T-Mobile 'you Choose'

lofielectronic

About two weeks ago I started receiving blank texts from an unknown number, 400040, on my pay as you go mobile that I only use for contacting friends and to have with me in case of car breakdowns and such. Its not that modern a phone and I never use it for anything else and also don't give out the number to third party companies.

I received about five of these messages, some had titles 'You Decide' and such and some seemed to be downloading information which my phone couldn't process. I was worried it was some kind of virus thing and deleted the messages. however they continued until one said to text 400000 to stop them. I was wary of this as it seemed either a way to charge me for something or to validate the number in the spammers system.

I Googled the number and came up with the 'Who Calls Me' website for 404000 where several people seeed to have similar issues and which suggested this might be something to do with T-Mobile. People were also reporting messages from numbers such as 400044 and 404040.

I tried to call T-mobile to confirm this but after nearly ten minutes of menus I was told I would now be charged x pence a minute which I waited to speak to a real person, I didn't really want to have to pay for this and I was already fed up of wading though the menu system.

So I contacted them on twitter asking them if these messages were indeed to do with T-mobile and received the following

; hello. Please send STOP in a text to 400000. Thank you, David.

Which didn't answer the question I asked, were these messages from T-mobile and why were they sending them to me but did suggest they had something to do with the messages. I asked again why I was receiving these messages from them and they replied

; it may have been part of a rewards package. ^David.

Rewards package? Blank messages blocking my phone, what a fab reward. none the less I hadn't signed up for anything nor updated anything on my phone but I said I would try the 'Stop' message and assumed this would be free.

We cannot confirm if you would get charged for sending to your shortcode.
Thanks.

I don't know what a shortcode is but it seems now I have to pay T-mobile to stop receiving these things that I didn't ask for or sign up for in the first place. What a nice little money spinner. I again stated that I had not signed up for this and it seemed wrong I should have to pay to stop a service I didn't start and didn't ask for

Hi, this is part of your Terms & Conditions of service. You have the
ability to Opt Out at any time. Thanks ^Rory

I've had the phone several years so I have no idea about this, other than the fact that I am already unsubscribed from promotional emails, texts and phone calls which would exclude this 'You choose' nonsense you would think.

The T-mobile website states

Want to join You Choose?
Text START to 400000.

Which I certainly have never done.

T-mobile seem to be ignoring any messages related to this now, I know its only a single charge to 'opt out' but I have wasted far too much time with their customer service channels due to this 'You Choose' spam and from what I can see they can just start this next week with another service.

If they are trying to loose customers this kind of thing seems a good way to go about it. I will certainly be writing to them about this, as this seems to be the only way to contact them that won't cost me further - their email form on the T-mobile website asks for information I don't have and so won't submit.


Thank you for the Vent.

lofielectronic

Just to update I was contacted by customer services in the end, who offered to refund any cancelation fee.

Still no word as to why they decided to sign me up for this service and it was confirmt my account is opted out of all promotional services but at least this one is canceled.

fluffnutter

I assume you're a customer of T-mobile. In which case, I think it's rubbish that you're charged to speak to someone. It's always free for me to speak to someone from Vodafone (if using my mobile).

MamaMoo_2

fluffnutter wrote: »

I assume you're a customer of T-mobile. In which case, I think it's rubbish that you're charged to speak to someone. It's always free for me to speak to someone from Vodafone (if using my mobile).

You must be on contract then. My OH uses Vodafone PAYG and is charged 25p for every call that gets put through to an operative

newbutold

Orange charges, as does Talk mobile to speak to customer services if you are a payg customer.

fluffnutter

Ah, ok, it's about PAYG vs contracts. Sorry, I wasn't aware that PAYG customers had to pay. Still rubbish though.

JonoClouds

I got an unsolicited SMS from T-Mobile today congratulating me on receiving their You Choose service. The SMS said they would be sending me lots of 'exciting' messages. In other words, they would bombard me with spam ads. I did not ask for the service, nor do anything to sign up to it. They simply decided to spam me. The only way out seemed to be to text STOP to 300000, I am a PAYG customer so it cost me one text fee (12p) to turn off a service that was foisted on me. That is theft!

lofielectronic

Went though several emails and two long phone calls to T-mobile to stop this spammy T-mobile service last year. Today I get a message saying I'm signed up for it 'again.'

Honestly!

madget_2

JonoClouds wrote: »

I got an unsolicited SMS from T-Mobile today congratulating me on receiving their You Choose service. The SMS said they would be sending me lots of 'exciting' messages. In other words, they would bombard me with spam ads. I did not ask for the service, nor do anything to sign up to it. They simply decided to spam me. The only way out seemed to be to text STOP to 300000, I am a PAYG customer so it cost me one text fee (12p) to turn off a service that was foisted on me. That is theft!

The same thing happened to me a while ago.

I contacted their customer services, who initially told me that it was nothing to do with T-mobile and that they'd never heard of it. He blocked the number, saying that it must be spam from someone trying to harvest my number. This, of course, was no use as the number kept changing and I still kept receiving several You Choose texts per day.

After searching online, I discovered that the perpetrator of You Choose most certainly was T-mobile. So I sent several STOP messages, none of which worked.

In the end, I contacted T-mobile again and spoke to an absolutely lovely chap who actually knew what he was talking about. He explained that they hadn't been informed of this You Choose business and he'd only found out about it through all of the complaints they were receiving. Luckiily, he'd worked out a way of stopping them and did this for me. After that, I received no more You Choose spam.

Like yourself, these messages were completely unsolicited and I'd specifically requested no promotional messages. I had also signed up to the Telephone Preference Society under my mobile number.

Once my contract was up, I left T-mobile as I'd had enough of bad service, having to cope with unsolicited spam from them, being left on hold for 45-50 minutes each time I tried to contact customer services and the appalling "deal" they offered me for a replacement phone (which they quoted as costing me over £40 more than it was for anyone to buy on their website without a contract!)

They do occasionally have some great CS people still, but T-mobile has just gone downhill so much that I couldn't bear to be stuck with them any longer.

PDC

I too have been magically signed up for this twice without my knowledge or wishes.

All their help desk seem to advise is to text the 'stop' message, this didn't seem to cost me anything luckily, but is a nuisance if they are going to keep signing me back up for this 'service.'