Open Letter to T-Mobile

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Note- This isn't meant to be a boycott but rather a heads up about the actions of Mobiles at Home/ T-Mobile. If you get a call from them then I hope you will do what you see fit with them , as long as it's legal (like just putting down the phone!)

To the Complaints Department


I am writing to complain about unfair treatment I received at the hands of Mobiles at Home a subsidiary/franchise of T-Mobile. Firstly on the grounds that I received an extremely hard sell which to be fair isn’t a crime in itself, but secondly on the grounds that I after I’d sent the phone back by special delivery with a letter expressing my wish to cancel the contract I received a bill for it which I should not have done.

Now firstly let’s make one thing perfectly clear regarding hard sells: I understand people have to make a living. I understand that they have to try and sell as much of their products as possible by being as effective as possible. I studied Business Studies for an A level and will be taking a course on Economics as part of my BA Politics degree so don’t insult my knowledge over this issue.

However I am angry that the person who sold me the phone hardly allowed me an opportunity to break off the conversation politely. Sure I should have just put the phone down, which in hindsight is what I wish I had done, but I just plain didn’t want to be rude to the guy and he appealed to my business knowledge saying it was bad to the company as it was a loss. I thought fair cop. More importantly I thought the contract was eight pounds a month which seemed like a good deal for me instead of eight pounds for the first three months of an eighteen month contract.

If I had been tougher then, more likely than not I wouldn’t have accepted the deal as it would have been far too expensive for me, especially given the facts that I am a student and at the moment am currently unemployed (apart from a bit of writing). I can get a much better deal using a “Pay as you Go” contract seeing as I hardly use my phone.

Added to that the employee who so didn’t seem prepared to give me any time to think about it, which I would have asked for to research the deal, and let myself know what I was being let in for in terms of contracts, check whether to see if there were any other deals worth a look, that kind of thing etc. Instead I felt like I was being swept into a deal no matter how much I tried to resist without breaking off.

Secondly I am also angry that when I had sent the phone back and also specifically asked that T-Mobile (Mobiles at home) didn’t contact me or any other members of my family, unless it was anything raised about the letter. Instead I received a bill from them which I am also returning to you after I’d sent the phone back, which by the way, I hadn’t even activated while therefore not starting my contract. I regard this as firstly being unfair and secondly as being an insult (however unintentional it may have been) to me.

And as if your company really did want to add insult to injury at 13.40 today one of your employees called my mother, not in order to apologise but instead to… try and sell one of your contracts. This is why I asked my mother to handle calling your company

Twice your company has gone against my express wishes as a non customer which does make me wonder how you treat your actual subscribers.

I am copying this letter to a number of different groups and organisations. OFCOM, my local support group (Supporting Aspergers Families in Essex) and I am also sending this to any forum, website, or even organisation in the online offline autistic/autism community that is prepared to put my letter either as a forum post or as an article. Oh and I’ll also send this to the National Autistic Society too just to make sure all national organisations are contacted. What they do with it, well I’ll leave it for them to decide.

Why? Because I feel that unless your company is prepared to change its attitude with relation to people with my “condition” or come to think of it everybody else then, quite frankly we should not have to be prepared to do business with you, unless we (unfortunately) are already doing business with you. However if I do get a formal and sincere apology from T-Mobile then I will be happy to put that up online as well.

Personally I’m absolutely not interested in any sort of financial compensation or any one of your employees getting sacked or fired. I firstly just want a formal apology and secondly that you make sure your employees especially your telemarketing ones are a little more aware when dealing with people like us and last but not least, you refrain from contacting me or any other members of my family unless it is something just like I said in my first letter. Not much to ask is it? Oh and it’ll save you a bit of face too, if you’ve got any face to save.

Yours Sincerely

Leo Capella

It sounds to me as though they are guilty of aggressive over-selling.

You might look into contact a local Chamber of Commerce & Industry. I would also recomment you consider going to the Citizen's Advice Bureau (though in my experience, they are utterly useless and clueless, due to the busy-bodies who generallly volunteer their 'services').

I am not sure if there is a telecommunications ombudsman, or whether or not OFTEL would be receptive to your concerns, nonetheless, it might be worth considering seeing a solicitor on the 'legal aid' scheme.

If T-Mobile are harrassing your for a 'bill' or an alleged 'debt' for services you have not used, then it might prove a). bad PR for them to persist in harassing you and b). illegal for them to continue harassing you.

One word of advice for the future though: If any Spiv calls you up with a hard-sell mission, just disconnect the call. Don't worry about them taking it personally; Spivs are used to the 'cold shoulder', since their 'professional practices' means that it is almost ineivitable that those who are 'clued up' (ie - have been duped before), will hang up without giving the Spiv a second thought.

Thanks for the advice:), although I hope it doesn't go that far. Giving the company a bit of naming and shaming while it may not be as effective, is convenient for me though and also warns other people about them.

oooh i have a better one:

^^^^

Short. To the point.

What's not to love about it.?!

BeeBee

I agree with Alex's reply idea, but I think that if you had a lawyer express that, it might make it clear to T-Mobile as to why, what and how often they actually do suck and that their sucking in itself sucks in a way that violates the common laws of sucking in general, which probably also suck. Perhaps the lawyer could even threaten to take legal action against them for sucking and get an order to cease and decist sucking immediately, but the judge, or magistrate also might suck and think that the claims against T-Mobile suck too much to waste the courts time because they are so booked up with other cases that suck, which also really sucks. Of course the lawyer would have to take the case first and if he, or she didn't then you would have to find a lawyer that didn't suck and of course the process of finding a lawyer really sucks, not to mention how much it would suck if you couldn't find one, especially one that doesn't suck.

Yeah, I know, this reply really sucks.

OK, my urge to use the word suck has been satisfied for the next few days and if not, well then that just sucks.

They have spotty/nonexistant coverage, at least in the USA

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

/me hands deepthought a lollipop.

who loves ya, baby?

MMMMMM, yummy lollipop...


Ahhhh curses, now I am craving grape tootsie pops.

/me may have to resort to eating grape Kool Aid powder from the can until doofus gets home. I hope it's pre-sweetened.

No need to but thanks for the support given. As of today T-Mobile cancelled my contract and I don't have to pay any money as a result. No apology given then again neither my mum or I sent our letters. I'm prepared to let the matter drop provided I don't get another letter. I'll be definetly getting no more phone calls as my mum's signed up to a list which prevents cold callers from calling us.