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.

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!

To Will and others with the 206 number, read this! http://support.t-mobile.com/knowbase/root/public/tm51134.htm?A2L.SERVICE=Text_messaging

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.

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)

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".

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.

(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.

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?