT for $ 22. Don’t know what it is. Still gotta call and call and call. I really think ATT ought to read this and do something about this kinda business practice…
With all the extra money and time I spent so far, I am basically paying to get this phone now and not worth it. Too much stress dealing with them. Don’t go to them or you will be betrayed. I saw another bad review earlier, but gotta taken down. I am sure I am not alone. It’s just about how much it takes someone to get so fed up and ended up writing this Unilocal review. I am not a person Unilocaling other people a lot. This is beyond my tolerance for a business practice… now I am glad there is this Unilocal platform for customers to vent out their frustrations.