- Report: #338181
Complaint Review: T-Mobile - Sant Louis Missouri
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Author Confirmed
Why?
T-Mobile
PO Box 790047 Sant Louis, 63179 Missouri, U.S.A.
Phone:
800-937-8997
Web:
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T-Mobile $1000 for incoming texting!!! Unwilling to work with customers Saint Louis Missouri
Last month my husband and I received everyones worst nightmare in our mailbox... a 149 page cell bill from T-Mobile, one of which was for very close to $1000 for approx. 3000+ incoming text messages and some apparently 1000+ outgoing text messages at .15 a pop. Interesting thing... only 15 incoming text messages have a phone number attached to them and only 10 outgoing ones do...the rest say "4701 Text"...some of the "4701 texts" were made into my daughter's phone some 5 or 6 in the matter of one minute, at 3 am in the morning, during school hours, you name it.
My daughter is 16. She wasn't given this phone yesterday, and our bill usually ran some $95 a month. The 10 outgoing text messages I see reasonable and $3.75 isn't going to kill anyone,it was also about average for my daughter's phone.We know the sender and receiver in each of those texts. The month prior she made and received a total of six text messages.We were going to have all text messaging blocked when we got a phone for her, and we asked that they do it at the T-Mobile shoppe and they said we had to do it online, but if you go to their website, you cannot block text messaging there either...I had the first rep I spoke to about this bill tell me about how responsible parents will pay some $19.99 per line for unlimited text messaging...why should I pay all that extra money for something we do not use other than for a small handful of texts my kid made...why pay $19.99 for $3 worth of text messages? I am not out to line T-Mobile pockets.
I call T-Mobile immediately upon opening this bill, as I am sick to death about it. I also know that my child is not so irresponsible that she would have all of a sudden went mad and decided to run up this phone bill like this after having had the phone for about a year with no prior incidents like this... All I went away with from the conversation with T-Mobile was that from what I understand ( I could be wrong because the converation quickly turned to my parenting skills and how I should raise my 16 year old youngest child) was that all the "4701" messages that were incoming were sent from a Yahoo internet account...messenger to Mobile phone from the sender's end ( that the sender of the messages was sending the messages via instant messenger to my daughter's phone.) All of the out going messages say 4701 text Yahoo messenger next to them, and my daughter says that she was telling the sender after five or six messages to STOP TEXTING HER PHONE from the messenger... and that she had hit reply to try to get this person to stop texting her. I had her phone shut off immediately to stop any more text messages from coming into her phone. They will not remove any of the charges.
I call T-Mobile back the following day, and I get a woman on the phone who is somewhat nice to me. She tells me to pay the portion of the bill which is my nomal monthly charge ( I gave them slightly extra and $110 instead of the $95 and change bill) and she told me to call back the day the bill becomes past due, and ask to speak to their financial services representative so that I can make a payment arrangement. Some payment arrangement we got... They wanted $400+ then and there and the balance of $500 in one weeks time. I told her that I could not do that, but did tell her that I did want to pay the bill, and that we had been customers of theirs for a long time ( which she did act sympathetic about ,I am sure for show value only) as we are on our third or fourth two year contract. I tell her what I can do and she kind of tells me that it isn't good enough. Well I tell her that if it isn't good enough then she can do whatever it is that she has to do and I will do the same.
This is when the daily phone calls started coming...many of them to my husband...at work. He is in the military and is active duty. Now those of you who are in the military know for a fact that defending this country does not pay well. $1000 is a mortgage payment, not a phone bill. T-Mobile had to be told not to call my husband at work. Once they were told this he went to his command about the phone bill. We got some fairly good advice in my opinion from the military, but T-Mobile keeps on trucking with all kinds of crap... they call my house virtually everyday, and I get nice letters in the mail about "Protect Your Credit Rating". My husband and I have excellent credit , and we had never once paid T-Mobile late in the past. Apparently like AT&T, they don't like keeping their customers. One day, T-Mobile called and left a message while I was out. I called them back because I am just so sick of them calling. I called and wanted to see if their finanacial representative wanted to be more reasonable than they had in the past, and I told them straight out exactly what I could do ( give them $100 a month on top of any outstanding current bill) and when I could give them money...this representative said to me "Why did you bother calling us unless you could pay us according to our payment plan right now?... That I was wasting their time." T- Mobile, you are a waste of MY time. Send that bill to a collection agency ( unless you own them, which you probably do), as they are likely to be more reasonable. Why don't you take us to court? We want to pay you, even if it is for bogus "incomming text messages from a computer" charges. I bet a judge would rule in our favor!... When I do get any money to them, it will be by mail...in the form of of a money order...I am not about to pay over the phone with my credit cards or by personal check so I can have my bank accounts wiped out like may others here have by many different companies.
I only wish to settle this matter peacefully, and apparently T-Mobile is out for blood from a stone.
Constance
Tampa, Florida
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on T-Mobil
My daughter is 16. She wasn't given this phone yesterday, and our bill usually ran some $95 a month. The 10 outgoing text messages I see reasonable and $3.75 isn't going to kill anyone,it was also about average for my daughter's phone.We know the sender and receiver in each of those texts. The month prior she made and received a total of six text messages.We were going to have all text messaging blocked when we got a phone for her, and we asked that they do it at the T-Mobile shoppe and they said we had to do it online, but if you go to their website, you cannot block text messaging there either...I had the first rep I spoke to about this bill tell me about how responsible parents will pay some $19.99 per line for unlimited text messaging...why should I pay all that extra money for something we do not use other than for a small handful of texts my kid made...why pay $19.99 for $3 worth of text messages? I am not out to line T-Mobile pockets.
I call T-Mobile immediately upon opening this bill, as I am sick to death about it. I also know that my child is not so irresponsible that she would have all of a sudden went mad and decided to run up this phone bill like this after having had the phone for about a year with no prior incidents like this... All I went away with from the conversation with T-Mobile was that from what I understand ( I could be wrong because the converation quickly turned to my parenting skills and how I should raise my 16 year old youngest child) was that all the "4701" messages that were incoming were sent from a Yahoo internet account...messenger to Mobile phone from the sender's end ( that the sender of the messages was sending the messages via instant messenger to my daughter's phone.) All of the out going messages say 4701 text Yahoo messenger next to them, and my daughter says that she was telling the sender after five or six messages to STOP TEXTING HER PHONE from the messenger... and that she had hit reply to try to get this person to stop texting her. I had her phone shut off immediately to stop any more text messages from coming into her phone. They will not remove any of the charges.
I call T-Mobile back the following day, and I get a woman on the phone who is somewhat nice to me. She tells me to pay the portion of the bill which is my nomal monthly charge ( I gave them slightly extra and $110 instead of the $95 and change bill) and she told me to call back the day the bill becomes past due, and ask to speak to their financial services representative so that I can make a payment arrangement. Some payment arrangement we got... They wanted $400+ then and there and the balance of $500 in one weeks time. I told her that I could not do that, but did tell her that I did want to pay the bill, and that we had been customers of theirs for a long time ( which she did act sympathetic about ,I am sure for show value only) as we are on our third or fourth two year contract. I tell her what I can do and she kind of tells me that it isn't good enough. Well I tell her that if it isn't good enough then she can do whatever it is that she has to do and I will do the same.
This is when the daily phone calls started coming...many of them to my husband...at work. He is in the military and is active duty. Now those of you who are in the military know for a fact that defending this country does not pay well. $1000 is a mortgage payment, not a phone bill. T-Mobile had to be told not to call my husband at work. Once they were told this he went to his command about the phone bill. We got some fairly good advice in my opinion from the military, but T-Mobile keeps on trucking with all kinds of crap... they call my house virtually everyday, and I get nice letters in the mail about "Protect Your Credit Rating". My husband and I have excellent credit , and we had never once paid T-Mobile late in the past. Apparently like AT&T, they don't like keeping their customers. One day, T-Mobile called and left a message while I was out. I called them back because I am just so sick of them calling. I called and wanted to see if their finanacial representative wanted to be more reasonable than they had in the past, and I told them straight out exactly what I could do ( give them $100 a month on top of any outstanding current bill) and when I could give them money...this representative said to me "Why did you bother calling us unless you could pay us according to our payment plan right now?... That I was wasting their time." T- Mobile, you are a waste of MY time. Send that bill to a collection agency ( unless you own them, which you probably do), as they are likely to be more reasonable. Why don't you take us to court? We want to pay you, even if it is for bogus "incomming text messages from a computer" charges. I bet a judge would rule in our favor!... When I do get any money to them, it will be by mail...in the form of of a money order...I am not about to pay over the phone with my credit cards or by personal check so I can have my bank accounts wiped out like may others here have by many different companies.
I only wish to settle this matter peacefully, and apparently T-Mobile is out for blood from a stone.
Constance
Tampa, Florida
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on T-Mobil
6 Updates & Rebuttals
Jpeterson
Marina Del Rey,Colorado,
U.S.A.
Agree with Nikki
#2Consumer Comment
Wed, August 06, 2008
Going off what Nikki said while you may be upset, more than likely your daughter is to blame. I am guessing she set up her phone to be able to receive instant messages from MSN. Maybe she thought it didn't count as text because it was im, so she just said she didn't send anyone text. This seems to be an ongoing problem because with all the new technology parents are really unsure when they are giving their kids these phones of applications like this. If your daughter is 16 I would say I am 100% sure she uses messenging services like Aim or MSN which would explain receiving text at 3:00 A.M. She probably had a friend who stayed up late send her an IM. There would be no phone number listed to the text because these messengers aren't phones; they don't have a phone number they come from the computer. This all means she probably left the computer on with MSN logged in as away so that she could receive messages there at all hours of the day but it would deliver an away message to whoever sent her an IM. This is why they aren't providing phone numbers for the text and will also not remove the charges. You may want to think twice before you give your daughter another cell phone or upgrade to get free internet, text, and everything else so you won't have to worry about it.
Nikki
Coconut Creek,Florida,
U.S.A.
For the future.
#3Consumer Suggestion
Wed, August 06, 2008
AIM is set up this way so Yahoo messenger may be too. If you subscribe to instant messanger and you type in your cell phone number in the set up, you may be agreeing to receive IM's through your cell phone if your computer is not signed in. Go into the Yahoo messenger account and disable the cell phone number. Tell your daughter not to enter her new cell number in there. Her friends may have just thought they were IMing your daughter's computer, but since your daughter was not logged in at the time, the messages may have been auto forwarded to her phone.
Nikki
Coconut Creek,Florida,
U.S.A.
For the future.
#4Consumer Suggestion
Wed, August 06, 2008
AIM is set up this way so Yahoo messenger may be too. If you subscribe to instant messanger and you type in your cell phone number in the set up, you may be agreeing to receive IM's through your cell phone if your computer is not signed in. Go into the Yahoo messenger account and disable the cell phone number. Tell your daughter not to enter her new cell number in there. Her friends may have just thought they were IMing your daughter's computer, but since your daughter was not logged in at the time, the messages may have been auto forwarded to her phone.
Nikki
Coconut Creek,Florida,
U.S.A.
For the future.
#5Consumer Suggestion
Wed, August 06, 2008
AIM is set up this way so Yahoo messenger may be too. If you subscribe to instant messanger and you type in your cell phone number in the set up, you may be agreeing to receive IM's through your cell phone if your computer is not signed in. Go into the Yahoo messenger account and disable the cell phone number. Tell your daughter not to enter her new cell number in there. Her friends may have just thought they were IMing your daughter's computer, but since your daughter was not logged in at the time, the messages may have been auto forwarded to her phone.
Nikki
Coconut Creek,Florida,
U.S.A.
For the future.
#6Consumer Suggestion
Wed, August 06, 2008
AIM is set up this way so Yahoo messenger may be too. If you subscribe to instant messanger and you type in your cell phone number in the set up, you may be agreeing to receive IM's through your cell phone if your computer is not signed in. Go into the Yahoo messenger account and disable the cell phone number. Tell your daughter not to enter her new cell number in there. Her friends may have just thought they were IMing your daughter's computer, but since your daughter was not logged in at the time, the messages may have been auto forwarded to her phone.
Constance
Virginia Beach,Virginia,
U.S.A.
Update...Letter from T-Mobile...
#7Author of original report
Tue, August 05, 2008
Got a nice letter today after filing complaints to the FTC, The Attorney General in the state T-Mobile bills out of and the state in which we live, and a cease and desist to the collection agency plaguing us everyday from T- Mobile. Well I have to say this is interesting...I will post it pretty much verbatim here: T-Mobile shows that we suspended your account July 8, 2008 ( they turned off the two phones in which the text messages were not made to by the end of May) due to non payment ( when they wanted over $900 which I disputed and will not pay until they can validate each and every one of those text messages with from whom and to whom with an internet account or a phone number instead of "4701"), and your account balance is $1, 221.42 which includes an early termination fee ( it included two early termination fees, one for the phone we had turned off so that no one could text message into it anymore, and the one in which my husband had the main account, saying it was under contract until 2009). We have reviewed your account and find the text messaging to be valid. ( They still have not told me where any of these incoming text messages originated from.) T-Mobile uses a combination of the Electronic Serial Number (ESN), which is unique to each handset, and the subscriber Identity Module (SIM) which is unique to each customer, to track calls and messages. Our records show that the disputed text messages were sent to or from (XXX) XXX-XXXX (wrong phone number, which was my husband's phone and not my daughter's phone which the bill states the texting was made to). Unfortunately, we are unable to remove these charges. Thank You for your prompt attention to this matter in order to prevent further collection activity. I believe that they are unwilling to try to work with anyone and apparently they didn't check on anything, if they had they would have known that these text messages were not made to the account number that they listed in the letter. I also believe that T-Mobile also has little or no experience with people contesting them. I'll contest them the entire way to court.
