FTC Accuses T-Mobile of Knowingly Charging Customers for Fraudulent Services

[artificemm]

Liars

I hate T-Mobile, I went on vacation to Austin in january, went to T-Mobile (The Verge) store to buy a data plan for an iPad and travel around with Google Maps. We were charged with a $30 plan and $5 for the SIM, we were never honored such plan, Corporate T-Mobile say some 3rd parties are tricky, the truth is I'll never try these guys again. Thiefs.

 

[rohitp]

A few years ago I had a couple of charges like this pop up on my kid's phone. Although it took me 2-3 months to catch it, TMo promptly issued credits and put a block on all our lines. They have been incredibly good to me over the years. When we were on limited minutes plan and exceeded the limit because of a medical emergency, they retroactively added bonus minutes to wipe out the charges. They have been consistently good over the years, at least for me. But hey, I'm not an ******* either and the few times I got frustrated, I escalated the call and clearly let the reps know that it was not personally directed at them. I believe a good attitude encourages the CSRs to do as much as possible for you.

And I save a ton with my loyalty discounts. 4 lines plus one tablet is about $85 on the 1GB monthly plan with unlimited minutes & text (int'l texts too!). And now most streaming music doesn't count against the data limits. They are awesome. My daughter is in Argentina and there are NO extra charges on her line at all.

The company is a game changer.

 

[laurim]

Are these charges stemming from someone typically clicking ok on something without reading the conditions or did they magically start charging people for daily horoscopes for literally no reason? We all know how people click ok to get something for free without reading the small print that says they are signing themselves up for some daily celebrity news text (texting charges may apply), etc. etc. If that's what happened, how is that T-Mobile's fault?

 

[Dgail]

$5.00 payment convenience charge by AT and T

So I went ahead and made the switch over to T-Mobile and AT and T saw that I was switching services and asked me why. When I replied that I had NO service in my work apartment, they replied that I was eligible for a microcell. I said thanks but no thanks. I promptly paid my balance off to the penny, I think through my bank's bill pay.

A month later they email me and I am told I am assessed a "convenience fee" for paying my bill on-line. I call and one of their reps tell me they will remove the charge.

Fast forward to 2 days ago, I receive another notice that they are "disconnecting" my wireless service because I had not paid the convenience fee and if I did not pay, this would negatively affect my credit. I called a second time, informed they I no longer have wireless service with them, this time received an email to the effect that this would be reversed, this time I have a reference number.

How many of you have ever heard of paying to pay, WT*???

 

[JackieInCo]

Never had this happen. T-Mobile still beats verizon and AT&T in my area here in Denver.

 

[Zxxv]

T-Mobiles office two years ago....

Ok I have this plan. We take 1 billion off of our customers *cough* without *cough* them realising by billing them for services they didn't ask for. When they complain we reimburse them.

a hand goes up

how is that a plan?

boss looks at this dinney as if he wants to fire the fool

dude we collect the interest on the billion and that pays our admin and gives us a tidy little profit. No ones the wiser. The customer shouts and moans but who cares we are on the beach drinks and babes. Screw the....

 

[HangmanSwingset]

T-SloMo. Doesn't surprise me.

Uhhh... Slow?

 

[Autosaver]

T-Mobile is the fastest and best choice for Metro areas. People don't realize that T-Mobile will win speed tests a majority of the time due to logic. If you have tons of customers in one area on Verizon, it will saturate the network. That's why my Verizon "4G LTE" is slower than 3G.

The issue with the "fraud" is that T-Mobile already outlined a plan last year where they would disable these services and refund anyone affected. You don't just get "randomly" subscribed to these services, you had to personally sign up for them. I think it's great T-Mobile is trying to cover their customers by refunding them.

 

[doctor-don]

I got a couple of those $10 charges on my ATT bill once. It was easy to spot and ATT was very quick in removing the charges. They also let me put a block on the account so scammers can't sign me up again.

In my experience, T-Mobile is sketchy. All service providers have their issues and you should be suspicious of one that says they don't.

ATT would not reverse or reduce the $25 charge for a 4-minutes call from a pay phone in Florida. They passed it on as though it were legitimate. I switched ASAP. I never will go back to ATT.

I've had T-mobile for my personal line for years now and have never experienced anything like this. That being said, if it is true....T-mobile would STILL be better than any other option in the US to me.

My only complaint with T-Mobile is the lack of coverage in some areas.

I've been with T-Mobile since their beginning, when they used to be called VoiceStream Wireless.
I have never had a billing issue related to this matter.

My carrier was also VoiceStream since 1997. No billing issues, either. The only complaint is that coverage is spotty in some areas. Maybe that will reverse if / when the Sprint merger / takeover goes through.

ATT did the same to me on my landline. It was supposed to be for 'tech services'. I had to call 3 months in a row and argue each month. "Are you sure you or someone else in your household didn't authorize this? ". BS. I've been in IT for 30 years. My son is a network expert and my husband is an engineer. I've been building computers for right at 30 years, developed software...between us we undoubtedly know more about computer hardware, software and networking than any 'tech service'.

I finally had to threaten to take my landline and mobile accounts elsewhere and threaten legal means to get the charges off. I then had to argue to get a block put on my numbers so it wouldn't happen again. "Well, if we do this you'll never be able to charge anything like this to your phone number again,". I've never charged a service to my phone number (or anything else for that matter) That's what my credit cards are for!! Like pulling teeth.

Watch your bills. They all do this because they get a cut of the pie.

$25 for a phone call from a Florida pay phone caused me to DROP ATT and switch to MCI. Then, in 6 years, MCI doubled the amount they were charging for their piddling service. (Had they wanted more customers, their monthly charge would have decreased, not increased. They just don't get it.) They are no longer my company, and I won't do business with their new owner, either - Verizon.

 

[MrXiro]

T-Mobile is still a douchebag carrier.

T-Mobile doesn't make it easy when switching from pre-paid to post-paid. They treat you like a new customer (as though switching from a different carrier) and make you purchase new SIM cards at $10 a pop. WTF?

Thank you, FTC!

That's why you order the 99 cent/or free SIM cards from Tmobile's website and activate them over the phone and even at At&t and the other carriers you have to switch SIMs from pre-pay to Post Pay it's because they are on different accounts.

Customer's aren't always right, especially if they can't grasp how the technology works.

SIMs can't be repurposed in any way and switching from Pre to Post pay is a whole new contract number that involves a credit check.

You're 100% wrong in your observation.

 

[joshdammit]

T-Mobile is still a douchebag carrier.

T-Mobile doesn't make it easy when switching from pre-paid to post-paid. They treat you like a new customer (as though switching from a different carrier) and make you purchase new SIM cards at $10 a pop. WTF?

Thank you, FTC!

That'll teach them to charge you $10 for a new SIM card!!!

 

[donnaw]

T-Mobile is the fastest and best choice for Metro areas. People don't realize that T-Mobile will win speed tests a majority of the time due to logic. If you have tons of customers in one area on Verizon, it will saturate the network. That's why my Verizon "4G LTE" is slower than 3G.

The issue with the "fraud" is that T-Mobile already outlined a plan last year where they would disable these services and refund anyone affected. You don't just get "randomly" subscribed to these services, you had to personally sign up for them. I think it's great T-Mobile is trying to cover their customers by refunding them.

Actually you can get "randomly" signed up. It was quite a scam a few years ago. The so-called service told your provider you signed up and your provider believed them. While not technically not the providers fault they did nothing to verify that the charge was legit. Mostly because they got a cut. The longer you didn't notice, well, win-win.

In my case, I most certainly did not click on anything, did not sign up for anything, never agreed to charge anything. And no, nobody in my household did either considering my husband was overseas in Iraq at the time and my son was grown and no longer even living at home. Plus I had paperless billing so I didn't get an itemized listing, just an email with the total. Luckily, I know my bill should have never been one cent over a certain amount. Even then I didn't catch it the first month because I was on vacation.

I don't think it's a issue these days but, yes, a few years ago it was pretty rampant. The 'service' who billed me was eventually shut down and investigated for fraud.

 

[doctor-don]

I hate T-Mobile, I went on vacation to Austin in january, went to T-Mobile (The Verge) store to buy a data plan for an iPad and travel around with Google Maps. We were charged with a $30 plan and $5 for the SIM, we were never honored such plan, Corporate T-Mobile say some 3rd parties are tricky, the truth is I'll never try these guys again. Thiefs.

You are complaining because you went to a store that is NOT a T-Mobile store?

 

[cmwade77]

All cell phone providers do this and refuse to do anything about it. We did have this happen with T-Mobile, but we added family allowances and said that we don't allow anyone to charge anything to the bill like this. Yes,it costs a little, but it also prevented some other issues that we had going on at the time as well.

T-Mobile would not provide the refunds directly though, instead referring us to the offending companies. This is the part that I think was wrong, T-Mobile should provide the refunds and then go after these fraudulent companies.

But over all T-Mobile has been good to us, I just don't agree with them that the FTC charges are without merit.

 

[31 Flavas]

T-Mobile is still a douchebag carrier.

T-Mobile doesn't make it easy when switching from pre-paid to post-paid. They treat you like a new customer (as though switching from a different carrier) and make you purchase new SIM cards at $10 a pop. WTF?

Thank you, FTC!

I'd say you got an uninformed sales rep, instead. Or a store run by a d-bag manager.

I convinced my family to sign up with T-Mobile between Uncarrier 3.0 and 4.0. My brother and his wife were on AT&T, my mother and father were pre-paid T-Mobile. As for myself, I was a post-paid T-Mo customer who had switch from T-Mo pre-paid, after uncarrier 1.0, who had ported an AT&T number.

Everyone, except me, got new SIMs, but only my brother and his wife paid for theirs. Neither my mother nor father had to pay as they were existing customers.

My brother and his wife were even given free "loaner" dumb phones, while their AT&T numbers were ported, they pursued carrier unlock for their iPhone 4S phones. The dumb phones used full size SIM cards, which obviously could not be used with their iPhones. So once their phones were unlocked and they returned the loaner phones, they were given free micro SIMs to accommodate as they were now T-Mo issues.

 

[wxman2003]

Uhhh... Slow?

In my city of 180,000, it's still 2G. So yes, T-SloMo.

 

[HangmanSwingset]

You are complaining because you went to a store that is NOT a T-Mobile store?

I made the mistake of signing a contract at a T-Mobile franchise kiosk back in 2007. I asked them to give me unlimited SMS, which they failed to do. So, my first bill ended up being around $350. When I went back and complained, they said it was a "mistake" and they'd remove the charges and add the unlimited SMS plan.
...which they failed to do AGAIN... And my second bill (which didn't include activation fees) was over $400, at which time I went back AGAIN, only this time to be told I wasn't going to get the charges removed. So, I went to a different store (not knowing the difference between corprate and franchise at the time), which turned out to be corprate and they took care of everything. This franchise did this to tons of people apparently and got shut down.

Point is: being a "T-Mobile" store doesn't mean anything. Go corprate or don't go at all.

 

[bobthefish]

Follow the money

Clearly, T-mobile is not paying the enormous sums of money to politicians that AT&T is. For only $2 million dollars a year, AT&T can have the FTC harass anyone it wants! As a current AT&T customer, I think that it's shameful that no such complaint has ever, nor ever will be, filed against AT&T. This is only one of many gimmicks they have tried on me.

 

[Makosuke]

Asside from the international data roaming, you just described my Sprint plan. Can I say they’re all the same now?

I stand corrected; I did not realize that Sprint now offered an Easy Pay option with the same device-separate-from-plan pricing. They don't mention unlocking, and the only unlocked phone Apple will sell you directly is a T-Mobile one, which makes me wonder how quick they will be to unlock devices, but maybe that's not a problem at all.

It's still not fair to say they're all the same, however. Verizon, for example, has drastically better coverage in most areas. Sprint is substantially more expensive than T-Mobile for the same level of service, unless you have at least 7 people in your "framily" (at which point they have a slight advantage), and don't use mobile hotspot (extra $10), and don't use a lot of data (in which case the fact that T-Mobile throttles you when you go over your limit instead of charging per extra MB will put you ahead). And if we go to 3rd tier carriers, H2O has much cheaper options than any of the majors for light users.

For me, personally, though, the unlimited international data on T-Mobile is a complete deal-maker. I'm pretty sure nobody else offers that, and for those of us who travel out of the country for periods of time it's a lifesaver. Particularly nice: You can use FaceTime audio over the data connection, which allowed me to talk to my wife for probably an hour a day for two months straight on a cell phone in Japan at no additional cost at all. It would have cost more than that if she'd been using a Japanese cell phone to make the calls.

Similar? Sure. The same? No.

And I'm not "defending" T-Mobile, although I do appreciate that they've significantly shaken up the market--they're a telecom company, which almost by definition makes them evil. If someone else offered a better deal, I'd switch. It's just that I don't think they're all the same at this point, at least not yet.

 

[mattwallace24]

Clearly, T-mobile is not paying the enormous sums of money to politicians that AT&T is. For only $2 million dollars a year, AT&T can have the FTC harass anyone it wants! As a current AT&T customer, I think that it's shameful that no such complaint has ever, nor ever will be, filed against AT&T. This is only one of many gimmicks they have tried on me.

Not true. Just a quick search shows dozens of FCC complaints against AT&T, as well as all other carriers. T-Mobile wants you to believe they are the rebel and being picked on by other carriers, but it is just slick (and smart), well coordinated marketing.

John Legere is smart - he attended Harvard and worked at AT&T for over 20 years learning the industry. He was always known as an expensive suit wearing, smooth-talking leader. He didn't pick up his "hip" persona until he started at T-Mobile and they desperately needed to shake things up. While we all want our wireless providers to be "cool", don't fall for the marketing hype. T-Mobile is just like the others behind the curtains.

 

[mikefla]

Wow! Lets hope they put all that cash to good use. Apparently it wasn't enough to buy those MIMO Antennas to improve indoor coverage. Oh well, better luck next time.

-Mike

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In my city of 180,000, it's still 2G. So yes, T-SloMo.

Haha, yeah it's the sad truth. Tmobile still has plenty of lovely EDGE coverage. That network is as fas as the 1200 Baud modem on my former Commodore 64C!

-Mike

 

[kakapo]

the only fraudulent thing I'm aware of with T-Mobile is their claim to provide cell and data service.

 

[mikefla]

Are these charges stemming from someone typically clicking ok on something without reading the conditions or did they magically start charging people for daily horoscopes for literally no reason? We all know how people click ok to get something for free without reading the small print that says they are signing themselves up for some daily celebrity news text (texting charges may apply), etc. etc. If that's what happened, how is that T-Mobile's fault?

The problem is that it wasn't a few people. It's millions of dollars so it's more like thousands of people. So no your theory is very flawed. Tmobile screwed up and this is going to hurt them in the long term just when they were starting to pickup some steam.

-Mike

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Uhhh... Slow?

Fast speeds are great, specially in the middle of nowhere where most people will never use them. I prefer LTE almost everywhere, indoor coverage including basements and service nationwide. No thanks Tmobile, keep your fast speeds in useless places. Right now there is still no better alternative than AT&T for service/value.

-Mike

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That'll teach them to charge you $10 for a new SIM card!!!

I've switched between prepaid/post paid with AT&T no problem. Went to store and took like 10 minutes. No new sim card no nothing. No charge.

-Mike

 

[laurim]

The problem is that it wasn't a few people. It's millions of dollars so it's more like thousands of people. So no your theory is very flawed. Tmobile screwed up and this is going to hurt them in the long term just when they were starting to pickup some steam.

There are easily thousands of careless people, especially kids, who would blindly click ok without reading what they are signing up for just to get something for free. People freely offer themselves up for spamming every time they enter a contest, either in person by filling out an entry form or online with their phone number, address and/or email. That's how greedy and dumb people are. And T-Mobile isn't the only carrier to have to deal with this and they are jumping all over fixing it. They'll be fine. People will forget about it in two days tops.

 

[PopinFRESH]

The people questioning T-Mobile's ethics or customer focus because of this are morons. The FCC's accusation is baseless and they are pissing away taxpayer money on this stupidity. This is not a carrier issue, rather an issue that has been known with the mobile payment and subscription system that ALL the carriers use. I worked in the wireless industry for a while and AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile all have the option to opt out of this and block 3rd party charges. I don't know about sprint as I haven't used them in nearly 20 years and I don't have any friends in the industry that work there to confirm they also have such an option (although I suspect they do).

If you do opt out of this and block these, you will no longer be able to use anything that uses that system. This includes things like the free radio contests that you text a short code to enter. However most people could care less about the 0.0000001% of the potential legitimate use they may lose by blocking these 3rd party billing options, so I always tell my friends and family to go into a corporate owned carrier store (another major issue in the wireless industry is authorized re-sellers "slamming" features) and ask them to block the ability for 3rd party charges. Unfortunately, most of the carriers don't have the most knowledgeable sales associates and so it may take a little bit to find someone who will know what you are talking about. As this typically isn't something they deal with on a regular basis a lot of them have no clue the option even exists.

Well, Good Luck and don't knock T-Mobile for this as they are very proactive in trying to combat these fraudulent submissions through the mobile payment system. Really, the FCC shouldn't be dealing with this rather the FBI should be investigating the people committing the fraud. I can't seem to find the article, but there is a known guy who runs a company of thieves who make millions from these charges. All they do is run automated computers that send mass text messages that if you don't explicitly text "stop" to it automatically "signs you up" for their "service" for $1 - $10 / month hoping most people are too apathetic to notice it.

-PopinFRESH