I hate T-Mobile

BeatrixKiddo

Don't know if anyone else has had this problem, but T-Mobile are driving me mad :mad:

I had a contract mobile with T-Mobile a couple of years ago and ended up getting billed for 3 x 1 hour long (expensive) calls to the internet at 1-3am in the morning when I was fast asleep in bed! No-one else had access to my mobile so I disputed it and refused to pay my bill until it was removed. It went on for months and I got passed from pillar to post, with supervisors there promising to sort it out and get back to me which they never did. In the end they started legal proceedings against me, so eventually I was forced to pay :mad:

It wasn't all bad though as they wrote to me to let me know my 12-month contract had been cancelled as I had breached it (I was only 5 months into it). So I ran away as fast as I could back to Virgin (payg sim in my T-Mobile phone) who I'd never had one problem with and are always really helpful and friendly!

18 months later (still with Virgin) I fancied upgrading my phone. Decided on the one I wanted and (as a good moneysaver ) compared providers' tariffs. Guess who came out by far the cheapest?

My Hubby couldn't believe I was even thinking of going back to T-Mobile, but stupidly I compromised service for price and signed up.

Had my new phone 2 days when I got 4 unsolicited adult-themed text messages thanking me for signing up to their text services??? At the bottom of each message it said 'you have been charged £1.50 for this message'. I got straight on the phone to T-Mobile's customer service dept. asking what the heck was going on as I hadn't signed up to anything. They had a look and informed me that I had indeed been charged £6.00 for the messages!!

The woman explained that apparently unwanted (expensive) texts are a huge problem now for all the mobile networks and there is nothing they can do about it! Apparently they are all trying to get a new law brought it against it, but in the meantime, she gave me a contact number for the company that the text's had come from and a text number to send a 'STOP' message to. I asked why I should have to pay to call them/text them to stop something I hadn't even signed up to. She was sympathetic but said "it's a common problem and there's nothing we can do". She said if I ring the number and tell them I never signed up I should be entitled to a full refund. She said T-Mobile would back me up (gee-thanks) as I had not used my phone for texting since it arrived. She also mentioned that by law the 'STOP' message had to be free of charge.

To cut a long short short, I haven't had any more messages from that company since I sent the STOP message but I have had several similar from other companies advertising things etc. Everytime I ring the number she gave me no-one ever answers, so how am I ever going to get a refund?? Also, I'll have to wait for my next bill to find out if I'm also being charged for the other messages I've received (plus I was also billed £1.50 for the stop message).

In my whole time with Virgin and other mobile providers in the past, I've never had this problem, and I can't believe there's nothing anyone can do to stop companies sending you hideously expensive messages and you have to just pay for them.

I can sympathise with people who sign up to things like 'free' ringtones and end up getting loads of messages at xx£'s a time, but usually if you read the small print it does tell you that this will happen in so many words, but I've honestly never signed up to anything!

Is this a common problem that happens to everyone? Where do I/we stand, coz' I'm sure not standing for it and just paying like last time to get them off my back! Wish I'd kept my brick now and stayed with Virgin :mad:

RAMBLER

As long as they've got your money they're ok.. if you need help - back out the way as their busy.

Ellie2758

So glad I switched to Virgin from Vodafone. Never had a prob with them. Recently I have been looking at camera phones for daughter and the one I want - Nokia 6101 - was cheapest with TMobile. HOWEVER, when I looked at call charges for PAYG phones it was clear that the actual charges are way above those of Virgin so I have ordered it online from them AND got £35 free credit!!! Recently ordered a motorola phone from Virgin which was not the colour I was expecting. Rang them and got a free returns back to send it back a couple of days later.

I have never had any of these unsolicited texts that charge me - can only imagine it is something that is generated by TMobile.

Ellie

Trix

A year or so ago I bought a new phone and ported my number from Orange to the T-mobile network it was with. I ran completely out of credit so used the top up card that came with the phone to credit my account with £10 and had a receipt saying the top-up was successful. The £10 wasn't added so I called to ask why. They said their records didn't show I had credited my account so I had to send the card plus receipt to them for them to sort out a refund. A couple of weeks later I got a letter saying there was nothing wrong with the card so they were sending it back and I must have used the credit (as my phone was completely out of credit before and afterwards I knew that I hadn't).
Why I trusted them I don't know, but I tried the card again and the same thing happened! :mad: More phone calls, letters and copy of receipts followed but they still insisted I had used the credit both times. When I asked for proof of what credit I had put on my phone and what credit I had used - I was told 'we don't have that information' - so how were they so positive I HAD used the credit?
Anyway, in the end they gave me back £10 as a 'goodwill gesture' but that still left me £10 out of pocket. As I had a lot going on at that time I gave up fighting it (I had asked for advice on here but nobody gave any ).
I left them after that but have since returned when I got a new phone. Fingers crossed but no problems so far and I've NEVER recieved unsolicited text messages. Could it be the same as what was mentioned in another post about regenerated landline numbers? Could someone else have had that number originally and signed up for those things?
I don't have a clue about your legal position, but try and get T-mobiles advice, explanation and information about the free STOP message in writing.

Edit - I just remembered all the things I tried (or found out about since) - have you signed up to the Telephone Prefrence Service for your mobile? This only stops unsolicited sales and marketing voice calls though. ICSTIS may be able to help either against who is sending the texts or with T-mobile themselves (you have to follow T-mobile's complaint procedure first to allow them to attempt to solve the problem) .The Information Commisioners Office can deal with complaints as well and has forms to fill in.