.•*ღ Extra Extra! Read All About It! - Time to hit the MEDIA

T-Mobile/Deutsche Telekom

warns of lower profits for 2009

No surprise there.

Since first posting  about my experiences with T-Mobile, including my experiences with the belligerent, condescending, and completely disrespectful customer service representative, Vin Rozzi who told me he'd see me in court.... 

Why is he still employed?  Our country is suffering from a recession where good, hard-working people are getting laid off left and right, and this person, who lacks professionalism in every sense of the word, and finds pleasure in ripping off customers is still employed?  How is that even fair?  This man is making a living out of destroying people's livelihood.

Sorry... side tracked for a moment.  What a douche... yeah.

Since first posting about my experiences with T-Mobile on various forums, message boards and other media outlets, I have received several email responses including one from Harold Cameron of HaroldSays.typepad.com, a consumer advocate who graciously offers his services to victimized consumers.  Throughout the period of this dispute, Mr. Cameron has submitted information about my experiences to FierceWireless and has also contacted various individuals from the T-Mobile corporate office.

Unfortunately, despite both Mr. Cameron's and my best efforts to amicably resolve this issue, my concerns have fallen on deaf ears.  So after weeks of trying to get T-Mobile to admit accountability for their actions and fix my account, we have decided that it's time to move on to the next step.  T-Mobile doesn't care about their customers, nor do they feel the need show them any ounce of respect.  Money talks, and they've already taken yours and mines, so why would they want talk to us anymore?

So in response to Mr. Vin Rozzi's statement, "I'll see you in court", it's about time I did just that, and file a Complaint with the court as I am allowed pursuant to M.G.L. ch. 218 sec. 21-25.

As for Ralph, who so kindly repeated Mr. Rozzi's notes to me over and over again, rather than address anything I actually said to him, I will file my complaints with the Attorney General, FTC, and FCC.  Ralph of course, informed me that I could go ahead and do just that, since it'll probably ignored anyway and that my account was going to collections.... which he lied about, since I was already getting harassed by collection agencies 3 days after I closed my account.  I had barely remembered my new Verizon number when I started getting harassed.

While I work on drafting my complaints to the the FTC and FCC; and my 93A letter to the Attorney General and to the Massachusetts District Court, I thought it would be nice to inform the corporate execs of T-Mobile USA and Deutche Telekom in Germany of the awesome quality of their staff.  

>

> Dear Sir/Madam:
>
> I am writing to you with regard to text messaging overage charges that were
> erroneously billed to my account.  Approximately two months prior to
> receiving these charges, I contacted T-Mobile customer service, requesting
> to have my text messaging service changed back to unlimited following some
> overage charges I incurred in the previous cycle.  The customer service
> representative confirmed these changes and stated that it would be reflected
> in the next billing cycle.  Imagine my surprise, when I found out my credit
> card was billed hundreds in excess through EasyPay.
>
> I have attempted several times to resolve this matter with T-Mobile
> representatives.  However, to my surprise, your representatives were both
> rude and condescending, refusing to listen to me.  They denied
> accountability before I could even get a full sentence out.   Each time, I
> was offered a partial settlement, which I declined, as I refuse to pay for a
> mistake made by a representative of T-Mobile.
>
> I was promised a service by a customer representative of T-Mobile, which I
> did not receive and as a result incurred substantial charges.  In addition,
> I was extremely disappointed by the poor treatment I was given by the
> representatives of T-Mobile.  As a loyal customer, utilizing your services
> from 2002-2009, I would think at the very least, I could’ve been shown some
> respect.  Instead, I was yelled at and repeatedly disrespected.
>
> In response to T-Mobile’s refusal to address my complaints concerning the
> unfair overage charges and their poor customer service, I have decided to
> share these experiences with other consumers on my blog.  I have also posted
> my experiences on several other sites, which can be found on the right side
> of my blog.
>
> http://t-mobilefails.blogspot.com/
>
> In addition, I was also told by one of your T-Mobile customer
> representatives that he would “see me in court” and by another to go ahead
> and file a complaint with the Attorney General as I will likely be ignored.
> So as such, it is my intent to do so.
>
> Perhaps to you, it may appear to be another deadbeat customer trying to
> escape paying my bills, but this isn’t the case.  As I stated previously to
> your customer representatives, if you look into my account; I am a customer
> who does not complain, and pays her bills on time, even when overages were
> incurred.  Simply requesting a company to show their customer some good
> faith after years of taking their money isn’t a lot to ask for.
>
> Therefore, I would like to request one thing of all of you.  Would the
> consumer in you, pay for something, that you knew, was not your fault or
> your responsibility? No right?  So why would you expect your customers to do
> that for you?
>
> I hope you enjoy the light reading, and have a lovely day.
>

I forwarded the above email to various executives of T-Mobile USA and Deutsche Telekom.  I also CCed Consumerist.com, and other other news outlets.

After that email, I also thought it would be nice to share my experiences with other consumers, and what better way than to share with media outlets.

Corporate America tries to Survive Struggling Economy by Ripping Off Struggling Consumers

Dear Sir/Madam:

With the current state of the economy, people have never been more aware of their own finances than now.  The recession has brought on a wave of anguish and anxiety that has affected the entire country, but none more than the average working class American-  people with mortgages, loans and a family to care for.

Amid all the fears concerning job stability and making ends meet, why now, does the average American have yet another reason to worry?  While consumers continue to toil in this unstable economy, Corporate America has continued to exhibit deceptive business practices at an alarming rate.  More and more, corporations are demonstrating deceptive billing practices and other dishonest behavior in an effort to maintain profit margins in this failing economy.  This appalling behavior became much more apparent to me after being overcharged hundreds of dollars by my long-time wireless carrier, T-Mobile.

From 2002-2009, I was a loyal customer who paid her bills on time and was pretty much content with the service I received.  This all changed this past March, when I discovered I was billed for ~$500+ in overages for text-messages.  This charge came as a surprise to me since I had contacted customer support to have this service reverted to unlimited, which was confirmed by the representative I spoke with at the time.

When I contacted T-Mobile customer service, I was stunned to find that I was met with adversity, where the representatives refused to listen to me, or rationally address any of my concerns.  To make matters worse, the higher up the corporate ladder I went, the more I was ignored.  The T-Mobile representatives were rude and condescending, constantly speaking over me and not allowing me to speak.  Instead of the courteous and understanding treatment, you would come to expect of customer service, I was yelled at, and spoken to like a child.  To my astonishment, when I stated that I really hope to resolve the issue without having to resort to litigation, the representative scoffed at me and told me he would see me in court, amongst other things.

After my mind-numbing encounter with this belligerent representative, I decided to do a little online investigation to see if any other consumers have experienced similar situations.  Like me, a number of people have been victims of deceptive billing, lying customer representatives, and have even encountered similar rude representatives.  Most of these instances have resulted in T-Mobile unfairly tossing the accounts of many loyal customers of several years into collections.

In addition to my ongoing dispute with T-Mobile, I have also experienced many other examples of deceptive business practices, which is becoming more frequent.  In the past month alone, I can name two instances of business deception that would disgust any consumer.  In one instance, I received a check in the mail from a company where I used to buy and sell my textbooks.  I found it strange that I was receiving a random $5.00 check and upon further inspection, I discovered a block of fine print, written in light gray, situated beneath the endorsement line.  The fine print stated that upon endorsement of the check, that the endorsee authorizes the company to withdraw $150 from their checking account, every month, for the next two years. The most appalling part about this is the fact that the company is known for selling and buying textbooks; that in itself implied that they were aiming at college students.

The need for Corporate America to rip off the average consumer doesn’t end with hitting people at home, but also at their offices.  While at work, our office received a call from a company we had done business with, stating that they received our package but that there was no check enclosed.  This was strange since we make it habit to staple the stubs to all correspondence to verify the checks were mailed.  We confirmed this to the caller who denied finding any check but hung up any way.  After this call, we received a letter from the company, reiterating what the caller had said before.  Our office made the decision to write another check and charge the company for the stop payment fee. 

While in the process of writing the new check, we also call the bank to stop payment.  Upon speaking with a bank representative, we discover that the company had already cashed the check, and that it was cashed, before the date of letter, and even before the date of the initial call.  When we call to inform the company that we would not issue a second check since it was cashed, they claimed having no knowledge of it, but we also never received another call from them either.

The lengths these corporations are taking in order to maintain their profit margins is not only disgusting, but also illegal.  I think it would be beneficial to people everywhere, if these corporations are investigated for these underhanded dealings.

Since my T-Mobile dispute is ongoing, I have started a blog to chronicle my experience with them in hopes that it will help warn other consumers of the company’s dishonest practices.

The blog can be viewed at http://t-mobileFAILS.blogspot.com

I truly do believe that this story will catch the attention of consumers and corporate executives everywhere.  As consumers, we have given these companies a great deal of our hard-earned money.  At the very least, they could have shown us a little bit of respect.  It is disheartening to know that these companies care so little about the customers who helped built their companies.  This is why I implore you to further to look into this story and help the voices who are often ignored, get heard.

I forwarded the above correspondence, to CNN, BusinessWeek, ABC News Investigates, Good Morning America, Fox Undercover, CNN Money, MSNBC, DateLine, 20/20, Primetime and... I honestly can't remember at this point.

All I know is, I'm sick of getting ignored, disrespected and being ripped off.  We as consumers should have the ability to do business with a company without the fear of being deceived or defrauded.  Our hard-earned dollars helped keep these companies alive, so why are they going to such lengths to make it hard for all of us to live.