T mobile mis-selling/mis-representation/mercenary

question

Im posting this on behalf of a friend.
Said friend foolishly got a contract on behalf of her 30 year old son.The son couldn't get a contract himself, but had faithfully promised to pay her £17 per month to cover the tariff. He's on a 24 month contract and is 8 months in. The son has racked up massive bills into the £100's practically every month so far which have led to a total of bills around £1500.
She contacted T-mobile 2 months ago to ask them to stop calls when he reached his limit or to change her tariff to a higher cost one where this is possible ( I believe they advertise these tariffs as "You Fix". They said they could not. They then offered her a tariff of £26 per month with 1000 minutes which would have covered the extra calls her son was making. Because her son had promised not to go over again, she asked if she could get back to them which they agreed.
My friend contacted T-mobile today, begging for some help to stop this happening. The "You Fix" tariffs are still being advertised as being available on T-mobile's website, yet she was advised that these are no longer available. She was then told that they could only offer her a contract of £37 per month for 2000 minutes of calls and that the £26 tariff was no longer an option. My friend had been entitled to a £5 loyalty discount on the original contracts (she also has a phone from T-mobile), but they're not prepared to honour that with this new tariff.
To add insult to injury, when my friend asked to speak to a supervisor to query all of this, she was told he was too busy. When she insisted, she was assured by the operator Lhey, that the Team manager Ryan on team 624 would phone her back by 2pm. They have still not called her back.
We all know that she should not have got the phone for her son in the first place and that he is, or should be responsible, but that doesn't help at present.
My question is, is it right that companies like T-mobile, should be able to offer tariffs that they then claim are no longer available, whilst still advertising them on the site ? I notice that the prices for these capped tariffs are also unreasonably expensive in comparison to standard tariffs. Is it that no caps encourages users to go well over their allowance, so that the provider can rake in loads of cash for extortionately high prices on calls when you go over ? Is this not sharp practice?
Has anyone got any suggestions how my friend might get more reasonable treatment from T-mobile ?

Guys_Dad

The situation is this.

Your friend agreed a 24 month contract with specific terms. She now wishes to change this contract and T-Mobile are currently not prepared to offer a different tariff.

Her son has caused the debt through irresponsibility.

So it's T-Mobile's fault!

Want a solution? Simple. Get her to suspend the service. She will still have to pay the contract off, but at least it won't exceed the monthly line rental.

As for 30-year old son? Simple again. Tell him to get a PAYG sim.

question

Thank you for your input Guy's dad, but as I said that's something we already know. I still believe the points have some merit and would still like a helpful answer to my questions.:)

Bingolingo

question wrote: »

My question is, is it right that companies like T-mobile, should be able to offer tariffs that they then claim are no longer available, whilst still advertising them on the site ? I notice that the prices for these capped tariffs are also unreasonably expensive in comparison to standard tariffs. Is it that no caps encourages users to go well over their allowance, so that the provider can rake in loads of cash for extortionately high prices on calls when you go over ? Is this not sharp practice?
Has anyone got any suggestions how my friend might get more reasonable treatment from T-mobile ?

No it is not right. Perhaps your friend might be inclined to complain to the Advertising Standards Agency about this. Although I have to mention that once a contract has been entered into there is, generally, no right to change the tariff (although most allow 'upwards' changes as your friend was offered).

Without caps there is always the danger of running up high bills. However, most people are in direct control of the device and can prevent this happening. Your friend is, unfortunately, an example of why it is best not to be responsible for a contract phone that another person is using.

Perhaps your friend can make a formal complaint about how she has been advised by T-Mobile. I can't see it doing much good though as the responsibility for paying the bills rests with her and she has been offered more suitable tariffs by the network.

The advice offered by Guys Dad is probably the best way to prevent your friend being subject to anymore high bills. Her son should be ashamed of himself.

question

Thank you so much for that very helpful response Bingolingo. I will help her to do as you suggest.:wave:

Herongull

"The son has racked up massive bills into the £100's practically every month so far which have led to a total of bills around £1500."

It sounds to me as if her absolute top priority should be to get the sim suspended, so that there are no more huge bills.

Even if they allowed her the £26 per month tariff with the higher call allowance that wouldn't necessarily have solved the problem as the son could still have exceeded that given that he is so irresponsible.

If she then had to suspend the £26 per month contract it would be costing her more money than a suspended £17 per month contract. So T-mobile are probably doing her a favour by not allowing this, although the son may not think so.

Also the fact that she was forced to suspend the contract because of the son's behaviour might help him learn that irresponsible behaviour has negative consequences. If she just gets a more expensive contract for him that this just reinforces his behaviour by rewarding it.

It sounds like the son has some deep-rooted problems and may need professional help. Perhaps money should better spend on some sort of therapy?

question

Thank you Herongull, for that response, however unqualified your "counselling" suggestion might be.

Cullumpster

I think you will find the reason that you can not change to a youfix is that they are 12 mths and the one your friend is on is a 24 mth so would not be able to change to this

dealer_wins

I would phone up and block the sim immediately, then tell my son to either pay up or be written out of my will for ever!!

What is it with adult sons treating their mums like $h1t on their shoe, its disgusting!!

ZhugeEX

dealer_wins wrote: »

I would phone up and block the sim immediately, then tell my son to either pay up or be written out of my will for ever!!

What is it with adult sons treating their mums like $h1t on their shoe, its disgusting!!

Agreed.

And it's fairly clear that the OP is in someway related to the son or Mother.

The fact is the mother signed up for a 24 month contract on a fixed tariff. She cannot move to a different tariff like a you fix tariff as the contract does not allow that. If she was out of contract it'd be a different story.

So no, the OP is 100% wrong and should tell the mother to pay the bills and take the phone away from his son.

robbies_gal

sounds like the mother is a push over who gets a contract for a 30 year old?

asking t mobile to change tariff and then blaming them for notgoing along with it is stupid they do it out of goodwill not because they owe u anything