Lack of compassion by T-Mobile

derrick

kai666 wrote:

Ok, I take back what I said. Can't they just re-activate the card with the money?

No they will not do anything they tell me I have lost the credit, this was after a 25-30 minute phone call,(no not on their 0845 No, but a geo number that cost me a total of 3p).

Now completely the opposite, I called Virgin Mobile, who incidentally use T-Mobile as their carrier, and they told me if I have sim with credit on it and don't use it for 365 days they MAY deactivate the card, but will reactivate it if I phone them, and if the credit has disappeared they would send out another sim with the same amount of credit on it.

T-Mobile sucks

kai666

yeah my old virgin sim hasn't been used for 3 years, it still works, and has it's 19p cedit on it

derrick

After contacting T-Mobile via their complaints page and telling them if they did not return my stolen £10. I would take legal action as they had stolen my money, they are now going to send me out a new sim and then they will credit the amount that was on the cancelled sim.
Copy of the first e-mail from them:-

Thank you for your comments about your cancelled SIM card. We appreciate your feedback as it helps us improve the service that we provide. I'm sorry to hear that your SIM card has now been cancelled.

We do advise in our terms and conditions that if the phone isn't used once every 180 days the SIM card will be disconnected. It also states that any credit on your account at the time of disconnection will be forfeited.

I'm sorry if you weren't informed about the pay as you go hibernation process. I'd like to tell you that you need to make a connection action every 180 days. A connection action is as follows:

· Send a text message
· Make a chargeable call
· Credit your account

Because I really do want to help you with this, I will ordered a new SIM card, with a new number, completely free of charge. Could you please contact me with your full name and address as there are no details on your account.Once I receive this, I will order the SIM card and apply the credit that was remaining on your account.

Regards
Nicola Barrass
Customer Relations


Copy of the 2nd e-mail from them after I sent them the required info:-


Hi Mr *******

Once you receive your new Sim card can you please send me the new number and I will credit the account for you.

Many thanks

Nikki

So it looks like I have had a result, maybe T-Mobile don't suck?

5limJim

derrick wrote:

After contacting T-Mobile via their complaints page and telling them if they did not return my stolen £10. I would take legal action as they had stolen my money, they are now going to send me out a new sim and then they will credit the amount that was on the cancelled sim.
Copy of the first e-mail from them:-

Thank you for your comments about your cancelled SIM card. We appreciate your feedback as it helps us improve the service that we provide. I'm sorry to hear that your SIM card has now been cancelled.

We do advise in our terms and conditions that if the phone isn't used once every 180 days the SIM card will be disconnected. It also states that any credit on your account at the time of disconnection will be forfeited.

I'm sorry if you weren't informed about the pay as you go hibernation process. I'd like to tell you that you need to make a connection action every 180 days. A connection action is as follows:

· Send a text message
· Make a chargeable call
· Credit your account

Because I really do want to help you with this, I will ordered a new SIM card, with a new number, completely free of charge. Could you please contact me with your full name and address as there are no details on your account.Once I receive this, I will order the SIM card and apply the credit that was remaining on your account.

Regards
Nicola Barrass
Customer Relations


Copy of the 2nd e-mail from them after I sent them the required info:-


Hi Mr *******

Once you receive your new Sim card can you please send me the new number and I will credit the account for you.

Many thanks

Nikki

So it looks like I have had a result, maybe T-Mobile don't suck?

I think you might have just had a goodwill reply from T-Mobile, if I had a SIM card which I gave to someone, it owuld be my duty to warn them that the credit expires after a certain time, and the blame would befall me for not passing that message on. If you sign up for any contract/payg all companies have a disclaimer that says unused credit will be lost if a call/text etc is not made over a certain length of time. If we choose to just tick the 'I have read and understood the T&C's' button wothout reading them, who do we have to blame but ourselves?

derrick

5limJim wrote:

I think you might have just had a goodwill reply from T-Mobile, if I had a SIM card which I gave to someone, it owuld be my duty to warn them that the credit expires after a certain time, and the blame would befall me for not passing that message on. If you sign up for any contract/payg all companies have a disclaimer that says unused credit will be lost if a call/text etc is not made over a certain length of time. If we choose to just tick the 'I have read and understood the T&C's' button wothout reading them, who do we have to blame but ourselves?

Yes to a point, however you cannot sign your rights a way and the theft act still applies(my post #9) and cannot be over ruled by some companies T&Cs.
I think T-Mobile have accepted this hence why they are supplying a new sim with the credit returned, the banks have similar T&Cs but people are now fighting back against unfair charges and getting their money refunded.
You would not like it if a bank/building society you deposited money into suddenly steal it because you did not use the account for X length of time, it is the same thing, the money did not belong to T-Mobile so they had no right to steal it, the more we fight these companies that are ripping us off the more chance we have of winning, as I think I have done in this case. there is no mention in any of their correspondence that it is a "goodwill gesture" and if it was I think they would have done so even if it was to not set a precedence.

redux

You are entitled to count this as a victory derrick, but it is fact that the terms and conditions were clear and you need only have used it once in 180 days, or spoken to them to ask to extend. Many countries SIMs are a lot less lenient than here, requiring top-ups to stay valid.

So ditch the allegations of theft and show a bit more grace - they are proposing to give you free credit without any evidence.

derrick

redux wrote:

You are entitled to count this as a victory derrick, but it is fact that the terms and conditions were clear and you need only have used it once in 180 days, or spoken to them to ask to extend. Many countries SIMs are a lot less lenient than here, requiring top-ups to stay valid.

So ditch the allegations of theft and show a bit more grace - they are proposing to give you free credit without any evidence.

I maintain that the only reason they are giving me the credit back is because of the allegation of theft and the fact that I would have issued a County Court summons, also as I have previously stated, T&Cs do not overrule the law of the land,i.e the theft act, unfair T&Cs do not allow companies to steal from you.

redux

well next time use the phone for a few seconds per year, as it's a lot less effort than all this ********

feival

derrick wrote:

I maintain that the only reason they are giving me the credit back is because of the allegation of theft and the fact that I would have issued a County Court summons, also as I have previously stated, T&Cs do not overrule the law of the land,i.e the theft act, unfair T&Cs do not allow companies to steal from you.

Sorry to write this but that is the biggest load of rubbish I have ever seen on this site. The terms and conditions are very clear and you would have been aware of them when you a) opened the account and hence b) whenever you topped up. Of course a credit balance can expire - you are not talking about a bank account here! Similar analogies - free credit vouchers you get from stores, cash paid to telecom companies for cheap international calls which expire if you don't use them etc. etc.

Rogerb_2

In my experience most big companies will give in eventually if you push them enough. They often word this as a goodwill gesture and it is probably cost effective for them to do so anyway.

T Mobile did just this on my recent issue of premium text scamming. If you have a reasonable case, even if not contractually strong, and you show determination and staying power perhaps quoting legality, message boards exposure or even direct executive mgt. contact they will usually become more reasonable in their response.

Whatever the reality of this case, I think it was a good result and that would suffice for me.