Here's a holiday horror story for you courtesy of T-Mobile. Once every couple months I call Guam. I don't have a landline and my cell phone has been billed 69 cents a minute for these calls for at least two, if not three years now without a change. When I opened my bill this month I found I was suddenly with no notice, charged 3.99 a minute for the same call! That sent my monthly bill from about 80 dollars to over 400 with no notice from T-Mobile of any change to my account other than receiving this shocking bill in the mail.
I immediately called yesterday but had to call back today because the person who answered the phone said their network was down and she couldn't look up my account. So I called back today and talked to a very nice person who told me I was out of luck because T-Mobile has a preferred customer deal going with Guam and it was Guam who suddenly and without notice raised their rates and I was stuck paying this and there was nothing T-Mobile would or could do about it and he claimed they have a right to do this and it says so in the contract, etc.
I sure would like to see this contract as I ordered my phones and service by calling them when I first opened my account and had my phone numbers for both phones ported over. I signed nothing and received nothing. And at the time I was leaving Cingular because they had no extended service that would allow me to call Canada at a reduced rate and Cingular insisted on charging me international rates to call Guam. When I signed with T-Mobile it was because I was offered a 4.99 per month deal that allowed me to call Canada for 7 cents a minute. I told them I also call Guam and they said they had no deal available because Guam was not an international call and I would be charged no more than 69 cents a minute. It is the only reason I signed up with T-Mobile.
For almost three years this has not changed even though my contract, whatever it was at the time, was for two years. I never received any notice that I had to renew or that my contract was void or offered a new one to sign. Under those circumstances, any normal person would assume the terms were the same.
Since we live on a very limited income I was advised by the customer service rep to let my bill get past due and then call their finance department, at least that was the not so helpful suggestion. Their solution is to mess up my credit with a late payment ding! I have no idea what kind of resolution they will offer but I suspect it will be something like payments. That is not acceptable to me. I feel this is something that T-Mobile is responsible for. If one of my clients suddenly raises their prices on me, I let my customers know so they have a choice to buy or not buy. I don't raise their rates after they've already purchased from me.
I feel that T-Mobile is trying to pass on their unexpected costs to the consumer instead of eating them as most businesses do in a similar situation. If I was given a choice and told my calls to Guam that I'd been charged 69 cents a minute for almost three years was going to 3.99 I would have opted to use another service. They never gave me that option but instead pulled a fast one on me.
My husband is a retired vet and we live on a very limited income. It is especially offensive to have this happen as most mainland calls to Guam are to American service members stationed there. What kind of company decides to gouge the troop's family members just in time for the holidays?
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