Complaint Review: T-Mobile - Belvue Washington

What lawsuit? Please post the details here. I would love to see it.

Since you have a flex pay account the terms of that type of account require you to make a payment for your rate plan and features you add ahead of time. Normally accounts that are not flex pay do not need to make pre-payments for their service, but when they make payments (if not set up on easy pay) customer's will be charged a $5 payment processing fee if they make the payment over the phone. With your plan you could possibly be making several payments in a month depending on what you do with your account. So instead of paying $5 dollars everytime you make a payment they charge $5 dollar account maintenance fee. My best suggestion is to set up easy pay and you'll never get charged that again. And it saves hassle of having to call in to make payments

The idea behind flex-pay is to allow customers who may not have the best credit to obtain reliable cell-phone service or to help customers to control their accounts without risking overage. In reality, large deposits or less-than-perfect credit prevented many people from being able to get any service than regular prepaid,which can be considerably more expensive than a regular contract account. I think most people would consider $60 over the course of a year easier to manage than $250 upfront. Regarding the control charge, there are a couple of other ways to look at it, other than illegal. If you view it as a discount on a bill for being set up on automatic payments, is that illegal? Say, for instance, your monthly service charges are 44.99, but if you were to place the account on auto payments, there would be a $5/month discount, making your payments 39.99. Would that be illegal? Another thing to consider is a lot of companies charge payments for making payments, as it costs the company money to process those payments. I know my power company charges $4.99 for making a payment in a center or online and almost $15 for a payment over the phone, but payment is free if it is automatically debited. It is similar with many, if not most, other companies now. While it may not be the most convenient thing in the world, it is a reality of many businesses now.

A few things. T-Mobile is always having issues with people with poor credit disconnecting service. It costs them MONEY. Before, if your credit was weak, they offered SmartAccess. If your credit was worse, you had to pay $250 or $500 deending on how bad it is. Now, with FlexPay, if your credit is bad, you pay the first month's bill and the full price of the phone. Remember that T-Mobile loses money when discounting those phones for new customers (the monthly service charge makes up for this). If you've never paid a bill in your life, what makes you think that T-Mobile thinks you're going to pay theirs??? You pay your first month's bill, (you're basically prepaying for your service, while getting WAYYYYY better rates than prepaid) and the full price of the phone. Now, sometimes it's rough and you can't pay the bill. One of FlexPay's perks is the month to month contracts. T-Mobile didn't take a loss on a phone and if you didn't pay the bill, nothing reports negatively on your credit. This sounds fair to me.

Here is the info I found from from T-Mobile..... Are there any additional recurring charges to use FlexPay? Yes, there is a monthly Control Charge of $4.99 per line that will be charged with each billing cycle. If you sign up with our EasyPay payment option, which automatically deducts your monthly service charge either from your credit/debit card or by electronic check, T-Mobile will waive the Control Charge. THIS IS VERY TRUE ... AND MAYBE ALL COMPANIES SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO DO THIS ... WHAT IF A PERSON DOESN'T HAVE AN ACCT THAT CAN BE ELECTRONICALLY DEBITED??? ... UNFAIR!!!! bbbbooooo!

1-18-08 Good day, Every single word in the rip-off report on Tmobile is true. If you are not aware of their illegal rip-off tactics then simply pick up your phone and call them and ask them about this illegal 'control charge'. Then you'll see for yourself. We (THANK GOD) switched to a better and bigger cell phone co. several months ago now; and are happy, and proud to say we are stress free now that we are not being ripped off and having money take from us for NOTHING every month. No consumer should be forced to give a co. money for NOTHING. No service, no product, no nothing. Just taking $5.00 from you every month for nothing. A consumer should not have to pay a co. (company) to pay them money, to pay your bill, to make them rich. The only thing a consumer should have to pay is their bill; that's it. NOT $5.00 just because you don't want a company automatically taking money out of your bank account every month. That is musceling, and that is a (say it with me) RIP-OFF. Point blank. Tmobile inacts SEVERAL other (an entire listing) of illegal and wrong, below standard, unprofessional tactics, behaviors, and cust. serv. that is beyond ripoffreport.com; that has been properly and massively reported to the BBB, the FTC, and to their state and the goverment business license officials. We (our national family owned company) have also encouraged over 15,000 of our opt-in newletter subscribers to NOT choose tmobile; and to instead choose to sign up with prominent, professional, respectful, and legal running co.'s such as Sprint, Verizon Wireless, U.S Cellular, Nextel, AT&T, etc, etc. And so far (praise God) over 12,000 of our subscribers have done so!!!!!!! Be smart and join them. NEVER GO WITH TMOBILE. ================ The Original Ripoff Report Text [EVERY SINGLE WORD HERE IN REPORT IS 100% TRUE] : 10-08-07 TMobile inacted an illegal consumer business tactic February 2007; that is now affecting me; but is affecting thousands of other American consumers who have cell phone service with them. When I called to have my service switched to have only my name on it ('change of responsibility' they all it), they rip me off and other customers off who for over a year now have paid our bill on time every single month for over a year but yet TMobile forces you to let them do a credit check and if you have bad credit they illegally charge you $5.00 every month just because you choose not to let them automatically debit it from your bank account or Visa account every month. This is illegal. They call it 'control charge'. In life, when I pay for something I get something in return. But in this case, with T-Mobile, you get nothing in return whatsoever. They are ripping you out of $5.00 a month, for nothing. It is illegal to make a consumer pay you to cash their bill payment, to accept and take their money. That is illegal, it's discriminatory. They are supposed to charge a security deposit (of no more than $150 to $250, which you are suppose to be refunded back after a while) for people with bad credit. NOT charge a rip off $5.00 'control charge'. And as far as my account goes, they completely ignored and disregarded the fact that I already have good payment standing with them; and like I wrote above here, I have paid my bill on time every single month ever since I've been with them over a year now. I should not have to pay this rip-off 'control charge'. $5.00 a month times 12 months is $60 that they are illegally muscling and ripping people out of. For nothing, no features, no services it's paying for, no nothing. Just throwing money away every month to them. They need to be stopped immediately. I look forward to your prompt and detailed reply to this report and to your immediate resolve and details as to what you are going to do about it. Consumer With A Voice

1-18-08 Good day, Every single word in the rip-off report on Tmobile is true. If you are not aware of their illegal rip-off tactics then simply pick up your phone and call them and ask them about this illegal 'control charge'. Then you'll see for yourself. We (THANK GOD) switched to a better and bigger cell phone co. several months ago now; and are happy, and proud to say we are stress free now that we are not being ripped off and having money take from us for NOTHING every month. No consumer should be forced to give a co. money for NOTHING. No service, no product, no nothing. Just taking $5.00 from you every month for nothing. A consumer should not have to pay a co. (company) to pay them money, to pay your bill, to make them rich. The only thing a consumer should have to pay is their bill; that's it. NOT $5.00 just because you don't want a company automatically taking money out of your bank account every month. That is musceling, and that is a (say it with me) RIP-OFF. Point blank. Tmobile inacts SEVERAL other (an entire listing) of illegal and wrong, below standard, unprofessional tactics, behaviors, and cust. serv. that is beyond ripoffreport.com; that has been properly and massively reported to the BBB, the FTC, and to their state and the goverment business license officials. We (our national family owned company) have also encouraged over 15,000 of our opt-in newletter subscribers to NOT choose tmobile; and to instead choose to sign up with prominent, professional, respectful, and legal running co.'s such as Sprint, Verizon Wireless, U.S Cellular, Nextel, AT&T, etc, etc. And so far (praise God) over 12,000 of our subscribers have done so!!!!!!! Be smart and join them. NEVER GO WITH TMOBILE.

The $4.99 control charge is added to control the usage on the account. It is there to ensure you that your bill is the same every month. It "Controls" the usage on the account by not letting you go over your allotted minutes with out knowing. This is only added to an account if request or the credit score on the account is not high enough. It is in the contract multiple times and it is a valid charge.

I've had T Mobile for almost ten years, back when it was Omnipoint, and later Voicestream. I have never heard of this $5.00 "fee". I paid my bill with a check and only in the past few months have I paid online. My bill has rarely fluctuated, and on close inspection, I have never seen any "control" charges. So I fail to understand what the OP is ranting about.

and have been with them for about 1.5 years. I have never even heard of or have been charged this $5 fee. I always pay my bill online almost as soon as the new statement is posted, which means that I usually pay about three weeks before the due date. Could paying my bill so far in advance be the reason that I don't have to pay this mysterious $5 fee charge. Thanks for this thread. You have just reminded me to make my payment now that is due on Jan. 11th.

The reason you are being charged is because you did not enroll in flex pay easy pay...not because t-mobile wants to take your 5 dollars...look at your bill next time before you start saying things that are not true.

if your attitude represents the attitude of the customer service reps at t-mobile, it only strengthens my joy at switching companies. your cruel attitude towards these confused customers is unaccaptable. if you are expecting the whole united states population to know every rule and policy of your company, you're unrealistic. especially when they're strange policies other larger companies do not use. i hope your company doesn't find you on here and terminate your position for speaking to their clients in this manner!

seriously this is a total joke. Illegal? to charge you a fee to take a payment over the phone? its a FEE! when you wire money from your bank to another acct and theres a fee is that illegal? overdraft fees illegal too? I seriously cannot believe that you think that having the convienance of paying over the phone at the last minute when you could have mailed your bill, paid online at T-mobile.com, or even calling in and paying through the automated system, is illegal! its so that people like you dont make longer hold times! i hate wating on hold to talk to a customer service rep becuase you feel that you have to talk to someone to pay your bill. Use a self help option. save yourself from paying those "illegal" fees and save me from hold time.. geesh! (((link redacted))) CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.