£121 bill on £15 contract. T-Mobile

Angelic

spook wrote: »

Yes, T-Mobile are a business and they exist to make a profit, but there are more ethical ways to do it than this. They should be actively promoting themselves as a company that looks after their customers. Many people would be more inclined to do business with such a company, even if their prices were higher than their competitors.

If T-Mobile let people off for going over their allowances then they'd have to put prices up so how would that benefit customers who check their usage ?
I think having a rollover option would be best but it's hard finding such a deal now because the market is so tight.
I've recently come off contract because I wasn't making any calls and sending 50 or less texts per month so it was pointless

spook

Angelic wrote: »

If T-Mobile let people off for going over their allowances then they'd have to put prices up so how would that benefit customers who check their usage ?

It wouldn't benefit customers who check their usage without fail. It would benefit the normal people who occasionally make mistakes. It would just be fairer generally, IMO. (Also I wasn't saying they should let people off; just that it might be better to send them a warning, give them the option to buy an extra bundle of minutes for the month, something like that).

robt_2

spook wrote: »

Wow, there are a few snobbish comments in this thread (particularly the last one). The OP made a genuine mistake and has been punished rather heavily for it. I can understand them feeling rather aggrieved by this. And I'm sure they aren't the first person to have been caught out this way.

Could you explain what this punishment is? They used a service and now have to pay for it. Simple as that.

I haven't been on this forum for a while, but it used to be quite a friendly place where people might have a degree of sympathy for someone like the OP, who has been screwed over to some extent by T-Mobile's rather arrogant and deceptive pricing. (I say deceptive, because they advertise their contract rates very clearly while the actual call charges are pretty much tucked away - I actually had to download a PDF to read them).

Yes, they were screwed over so badly that they offered to reduce a bill (which they were under no obligation to do).

I have just looked at the T-Mobile website. There is a link on each and every shop page which says "See Plan Call Costs". I'm not sure why you think that is tucked away. It is right above the 'View Basket and Checkout' button.

I have taken a screenshot: http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3404/image1m.jpg

Arrogant pricing? If you don't like the pricing then don't use the company.

I'm not saying the OP shouldn't have to pay their bill - and I'm actually rather impressed that T-Mobile offered such a large discount - but I still think it's not OK that this is how this company makes their money (and I'm sure it happens a lot, and quite often to people who don't have the financial know-how to avoid it).

So what you are saying is that you would like tariffs to be more expensive instead?

eranou

spook wrote: »

I haven't been on this forum for a while, but it used to be quite a friendly place where people might have a degree of sympathy for someone like the OP, who has been screwed over to some extent by T-Mobile's rather arrogant and deceptive pricing. (I say deceptive, because they advertise their contract rates very clearly while the actual call charges are pretty much tucked away - I actually had to download a PDF to read them).

.

How can you say their pricing is arrogant and deceptive take a look a their web site select a plan and all the call charges etc are clearly laid out

spook

robt wrote: »

Could you explain what this punishment is? They used a service and now have to pay for it. Simple as that.

It's punitive pricing. The calls aren't costing T-Mobile that much - not even close. Presumably, therefore, the reason the costs are so high is to discourage people going over their minutes. That's why I said it's a punishment. T-Mobile can set whatever prices they want, but I just think this isn't a particularly fair pricing scheme.

robt wrote: »

I have just looked at the T-Mobile website. There is a link on each and every shop page which says "See Plan Call Costs". I'm not sure why you think that is tucked away. It is right above the 'View Basket and Checkout' button.

My mistake. For some reason I didn't find that when I went looking, I ended up on some Ts & Cs page and had to download a PDF.

robt wrote: »

So what you are saying is that you would like tariffs to be more expensive instead?

Well, in my imaginary world, they simply take a few steps to pre-warn customers who are about to go over their allowance, customer satisfaction increases, their reputation improves, they get more customers, they make more money, prices stay the same. I'm not a mobile phone company executive so I might be wrong about this. If being fairer to customers genuinely forces prices up, then I would accept that... it's not always about being cheapest.

flyingscotno1

spook wrote: »

It's punitive pricing. The calls aren't costing T-Mobile that much - not even close. Presumably, therefore, the reason the costs are so high is to discourage people going over their minutes. That's why I said it's a punishment. T-Mobile can set whatever prices they want, but I just think this isn't a particularly fair pricing scheme.

Well, in my imaginary world, they simply take a few steps to pre-warn customers who are about to go over their allowance, customer satisfaction increases, their reputation improves, they get more customers, they make more money, prices stay the same. I'm not a mobile phone company executive so I might be wrong about this. If being fairer to customers genuinely forces prices up, then I would accept that... it's not always about being cheapest.

I never really understand how fairness comes into business too much. I understand it with banks- people almost always need to bank these days and the charges in some instances were unjustifiably high. In this instance the call cost is set at 30p a minute, high but not unjustifiably so- others aren't greatly cheaper. O.K it is 5p more than T's PAYG, but PAYG customers are always paying that cost with no minutes.

I do have a degree of sympathy with the OP- high bill and no need for smart comments really, but in the end we're not talking 15/20 mins that could slip past it was over 5 hours, over a very substantial minutes package- surely you'd click and check once- even on my t-mobile online just to be sure? Sadly I think the OP set himself up for a fall by coming on here complaining about goodwill- I think T-Mobile had been very fair to him- I'd be praising them if they'd given me £50 goodwill off a bill!

The problem with warning people that they are about to run out of allowance minutes is that I suspect most folk would stop using their phones, thus they are happy but £££ goes. If someone told me I was out of minutes, I'd switch to another spare phone I have on PAYG on Giffgaff- thus losing them some money.

omen666

lol @ T&C's noob

ispartacus75

flyingscotno1 wrote: »

I never really understand how fairness comes into business too much. I understand it with banks- people almost always need to bank these days and the charges in some instances were unjustifiably high. In this instance the call cost is set at 30p a minute, high but not unjustifiably so- others aren't greatly cheaper. O.K it is 5p more than T's PAYG, but PAYG customers are always paying that cost with no minutes.

I do have a degree of sympathy with the OP- high bill and no need for smart comments really, but in the end we're not talking 15/20 mins that could slip past it was over 5 hours, over a very substantial minutes package- surely you'd click and check once- even on my t-mobile online just to be sure? Sadly I think the OP set himself up for a fall by coming on here complaining about goodwill- I think T-Mobile had been very fair to him- I'd be praising them if they'd given me £50 goodwill off a bill!

The problem with warning people that they are about to run out of allowance minutes is that I suspect most folk would stop using their phones, thus they are happy but £££ goes. If someone told me I was out of minutes, I'd switch to another spare phone I have on PAYG on Giffgaff- thus losing them some money.

But as we have found out in this thread apparently T-Mobile DO warn some of their customers so why not others?

And as for the sarcastic comments, yeah great way to contribute! The world is a better place for your advice.

Exhortation

ispartacus75 wrote: »

But as we have found out in this thread apparently T-Mobile DO warn some of their customers so why not others?

And as for the sarcastic comments, yeah great way to contribute! The world is a better place for your advice.

The world would also be a better place if people accepted responsibility for their own actions and paid their debts.

flyingscotno1

ispartacus75 wrote: »

But as we have found out in this thread apparently T-Mobile DO warn some of their customers so why not others?

Because, and I'm willing to be corrected, that is the Flext Tariff which doesn't give a specific number of minutes/text/data, but an amount of cash to spend on T-Mobile services in any way and is tricker than an allowance based system