Any way to sort charges?

MrsWassire

I've been with T-Mobile for over 5yrs, two contract lines. Never gone over my minutes before. Last month my Dad almost died suddenly, over 100mi away, so of course I used more minutes than usual. Didn't really cross my mind though until I got my bill.. £47.60 of calls PLUS vat! :eek: That is 107 mins above my allowance. My package is: 300mins, unlimited texts, and 750MB data, plus the 'free' HTC Sensation. That costs £21.96/mo I think. So how on earth can they charge me over double my plan amount, for 1/3 of my minutes again? Seems so unfair that they can do this without warning me! If I get close to my data allowance it warns me. Since I've never gone over my minutes it didn't even cross my mind.. but would a text have been too much to ask to alert me that I was nearing my minutes and 'any future calls will be charged at 40p/min'? I certainly would have asked people to ring me back etc. I've been in tears over this all day, I can't afford almost £60 (incl. VAT), and T-Mobile refuse to help, they just say "the charges are valid". I'm also trying to deal with my Dad's affairs including neglect by his nursing home etc and this just feels like the final straw... can anyone offer any advice?

smartphone

Sorry about your Dad and hope it works out. Unfortunately, T-Mobile don't really have to do anything in this situation. As you say, you never previously worried about going over your limit, so wouldn't have requested any sort of warning text before. I don't know if this is a service generally offered, perhaps on data but not usually minutes or texts.

They may be able to offer spread payments to ease the burden on this particular month, but as they say the charges are valid. Unfortunately allowances are set up to be good value and anything outside is much pricier.

MrsWassire

I know they don't *have* to do anything, but it doesn't seem a very good way to keep a loyal customer, I recommend T-Mobile all the time to people, I certainly won't be doing that anymore. Had I known about this ahead of time I could've added a flexible booster for £4.25 which would have covered all the calls - I asked (nicely) if we could retroactively add that instead. Considering they've had thousands out of me and I almost normally use around 100mins instead of my allotted 300 it seems totally heartless to insist on me paying the £60 now given the circumstances!

Ultrasonic

MrsWassire wrote: »

I recommend T-Mobile all the time to people, I certainly won't be doing that anymore.

To be fair, T-mobile have behaved as I would expect all phone companies to in this situation. Although it may not seem like this to you at the moment, it isn't really reasonable to expect a company to drop charges that were legitimately run up every time a customer phones up to explain a set of special circumstances.

Had I known about this ahead of time I could've added a flexible booster for £4.25 which would have covered all the calls...

I understand that this feels unfair to you at the moment, but I'm sure the cost of calls outside of the inclusive minutes will have been clearly stated when you took the contract out. To suggest T-mobile didn't warn you of the costs isn't fair to them. Also, costs of calls outside of an inclusive allowance is high for all mobile providers, not just T-mobile.

As suggested above, what you probably should be able to get T-mobile to agree is to allow you to pay off the extra over a number of months rather than in one go.

Mickyk

They do not have to do anything, but if you get a UK cs agent, with a bit of compassion then they may just credit your account with a good will gesture.

Best to call early in the day though, as each agent will have an allocated amount they are allowed to credit each day, and once this is used, it is 10x harder to get anywhere.

*Be cool though, if you become irate with the person, you will get nowhere. You catch more flies with honey etc.*

spiro

Mobile phone users have two options: most providers offer a number you can call/text to check your balance to avoid this or get a capped tariff.

Techhead_2

Indeed, T- mobile have lots of ways of funding out how much of your allowance you have used and there is always the call log on your phone.

I appreciate the awful situation you are in, but none of that is really T- mobile's fault. This may seem harsh; but the time to have had this discussion should have been when you were looking at which tariff to choose. It's not really a valid argument to say that you didn't check the out of allowance costs and don't monitor your phone usage.

The best advice is to be really nice to T- mobile; explain the circumstances and hope for a good will gesture. Bear in mind that they will hear people all day ( using emotional blackmail) saying they can't pay their bill because of some unhappy event or another. So be honest with them; say you realise it's your fault and ask for their help in resolving it. Liz completely understandable why it happened and you may get an agent who will push the rules to help you.

19lottie82

Hi OP I'm really sorry about your Dad......

In regards to your phone problem I'm afraid you need to just suck this one up and chalk it down to experience. When you signed a contract with T Mobile you agreed to pay £X a month for Y minutes, and to pay Zp a minute for any calls over that figure.

You said that you knew that you were making alot more calls than usual, so I can't really see how you're suprised? T Mobile are right I'm afriad, the charges are definitely "valid". You used their service and now you ahve to pay for it.

And the best you can (maybe) hope for is that they allow you to spread the payment over a couple of months.

19lottie82

spiro wrote: »

get a capped tariff.

As far as I know, only tesco offer this service.

Trixxie

I have the T-Mobile app on my phone and check my usage there regularly (esp as I only have 100 mins per month!). The usage logs are usually virtually up-to-date.

I am so sorry about the horrible position you have found yourself in - as said above, try to catch a sympathetic CS early in the day.

dealer_wins

T-Mobile do "you-Fix" plans where you pay a set amount monthly for a set amount of mins/texts. If you run out you have to make an additional topup. You cannot make calls/texts if you run out of allowance, without topping up.

That would perhaps suit you.