The following report has nothing to do with art, film, or copyright, or anything else I care about. I’m just publishing it on my blog because there’s not much else I can do about it.
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Last month T-Mobile charged me about $280 over my rate plan. When I called, the Customer Service Representative (CSR) said I should have used the web site to check my minutes. There was nothing they could do now, she said.
So paid the $369.11 bill, then went to the web site and changed my plan. Last week I got a bill with $105 in extra fees. I called today, explained I’d changed my plan after talking to the CSR, and could they resolve the excess charges. No, they said, because I should have changed it by phone. I shouldn’t have used the web site. Didn’t I see the little notice on the web site saying changes wouldn’t go into effect for another month? I told them the CSR didn’t tell me I’d be penalized for using the web site. There was nothing they could do now, they said.
I asked to speak to my CSR’s supervisor. “Guy” confirmed the records showed I had indeed changed my plan online shortly after speaking with a CSR. After much pleading on my part, told me he’d split the $105 with me. I asked to speak to his boss. “If you do, I can’t guarantee my offer.”
His boss informed me there was nothing he could do, there was no way to resolve the charges, I was responsible for them because I’d changed my plan online, and I should be responsible. He said the online service was for my convenience. I said a $105 charge wasn’t convenient. He reminded me that I could have gotten $52.50 in credit had I only accepted Guy’s offer, but now there was nothing he could do.
A CSR the previous month told me to use the web site, that my huge bill was the result of my failure to use the web site. The CSRs this month told me my huge bill was the result of my using the same web site.
T-Mobile seems to find any reason to overcharge, and no recourse for resolving problems, even when a customer genuinely wants to, and clearly makes efforts to do so. They really seem to want customers to be unable to change their plans, so they can keep charging for extra minutes. I did what they said, and they still overcharged me, blaming me for using the same web service they blamed me for not using the previous month.
There’s nothing they can do, their hands are tied, they’re helpless to help me (except Guy was briefly given miraculous powers to offer me $52.50 for a few minutes, but these powers were just as mysteriously lost when I spoke with his superior). I sure know what helpless feels like – I’ve been overbilled $375 now, after doing what the CSRs told me to do.
All I can do now is write about it.
I got off only slightly better than you. http://murmursofearth.blogspot.com/2007/05/t-mobile-ballade.html
Also, there’s this: http://consumerist.com/5215075/take-your-tmobile-complaints-to-the-tippity+top
and this: http://www.dps.state.ny.us/New_complaintdept.html
and this: http://www.complaints.com/
Hey Nina,
I’ve had good luck bypassing the ground level CSR’s at cell companies and talking to executive customer service before.
Here’s two posts at Consumerist that might help you out, it’s got contact info for their upper level executive csrs;
http://consumerist.com/5215075/take-your-tmobile-complaints-to-the-tippity+top
http://consumerist.com/5012310/updated-reach-t+mobile-executive-customer-service
Four years ago T-mobile sent us a letter (on paper delivered by Post Office) telling us we were paying too much given the amount of monthly service we actually used and if we prefer I could pay less under another plan, and would I like to make this change? D’uh, yes. And have I switched carriers for any reason since then? D’uh, no. Ah, back in the day when T-Mobile understood that they had a high reputation for customer service.
I hereby promise never to use T-Mobile.
See if you can start up a FB page “One Million People Who Won’t Use T-Mobile Until It Refunds The $375 It Owes Nina Paley.”
I HATE cell phones..never had one ,never will..they are just evil minions doing what they can to gouge the consumer out of every nickle and dime they can , for as long as they can…PENALTIES for taking to a SUPERVISOR..MAN I’d be so fucking fast on that guys neck about getting my credit…what a waste of your precious time…
I’d join any ‘HATE T-Mobil and all the rest” Page you had…LOL
arggg….
whenever I walk thru the mall and some ass wipe says..”OH HEY how bout a new cell phone?” I just start laughing like a maniac and pointing at them an say…”Why don’t I just fricking THROW a bunch of money down the toilet right now for crappy treatment!? Can you tell I’m pissed for you?
It would appear that T-mobile is being particularly cold on this occasion; from my experience, mobile companies will (after some prodding) move you to the higher rate plan and apply it retroactively if you ask in the first instance.
Problems like this are just another reason why I avoid mobile contracts like the plague.
The other thing you should probably do is send a letter to your congressperson. They get scads of money from telcos, and probably they don’t get nearly as much correspondence from their constituents bitching. It might be nice if the ratio were reversed.
There might be something like a Public Utilities Board that you could complain to as well.
T-Mobile did the same thing to me a few years ago when I had them as my pre-paid cellphone company. The kicker was that they charged me for using my phone ‘out of the service area’, which happened to be 20 minutes from my home, where I was in the service area. Apparently at Rochester, NY, there are some spots that qualify as Canada or something.
Not to push another cell company on you, but I have had nothing but good dealings with Cingular/ATT. One month, a CSR called me to inform me that I’d gone over my texting plan by $45, and if I changed my plan by Wednesday, the charges would be erased. They followed through on that. No problems until a year later when I added a cell phone to my plan. I was under the impression that I had unlimited texting for both phones, but unfortunately the CSR who set that up had made a mistake. They fixed everything, credited the $102.63 to my bill, and also gave me a $15.00 credit for the inconvenience. I haven’t had any problems since then.
At least t-mobile (presumably) knows the difference between $.02 and $.0002 …
Send your complaint, exactly as written, to Consumerist — it’s just the sort of thing that runs and gets a lot of attention there. And also, search that site for advice on escalating your issue with T-Mob management.
Corporations behave this way on purpose. They deliberately mislead and commit fraud to pump their profits. I have a friend who was at a manager’s meeting of the company he works for. At the meeting, the managers decided that if there is a warranty claim against one of their products, they would not respond to the initial inquiry, which was usually by letter. They would only respond to the second inquiry, and then only if the inquiry was submitted by phone. They reasoned that the average person would only have the time to submit one inquiry and would then forget to follow up on that one when it was ignored. That way, the company could save money by not honoring most of the warranty claims made against it. Result: They do save lots of money, while their customers get to enjoy bleeding hemorrhoids.
With our thoroughly corrupt political and economic system, all the power is in the hands of the capitalists, and we can only request small, fleeting, inadequate, largely symbolic amounts of “mercy” from them when they abuse us.
yesterday i went to t-mobile and they seid i get 40:00 off a phone. so i called them to see when i can get my phone and they seid in 2 years. what the heck are they thinking i want my phone now!!!!!!!
Easy solution rests in the power of the consumer. Walk out the door and go somewhere else. Don’t like the waitress, walk out the door and go somewhere else. Salesperson eat a pound of crabby cakes? Walk out the door and go somewhere else? If enough people leave and take their money elsewhere, the company will change or go broke. The consumer bringing in the cash is the lifeblood of any retail business. If a company hemorrhages enough, they’ll figure it out. Continuing to patronizing a place of business that pisses you off doesn’t do a thing to the business, in fact it still helps them. All it serves to do is cause you to suffer. If T-Crapple isn’t serving you well, go to ATT or Verizon.
Corporations want comsumers to feel some sort of brand loyalty. Be loyal to the team. Loyal to the family. Loyal to your favorite whatsit. Good for them, bad for people who feel loyalty viscerally. Corporations will renig on promises as soon as they become inconvenient.
Don’t get mad at T-Crapple. They aren’t worth the heartburn. Leave. That’s something they will notice. You don’t want to do nothing because you feel you can’t do everything. You may feel that one person leaving isn’t going to change anything. Maybe true, but if the million other people hosed by these guys go somewhere else, that would leave a mark.
BTW – calls are recorded. Say on the phone, “I’m leaving because the customer service sucks and I’m going to Sprint.” People hear that and reports of those sorts of things filter their way to the right sociopaths- er – managers. The bigger the aggregate that makes its way there, the bigger the impact.
About the ETF. T-Crapple settled on a class action suit regarding the unfair practices of the early termination fee. They’ve even changed their policy regarding amount due for an ETF. Google it and see if it helps you out.
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disgruntled
I had a similar problem with T Mobile several years ago. Although we were in official “dispute” they shut down my phone, which is illegal.
Fortunately, I had an unlocked cell phone so it didn’t make that much of an impact. But it made me so angry I pursued the matter with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
It took a long time to get a response (even with exhaustive documentation), but once the FCC was involved T Mobile was very eager to make amends.
The take aways:
1/ Always get an unlocked phone.
2/ File a complaint with good documentation with the FCC.
Tmobile is a german enterprise, being born out of the former state sponsored telecom monopolist. believe me, everybody in germany hates that company. everybody. water head burocracy, bad service, overcharging, unfair treatment.
since the telecommunication system got opened up for competition, everybody who can tries to get away from them. I suggest you do the same. get away!
best
alex
wow cheers for this just posting on my twitter now.
Hi Nina,
Sorry to hear about your troubles with Tmobile. Personally, I’d get rid of all my phone services and just use Skype. That’s what I do. I put $10 dollars on my credit card for a month of service and that’s all I pay. It’s like a cent and 1/2 per minute. It’s great! If you call someone Skype to Skype, there’s no charge at all. Of coarse you can only talk over your computer on Skype, but to me it’s worth it. I don’t need to be in touch with or be on call 24 hrs a day, plus I don’t need a phone company fleecing me either.
Check out Skype.
Sincerely,
Patrick
Everyone, it seems, hates their cellphone carrier (some more than others, however — AT&T seems a particular target of hatred). And they usually have reason to, because they’re being overcharged for services that would be cheaper if there were true competition in the market. But there isn’t.
I think that the carriers are going to fight tooth-and-nail, but they’re eventually going to be just mobile internet providers. No one is going to continue to use them for voice because Google and Skype and VoIP providers will do the job at a far lower cost. The carriers’ margins are going to be squeezed further. The iPhone has ushered in this era because it’s so data-centric, and push technology already makes instant notifications possible for any program, not just for the carrier’s voicemail.
fucc tmobile
I hate T Mobile as well. Word to the wise – when you switch from a contract to a non-contract plan you will immediately lose any phone upgrade that is coming to you – so I just learned after the fact.
Two months ago I was at the T-Mobile store about my son’s line and they told me my line had a free phone upgrade. I’ve been a customer for years with a contract. I said thanks for the info – I will upgrade soon.
Yesterday, because aforementioned son ran over our family plan minutes, I switched to a new plan with more minutes, a non-contract plan. Today I called to make sure I still had my phone upgrade available, and T-Mobile said it was gone.
No one ever told me when I was converting to a non-contract plan that I would lose my phone upgrade. If they had, I would have gone to the T-Mobile store, gotten my new phone, and THEN switched. I spoke to a several reps including the Customer Loyalty Specialist (what a joke) and got nowhere.
The Customer Loyalty Specialist actually told me that of course I could get an upgrade on the new no contract plan. It just worked a little differently on the non-contract plan. I now could buy a phone for example for $400, and T-Mobile would allow me to pay it off monthly at $20. So my free phone upgrade is gone – and now I’m paying $20 per month for a new phone on the new plan. I was speechless when he “explained” this to me. Does he think I’m a moron? The comparison is still free phone versus $400 phone.
The CSRs are like robots. They “understand” the situation but do nothing to rectify the situation. They try to explain to you why you shouldn’t be frustrated. “Oh of course we’re screwing you over, but you shouldn’t really mind because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
I will be switching to another carrier.
well as an investigator trainee i suggest we all join in on a class action suit you can call them and nothing gets resolved so if your interested in stopping these phone companies from doing this we all join together and let the courts handle it
I too have had problems over the course of seven years with this company. I like April’s input about “letting the courts handle it”. I am drained by the number of times I have to call and figure out there job for them. I’m tired of paying a stinking corporate that much each year for crappy service and products. And to keep paying full price during their network failures is just wrong!!!
I also got a kick out of there so-called Customer Loyalty Specialist. What a joke!
I’m ready to stand up against them all. Let’s join forces.
That totally sucks, hope it never happens to me. Up until a moment there I was liking T-Mobile.
Hope things work in your favor, sooner or later.
About four years ago, my employer required me to get a cell phone. I got a T-Mobile phone. Now, after losing my job and being forced to move across the nation (to an area with crappy T-Mobile service) to go back to school, I cancelled my service. So T-Mobile is hitting me with a $200 fee saying I’ve broken my contract. The fee is over a side agreement for T-Mobile @Home, for which I now pay $10 per month. I even offered to pay $10 per month for the remaining 8 months of the contract, but T-Mobile refused. So after I paid the company approximately $2,500 over four years, it’s willing to throw away my loyalty over a few dollars. T-Mobile will never get another dollar from me. And I’ll tell everyone I know that T-Mobile is a terrible company to deal with.
Last year I got a new phone for my Dad. My Dad, particularly did not like the phone that I had originally selected because he did not particulary like using the phone and he did not like the Nokia slider phone. I called T-Mobile to get another phone without upgrading my contract for another year or two. T-Mobile representative that I spoke with assured me that I could do a monthly payment plan for this phone without upgrading this phone. I agreed and she informed me that this would not affect my contract. Fast forwarding to January 2010, I called T-mobile to inquire about the Pay As you Go Plan, because I knew my contract was ending this year and I wanted to know what date my contract would actually end. The T-Mobile representative said that on the phone that I use, my contract would end March of this year and the phone that I got for my Dad would end next April. I was livid because the T-Mobile representative that I spoke with last year, assured me that my contract would not be extended if I paid for this phone in installments. I spoke with the contract’s department at T-Mobile and they also informed me that my Dad’s phone is still under contract for another year. I am really thinking about cancelling my contract with T-Mobile and going somewhere else. I really do not want to pay the cancellation fees? I need help with this issue.
T-Mobile are horrible. They will trick you into signing contracts and if you return into the store the manager will treating you like a beggar and throw you out of the store (or at least try to). This is true of the branch at 110 Oxford Street where the manager and staff are of the same ethnic origin and speak in their own language, no doubt plotting against customers who have the nerve to complain when they have been overcharged or flogged an illegal contract.
T-Mobile are a bunch of crooks. Never walk into the branch at 110 Oxford Street London, W1. It is run by a bunch of thugs from the same ethnic group, who discuss in their own language and flog people lousy contracts. If you then return the Deputy Manager (Harms) will through you out of the store for complaining in an aggressive manner. They are a bunch of criminals.
T-mobile are the most unhelpful company I have ever come accross and I can’t wait until I’m out of contract with them. Remember, if a deal looks too good to be true, it most likely is, and you can be sure of it when it comes to T-mobile.
They broke my phone.
I hate T-mobile now and just cancelled my plan and smashed my phone, and I’m not going to pay them any money for closing my account with them they can eat it. Their (CRS) people are phoney and a bunch of liars! They are run by a machine that aparently makes the decisions around there. Boo T-mobile! sorry had to rant and came across your blog
thought i was the only with t mobile gripes
lets all get to voip (fring)
not too sure how it works and charges but seems brilliant in the reading i have done so far