Complaint Review: T-Mobile VoiceStream - Bellevue Washington

The basic point seems to be that Brandon was charged for going over his weekday minutes. He also claims that he was told that Roaming and weekends were free, and that long distance is included. I don't doubt that at all, but I think that VS/TM left out a few details from the get go, or worded it in an interestingly way. I have been, and still currently am, a customer for the last 2 years. When I first signed up, the deal was something like 300 weekday minutes, and 1500 weekend minutes. What was also included was included long distance, and no roaming charges. We were told that since Voicestream was the only nationwide GSM carrier, there are no roaming charges. And this was accurate at the time, as long as you didn't use the analog adapter. We didn't have a problem with this part. What we had a problem with was the FREE LONGDISTANCE and the FREE WEEKENDS. We were not told that if you call long distance on a weekend, then those minutes come out of your anytime minutes. Yes, we were pissed about it, and called up customer service and tag teamed the rep (wife and I alternated talking, we are customers from hell I guess). I insisted that we were told that longdistance was included, and even had the paper where the sales rep scribbled it down, figuring out how much we were saving over long distance on our landline. Well, to shorten this story, the piece of paper that I had wasn't respected cause they couldn't verify it. I understand that. Then I noticed that on my copy of the contract, there is a carbon-copy-tracing of the questionable paper. This too was not admissable since it could have been reproduced. Working off a hunch, I went to the store, and asked to see the original contract. A week later, it was located / retreived / whatever and I was able to sit down and look at it, supervised of course by the manager. Lo and Behold, there are indentions in the contract indicating that the piece of paper I have with calculations, was written on at the same time the contract was filled out. And since the handwriting was remarkably similiar, the end result was in our favor. All in all, the rep was under the impression that long distance was included in weekend minutes, but the plan and contract was otherwise. TMobile has faults, including many sales reps (company employees or authorized dealers) that are misinformed, or have been the recipients of bad training, and indifferent. I don't think that it is possible to actually set out to screw the customer, to do so results in very short employment. Keep records of who told you what, at what time, and where it was told to you from. This is going to be the only way to be able to lend some kind of validity to your case. That applies to boeth retail and telephone cust. service. Especially the latter. I don't doubt that telephone cust. service told you what you wanted to hear, and then changed their story when something didn't happen when it should (or vice versa). They are human, and most don't like cleaning up other people's messes, as if they had time to do it anyways. I wasn't in TM/VS support, but was in similiar call center. 7 minutes to resolve problem. And that includes the 4 minutes it takes to get the customer to say their DSL #, login ID, and what the problem is. After a while of dealing with customers that yell, scream, b***h, etc, who cares about the next call that comes in? But, if you ask them, in a normal tone of voice, for help in understanding a billing error, or why a bill jumped up suddenly, etc, then they are much more receptive to your needs, and are more willing to dig into the bag of tricks to keep you as a customer. Oh, and for the other VS/TM customer care reps that are reading this, is it policy that when you request a manager to hand the call over to your cubemate, or come back with a bad voice disguising? Are managers / supervisors avoiding calls that badly? I actually had a good comment to pass along to a supervisor, and asked the rep for their supervisor / manager )didn't say why I wanted one, but she provided great service, although nowhere near the result that I was anticipating). Supervisor "Bob" comes on the line, and I tell them that "Jill did a great job in handling my case today, even though we weren't able to reach the resolution that I wanted." At this point, "Bob" responded "Just a second, let me get my supervisor, umm, let me get you to our next level of customer service." He blew it. The rate plans, at least for my market (dallas / fort worth) were highly competitive, especially on weekday minutes. Sure, it may not have been able to match Sprints 2250 minutes (2000 weekend, 250 weekday), but it suited our needs for during week / occasional weekend calls. As for the contracts and similiar documents, *always* get the reps name on it (somewhere) as well as yours, and initial each paragraph as you read down. Remember my long distance thing? It was in the contract, but listed in a manner that it was very easy to skip over it by accident. For a tip when dealing with ANY big company over the phone: RECORD THE CONVERSATION! I mean, after all, they do!! Ever hear the anouncement "Your call may be monitored and/or recorded for training and quality control". If the other call centers in the world are a quarter as concerned as my previous one was, then the running last 1 or 2 calls are kept on a computer, for use in evaluations, threats of violence, bodily harm, etc. They are recording you, you know that they are recording you (they announced it), the employees know that you and they are being recorded. In a nutshell, everybody is aware that the conversation is being recorded. So, goto radio shack and buy a $10 phone pickup coil to plug into your tape player. If you start the tape when you first start to dial the call, and get the whole call (especially the announcement), then it can generally be admitted in court. If you have a audio record of the call, whomever is disputing what was said is going to have a difficult time backpedaling. 6 miles. up hill. in the winter. both ways. Just an FYI that works.

Were do you see AT&T offering over-limit charges of $0.15/min.? If you reference their "Plans" website at: http://www.attws.com/buy/consumer/select_voiceplan.jhtml?showall=true&plan1=1&plan2=&plan3= You will no doubtedly see, the lowest is $0.25/min, if you pay $300.00 per month for 5000 minutes. As far as Nextel is concerned -- $.40/min over plan limits except where you pay $200.00 per month for unlimited usage. Check out their website: http://nextelonline.nextel.com/NASApp/onlinestore/Action/EnterZipCode As far as the contract goes: You must be one of those people, granted there are alot of you out there, who just assumes everything, and willfully offers your signature without knowing what you are signing! What happens if somewhere in that contract it states that if you don't pay your bill, they will execute a foreclosure on your home, or garnish your wages. Just a word of advice -- read everything (including the fine print, especially the fine print) before signing it. As far as disclosure issues go: By you signing that contract, you agreed to the terms of it, where it WAS DISCLOSED that you will be charged $0.35/min over plan limits.

I have had a wireless phone with just about every major service provider out there. The thing that amazes me is that people sign contract after contract without reading what they sign. "The Rep never told me" seems to be the biggest complaint here. But why didn't you read what you signed? It is sad, but you can't count on a sales rep to tell you every detail. Its the consumers job to read the fine print. Let me finish by saying that I am not trying to cause a fight here. I just am offering my opinion here, hope it helps

In my opinion of T-Mobile is the T stands for Toilet. Since the change from Voicestream to T mobile I have experienced nothing but problems. Service reps who have no idea what they are doing (except what they can read on their screen) and I have consistently called about problems with messaging, with my phone suddenly going off service for no reason, the list goes on and on. I get told each time after going through a long list of questions I could quote from memory I get a tech rep who is clueless as well, gives me some line of b.s. and says they'll open a "ticket" which never gets any action. I HATE T MOBILE and I TELL EVERYONE I KNOW TO AVOID THEM LIKE SARS! Reason, they don't follow through on promises they make and they are more concerned with getting new business then keeping the customers they already have. Just a note, someone had mentioned sprint pcs, they aren't any better.

Brandon, The terms and conditions of service are given to customers for a reason-- they are given to them and then sped through and encouraged to "read them later but sign off that you did now". The sales reps in the stores answer your questions with the least amount of information they can. They are there for one main reason-- TO MAKE A SALE. Always read the terms and conditions. As to the rest of the issue. I actually believe you. I can't even count the number of times I heard people give misleading or just plain wrong information to customers. Some of these reps were not doing it on purpose, some were. I mentioned it once to my supervisor and it was pointed out that I must be wrong, some of them had more plan changes then I did and I could "take lessons"(something they rated us on at the time) unfortuanetly, if you do not get the information in writing it is your word against the company and the company (though it was probably the rep) will say it was you and that no credit was due. Just for your information: go to a retail location and get the plan being offered in writing (they usually have it).

Jerry, I am well aware that ALL cellular/PCS companies have an overage fee when you exceed your allotted minutes; however, there are disclosure laws that force the company to disclose any and all fees to the consumer. I am well aware that the fees were in my contract, and I in no way tried to get out of paying for the overage; my complaint was that the fees should have been disclosed. You may want to check around a little about the overage fees, AT&T is only $.15/minute. So T-Mobile is not one of the lowest, as a matter of fact, they are the HIGHEST; even more than Nextel! You make the comment: Stated or not, overage charges are implied by accepting a plan that states a specified limit of minutes per the monthly plan. I once again go back to disclosure of fees, the fees MUST be disclosed; if they are not on the contract then they cannot be charged, otherwise that would be breach of contract and grounds for termination of the contract without monetary penalties. Where in my complaint do I say that I have had issues with other carriers? I'm not seeing that so maybe I had a subliminal message that only you can see!? Since it's so obvious that you work for T-Mobile, you should also know that the rate plans change fairly often. And one plan that is not offered currently was quite possibly offered a year ago and vice versa. I suggest you go back to training, Jerry. It's quite obvious that you are probably one of the incompetent reps that I have spoken to on the phone during one of my numerous phone calls to your inept customer service center (if you can actually label it as customer service). Part of customer service is listening to the customers needs and complaints and responding to them professionally, intelligently, and with some knowledge of the service and/or product; it is very apparent that you don't listen to the consumer based upon the response you posted, you're not professional based on the fact that you asked if I could read or assuming that I am a rip-off artist, and I'm still undecided on your intelligence.

Jerry, I notice you live in Irvine. Irvine is famous as where the 405 meets the 5. Now it will be known as where the filthy VoiceStream/TMobile shill meets the FRAUD HAMMER! How much money have your corporate masters paid you to spout this garbage? I'll tell you, they don't care one lick about you, friend! So why do their dirty work? The closest you'll ever get to their country club is when you caddy for them, or serve them mint juleps after you polish their shoes! "T-Mobile has lead the way in low cost service plans and all other carriers have had to react in order to keep up." What a load of CRAP! I can't believe you wrote that with a straight face! But what do you expect from the morons who gave us those Catherine Retard-Bones ads! A hammer to you, Zeta-Jones, and Michael Douglas. He hasn't had a hit in years! Go get some more plastic surgery! BAMMM! Why don't YOU read the report, Jerry? Answer the complaints of incompetence and out-and-out lying! Take your time and get Michael Douglas' teabag out of your mouth, if you must. Awww, better. We can't hear you though. Would you like some Hammertime? You would? Here...POWWW! Ouch! That looked painful! Ha ha!

Reading your complaint I can only ask if you are a rip-off artist, don't know how to read or have been asleep for the last fifteen plus years. All cellular / pcs phone contracts have a per minute charge for overage. Some as high as .50/min. So .35/min is, if not one of the lowest. So what did you expect after your allotted minutes were used, free service or phone to be cut off. T-Mobile has lead the way in low cost service plans and all other carriers have had to react in order to keep up. I am aware the their are persons that will say anything to make a sale. Stated or not, overage charges are implied by accepting a plan that states a specified limit of minutes per the monthly plan. All to often persons, myself included, attemp to purchases a lower cost plan to fit a certain spending limit, only to to be hit with a bill hundreds of dollars over what we expected. I certainly don't like it but to blame the carrier is no excuse. For one who openly stated they have had simular mishaps with other companies cannot truthfully state they are not aware of charges for over plan minutes, whether it was told to them by the sales rep or not. Errors are made in the billing very often,I aggree with you there, so check to see if you are properly billed and if that is why you are over your limit. Make sure understand the plan you are on. Promotions change almost monthly. Unlimited WEEK-ENDS is not unlimited NIGHTS and WEEK-ENDS. T-Mobile has had plans and promotions where you get one the other or both. The 800 munite plan does seem strange. The only 800 munite plan i am aware of is a family plan where you get 800 minutes total to share between 2 phones no nights or week-end and unlimted calls between the 2 phones

Reading your complaint I can only ask if you are a rip-off artist, don't know how to read or have been asleep for the last fifteen plus years. All cellular / pcs phone contracts have a per minute charge for overage. Some as high as .50/min. So .35/min is, if not one of the lowest. So what did you expect after your allotted minutes were used, free service or phone to be cut off. T-Mobile has lead the way in low cost service plans and all other carriers have had to react in order to keep up. I am aware the their are persons that will say anything to make a sale. Stated or not, overage charges are implied by accepting a plan that states a specified limit of minutes per the monthly plan. All to often persons, myself included, attemp to purchases a lower cost plan to fit a certain spending limit, only to to be hit with a bill hundreds of dollars over what we expected. I certainly don't like it but to blame the carrier is no excuse. For one who openly stated they have had simular mishaps with other companies cannot truthfully state they are not aware of charges for over plan minutes, whether it was told to them by the sales rep or not. Errors are made in the billing very often,I aggree with you there, so check to see if you are properly billed and if that is why you are over your limit. Make sure understand the plan you are on. Promotions change almost monthly. Unlimited WEEK-ENDS is not unlimited NIGHTS and WEEK-ENDS. T-Mobile has had plans and promotions where you get one the other or both. The 800 munite plan does seem strange. The only 800 munite plan i am aware of is a family plan where you get 800 minutes total to share between 2 phones no nights or week-end and unlimted calls between the 2 phones

Reading your complaint I can only ask if you are a rip-off artist, don't know how to read or have been asleep for the last fifteen plus years. All cellular / pcs phone contracts have a per minute charge for overage. Some as high as .50/min. So .35/min is, if not one of the lowest. So what did you expect after your allotted minutes were used, free service or phone to be cut off. T-Mobile has lead the way in low cost service plans and all other carriers have had to react in order to keep up. I am aware the their are persons that will say anything to make a sale. Stated or not, overage charges are implied by accepting a plan that states a specified limit of minutes per the monthly plan. All to often persons, myself included, attemp to purchases a lower cost plan to fit a certain spending limit, only to to be hit with a bill hundreds of dollars over what we expected. I certainly don't like it but to blame the carrier is no excuse. For one who openly stated they have had simular mishaps with other companies cannot truthfully state they are not aware of charges for over plan minutes, whether it was told to them by the sales rep or not. Errors are made in the billing very often,I aggree with you there, so check to see if you are properly billed and if that is why you are over your limit. Make sure understand the plan you are on. Promotions change almost monthly. Unlimited WEEK-ENDS is not unlimited NIGHTS and WEEK-ENDS. T-Mobile has had plans and promotions where you get one the other or both. The 800 munite plan does seem strange. The only 800 munite plan i am aware of is a family plan where you get 800 minutes total to share between 2 phones no nights or week-end and unlimted calls between the 2 phones

Reading your complaint I can only ask if you are a rip-off artist, don't know how to read or have been asleep for the last fifteen plus years. All cellular / pcs phone contracts have a per minute charge for overage. Some as high as .50/min. So .35/min is, if not one of the lowest. So what did you expect after your allotted minutes were used, free service or phone to be cut off. T-Mobile has lead the way in low cost service plans and all other carriers have had to react in order to keep up. I am aware the their are persons that will say anything to make a sale. Stated or not, overage charges are implied by accepting a plan that states a specified limit of minutes per the monthly plan. All to often persons, myself included, attemp to purchases a lower cost plan to fit a certain spending limit, only to to be hit with a bill hundreds of dollars over what we expected. I certainly don't like it but to blame the carrier is no excuse. For one who openly stated they have had simular mishaps with other companies cannot truthfully state they are not aware of charges for over plan minutes, whether it was told to them by the sales rep or not. Errors are made in the billing very often,I aggree with you there, so check to see if you are properly billed and if that is why you are over your limit. Make sure understand the plan you are on. Promotions change almost monthly. Unlimited WEEK-ENDS is not unlimited NIGHTS and WEEK-ENDS. T-Mobile has had plans and promotions where you get one the other or both. The 800 munite plan does seem strange. The only 800 munite plan i am aware of is a family plan where you get 800 minutes total to share between 2 phones no nights or week-end and unlimted calls between the 2 phones