T-Mobile is Evil. What's the best move here?

[Grisgra]

My gf talked a friend of hers into signing up for T-Mobile, as she was told through a rep that through some sort of Verizon-like "friends and family" promotion, they'd be able to talk for free.

Nuh-uh. Apparently that's a DIFFERENT package than the one she was told she needed to sign up for. And so she's stuck with a $300 bill, and she can't even cancel easily as she's got a few months left on her 1-year contract.

She tried explaining this to customer service -- it goes without saying that they were assholes. She asked to talk to the rep's supervisor . . . he sounded like he was about 12 years old. And as I now surf the web looking for other complaints about T-Mobile, I see there are a bunch (e.g., check out t-mobile-sucks.ws). This is not an isolated incident.

So what's the best move here? Just not pay the bill, change carriers, not pay the cancellation fee, and . . . ? There has to be some way to challenge these charges outside of T-Mobile, correct? We don't mind getting into a minor legal hassle here against these dumbfucks if need be.

Or are we just plain screwed?

PS At the very least, I'll gain some comfort in knowing that perhaps with this post I'll convince at least a handful of people never to sign up with these bastards. Amazing I'd never heard about how bad these guys are at customer service.

[TheCroShow]

if you refuse to pay your bill, it will go into a collections dept and your credit rating will get proper [censored]. you may have to take an early termination fee on the chin unfortunately.

sux man, you should sign up for cingular. the allover network, call any cingular customer and it's free should you get one of the unlimited mobile to mobile plans.

[Shajen]

check out the contract she signed.

It's all laid out there. I would imagine there is no way you are winning this.

You might get the bill dropped down some, but if the plan doesn't state the friends and family thing, then she's screwed.

[BoogerFace]

[ QUOTE ]

Or are we just plain screwed?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you're screwed. Not paying the bill probably will mess up your credit rating. /images/graemlins/mad.gif

[Grisgra]

[ QUOTE ]
if you refuse to pay your bill, it will go into a collections dept and your credit rating will get proper [censored]. you may have to take an early termination fee on the chin unfortunately.

sux man, you should sign up for cingular. the allover network, call any cingular customer and it's free should you get one of the unlimited mobile to mobile plans.

[/ QUOTE ]

But certainly it's got to be possible to contest bills. If I tell you that you owe me $500 for something, and you say "Well, that's only because you promised me X, and you didn't deliver", seems that if I tell a collection agency that you owe me $500 there's got to be actions you can take to fight it short of spending thousands of bucks on a lawyer or whatnot.

[TheCroShow]

[ QUOTE ]
But certainly it's got to be possible to contest bills. If I tell you that you owe me $500 for something, and you say "Well, that's only because you promised me X, and you didn't deliver", seems that if I tell a collection agency that you owe me $500 there's got to be actions you can take to fight it short of spending thousands of bucks on a lawyer or whatnot.

[/ QUOTE ]

if there is a contract that was signed/approved/agreed upon, you are [censored] out of luck man. it sucks, cellular companies are vampires man, what is t-mobiles early termination fee? somewhere around 150? 200?

[BusterStacks]

Don't get Verizon. Oddly enough I am jumping ship to t-mobile in December. You can't beat 3000 anytime minutes.

[TheCroShow]

yes you can beat 3000 anytime minutes, how many people use that many anyway? lol

[manpower]

I wouldn't say you're absolutely SOL, but you may be close. Try talking to the consumer protection agency. Also, if the representative misled her during the selling of the contract, then it probably makes the contract null and void in the eyes of the law. In which case you'll probably need a lawyer to exercise your rights.

[David04]

Quick hijack:
I just got the bill for my T-Mobile service. The bill states that I sent almost 800 text messages and recieved 1,400. So now I am stuck paying $100 extra for messages I did not send(I sent some messages, but certainly did not send or recieve as many as 2,200(you have to pay for both sent and recieved messages))

So yeah, [censored] T-Mobile.

[daryn]

i use t-mobile. never a problem baby! service EVERYWHERE. never drop calls, don't pay too much. never go over my minutes.. i don't get it!

then after some thinking you figure it out. there's always someone somewhere who has a problem with EVERY phone carrier. i have heard everything under the sun: tmobile sucks, verizon sucks, whatever you do don't get cingular! i've heard it all.

same with cars, ford sucks, don't buy jeep, etc. it's all BS. someone buys a sony camera and it breaks, then they are like, DON'T EVER BUY SONY.

blah

[TheCroShow]

that's a good point, i'm a little biased. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[WDC]

Conciliation court. In most states corporations have to hire an attorney to appear but individuals cannot. Usually it costs more to pay the attorney than to fight about the bill. It costs in most cases less than $50 to file in concilliation court. Have your sister file a suit; serve it on T-Mobile with a letter that states if they forgive the bill and cancel her subscription she will dismiss the suit.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. YOU ARE NOT MY CLIENT AND I AM NOT YOUR ATTORNEY.

[Bulldog]

[ QUOTE ]
check out the contract she signed.

It's all laid out there. I would imagine there is no way you are winning this.

You might get the bill dropped down some, but if the plan doesn't state the friends and family thing, then she's screwed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Contact the Better Business Bureau and tell them you feel like you got bait-and-switched (offered one thing, sold something else).

[FouTight]

[ QUOTE ]

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. YOU ARE NOT MY CLIENT AND I AM NOT YOUR ATTORNEY.

[/ QUOTE ]

disclaimer or not, this is clearly legal advice...

Daryn makes a point which cannot be stressed enough. It's human nature to complain more then praise, everything has had someone that has had a bad experience.

I think for the OP, the best bet is to call and stay on the phone and keep asking for higher ups, not throwing a fit, but desribing hte situation in detail with them. I work at a utility, we quickly dismiss customer complains of the irrate nature, but I already refunded someone money on their bill today because they simply asked.

Flys, honey, etc.

[Grisgra]

[ QUOTE ]
then after some thinking you figure it out. there's always someone somewhere who has a problem with EVERY phone carrier.

[/ QUOTE ]

No doubt, but T-Mobile has a lot more problems than someone like, say, Verizon.

http://www.mobilevillage.com/news/2005.04.01/complaints.htm

AT&T performed the worst, but it seems as though most of it's complaints were due to phone number portability. Guessing most of the T-Mobile complaints were of the "Goddamn they are assholes" variety.

Can anyone find a site equivalent to T-mobile-sucks.ws for other carriers?

[Grisgra]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't get Verizon. Oddly enough I am jumping ship to t-mobile in December. You can't beat 3000 anytime minutes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't say you weren't warned.

[Grisgra]

There's probably a contract somewhere, but I doubt it mentions the specific plan she's on. ? I'll check.

[NorCalJosh]

1) get the contract. she signed it, and i guarantee you that it tells you everything thats included in her plan. if it doesnt include unlimited tmobile to tmobile minutes, then she should have read better.

2) not paying it, not paying the cancellation fee... stupidest thing i've ever heard. why is it that people view cell phone companies so differently from anyone else that provides them service? its retarded. you used a service. you agreed to pay overage charges if you went over the service offered to you. YOU [censored] USED IT, NOW YOU [censored] PAY.


...

anyway. thats just me venting about all the idiots who come into the store and yell at my reps day after day because they think the world [censored] owes them something.

[Grisgra]

[ QUOTE ]
1) get the contract. she signed it, and i guarantee you that it tells you everything thats included in her plan. if it doesnt include unlimited tmobile to tmobile minutes, then she should have read better.

2) not paying it, not paying the cancellation fee... stupidest thing i've ever heard. why is it that people view cell phone companies so differently from anyone else that provides them service? its retarded. you used a service. you agreed to pay overage charges if you went over the service offered to you. YOU [censored] USED IT, NOW YOU [censored] PAY.


...

anyway. thats just me venting about all the idiots who come into the store and yell at my reps day after day because they think the world [censored] owes them something.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can't imagine why people would yell at your reps, you're obviously not a complete douchebag. Obviously.

If the T-mobile rep told her that he was putting her on a plan that allowed her free calls with another T-Mobile user, and [censored] up, they need to own up and erase the charges. This was the ENTIRE POINT of getting her friend to switch over to T-Mobile. It's not as though this was an afterthought, "Oh, gee, I kinda thought we could talk for free". This was the motherfucking plan from day 1.

[Matt Flynn]

Pay it or take them to small claims court. You wouldn't use a lawyer in either case.

[Grisgra]

[ QUOTE ]
Pay it or take them to small claims court. You wouldn't use a lawyer in either case.

[/ QUOTE ]

Question about small claims -- do we have to pay first, and then sue them for the money, or can we bring a suit against the charges in small claims?

[NorCalJosh]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
1) get the contract. she signed it, and i guarantee you that it tells you everything thats included in her plan. if it doesnt include unlimited tmobile to tmobile minutes, then she should have read better.

2) not paying it, not paying the cancellation fee... stupidest thing i've ever heard. why is it that people view cell phone companies so differently from anyone else that provides them service? its retarded. you used a service. you agreed to pay overage charges if you went over the service offered to you. YOU [censored] USED IT, NOW YOU [censored] PAY.


...

anyway. thats just me venting about all the idiots who come into the store and yell at my reps day after day because they think the world [censored] owes them something.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can't imagine why people would yell at your reps, you're obviously not a complete douchebag. Obviously.

If the T-mobile rep told her that he was putting her on a plan that allowed her free calls with another T-Mobile user, and [censored] up, they need to own up and erase the charges. This was the ENTIRE POINT of getting her friend to switch over to T-Mobile. It's not as though this was an afterthought, "Oh, gee, I kinda thought we could talk for free". This was the motherfucking plan from day 1.

[/ QUOTE ]


lets see... so i make a general complaint about idiotic people who think that for some reason, they don't have to pay for services that they've been provided... and that makes me a complete douchebag? thats confusing. i missed that part.

i wasnt speaking specifically about anyone in your situation, except when i said she should have read better. and she SHOULD have. if the contract does not state that she has free calling between her and her friend, and she signed it, she is out of luck. theres just nothing that can be done about it. yes, if the rep screwed up, that sucks. but if she had carefully read the contract before signing it, chances are she would have caught the reps mistake before she signed a contract stating that she would pay for something else entirely. so put it 70/30 on the rep vs her, but unfortunately, the rep is the one with a signed contract, and its her credit score that goes in the shitter if she decides not to pay a bill she's incurred. pay the bill, get out when the year is up, and chalk it up under life experiences that cost more money than you wish they had.

sincerely,
the complete douchebag

[[censored]]

If you choose not the pay the bill here is what you do when it goes to collections. When they make first contact, you have something like 30 days to contest the debt. Do so. Then explain to the agency why you are doing so. At that time offer a settlement by the paying the amount you believe to be fair. Chances are they will accept and it's done.

[Stacheman]

[ QUOTE ]
If you choose not the pay the bill here is what you do when it goes to collections. When they make first contact, you have something like 30 days to contest the debt. Do so. Then explain to the agency why you are doing so. At that time offer a settlement by the paying the amount you believe to be fair. Chances are they will accept and it's done.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is probably a bad idea. As soon as a collection agency purchases the debt, they report it to the credit bureaus as a collection account. Even if the account is settled/paid, it will stay on the credit report for 7 years. Suffice it to say, collection accounts are bad for credit ratings.

[TheCroShow]

i would not risk going into collections. it's possible t-mobile has their own interior collections dept, but i would not risk going into collections.

like i said before, you may have to take the 150-200 early termination fee on the chin. it sucks, but if there is a contract, they probably threw a curveball in the contract.

[[censored]]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you choose not the pay the bill here is what you do when it goes to collections. When they make first contact, you have something like 30 days to contest the debt. Do so. Then explain to the agency why you are doing so. At that time offer a settlement by the paying the amount you believe to be fair. Chances are they will accept and it's done.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is probably a bad idea. As soon as a collection agency purchases the debt, they report it to the credit bureaus as a collection account. Even if the account is settled/paid, it will stay on the credit report for 7 years. Suffice it to say, collection accounts are bad for credit ratings.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm advocating letting it go to collections, just providing a plan if it does.