T-Mobile: How to alienate a customer

So I got my T-Mobile bill: $500+ dollars. What I thought?? That's not right. So I opened it up and discovered I was on "The Basic NW" Plan, 60 minutes for $19.99. Now I use an average of 900 minutes per month so I can see how that $$ racked up.

I also could see how it ended up that way. A few months ago we switched from the family plan to a single line plan. I had requested "a basic plan w/ 1000 minutes and no contract". I was unaware there was a plan called the Basic Plan.

So, following the Term and Agreement, I called T-Mobile well within the allotted 60 days to get this fixed. At first, everyone was nice. They agreed that it was wrong but claimed it couldn't be corrected because it was on a previous cycle. Once, so they claimed, the cycle completed there was *nothing* they could do to fix it. Oh, they could offer me a $100 credit, but not actually fix the plan.

As a tangent, my experience is that these credits cause more harm than good because if the next bill is also wrong, they use the previous bill as proof that the plan was correct and the bill correct (which, conveniently is in the T&A). So I feel it is reasonable to request the history be corrected in both fact as well as effect.

Anyway, I finally got frustrated and pointed out that the Terms & Agreement says:

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ncorrect Charges. If you believe your bill contains an incorrect charge, you have 60 days from the date of the first bill that contains the charge to notify us or you waive any right to dispute the charge. To notify us, please contact Customer Care at T-Mobile.com, 1-800-937-8997, or 611 from your Phone. We may require you to describe the dispute in writing. Any written communications concerning charges must be sent to the T-Mobile Customer Relations address in Sec. 2. If you accept a credit to resolve an issue, you agree the issue is fully resolved. If Customer Care does not resolve your dispute and you still wish to pursue the matter, follow the dispute resolution process described in Sec. 2. California customers: our Utility number is U-3056-C; if you file a billing-related claim with the Consumer Affairs Branch ("CAB") of the CPUC you must, within 24 hours of filing, inform us by writing to the Customer Relations address in Sec. 2 with sufficient information to identify you and your account. If we resolve your dispute, your CAB claim will be deemed resolved at that time, and you agree to promptly withdraw your claim with the CAB. Payments. We may require payment before your due date if we are concerned about your ability to pay us (such as when you have an unusually high balance). For your payment to be deemed received by us and your account to be timely credited, you must provide with your payment information sufficient to identify you and your account (your account number). If we accept late or partial payments or payments with limiting notations, it will not waive any of our rights to collect all amounts that you owe us and it will not be an accord and satisfaction. If we agree to an alternate payment plan, we may confirm it in any manner, including by electronic means. If your financial institution dishonors or returns for insufficient funds your check or credit card, it is a breach of this Agreement and we may (a) charge you a fee of $20.00 or such amount as may be permitted by law, (b) stop accepting checks, credit card or other similar payment methods from you, and (c) immediately suspend or cancel your Service. We may use a collection agency and charge you for their fees billed to us for trying to collect what you owe us. Late Fees. You agree to pay 1.5% or $5.00 per month (or portion of a month), whichever is greater, on any past due balances until paid, subject to the highest amount permitted by law. Except to the extent prohibited by law, this late fee may be charged regardless of any disputes you may have raised regarding your invoiced charges.

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Taxes & Fees/Regulatory and Administrative Fees. We bill you for taxes, fees, and other charges (such as sales, use, excise, public utility and other taxes) levied by or remitted to domestic or foreign governments or authorities and imposed on you or us as a result of providing the Service or your Phone ("Taxes & Fees"). Any tax exemption only applies after the date we receive from you acceptable documentation. We will determine, in our discretion, the type and amount of the Taxes & Fees to be billed. These Taxes & Fees may change at any time without notice. We may also bill you for regulatory and administrative fees ($0.86 per line per month as of 12/04) to recover our costs of complying with certain regulatory mandates (in our discretion) and Universal Service Fees ("USF") or similarly imposed charges (the amount or method of calculation of these fees may change at any time without notice to you) except to the extent prohibited by law. Regulatory and administrative fees and USF are not taxes or government required charges. We may impose regulatory and administrative fees whether or not all or some services are used, or available to you, or in your location. We are required to use the residential or business street address you provided us to determine certain Taxes & Fees. If you give us an address (such as a PO box) that is not a recognized street address, does not identify the taxing jurisdictions applicable to the address or does not reflect the service area associated with your Number, you may be assigned a default location for Taxes & Fees calculation, which may result in a higher or lower charge for certain Taxes & Fees and you have 60 days from the date of the first bill that contains disputed Taxes & Fees to notify us or you waive your right to dispute those Taxes & Fees.

So they switched to the claim that since I didn't verify the plan was correct online prior to my bill, that constitutes acceptance of the plan as applied. That was pretty inventive, and is nowhere to be found in the Terms and Conditions and completely contradicts the above.

They tried to argue that because the change was retoractivily applied rather than applied on the next cycle that waived somehow exceeded my right to dispute, eventhough the retoractive application starts on the bill I just got, less than 2 weeks ago and 45 days shy of the deadline.

And after one person offered me $100, another offered $57 and claimed it was the absolute best they could do under the rules. Ok.. seems to me that someone is lying. It can't be both $100 and $57. Credibility is hurt badly.

All of which goes to my greater service issues with companies like T-Mobile and Apple. They just don't live up to their end of the bargain. Apple also likes to promote it's service, but when push comes to shove seems to focus on ways to get out of living up to their service obligations. I guess I'll be getting a new cell phone.