tmobile pre-paid frustration

I seem to be stuck in an endless loop with tmobile customer service, so I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice, or at least a sympathetic eye

Long story short: I bought a prepaid tmobile phone for 70 bucks at Target about 3 months ago. Used the phone for a few weeks while on vacation - worked great. Phone then sat turned off for a about a month. Turned it back on a few weeks ago - it told me i needed to add minutes. Ok, fine. I tried to add minutes through a variety of methods (online, over the phone, etc.) without any luck.

Finally got connected to a billing / accounts person, who said that there was an unpaid balance of 75 dollars associated with the phone and that I couldn't add minutes until the balance was paid. News to me!! The 75 dollar balance is under the name of someone I have never heard of in my life.

They then gave me the number of some sort of collection agency (Vesta?) The person there told me there was nothing they could do until the balance was paid. They said that this unknown person had written a bad check. She suggested that I take the phone back and get a new one. Only problem is that I'm likely outside of Target's return window.

I tried again with Tmobile customer service, explained everything, they said "I know it sounds unfair, but try buying a new sim card." I said: "why don't you buy me a sim card?" They then gave me a fax (?!) number that I could send a complaint to.

So, bottom line: I'm stuck with a 70 dollar phone that doesn't work, and can't seem to talk to anyone at Tmobile who can do anything about it. My guess is that someone who previously owned this phone wrote a bad check, and now I'm stuck with the bill.

Is it even worth trying to get Tmobile to send me a new phone, or should I just accept the fact that I'm out 70 bucks?

 

thanks for the suggestion. i'd rather that they buy me a new sim card since they left me with a useless phone, but i guess it's not worth my time an effort. again, appreciate the help.