T-Mobile- Fraud

I don't believe you are the only person with this problem. I also
purchased a Blackberry in October at which point I was working from
the road and not at home. Now that I am working from home I can't get
service here. And so goes the 5th call to t-mobile to try and get out
of the contract based on the fact that I should have service but do
not. However, if I would like to get service out of my house where I
should already have service, I can purchase a new phone and a router
so that I can get service where I SHOULD ALREADY HAVE IT!!!! I really
don't know where they get these people, but from the way it sounds
there is not way on God's green earth that I am getting out of my
contract....but I could also pay the 200bucks I guess. Doesn't seem
right!! There's plenty more to the conversation, but you get the jist
of it.

Thanks,
chad

i think they are being a bit silly. Theres no legal reasoning behing
your representation having to be a lawyer. You're not required to use
a lawyer for anything in this country if you don't want to.

Just stay away from T-Mobile. Besides their customer support blowing,
their coverage sucks as well.

Typical attorney. You know everything. You expect everything in the
world to stop because you're an attorney and why do you think we
wanted to read your "short play?". I sure didn't. And didn't. Just
scrolled down.

Move to the 20th floor of the building or get a job at a Law firm that
has only a few stories. It's life. Deal with it.

You know, my nephew decided to go to Law school. We're all really
dissapointed. We thought he had such good potential.

Shame!

Well, I have to side with the OP. T Mobile doesnt claim that thier
signal goes up or down. They show you a pretty little map that shows
the coverage area. If his claim is that he can't get service in the
provided area, they should accomodate with a reasonable cancelation.
Regardless of the 14 days and/or if T Mobile can't verify that. And
P.S., Ive worked for TMobile before, they can verify that the calls
were dropped.

While that may have been an amusing conversation, I'm also looking at
it from the company's point of view. It certainly isn't their fault
you moved to the 40th floor after your "trial period". That would be
like making a claim that they could not provide coverage to you in a
brick box or a metal elevator. You had the contract before the 14 day
period was over (or you wouldn't have known about the arbitration
process being your first option), so did you happen to read the part
about not guaranteeing coverage? Maybe instead of class actions, you
should concentrate on Telecommunications Contract Disputes....

This is one of the best letters I have read on here. I feel your
pain. Bureaucracy can kill ya, can't it!! And, no one knows anything
except that they have to get that money out of you one way or
another.
Hope things go well for you and you get that arbritration and a
satisfactory outcome.
You know it is not about customer service or customer satisfaction at
all any more. It is:
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEEEEEE!

I am hung up on the 14 days. Your situation changed after 14 days, so
I agree with the rep who said there is no way to verify that claim
(unless the cell phone towers can triangulate in elevation as well as
azimuth).

I don't know anything about the arbitration matter, but it sounds like
the 14 day satisfaction policy expired. Also, I can see why a legal
negotiation wouldn't be handled via email or telephone. You're the
lawyer though...

I went thru arbitration with T-Mobile and NEVER did I go thru my
attorney to do so. And they resolved my problem within 15 days and I
was very satisfied.
However another issue still exists and I cannot seem to get a response
from them regarding this.
I too have a problem with recieving or sending calls from certain
areas, although others with me can do so on their cell phones.
I called T-Mobile, asked why and no one has an answer.
I guess this issue may have to be brought to their attention thru the
news media which seems to work a hell of a lot better for these
companies. With all the competition out there they actually hate
loosing a customer even those who are willing to pay the $200
cancellation fee, which is still getting you off the hook for the 2-yr
contract.

Keep us informed...would love to hear how this all comes out.

This reads like a script from some comedy about the insanity of
corporate bureaucracy. You have depicted perfectly two classic
corporation types. One is the "I don't know anything beyond the
script I was given, so I need to transfer everyone to someone else"
type, and the other is the bitter "I am following the company policy
even though I do not understand it, and will act officious and brusque
to make everyone back off when it is obvious that I made an error or
am confronted with logic" type of employee.

Had I been drinking anything while reading this, it would have been
spewed all over my computer screen. I still am laughing.

Of course you know good and well the next type of employee you will
encounter. It is the "I am not going to respond to this letter
requesting arbitration in hopes the person who wrote it will give up
and pay his bill rather than having his credit hurt by a collection
procedure."

I am sure that as an attorney you recognize that the cost of the
arbitration will be more that the amount in dispute. These companies
are banking on you giving up when that is brought to your attention.

Good luck with this insanity!

This is one of the best letters I have ever read on this site! I
truly hope you get this resolved. I hate cell phone companies.

You have some chuztpah! I love this letter.

Little long but did enjoy it. Hope you make headway with them.

Very interesting series of events and I am amazed that you didnt get
angry. I dont know about T-Mobile, but I know At&T has a clause in the
contract that says they do not guarantee service everywhere and if you
are outside of that initial trial period they do not have to do
anything.

Speaking as a lawyer, I loved your letter.

Amusement at the expense of T-Mobile is definitely preferable to anger
and vitriol.

I hope you hear back from them.

words used. So was literally the conversation or was it literally the
conversation figuratively speaking?
I read that you weren't really intending for this to go as a letter to
the company. Unfortunately, it does get sent. You might consider
sending a real letter to them (using spell-check, etc.) to counter
this one.

Is there anything in the contract that says that the binding
arbitration requires you to be represented by a lawyer? If not, is
this requirement enforceable?

I'm not suggesting that you do this, but if you were to default on the
contract, what then? I'm sure their first tactic would be to send your
account to a collections company. But you have a right to dispute the
charges at that point. Does that then trigger arbitration? If so, are
they then able to still impose a requirement of being represented by a
lawyer?

For what it's worth, I've only dealt with two wireless providers so
far: AT&T and T-Mobile. AT&T is widely regarded as the worst. Yet, to
my horror, I found they were stellar compared to T-Mobile.

Good luck! I'm afraid you're going to need it.

Actaully, my contract was printed on the back of a recipt. It states
that they cannot garauntee service. That term can be interpreted
narrowly or broadly. If they discontinue service for the entire city,
am I still obiligated to pay for two years? Probably not. There is
clearly a duty on thier part to provide service in thier coverage
area. It is in fact their primary duty. I am not asking them to
build a new cell phone tower outside my office. I am asking them to
give me a discount for the termination of the contract. I have made
somewhere around 20 calls total with this phone over the past two
months, and am willing to return the phone and pay them $200 for those
20 calls. This is a reasonable resolution of the dispute. Attempting
to hold someone to a two year contract that you cannot perfomr your
side of the bargain for is not reasonable.

Ok, I guess that warrents a response...

1) This was not really meant to be a letter, more of a posting. It is
really not directed at T-Mobile as I have spoken to several of thier
people and I highly doubt they are going to try and resolve this
situation. It was more me venting and letting other consumers know
about T-Mobile. It was thus not styled as a letter.

2) I want a phone number or email becuase I would like to speak with
someone with some authority BEFORE I demand an arbitration. It makes
far more sense to resolve this amicably without the expense of
arbitration. In any case, email is writing.

3) I did tell the CSR I was a lawyer, as described in the post. It
didn't work. It is also beside the point. You should not have to be
or hire a lawyer to invoke the dispute resolution system. No-one will
be about to hire a lawyer to pursue a 200$ complaint. Creating this
requierment effectivly immunizes the company from lawsuits. People
should be able to represent themselves in the companies arbitration
procuedure.

4) As for the service issue, there is nothing in the contract that
requiers me to get T-Mobile's "permission" to change offices. It is
true that T-Mobile may not be able to gaurauntee coverage in all
areas. It is also true that all my co-worker's cell phones work just
fine in our offices. I am not blaming T-Mobile for having a deadspot,
I am simply requesting that if they cannot provide the service they
promised to provide under thier contract, then we should be able to
negotiate a way that we can discontinue our relationship that is fair
to both parties. My beef is that they refuse to enter into any kind
of dialogue about this or follow thier own dispute resolution
proceedures.

Tim, since you claim to be a lawyer (albeit one who managed to
misspell material and their when talking about a material breach of
their contract), I have to ask you this, did you read the entire
contract or just the part about binding arbitration?

If you did, you would have also seen something about cell service not
being guaranteed, especially in a building. Too many factors can
effect cell reception in a building from certain construction
materials to your proximity to a mechanical equipment room.

I'm a Telecom Analyst and have dealt with issues like this in large
buildings in NYC. I also dealt with a paging issue in a hospital. If
physicians were in the radiology department, they did not get pages
because of the equipment. We had to put in a signal booster at our
expense.

Is the bill for this unit sent to your office or your home? If it's
your home, they are going to argue that your home is your base and you
have service there. If it's your office, you may have a chance (in
arbitration) to argue that you don't have service at your base but the
burden of proof, ie: documenting call drops, will be on you.

If you really want to go to arbitration then you have to follow their
procedure. I'm sure you know, as a lawyer, their goal is to make this
process difficult for the average person, so difficult that they give
up.

You've said you're a lawyer. But there seems to be some stuff in here
that suggests otherwise.

While a man that represents himself has a fool for a client, I think
"m'am, I'm a lawyer and am representing myself" would have been the
quickest route around this little debate over you not hiring a
lawyer.

Also, as a lawyer, I'm surprised that you'd accept e-mail
correspondence regarding request for arbitration. Most lawyers I know
will insist on having things in writing.

Most lawyers I know also don't start letters with "I have been equally
amused by T-Mobile." As amused as you may be (and, after reading
this, I'm amused), I'd think a lawyer would know how to write a
letter.

OK, getting away from the lawyer issue.

You make an argument about what you agreed to (signing up for service)
and what they agreed to (providing you service). Nowhere do you
indicate where you asked them for permission to move to the 40th
floor. In other words, you moved to an area in which they have made
no promises of providing service. The world is in 3 dimensions and,
unfortunately, coverage maps assume you're on the ground. They also
assume that there isn't interference from buildings, other equipment,
and a host of other things. And, oh yeah, they make no guarantees of
service. Why? Because of these exact things.

That said, it does stink to no have your phone work. And they
definitely have a bunch of CSRs that should NOT be talking to
customers as they clearly don't know what they are doing.

I also applaud you on your proposed resolution(s). If I were them,
I'd take you up on one of those. But that's just me.