I live in Virginia. I began a cell phone service w/ fricking TMobile in August 2005 and it was a single phone plan with 300 minutes/month. No problems....at that point.
In August 2006, I received a marketing call asking if I would like to 'upgrade' my cell service to a FAMILY PLAN. Actually, my husband and I had just been discussing this option, so I was interested. This is where our problems began. We opted to 'upgrade'. I was given a lengthy explanation of the process and how the 2nd phone would be placed under service with the original first cell phone. We were also given a 'free' cell phone in this upgrade option. I was told of the additional charge that we would incur per month. I wrote everything down.
We received the 2nd cell phone, as promised. We did as we were instructed to do and contacted the company to activate the phone. No problems. A day later, TMobile called us because there had been an error in our activation, but it apparently was corrected. Our initial problems began when we started receiving numerous calls for a business located in West Virginia. After days of 'wrong number' problems, we requested a different cell number because we were losing minutes on our new FAMILY PLAN because TMobile gave us a relatively active cell number that had been a business in another state. At the time of the number change, they did give us a minute-credit for time that had been used on erroneous calls. Aside from our inconvenience to re-contact our contacts about yet-another-cell-number, that problem was resolved.
If only it had been that simple! Weeks later, we received our normal cell phone bill, and then we received a second cell phone bill with a separate bill. This bill was an erroneous bill and was even on a second account. To us, we were being billed for two SEPARATE plans. We contacted TMobile and told them what happened and they agreed but would make the adjustments.
The first erroneous bill occurred after we upgraded to the FAMILY PLAN. TMobile was not able to correct their error and month-after-month, we continued to get billed twice for 2 separate accounts. We refused to pay the 2nd bill, and by November (this was 3 months later), it appeared that the original account finally did show the correct billing and we were finally on the way to our promised FAMILY PLAN.
Then we received a second bill. JEEZUS! That bill was for the second phone that was covered on the first, original account. On and on this went.....phone call after phone call....
(TMobile, you are the worst of the worst!)
By the middle of December, we decided that it was pointless and we were going to tell TMobile this FAMILY PLAN was not an upgrade it was nothing but a billing nightmare and we wanted to get out of the plan. No amount of bitching worked. Explanations were ignored. (I HATE TMobile!)
Our bill for that phone was due on December 19 and not paying for services that were being billed on our first phone, the cell service was actually DISCONNECTED at approx. 6:30am on the day the bill was due on December 19. (Way to go, you fricking asswipes!) The bill (that was the "extra bill", mind you!) was only "late" by 30 days, but the bill was a bill for a second account that was nothing more than a double-billing fiasco set up by TMobile.
I contacted them later that morning and instructed them that we did NOT want to be re-connected under any circumstances, that we were cancelling the FAMILY PLAN. I was told there would be an 'early exit' penalty of $200 for the cancellation. I told them that the cancellation was due to the 4 months of incorrect billing and that we never received the real service we were told about at the time of our agreement in August 2006.
In January, we received 2 bills again. One bill showed that we were being charged for services beyond our 'cancellation date'. That bill also showed a penalty of $200 per line, for a grand total of $448. 84. Now, considering my first fricking TMobile account began in August 2005, how the hell did they come up with charging me for an 'early exit' on a phone I'd had with them for more than 2 years.
(Did I say I fucking HATE TMobile?)
We have tried to work with TMobile and have spoken with a variety of employees. (Are they all on 'ludes, or what?!) We have spoken with finance, and with customer service. One person says we will not have to pay the early out due to the very large problems we have had with the service and with billing. Another person agreed that we would not be charged. Then when we are connected to the Finance Department, we are told that we owe $448.84 and there is no adjustment to this bill.
After a number of attempts to adjust our bill, we realized this situation would never be resolved. We told TMobile we were not going to pay what we did not owe and we were not going to allow a company to double-bill us. This was at the end of Dec. 2006.
Then we begin getting TMobile automated phone calls. In January, I contacted them and was put through to the Finance Department yet again. After explaining the problems yet-again, I was once again told they were not going to adjust the bill. It was during this phone call that I requested they cease calling our home number. I was told that the phone calls were 'automatically generated by computer' and they could not stop the calls until I paid the bill.
By the end of January, we received daily calls and I contacted TMobile again -- for the last time. I did not speak with anyone in Finance as it was futile. I did request that the telephone harassment cease. This request fell on deaf ears, too.
We have been receiving a bill every month since December, with no "warning" in the bill. We have also received a telephone call either every day or every other day, up to 8:35pm at night. All calls begin with an automated voice message and they want us to stay on the line to speak with a representative.
Two days ago, we received a notice from a collection agency telling us to pay-up or face a judgement.
We have never been in a situation like this but we refuse to become consumer-victims. We have been defrauded and do not believe that we should have had to deal with these shenanigans, much less PAY someone for their accounting fiascos at our expense.
I love knowing that there are now 13 states that are involved in class-action lawsuits against TMobile for the hefty cancellation charges.
We refuse to pay TMobile for fees that they decided we owed because THEY were unable to provide us with the plan they advertised and contracted with us for.
TMOBILE, KISS OFF. I'll have my day-in-court with you.
