T-Mobile scam: time to take action!!!

Bimbi

Hi all,

[Apologies for the length!]

I have been reading all the terrible things about T-Mobile (TM), particularly about the dreadful people in 'customer services' and I propose that we take ACTION. Despite being a loyal customer for almost 12 years, my dad became the latest victim today and I am determined to make sure they don't get away with it.

About a month ago, fed up with the raw deal he was getting, my dad decided to cancel and move to 3. Of course, TM offered him a deal - 500 off-peak cross network minutes for the same line rental + new handset - and he agreed to it over the phone. He was told the new deal would start the following month (1st March). He received the handset a few days later but no letter confirming the new deal. We called to check today and they completely denied the agreement, told him he can't even cancel the service because he is now bound to it for the next 12 months since the 'upgrade', and refused to do anything else. They had the nerve to offer the same deal again, but starting NEXT month!

I am absolutley fuming about it, especially now that I have read all the posts. It is quite clear to me that they are deliberately and systematically misleading and cheating people into extending their contracts. I am not a lawyer but I work for a law firm and I know for certain that what they are doing is seriously illegal. For those not aware, 'distance selling' (selling remotely via the telephone, internet etc), 'unfair terms in consumer cotracts' and 'unfair trading practics' are quite hot issues in the legal world at the moment, due to European Directives being implemented and various other amendments to legislation in the UK. So it is even more important that we take action now while the issue is still hot.

It is clear that TM customer services are completly useless in this situation - the posts in the various threads provide plenty of evidence of that. I also don't believe OFCOM are the right people at this stage because my experience is that they only get involved when all else fails, so let's save them as our last resort. This is what I propose.

1. Let's contact Trading Standards (TS) collectively. My local TS recenlty helped me resolve a very nasty situation with GE Capital (STAY AWAY FROM THEM!), and they were absolutely fantastic. It only took one letter from TS and it was sorted! In the long term, we can only be effective in stopping this scam T-Mobile are running if we complain to Trading Standards COLLECTIVLY. Otherwise, there will be many more victims, and a lot of grief. So, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, I urge you ALL to contact your local TS as soon as possible. Even better, I am happy to co-ordinate this if you guys are happy to participate. MARTIN, please help us out in any way that you can - perhaps include an article in your weekly MoneyTips..? Anything you can do will be greatly appreciated.

2. Collectively, we must contact the management of T-Mobile so the people at the top know exactly what's going on. It's quite possible that they do know already but we should contact them anyway. I have heard this tactic works with some of the bigger banks so it's definitely worth a try. But before we do so, we must get the support of Trading Standards. A letter from Trading Standards is much more likely get the management's attention. Again, I'm happy to co-ordinate this unless someone else volunteers.

3. Again, collectively, we must contact Which?, Watchdog, newspapers, radio programs, DTI's Rip-of-Tip-Off and every other consumer group out there so this scam is given maximum publicity. We can divide between us the task of contacting the various groups.

I really hope we can work together and achieve a result! And I really hope you can help us Martin!

Thanks and I hope to hear from you all soon!
Bimbi

Mobicate

what day was the handset received?

you have 7 days as per the DISTANCE SELLING REGULATIONS TO RETURN IT so you are not bound to any contract

When they send handsets they dont confirm the deals and NEVER have done

you get 4 things

1. equipment
2. DSR letter
3. T&C
4. Usually a 12mth or 24mth or even 18 mth AGREE TO STAY LETTER

no mention on the deal at all....

You need to call back tmobile ask to be transferred to CMT (Customer Management Team) and escalate the call to a Team Manager... If the Team Manager is being a call centre monkey as well There next up in chain is Ops Manager for CMT...

start making a log of who you have spoken to... everyone will give their first name but are not required to give a surname so make sure you get there team number!!!!

HTH

Bimbi

Many thanks for the advice Mobicate!!

The handset was received early in Feb so well past the 7 day cooling off period. Also, Tmobile didn't send any of the 4 things you listed apart from the new handset - not a single letter!

I will call back Tmobile but I suspect they will refuse to escalate the call, which is what they did when I called last. They even refused to put me through to the cancellation department without first paying a 'termination penalty', when all I wanted to do was to resolve the matter with the cancellation department, who arranged the deal in the first place.

Also, one of the customer service agents refused to speak to me on my father's behalf, simply because I was being insistent on getting the problem sorted. My father's English isn't very good, and he didn't want anymore confusion to be created so he kept telling her to speak to me but she refused, so I hang up and called again, only to get through to another, equally unhelpful agent.

It's a shame no one else has taken up my offer to act on this collectively but I am going ahead and contacting Trading Standards, Tmobile headoffice, and more. The offer is still on if anyone wants to join me. I really believe that we can only acheive a long term solution to these sorts of scams being perpetrated by Tmobile (and many others!) if we bring it to the attention of the authorities. No amount of threads and discussions in these chat forums will be enough to put a stop to it unless we contact the authorities DIRECTLY.

thanks
Bimbi

Mobicate

as long as the account has a password on you are entitled to have access to the account

you can do anything on there other than cancel the contract

T-mboile will let you sign into another contract even though you are not the account holder..

Tmobile are aqward at times.. they can't really refuse to let you speak to a manager!
They cant refuse to speak to you either as long as you have a password!