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Apologies in advance as this is a bit long.  I wanted new service with T-mobile and decided to open a business line instead of a personal line.  The T-Mobile Rep at the South Halsted store informed me that someone will reach out in a day or two to begin the process.  I received a call from Adalberto Garcia two days later and we discussed the type of service I wanted.  Adalberto then sent me an email requesting some information. His initial email on July 22nd at 1:17pm:

Hello Bruce, 

It was a pleasure talking with you regarding our current promotions. Per our conversation, we will need your W-9 to verify the business. 

Can you please send over a copy?

I then shared my W9 with Adalberto.  

He followed up on July 26th at 9:36am with the following request:

 

Hello Bruce, 

We received a response from our credit team and they are asking for some additional information before releasing the application. I will list the following steps on how you can proceed forward, as they are asking for additional information regarding the business.

 Location to fax: fax:1(913)-523-8567 or E-Mail TfB_FM_Investigations@T-Mobile.COM prior to service being disconnected:
• Contact cover sheet
• Valid photo ID
• Most current tax documentation
• Proof of employment or ownership of the business in question (ex: current paycheck stub, articles of incorporation showing their name)
• Proof of business credit (ex: bank statement, or major credit card statement showing business transactions/transaction history, dated within the last 30 days)

I thought this was a bit strange since I have steller personal and business credit.  In any case, after returning from a business trip, on August 3rd, I complied, sending the information to both Adalberto and to their Fraud department.  I phoned Adalberto and he said that I should not have sent the information to him.  

I received an automated message back from the TfB_FM_Investigations@T-Mobile.COM email address stating…

Fraud Management has strict policies. Please be advised that all documents must be submitted from a T-Mobile store and/or with a T-Mobile domain for security purposes.

On August 5th I inquired about the Fraud review with Adalberto and got no response.  I’ve followed up with a couple of calls and voicemails to no avail.  I was in Florida for a business trip and decided to try again (most would have walked away by this point, but now I’m curious).  I went into the T-Mobile store in Naples, FL and spoke with a representative at the Tamiami Trail N location.  I was then put in touch with Nelson Romero, another sales rep that he said would work on this account.  

I then sent the same documents to Nelson on August 13th at 7:46 pm.  Nelson responed that he is waiting on underwriting.  He then asked for my Drivers license image, front and back on August 16th at 10am.  I immediately sent these over and after a little bit of back and forth, he had the information requested by 1:47pm on August 16th.  I inquired about a status with Nelson today at 11:21 am and got a reply that he is waiting on underwriting 34 minutes later.  

Let’s say that this process started on July 22nd at 1:17pm with Adalberto.  It should not be this hard…  it just shouldn’t.

Welcome to Sprint. And hackers around the world now probably have all your company info.A W-9? Do you work for them now?


You're probably right. This was way more intrusive than I could have ever anticipated​and given that I haven't heard from Adalberto since the initial engagement, who knows what was done with my personal data...  


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