The end of all decent mobile providers in the US is here. T-Mobile begin charging to receive SMS.
I just received this text message during lunch:
“Free Msg: As of 8/15/06 incoming US txt/IM will be $.05 each, US pic/video msgs will be $.25. Sent US msgs still are $.10 for txt/IM and $.25 for pic/video.”
T-Mobile’s website of course doesn’t reflect this change at all. Their T-Mobile to Go Prepaid pages still show the following:
- Text messaging ($0.10 to send, FREE to receive)
- Picture messaging ($0.25 to send, FREE to receive)
Now I’ve been a happy T-Mobile to Go customer since January. It’s only cost me like $16.67 a month for what I need which is by far the cheapest thing out there for my needs. I don’t actually have a written contract with them and have never signed a thing other than the receipt for the SIM card and the initial minutes and such.
One of the big reasons I went with this plan was because of the free incoming text messages. It’s also the reason why I didn’t go on a contract with T-Mobile since their normal accounts have charged to receive text messages for some time now (in line with other US carriers). It’s unfair to charge for something that you can’t decide not to receive. It’s not like you can just not read the message and not get charged. Text messaging is totally different than typical phone calls, you can’t block text messages from coming in. I can use my PC and send you 10,000 free messages from Messenger right now and you’d get charged $500. It was bad enough that in the US we pay to receive phone calls because it’s “air time” but I didn’t really mind that too much since I could just not pick up.
Because I’m on a prepaid service as well I see the charges immediately. There’s no special deal that gives me 1000 text messages or free incoming text messages or one low rate. It’s an all out scam designed to make more money on something that’s been free since their service started.
Unless something changes on 8/14/05 I plan on calling T-Mobile and requesting that they disable receiving text messages so I won’t get charged to receive messages I don’t want to receive. Or if that is not possible that they refund the remaining balance on my prepaid account and cancel my service completely.
As an additional note here’s a little bit of fine print from Cingular’s terms of service:
“Text, Instant, and Multimedia messages are charged when sent or received, whether read or unread, solicited or unsolicited. Cingular does not guarantee delivery of messages.”
The only real fine print I can see with T-Mobile’s To Go services would be in the form of a FAQ found here.
I think there are grounds for a class action lawsuit. If you agree, feel free to comment and join in.
UPDATE: I just called T-Mobile. I verified that the text message received is valid and that they will begin charging $.05 per message received on 8/15/06 and continue to charge $.10 to send each SMS. The conversation pretty much went down as follows:
- Me: Hi, I’m calling to verify the text message I received about the SMS charges being changed on August 15th is valid.
- TM: Yes that is correct sir.
- Me: So is there any way you can remove ALL text messaging capabilities from my service including sending and receiving.
- TM: Let me have your number and I’ll check.
- Me: <provides number>
- TM: Okay it looks like I can remove the ability to send text messages from your account.
- Me: Okay that’s fine but not needed. I’m capable of controlling whether or not I send text messages. I want to know if I can control whether or not I receive them.
- TM: Let me double check. Okay sir, it looks like you’re correct I can disable sending but not receiving.
- Me: Okay so just one last time to double check we’re on the same page here. You’re telling me that I have no way to control whether or not I receive 10,000 unsolicited text messages and thus being charged $500 for something that I don’t want.
- TM: That is correct sir.
- Me: Thanks, that’s all I needed to know.
INSANE!
UPDATE: I’ve got 10 people to respond privately so far as being interested in joining a potential class action suit against T-Mobile and the T-Mobile To Go Service specifically. If you’re a class action lawyer and just happen to be reading this or you’re just wanting to comment please feel free to do so or email me. I’m currently investigating options on how to proceed to file the suit against T-Mobile, updates to follow soon…
UPDATE: Unfortunately despite not having been given any T&C when I bought the SIM card (probably just a mistake on the part of the T-Mobile rep), I’ve apparently agreed to be bound by some unread T&C’s just by activating the SIM and using the service. The full set of T-Mobile terms and conditions can be found here.
One important thing to note is the following portion:
CLASS ACTION WAIVER. WHETHER IN COURT, SMALL CLAIMS COURT, OR ARBITRATION YOU AND WE MAY ONLY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST EACH OTHER IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A CLASS REPRESENTATIVE OR A CLASS MEMBER IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. NOTWITHSTANDING SEC. 22, IF A COURT OR ARBITRATOR DETERMINES IN A CLAIM BETWEEN YOU AND US THAT YOUR WAIVER OF ANY ABILITY TO PARTICIPATE IN CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTIONS IS UNENFORCEABLE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, THE ARBITRATION AGREEMENT WILL NOT APPLY, AND YOU AND WE AGREE THAT SUCH CLAIMS WILL BE RESOLVED BY A COURT OF APPROPRIATE JURISDICTION, OTHER THAN A SMALL CLAIMS COURT.
Obviously this complicates things greatly. Reading through the T&C’s further also reveals that as a Prepaid customer I’m screwed if I want to get my remaining balance refunded to me and not be charged to receive text messages.
One amusing thing and a glorious bit of false advertising is how T-Mobile love flashing: No Contract, No Credit Check, No Monthly Bill.
Yes fine, sure, but isn’t this entire thing of terms and conditions in fact a contract?
July 11th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
Hi there. Thanks for the info. I didn’t get the SMS from T-Mobile on this. Why isn’t anyone else picking up on this? Are we the only 2 people using SMS on T-Mobile To-Go? There definitely can be a deceptive business practices lawsuit since they still have not announced the charging to receive on their website yet. Not even a snail-mail letter! I guess I’ll have to get my business elsewhere. My T-Mobile, I hardly knew ye!
July 11th, 2006 at 11:10 pm
My coworker is also on T-Mobile To Go and received the SMS notification about 2 hours after I did. There’s definitely room here for action.
July 13th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
I totally agree with you. T-Mobile prepaid used to be the best around. This charge for incoming messages is complete B.S.
My T-Mobile prepaid number has a 310 area code (California), but a buddy of mine has a 586 area code (Michigan) and he hasn’t received a message about this yet. Could it be just affecting Cali numbers?
July 13th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Well we’re in Redmond, WA so I don’t think it’s just California. I’d bet that they’re just queueing up the messages to send out. One interesting thing is that their latest brochures in the store apparently show the $.10/$.05 charges though it’s a bit ambiguous. The website still hasn’t been updated.
July 17th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
Conceptual question: How exactly has T-Mobile screwed you over?
(Let’s put aside for now the arbitration/anti-class action provision – courts sometimes refuse to enforce those, so let’s assume that would be true here, just for the sake of argument.)
If you are on a pay-as-you-go deal, can’t you just quit on August 15 (or before), and go your separate ways with T-Mobile, and be none the worse off? I could see a deceptive business practice claim if you were on a typical contract, and then T-Mobile changed the terms but still said you have to pay an early termination fee to get out. But as I understand it, that isn’t what is happening here, is it? I don’t doubt for minute that T-Mobile is screwing you over – I just don’t see how yet.
July 28th, 2006 at 2:08 am
Got the message too (in NY). Any luck getting your remaining balance refunded?
August 15th, 2006 at 2:48 am
I am a class action attorney, who has been investigating T-Mobile’s practices with respect to text messages. If you are interesting in potentially pursuing a class action to seek remedies for yourself and the class of similarly situated T-Mobile customers, please feel free to contact me by e-mail at: classactionlawhelp@yahoo.com.
August 31st, 2006 at 1:45 am
Your post was really exactly what I was thinking!
Rant:
I use T-Mobile as well, and have been wondering about this for months. I used text quite a bit while in college, but I really don’t want to use it anymore. I’d rather just leave a voicemail message. I tried searching their website to unsubscribe from text, but I cannot. I guess this is how they bully people like me into signing up for their $4.99/mo 400 text message service. I think I am going to cancel my plan when it ends this coming September. Amongst Cingular, Sprint and Verizon, it looks like the cheapest option is Sprint. They offer a way for you to block SMS Text Messages; though the plan’s $29.99/mo for 200 minutes is a joke (but with unlimited talking time after 7pm, it beats T-Mobile’s $29.99/mo for 300 min. with free weekends only). I might switch to Sprint after I set up my digital cable provider’s digital cable TV+high-speed internet+phone line for under $100. I’ll try to keep a cellphone for emergencies only.
I think that many pay-as-you-go plans are a rip-off, as I’ve used them before and 10 minutes sucking up $15 is insane. These are modern day con-artists, in my opinion. They rephrase the word "mobile/cellphone" to "wireless" to make it sound modern and new-fangled. It’s pathetic.
Things that were never charged for before, once popular, become pay-for services or feature words like "FREE" when it obviously should be. Even landline phone services feature the words "FREE" next to local calling. Since when have any of us paid for calling our neighbors at a rate?? America has the nerve to charge these outlandish prices without any real innovation or deals. At least Japan had the guts to give cheaper text messaging ($.03 or $.05) when they charge a lot for talk minutes.
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:24 am
Hello,
Count me in on the class-action suit.
I am a regular subscriber to T-Mobile and have just had the rude awakening of dealing with their customer service department regarding a spam text message I received.
Their stated solution to Not Receiving Spam, which they would not email or send a letter to me confirming this, is:
Change your phone number
or
Buy a $4.99/mo text and pic messaging plan
They don’t offer an option of "blocking" text spammers by their phone number, and according to T-Mobile’s LeAnn ID 0458313 "We should be able to block it, but at this time we can’t."
Me: So you are forcing me to pay for text messages I didn’t ask for
LeAnn: "Exactly".
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:31 am
Sorry forgot to give my email address.
caffeineachiever
———–
Also, here’s another posting from a site called Badbusiness.com.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff194480.htm
———–
Hello,
Count me in on the class-action suit.
I am a regular subscriber to T-Mobile and have just had the rude awakening of dealing with their customer service department regarding a spam text message I received.
(deleted)
November 6th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
Just sent this to T-Mobile:
11/06/2006
T-Mobile Wireless Legal Department
12920 Southeast 38th Street
Bellevue, WA 98006-1350
XXX-XXX-XXXX MAIN
XXX-XXX-XXXX IN DISPUTE
On October 24th, I spent about 2 hours on the phone with TMobile representatives regarding text messaging charges. It is my teenage daughter’s phone & was replaced in August when she had it stolen. We have had all our phones set to block text messages via filters as well as changing the service center number per the prior instructions of TMobile representatives. The only thing that happened was that my daughter got a new phone which I assumed was still set-up as it was on the old phone – therefore the technical issue was TMobile’s concern & they should cover those charges. My daughter is underage and has no adult right to contract for services I did not approve. I have made it plain to TMobile repeatedly that I do not want the text messaging services & do not feel I should be forced into having this service simply because TMobile is not technically equipped to deal with it.
I had made it plain that under no circumstances did I want text messaging & that I had strongly considered changing companies in April because of the text messaging issues. When I spoke to representatives on Oct 24 about the new charges for text messaging, they offered no reduction in the charges for the text messages. I contacted customer care via email – asking how to block incoming text messages. Here’s the response (in part):
"the filters that you have viewed on T-Mobile website are to block unwanted incoming text messages. This means the server will screen all text messages with the filter you setup to block any unwanted messages."
It was confirmed (via phone) that these blocks had been in place since April & remained in place throughout the time period when the text messages began again. I made payment on the bill for $239.33 – reduced by $82.50 which is an estimate of the charges for incoming text messages which in all cases should have been blocked.
I have made repeated attempts to send this information to T-Mobile via the email contact info on the web-site – it does not work.
I still dispute the other charges & insist that T-Mobile refund them, and stop forcing this service on me or if that cannot occur release me from my contractual obligations with no early termination fee. I expect that my phone service will not be terminated for non-payment while this issue is in dispute.
Thank you for your considerate attention to this matter.
November 13th, 2006 at 5:26 am
WELL GET THIS T MOBILE ARE SUCH BULLIES!!!!!!!!!!I CALLED CUSTOMER SERVICE ABOUT THE CHARGE OF TEXT MESSAGES I SAID SO IF I RECIVE 10 TEXT MESSAGES I WILL BE CHARGED FOR SOMETHING I DIDNT ASK FOR?THE REP SAID"YES YOUR CORRECT"WITH NO KIND OF APOLOGY OR ANYTHING COMON YALL WE HAVE TO FIGHT THIS WE NEED A PLAN WE NEED TO LET TMOBILE KNOW EITHER REVERSE THIS CHARGING OR WE WALK
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:30 pm
I did just get off the phone talking to a rep regarding messages that I am supposed to have sent out but that I never did.
The number appearing on my bill is (206)313 0004 which I never texted and ignore who it belongs to, I just verified the number, it is out of service. T-Mobile can look up the number, but cannot tell me who the number belongs to. I am very upset and don’t know what to do. They are not willing to reimburse me for these charges that I have never made.
January 15th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Hi guys, i’m having the same issue with t-mobile. Does anyone have any contact info… a name? a number? for the legal department in Bellevue, WA?
March 20th, 2007 at 3:26 am
I’ve had the same T-Mobile problem (so I quit). Someone I know who is mentally imbalanced decided to send me a plethora of unwanted texts. I asked them to block the number..you know the rest of the story. As soon as possible, I switched to Cellular One (chicago company).
To Will and others with the 206 number, read this! http://support.t-mobile.com/knowbase/root/public/tm51134.htm?A2L.SERVICE=Text_messaging
March 26th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I’d join.
I’ve had many conversations with TMobile over incoming text messages and not being able to turn that feature off. It seems like it should be illegal to charge someone for a feature on a per-unit basis if there’s no way to control the number of units one receives. All that they ever will do for me is give me 10 free messages per month and I have to call every three months to get more added. It works I suppose, but it defeats the real purpose of my call, which is to get them to change their practice.
I know a guy (a weird one) who said he gets sexually harassed via text messages and TMobile has refused to reimburse him for the charges they’ve inflicted upon him. He’s changed phone numbers 2-3 times and whomever it is who’s harrassing him obviously figures out the change in number. Seems wrong to me.
Contact me via the email listed in my website.
Thanks!
April 6th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
I sympathize with all of you as I’ve been there. Last month I received about 20 SMS from T-Mobile from a number in India +91xxxxxxxx. I called T-Mobile and had it resolved. The customer service rep set-up filters for me and credited those SMS. But my question behind all this is: Why do I have to pay for something I didn’t ask for?
All the countries I’ve visited: UK, Ireland, India, Kenya, South Africa, Holland (actually Amsterdam airport), you don’t pay for receiving SMS text messages, neither do you pay for receiving a call. Why then do USA cellular subscribers pay? Are we really that dumb and stupid? No wonder all the Asian and Western European tourists here in Florida say we have one messed up cellular system. No wonder we are dumb Americans as we don’t fight for our rights, but fight for other’s rights in their lands. Why can’t we solve our problems at home? I digress.
I’ve tried to get T-Mobile (I have 4 lines on a Family Plan) to stop text messaging on my lines, but all talk in vain. A relative told me they don’t get text messages on their Verizon plan as it’s blocked. I’m thinking of switching over, now that T-mobile are raing text messaging rates to $0.15 to send AND to receive.
I think a class action lawsuit is in order for T-Mobile and the whole cellular industry.