T-Mobile Fraud Department (T-Mobile FAIL)

kungfufu

Hi there,

I purchased a HTC Desire HD via Mobiles.co.uk (which is a subsidiary of The Carphone Warehouse) about three weeks ago. When I got the handset and tried to make a phone call, I found out that calls were barred from my number. I called up to find out what was going on and was informed that my account had been flagged up by the T-Mobile Fraud Department and that I should fax (yes, fax - apparently, T-Mobile think it's the 80's) a copy of my driver's license and recent utility bill. I managed to find a fax machine at work and sent all the details over. Weeks later, I have still heard nothing from the Fraud Department to let me know what the status is on verifying my identity.

I've given up calling T-Mobile customer service as they say they can't do anything about it as the Fraud Dept are not allowed to discuss my case with anyone but me for security reasons. I tried calling them out on Twitter, but they've been equally as unhelpful with their cookie cutter placations.

What's more, I received a text from T-Mobile to say that my bill will be ready by the end of December for a service I haven't even had a chance to use yet! And I'm still running my old Orange phone contract as I can't cancel because I need a working mobile.

Has anyone else had this experience? If so, how long did it take for the T-Mobile Fraud Department to pull their bloody finger out. I know that there is a slight backlog due to the Christmas holiday but this is just ridiculous now.

FYI - for anyone else who needs it, the Twitter name is @TmobileUKhelp and fax number for the T-Mobile Fraud Dept is: 0808 2383745

BTW - the HTC Desire HD is an excellent phone and might be why I haven't just returned it and gone with another network.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

That sounds unreasonable and a dreadful way to treat a new customer. You've done your bit by faxing docs off, well done on that as although I work in an office myself I know many people who do not and finding a fax would be near enough impossible.

I think a reasonable demand would be to waive any charges up to now as you have not had any use of your phone, then demand a month's free line rental as a goodwill gesture to acknowledge the hassle they have caused you.

Put these demands in an email and send it to [EMAIL="richard.moat@t-mobile.co.uk"]richard.moat@t-mobile.co.uk[/EMAIL] - he is their CEO and that email will find its way to their office. Good luck.

kungfufu

Thanks CitySlicker, I've just sent an email to Richard Moat, although I don't expect I'll hear anything from him soon with the holidays. Will post updates as I get them.

Jon_01

T's fraud dept is 'outsourced' overseas, and has a very bad reputation for keeping customers aware of what's going on. They also rely far too much on what they see on their screens rather than doing the leg work that proves or disproves the information they see.

Contacting the CEO is the best best as you've done. It'll get actioned by the exec office who'll light a fire under someone to get it sorted. . .

kungfufu

Finally got it sorted after sending an email to the MD. They had someone call on behalf of Richard Moat, gave an apology, one month free service and got the phone up and running. Good to *finally* get the phone working, but what a palaver.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Outsourcing is the bain of many customer service problems, incidentally I saw an advert for Plusnet Broadband last night which finished along the lines of 'our call centre is down t'road in Yorkshire' which was a laugh-out-loud moment. The advert was corny but I tell you this much - after watching it I thought it looked like a good service and I would sooner have a problem dealt with in Yorkshire where people are likely to understand me first time, less likely to have a rigid script to work through, and won't ask me the artificial scripted questions like 'I hope you're having an excellent day so far sir' and instead drop in something like 'have a really good day too' in passing at the end of the call naturally. You cannot force comments like that and I hope Plusnet do well with this campaign.

Anyway back to you. It's a good result, unfortunate you had to go around the houses, but congrats and I am pleased I've been able to help.

Jon_01

Outsourcing for this kind of thing is totally pointless and a complete nightmare for customers. Its purely a cost saving exercise in an area where detection and quality of work should be rated higher than saving a few quid.

And it's going to get worse and affect a lot more customers (work it out, I can't say...)

Exemplar

I have recently left Interflora where an amount of the admin work is outsourced to the Phillipines, which caused us a lot of work deciphering what they had said or done!