Where to start? Well...in my opinion and with our experiences, T-Mobile is the most unscrupulously run operation I've ever encountered.
We have four phones under a shared 1600 minute plan with them. One of the phones has a monthly $14.99 surcharge for unlimited text and instant messaging. Our December 2005 bill came in an 8 1/2x11' envelope, was hundreds of pages in length and was a whopping total of $1086. What?!?
They had charged $0.35 as used minutes for every single text/instant message on that phone. On top of that, because each message was charged as a minute-they chewed through the 1600 minutes and charged all phones for minutes over the 1600 limit. The 1600 minutes were 'used up' by messages that were charged as minutes.
It took several weeks, calls and emails to at least six different T-Mobile customer support 'specialists' and their business care email address to get the problem resolved. Each call ended in the following. 'We are going to give this to our offline billing department...we'll get back to you within one week.' Finally we got the fictitious charges cancelled from the bill. But they never reversed the charges for overbilling us for the minute overage. They dropped the messaging charges, but NOT the charges for the over 1600 minutes that the fictitious message minutes. Worse, repeated instances occurred where the same 'minute' was charged for multiple times--because some messages were sent/received within that same minute (!). They never dropped these charges.
January's bill comes--and they have done the same thing again, with the same phone, with the same outcome--a bill of over $966. Again with the
repeated phone calls to at least a half a dozen customer support specialists, the repeated run around, repeated, wasted time.
Finally, again, after endless phone calls and stalling, we get the bill credited for the fictitious charges. They still did not drop the fictitious charges for the minute overages triggered by the fictitious minute/message charge. They rolled December's charges for this over to January's billing.
February's bill comes--and they have done the same thing AGAIN, with the SAME phone AGAIN, with the SAME outcome AGAIN--a bill of over $684. All the same billing for the various fictitious charges from December and January showed up.
We haven't started round three, but I am now convinced that our only recourse is through whistle blowing and legal action in small claims court
or through binding arbitration. After three months of this, our conclusion is that they will continue to deal in bad faith on this matter--now and in the future.
Having scoured the terms and conditions agreement, it is clear to me that the only way to get billing disputes logged them and potentially resolved
is in writing to the address listed in section 2 of the Terms and Conditions. Write about any illegitimate or fictitious charges on your
bill to this address:
Customer Relations
P.O. Box 37380
Albuquerque, NM 87176-7380
You should understand that you can also take T-Mobile to small claims court for any illegitimate or fictitious charges. This may be your only
protection since they may unilaterally decide to hand your bill over to a collection agency for a new set of hounds to ruin your life.
In our case, they have dealt with us in 'bad faith' at every turn. If (when) you are unable to get a result from their customer relations, you
must 'serve' T-Mobile by sending all paperwork and a description of your complaint to this address:
Corporation Services Company
1010 SE Union Ave. SE
Olympia, WA 98501
Then you can contact the--American Arbitration Association for a disposition. Their phone number and web site are: 800-778-7879 www.adr.org
We are not deadbeats or bill dodging non-payers. We have credit scores of of 900/930, 805/850 and 800/825 from the three credit rating services. We have become gravely concerned that T-Mobile will file a fraudulent, negative report against our record with the big-three credit bureaus if we refuse to pay these fictitious charges. That would negatively affect us for years. There seems to be no recourse and no end to them continuing to
levy fictitious charges, abusively bill and continue and repeated deal in bad faith.
This has been a nightmare for months now.
Our contract with T-Mobile ends on March 29, 2006-Independence day, Bastille Day or whatever you want to call it. After that date, we will cancel service and begin legal proceedings against T-Mobile for fictitious charges and abusive billing practices. We are left with no other choice.
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