T-Mobile assured me that their engineers would be resolving the issue – which did not happen. So after 4-5 days for messing around with these phones, not having internet because of the poor phone reception, I finally broke down and canceled with T-Mobile, returned their phone, and had to go back to Verizon and Xfinity.
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-Unlocked-A515F-International/dp/B083LDCQG6