05/26/11
T-Mobile Customer Relations
P. O. Box 37380
Albuquerque, NM 87176-7380
RE: Order# 1112330967
To Whom It May Concern:
I am a licensed clinical social worker and assist disabled and brain injured clients to manage their affairs. T-Mobile has engaged in fraud and my repeated attempts to rectify this have been fruitless. On April 28th, 2011, I phoned T-Mobile (800-866-2453) to order a Galaxy Tablet for a client of mine. . I spoke to “Matt”, who told me that I would not be able to speak with him again if needed to call back. He and I discussed the fact that my client had little income and needed an inexpensive monthly payment plan. “Matt” told me that I could now purchase a $49.95/mth plan, but “convert it” to a 2G, $19.99/mth plan upon product arrival; he said this offer was not currently available online and he was unable to enroll her in it directly. I asked for an email confirming the arranged purchase, but Matt said he was unable to respond with a confirmation email; I found this to be very strange, but ordered the tablet based solely on trust in the phone conversation. One of my professional colleagues also spoke to Matt during this same conversation and was told all the exact same things.
When we received the Tablet, I followed-up and phoned Customer Care (800-937-8997) to do the conversion. Customer Care told me that not only did no such plan ever exist, but they would only speak to my client; I explained that the client/customer was brain injured and that I was acting on her behalf. T-Mobile told me that the client could phone in herself and add my colleague and myself to her account so that we could continue to address this problem on her behalf. On May 9th, my client made this call and asked that our two names become part of the permanent record. The next call we made was to no avail. Now T-Mobile would not speak to me unless the client was present, in my office, to authorize the communication. Taking great lengths to transport this disabled client from her care facility to our offices, I then assisted her to call a supervisor, Chris, ID# R 2042908, Dept. of Web and Telesales (800-672-5390) to authorize my colleague and me as names on the account. He then placed us on hold and phoned Customer Care to confirm that our names were listed; this was positively confirmed. Chris would now take steps to have the tape of my original phone call pulled, in order to confirm or not that my allegations were accurate. He explained that I would not speak with him directly again, but would be called by someone who had reviewed the tape.
When I got to work on May 16th, a colleague of mine relayed a message from T-Mobile: After reviewing the tape, no statement had been made about converting to a $19.95/mth plan and none was available. My client could either cancel her account or receive a $35 one-time adjustment. I followed-up and called back myself, of course unable to speak to the person who had actually reviewed the tape; instead, I spoke to someone, “Jeff”, who could do no more than read the notes that had been left and attempt to explain them. Jeff, too, confirmed that the taped call did not reveal any statement by Matt about a $19.95/mth plan. As my colleague and I are certain of what we were both told in that original call, I asked to listen to the taped call myself. T-Mobile said that the only way I could have access to the tape would be with a subpoena. I asked what department was the next level above the one I was speaking with; Jeff said that it would be “Customer Relations”, but that I would need to speak to his supervisor prior to speaking to Customer Relations. Jeff said that “Mike”, the supervisor, was at lunch, but would return my call by tomorrow afternoon. It is now 10 days since speaking to Jeff and “Mike” must still be at lunch.
My colleague and I have spent many hours on this. We feel violated and defrauded. We have made countless calls to T-Mobile (not all of which were formally documented) and had to explain the same story time after time. Each person we spoke to said that there was never a $19.95/mth plan for my client to have switched to and that no one would have told us that there was. Each person we spoke to said that there would be no way that we could call back and speak to the same person again, even if we had a last name. Each person we spoke to told us we had to take this up with a different department. To say that we are "frustrated” would be like saying that the tsunami in Japan made people "uncomfortable”
Shame on you T-Mobile.
Do not send me a response which merely confirms that there is no such plan available. Please respect me and my efforts on behalf of my DISABLED client enough not to patronize us.
Laurie Tragen-Boykoff, LCSW
Case Management Coordinator
Foundation for Advocacy, Conservatorship and Trust, Inc.
Cc:
Federal Communications Commission
Senator Barbara Boxer
State Attorney General Office, CA
State Attorney General Office, N. M.
Federal Trade Commission/Bureau of Consumer Protection
California State Public Utility Commission
CA Dept. of Food and Agriculture
New Mexico Dept. of Agriculture
T-Mobile Legal Department
Phillip Humm, CEO and President, T-Mobile
Kelly Spindle, Executive Customer Relations Coordinator
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