Complaint with T-Mobile - what would you do...??

Maisie_Miss

I've had an ongoing complaint with T-Mobile, and I would be interested to hear others' opinions on what they would think to be a satisfactory resolution / course of further action.

Basically, in February 2011 I received a bill from T-Mobile, charging me £16,454.56 for a line that I had had disconnected in December 2010, following my daughters change of phone and contract so that she could get a new Blackberry.

Obviously, I queried the charges and said that they were incorrect. My bill was then sent off for recalculation. I eventually got the bill corrected and paid it in March 2011. However, during the intervening 6 weeks, I was subjected to numerous telephone calls from their Collections team, threatening me with disconnection if I didn't pay the amounts that they said were outstanding (whilst not being hounded for the actual £16,454.56, I was given varying different outstanding amounts to pay!), non-return of phone calls I had asked for in order to sort the sorry mess out, and loss of service twice. This loss of service not only affected me, but my two daughters who also have a mobile line each on my account.

When raising a complaint with T-Mobile Complaint Investigations, I regret to say they were less than helpful. When I suggested what I thought was a number of satisfactory and amenable solutions to resolve matters, they were all dismissed. Their solution for a resolution would have left me out of pocket and without any phones for my daughters and I.

I won't go into great detail about what I suggested to them, or what has happened since, but I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has had issues with T-Mobile and their services, and what other members of this lovely and lively forum would have done if they were in my shoes! Then I will share my further experiences with you and we'll see if they match up!

Hope I am not being cheeky in asking - I am just interested in whether I was being too demanding with T-Mobile in an effort to resolve matters.

Many thanks guys and gals!

grumbler

Maisie_Miss wrote: »

....I eventually got the bill corrected and paid it in March 2011. However, during the intervening 6 weeks, I was subjected to numerous telephone calls from their Collections team, threatening me with disconnection if I didn't pay the amounts that they said were outstanding ....
When I suggested what I thought was a number of satisfactory and amenable solutions to resolve matters, they were all dismissed. Their solution for a resolution would have left me out of pocket and without any phones for my daughters and I.

Honestly, this doesn't make any sense to me.
If they corrected the bill and you paid it, why do they want more money and why do you suggest them 'satisfactory solutions'?

BlueSmartie

I agree, there is a part missing here. If you paid it why did they chase for non-payment and why would you need to propose 'satisfactory and amenable solutions to resolve matters'?

Sounds like you either asked for massive compensation or to end the contract early and they said nope.

Maisie_Miss

Hi there,

I was trying to keep my original post brief, because the whole story would take pages to tell!

To fill a few gaps... when they first sent the bill off for recalculation, I thought no more of it and waited to be told what I should pay (which I estimated around the £90 mark for all three lines on the account). However, 9 days later, our services were cut and when I called them about it, it appeared that I had gone over my credit limit in "incurring" the £16,000-odd charges. These charges were actually nothing to do with me, and it was only after a few weeks I discovered that when they disconnected my daughters old line, someone somewhere had done something they shouldn't, and the charges were all listed as "cancellation charges". So, while my bill was being recalculated, the high amount had not actually been removed and was still showing as incurred by me. It was only when one of their Managers got involved that the amount was put into dispute, and thus temporarily removed from my account.

And as for them letting me go - on the contrary, it seemed they were only too happy to get rid of me!! When I wrote to them to complain about the service I had received; from their sales team in the shop initially (who had insisted that my daughter had to have a brand new contract with a brand new number to go with her brand new phone, instead of just an upgrade - I subsequently found out from their cancellation team that this was not true, and she could have just had an upgrade, which would have meant this mistake would not have happened); to the collections team who were calling me at all hours of the day and evening and weekends to demand money while the bill was being recalculated, and every time they called me they quoted different amounts that I had to pay (anything up to £200 at one point); the fact that credits that should have been applied for promotional reasons and refund of advance-billed line rental for her old phone were not applied; not to mention the sheer frustration of feeling like I was banging my head against a brick wall trying to sort out a mess that was not of my doing in the first place!! I wrote to them and suggested that they either credit my account with some goodwill for all the hassle, or that they let me out of my contract with them, as well as my daughters, without penalty or charge. They immediately agreed to let me go but would only issue our PAC's if we sent our phones back. Given that I only got my phone at Christmas, as did my eldest daughter, I felt this was unjust of them to want this, and believed that they should let us keep them as a gesture of goodwill. You may disagree, however, chances are only someone who has been through what I have with them would fully appreciate and understand where I am coming from.

If I am honest, what really gets my goat is that at no time have T-Mobile acknowledged that any mistakes were made on their part, nor have they apologised for the distress caused by the numerous threatening calls from their collectiions team. E-mails sent to their CEO and Customer Services Director which are detailed in their complaints policy online are actually picked up and replied to by the Complaints Investigation team, although there is no mention of this happening in the complaints policy.

There is so much more I could tell you, but like I said - I was trying to keep it brief!!!

grumbler

I give up, sorry. My head hurts.

You can ask Ofcom for an advice and then take things further with an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme. However, you definitely have to make your story short, consistent, clear and understandable first: facts only without any irrelevant rubbish.

And try avoiding long sentences. In the above post one sentence takes 9 lines on my screen and contains 191:eek: words.

nash1977

I would simply forget about it as the mistake has been corrected.

Maisie_Miss

I tried to give you the shortened version in the first instance, but it proved to be confusing to some. What I wrote above is a shortened version of the main points. So much more happened since I received that bill, one could call it a comedy of errors, only it's not funny.

It's easy to say forget about it when you haven't been affected by something like this. 6 weeks of incoming phone calls and unpleasantness from a collections team of people who know nothing of the background to a customers case, or why an amount appears to be owing before they call you. They have automated dialling and it's only when the call is picked up by the customer that the case notes come up at their end.

And to let them forget about it means that they get away with shoddy service levels all the time and will never be made to answer to their mistakes.

And Grumbler - if you look, the sentence was punctuated appropriately; thus, this was not one long sentence.

I did refer the case to CISAS, who are an ADR scheme. It took them a week to throw my complaint out because they said I was claiming more than £5,000. When I questioned them on this, it appears that they made their decision based on the initial disputed amount of £16,000-odd, without fully reading my complaint . My claim, such as it is, is far, far below £5,000. If T-Mobile had apologised for their mistake initially, I actually would have been happy to accept that - I know no one will believe me, but the more they have refused to apologise, the worse it makes me feel.

Obviously, I was looking in the wrong place for some advice and answers here, and I am sorry that I bothered you.

OneADay

Its very hard to understand what you are trying to say happened and did happen. Try breaking it down into smaller sentences with facts only.

December 2010 - a contract ended in your name

Then you moved to a new contract? What happened to the old contract? The old sim card? Did you give 30 days notice to stop that contract?

February 2011 - you are getting chased for £16k for the old phone?

The £16k you say was put on your account - how did that happen, T-mobile would not have simply wiped it off without giving a reason. Was the sim used?

If T-mobile have acknowledged there was an error and acknowledge no more money required from you but you are getting calls from them - suggest you write them a letter explaining. Better still go online and complete their online Contact Us form. They normally call back and get it resolved once for all.

And I don't understand the £5000 figure and CISAS - you went to Ofcom to complain about what?