Bait and Switch Fees

Yes, that is how I found out that this was an official program to give people misleading information so that t-mobile could charge them extra fees.

Here is the situation that i explained to no less than three of your account support representatives and managers:

On Sept 2 I called to open a new account with two phone lines and one tablet. I did not need any new equipment and I was told I could easily port my service over from Verizon. I was also told that I would be sent three new sim cards and that once I received them I was to call and have my numbers switched over.

My account was opened on 9/4 when the sim cards were shipped. On 9/8 I called to switch over my numbers as I was instructed to do.

I was then charged a $77.50 fee for changing my service in the middle of a billing period!  I tried to explain \several times, to each person I spoke with, that this is what I was told to do and was never informed I would be charged a fee for following these instructions. I was told each time that this is a valid fee. By following all of the instructions I was given I was led into a trap where my normally $20/month service fee for my tablet was replaced with a $77.50 fee. If this is not intentionally misleading practices to charge exorbitant fees then I do not know what is.

So congratulations, you have that money from me now. However, I had also ordered a new iPhone the day before and I am now returning it. I will still get a new phone but I will not buy equipment or anything extra ever again from T-Mobile.

I have also filed a complaint with the FCC, posted about this behavior on FB, tweeted about it and also told my friends, who I had previously told about the great deal you have, to stay away from T-Mobile.

Thank you for your thoughtful reply but yes, I can easily believe that these sort of fee structures are intentional. I have spent way too many years working with major corporations and I have personally seen this sort of behavior way too often to naively believe it is not intentional.  I heard engineers at GM talking about designing traps where water would collect to incite rust, I have heard DTV managers discuss the percentage of customers who will not notice the initial free services have expired and are now being billed and a lot more. After all, if TM had, as I expected them too, reversed the fee then I could and would believe it was a simple mistake. But when a new customer opens an account and then activates their devices, to charge them a change fee for that activation just a couple of days later, this cannot be a unique occurrence.

Yes, I am positive that the $77 fee was not for all the lines or any more than the single tablet line. There are two lines on my second invoice from TM. The first line deactivates my prior tablet number and gives me a partial month credit for the $20 fee and the second one adds a new line with a pro-rated 77.50 fee.   No such fees were charged for porting my cell number, which actually matters, but only for the tablet number.

I called customer service, then when was told this was the way they charge for changes I spoke to his supervisor then after getting the same story spoke to that person's manager. All three told me the same thing and that is that this is the way they charge for service changes; even brand new ones.

I will post the same issue to the t-force folks and see if that group is more sincere/honest than the customer service team I spoke with. BTW, I know they have no choice about what they tell customers.

Thanks I have reached out to them and am waiting on their response.

Glad they got it figured out!!

I made a mid cycle change. prior to making the change, T-Mobile agent told me change would cost $20 per month extra.. Few weeks later new bill arrived  Next bill was $101 more!!! Called T-Mobile twice. Both agents said (in poor English) that the bill was correct, but neither of them could explain the $81 difference. They would just endlessly repeat that it was a "mid cycle change" like that was an explanation. Finally I called the cancellation department and the agent there gave me a credit of $80. He too could not explain the $81 difference, but was honest saying he did not know.. What is clear to me is that there is massive mid cycle change penalty if you shift to a more expensive plan. T mobile should really fix this. Finally, it took 2 hours on the phone with T-mobile  to get this corrected, plus an unhealthy amount of stress.