Originally Posted by
udjau To Whom It May Concern (and to all readers, T-mobile Customers and those contemplating the option):
I have been a customer of T-Mobile for over two years and so is my wife. While we thought that T-mobile was one of the best wireless providers, I may confess I have been disappointed with "sloppy" work of some of the customer representatives in the last three months.
It all started sometimes in Mid-June when I called T-mobile customer service to inquiry about a possible change of plan. I was interested in so-called FAMILY PLAN PLUS and after speaking to the REP., I was advised that before anything is done, I should go to a local T-mobile store to fill out a "change of responsibility" form. When I discussed the plan with my wife, we realized it did not worth making the move at that moment due to the costs and the inconvenience of minute-sharing. I took no further step and I thought it would not affect me in any case.
A Month later, I was shocked to learn that I was billed an amount of $374.72. This bill was due by 7/20/04. I called the T-mobile Customer Service on 07/09/2004 and I was told that the reason for that amount was because I had used up my minutes resulting from having changed my plan from 600 minutes to 60 minutes. I told the rep. that under no circumstance I had ever requested to be switched from 600 minutes to 60 minutes; therefore, I must not be billed based on this. After investigating what had occurred, I was credited $186.36 and $143.00 at the very same moment. As a result, I paid the remaining amount of $44.57, hoping that the problem was definitely solved.
Surprisingly, in mid-August, I received another bill in the amount of $253.63, which was supposed to be due by 8/22/04. Once again, I called the Customer Service on 8/13/04 and had to explain everything from the beginning and the Rep. gave me a credit of $210.00 because as it appears (according to his assessment), T-mobile was billing me based on 60-minute-plan, instead of 600 minutes. Again, after having been guaranteed that I was given a credit of $210.00, I went ahead and paid the balance: $43.63.
However, on 8/23/04 I got a text message stating "Your T-mobile bill is past due. To avoid service interruption, please make a payment by dialing...and so on." After receiving this message, I called T-mobile Customer Service (8/23/04 around 12:40 p.m.) and spoke to a Rep. by the name of Arnold. I explained to him the reason why I think T-mobile was over-charging me. After almost one hour on the phone and final conclusion, I ended up requesting to speak to a Supervisor. He, identifying himself as Sandrea, went through the whole thing and finally understood the reason for the mistakes saying that "because of the billing cycle split, T-mobile did not make proper adjustments; implying that I was only credited a half of what I should have been on 07/09/2004..." He apologized to me and said that they were going to credit my account. Because I had been on the phone for so long (over 50 minutes), the Supervisor told me that they would be calling me back to confirm that the adjustments have been made. That was about 12:50 p.m. on 08/23/04.
Four hours later without receiving a phone call, once again I called them and I spoke to a rep. by the name of Joan. After the usual ritual of explaining everything from the scratch, she told me that neither Arnold nor Sandrea had left any notes in the account when I spoke to them earlier, despite the promise that they would be taking care of the problem. Unsure about what to do, Joan spoke to another Supervisor who came to a different conclusion. In her words, the supervisor said that "because there had been 2 credits given to this account, no more credits will be given." Why shouldn't they give more credits if it's pertaining to the same problem, which they agreed in rectifying at first place on 07/09/2004?
Confusing enough, I ask: isn't clear that changing my plan from 600 minutes to 60 minutes was a mistake acknowledged by the T-mobile? Should not that be enough for them to take care of the related-issues despite the claims that I had been credited twice? In three instances (07/09/04 and 8/13/04 and 8/23/04---1p.m. conversation, I was told that T-mobile would be crediting my account, but over-ruled later by other reps. Why is that so-much disparity among your reps? Why aren't they leaving notes on my account file? All the reps were able to confirm my phone calls and inquiries, but no notes about any actions taken were left on the file.
I am inclined to believe that had the reps I spoke to on 07/09/04 and 8/13/04 in addition to Arnold and Sandrea (08/23/2004)left notes about their conclusion (stating on the phone that they found the problem; consequently apologized and promised to credit my account), this matter would have been solved by now.
I urge T-mobile to solve this matter as soon as possible. I remind that in addition to stress that this has created, I have spent hours and hours of my time calling there and reaching no end. I want to stay with T-mobile, but any further confusion would force me to change phone provider. Instead of one, T-mobile would be losing two good customers---my wife and I. In addition, I will be forced to seek compensations through a court of law because of all the anomalies, inconsistencies and time constraints that this situation has caused me in the past three months.
Furthermore, I have been threatened by your reps that T-mobile's decision is final and the customer, ME, would be the one paying the final price, since the account will be referred to a collection agency, which at the end would be reported to the credit reporting agencies. If T-mobile (as it often claims) records its phone conversation with customers, please review your data and find out whether I have ever authorized the company to switch me from Plan A to Plan B. It just doesn't fly for someone like me (not struggling financially and with no obvious reasons) to change to a plan with no apparent benefits. If T-mobile can take time to review my account history, it will find out that my average minutes usage doesn't justify reducing my minutes from 600 to 60.
However, knowing that I have just renewed both my account and my wife's account for another year, T-mobile knows that it doesn't have anything to lose since I would have to pay early termination fee if I had to discontinue my service. So, there is a reason why they don't care at this point which way I would choose to go. They believe that if I refuse to pay the account, they will send it to a collection agency and if I choose to discontinue my service, I would have to pay about $200 for breaking the contract. Isn't this what common people call "the catch twenty two?"
Thus, it seems apparent that T-mobile has this planned so well and no matter what, they're on the winning side. But, here's my promise: I won't go down easily as you predict. I have filed complaints with every single possible consumer agency, including FCC. And expect more to come unless T-mobile is still interested in resolving this matter by acknowledging its mistake and rectifying the problem.
Sincerely,
Umaro Djau
Creditare Eficientă
in Chit Chat