Clearly he is in the wrong! Who does he think he is, trying to reason with a corporation?

Don't you love how Mike uses blunt logic with T-Mob yet it won't sink into their skulls? I honestly hope this gets resolved and in his favor.

Why should T-Mobile pay for the calls? If the calls were placed after he had reported the phone lost/stolen, then they should, but he waited until the next day to report the phone lost/stolen.

So IEDDIE works for Tmobile.

I think the post picture is hilarious.

If Mike lives in California, there is a state agency that will help him with this--cell phone disputes. I saw this on my local news but sorry, can't remember the name of the state agency.

I have T-mobile and I knew unfortunately, that is what the contract states. I think it's wrong though but the fraud is not treated the way it is via a credit card. For any T-mobile customers who don't use their cell for overseas calls, login to your account and block international calling. It's free and if you need to go overseas you can just log back in and unblock it. It's immediate. That's what I've done.

Poor guy. Just goes to show that companies like T-Mobile don't care at all about their customers, and they are completely incapable of logical thought. Instead of trying to help their clients out, they just throw "policy" at them. What a load of BS.

If I were Mike, I'd drop T-Mobile and not pay them a dime of that $239.
And then I'd go post my story on this website

I don't see why T-Mobile should set a precedent like this--there's too much risk that people will conveniently "lose" their phones after racking up unusually hefty charges, for example, for calling a friend who is traveling overseas. He screwed up twice--by losing his phone and by not reporting it till the next day. Why should T-Mobile pay for his negligence? And for those who will surely carry on about "blaming the victim", well, when you screw up, you get blamed--just like mom taught you.

I wish CSR basic training included the difference between "can't" and "won't". This would save everyone a lot of time.

My fiancee left his phone in the black of a livery cab, and lo and behold he started calling Equador for hours on end.

When he called T Mobile he got the rep to admit on tape that they believed his phone was stolen and the calls were fraudulent. He then got them to waive 75% of the charges because in New York it is illegal to profit off of fraudulent activity (yay for a lawyer father!). It sucks, but $50 was better than $200, and we got the phone back after calling the livery cab company and threatening to go to the city.

@statnut: Nope, sorry. Don't work for T-Mobile.

I see it both ways. His logic is pretty bad, actually -- "well, I've never called those places before so it's IMPOSSIBLE that those were calls I would have made." Wha?

On the other hand, it's pretty crappy that they can't cut the guy a break. I've lost my entire wallet for a few days at a time only to have it turn up in the couch cushions; you don't want to go through the hassle of reporting something as stolen if it's not, and he called the exact next day to report it.

Of course, there's a super-high potential for abuse if they just start writing off charges, which is exactly why the policy exists.

Meh. Could go either way.

I think this is a pretty standard policy. You are responsible for all calls until you report the phone missing. I bet Cingular, Sprint and Verizon all have the same policy.

@MommaJ: So are you telling us if your credit card gets stolen, you'll pay for any fraudulent transactions out of your own pocket instead of asking the credit card company to reverse them (as they are required to by law)?

Some people are going to try to defraud the phone company. Those people are called criminals. Most people are going to be legitimately reporting fraudulent activity on their account. Those people are ordinary consumers, and they deserve protection.

Out of fear we should all call in our phones lost/stolen whenever we just can't find it and see what happens.

When my wife bought a Macbook awhile back, the credit card company saw that she was making an unusual purchase and called to verify the order. Is there a reason T-Mobile cannot do something similar? This guy isn't a big international caller, and all of the sudden he's spending $239 calling Africa in the middle of the night. Can't T-Mobile freeze international dialing while it verifies the validity of the calling activity? They could use an automated system that asks for some verifying information before connecting the call.

If I notice my phone missing the first thing I'm going to do is call AT&T and ask them to block any calls from the phone until further notice. Then, after a couple of days, if it doesn't turn up I'll report it stolen.

As for having to buy a new one, doesn't T-Mobile offer optional insurance when you get your phone? AT&T does. I didn't take it, but I fully expect to have to pay for a replacement phone if I lose or damage mine.

Having said that, T-Mobile has a choice as to whether to stick to policy here or exercise some customer service to keep a long-time customer.

@MommaJ: How is getting one's phone stolen the equivalent of losing it?

Interesting, how a number of your posts have the standard, corporate-shill reply:

MommaJ commented on "Why Does Best Buy Hate Its Customers?", at 6:23 PM on Dec 12 Another poorly written rant about not much of anything.

MommaJ commented on Alitalia Strands Passenger In Iran, at 8:14 PM on Nov 28 I certainly agree that the consumer deserves to be refunded the amount of his cheaper ticket in a more timely fashion, but he did voluntarily choose to buy a more expensive replacement rather than wait for a later flight, and that fact that his visa was about to run out and that he chose to travel in a country with no US embassy is a situation of his own making and hardly Alitalia's responsibility. more »

MommaJ commented on TigerDirect Unlawfully Restrains And Verbally Abuses Customer For Not Submitting To Receipt-Showing Demands, at 3:40 AM on Aug 24 Shaneal alleges to have already spent thousands of dollars in this store, so presumably she was quite familiar with their receipt procedure.

I don't see why there can't be some sort of middle ground to prevent fraud. If you're a customer for years with a cell service provider and suddenly rack up a huge bill at 3 am to a place you've never called before and then report your phone stolen, then chances are you aren't trying to defraud the company. Then again, I guess you couldn't trust a corporation to be willing to listen to customers and make decisions based on historical fact, like everyone does every single day.

If he had simply 'lost' his phone - then he'd have no problem. It would be in a sewer or in his couch cushions or something.

When he lost the phone, and it was FOUND by someone and used for their purposes, THEN he was victim of theft. Calls should be credited.

I have found a wallet and a purse before - and nothing in them was used incorrectly. Blame the criminal, not the victim.

So vote with your wallet: pay T-Mobile's crazy $239 bill and cancel your service with them. Sure it sucks and I doubt an executive email carpet bomb would rectify the situation, but at least you have the comfort of knowing your money is instead going to another coporation (that may or may not have willingly spied on Americans).

@iEddie: I agree (and no, I don't work for T-Mobile). Cell phones should be treated the same as credit cards, the second you realize it's missing, you should call and report it.

Oh, and I don't like the "but they can see I've never called internationally before!" Until Saturday, I never called internationally either. But since then, I've called my sister who is currently in Israel right now and using a prepaid SIM over there, so I have to call her Israeli number. If I call T-Mobile to say I never made those calls, how do they know if that's really true or not by looking at my past usage? I've never dialed outside the US before, but that doesn't mean any international charges are fraudulent.

Get a new phone with another carrier and tell T-mobile to suck eggs. If T-mobile reports the activity to the credit bureau, then add your side of the story.

@howie_in_az: Why should TMOBILE have to be stuck with the guy's bill???

So let me get this straight.. T-mobile lets people make calls on the phone after it's been reported stolen? If they don't, then please explain to me how their policy makes a lick of sense.

@thnkwhatyouthnk: Holy, crap! Learn to read - "Their inviolable policy is that you're responsible for the charges up until you report the phone as stolen."

@Stan LS: Holy crap! Learn to understand! I didn't ask what their policy is - I'm not retarded - I asked how their policy makes any sense. If the customer is responsible for charges before the phone is reported stolen but not after, then they are implying that there are charges after the customer's report which they are waiving for them.

And now you know...

@thnkwhatyouthnk: Uh, no, they are implying that he's only responsible up until the report is made. Afterwards, *if* there are any charges (ie, they are too slow to turn the service off) - its their fault. Makes perfect sense.

Verizon actually (unless they've recently changed it) will credit back any unusual charges that appear up to 48 hours prior to the phone being reported stolen.

After listening, I thought, gosh - the Consumerist should have a "black list" on companies that are voted on (for inclusion on said list,) by readers. I quickly came to the conclusion that all cell carriers would probably make the list sooner or later.

Seems like international calling (on cells) should be disabled by default, and only enabled by a signed contract stating the obvious (in this case,) ramifications for doing such. Perhaps including the option for a pin # (I know pin # is redundant, but meh,).

Tmobile is wrong here. Their fault for not having these safeguards in place already. They can't expect John Q. Public to call the second his phone is stolen. Ironclad policy, doesn't apply in this case, and/or the lack of judgment to pass a loyal longtime customer on up the corporate ladder. Though it may save them money in the long run, I'll sure never use 'em. That's at least 3 accounts they've lost forever.

Thanks for spreading the word Mike (and your award winning patience and communication skills). I tend to disagree with the "supervisor" and am confident that there is somebody at Tmobile that would agree with you. I found the person willing to help me (with a Dell problem) through letters to the BBB and the Texas attorney general. They tend to take letters from attorney generals pretty seriously apparently (well... Dell anyway.)

Consequently, Tmobile USA is based in Bellevue WA. The website for the honorable Attorney General Rob McKenna (Washington State) can be found @...
[www.atg.wa.gov]

At one point, Mike says, "We've been customers of yours for three years, with two phones, and two numbers on one one phone... We've never once called any country on the continent of Africa, and then all of a sudden on 3am in the morning on the 4th we decide to call Mali?"

You would THINK they would flag it as unusual activity and disable the phone...

@Papa Midnight: If my phone company suddenly cut off my phone cause I made a call overseas I would leave them at once. Now if they CALLED me and verified my account and asked me if that was me making the calls, I would be more impressed and happier.

@Stan LS: Oh, forgive me for not wording it how you did. However, the way you so thoughtfully explained it to me has shown me the light.
[/sarcasm]

Anyhow, what do you propose happens if the criminal that stole the phone starts making the calls one minute after the phone is lost and they steal it? Should the customer have checked their pocket every minute and then ran to the nearest pay phone when they found it wasn't there? Some of you people are such ass-hats..

@jwissick: Except then the fraud has already taken place and you'll get billed for it if they screw up, as the original poster's complaint shows... you really just can't win.

I'd have to think most people wouldn't notice their phone had been stolen right away...unless someone runs by and grabs it out of your hand. It's perfectly normal that you may not notice it had been stolen for a little while - there should be some leeway allowed.

@avconsumer:
Why should T-Mobile have to babysit their customers? The guy signed a contract stating he is responsible for charges up until he reports it stolen. He reported it stolen after the calls were made. T-Mobile has to pay their international carrier for those calls. Why should they get stuck with the bill? T-mobile probably has protections AVAILABLE if you choose to put them in place. Why should they be forced to shoulder the expense of imposing them on EVERYONE?

@thnkwhatyouthnk: Hate to tell you, but you're the ass-hat here. Stan LS explained things perfectly; you chose to misinterpret.

Those suggesting he switch carriers: I'd be very surprised if Verizon and the others don't have the exact same policy. Does anyone know for sure?

@Papa Midnight: If my phone company disabled my phone because I made the once in a blue moon international call, I'd be pissed off.

As I stated in a previous comment, in my year with T-Mobile, I never made a single international call until Saturday. If they flagged that as suspicious activity and shut off my phone I'd be extremely upset. I don't want to have to call my phone company to reactivate my phone every time I call another country.

@thnkwhatyouthnk: Every minute? The guy took a full day! I love how people expect the company to hold up their end of the bargain, but when they do wrong the policy no longer should apply. Seriously, what are you 5?

@iEddie: I "waited a whole day" to report my TMobile phone stolen because I thought I had simply misplaced it, I had no inkling it had been stolen. tMobile was more than helpful, credited me the racked-up charges to India (about $420), and even sent me an upgraded phone for only 50 bucks.

But... I had insurance, so...

My opinion on this is that T-Mobile does not have to do anything (the calls were made before it was reported stolen), but it would be nice if they did. I'm sure it would earn them some good PR if they did. But if they do that, I expect that people will conveniently be "losing" phones after making international calls.

@ceejeemcbeegee: Did the insurance policy specifically cover this type of thing perhaps?

Mike sounds like a Napoleon Dynamite twin does he not?

Do Malians have talons?

@zouxou: Yup, that's me, the corporate shill for Best Buy, Alitalia, Tiger Direct AND T-Mobile! I'm exhausted! Honestly, I'm a small business owner (as in very small retail store), ex-child of the Sixties, mother to one teen and one twenty-something. Got shafted by a big corporation employment-wise a decade ago, so I know the ups and downs of life and know how corporations can do dirty. I am all for consumer protection. But I hate seeing so many posts by folks who refuse to take responsibility for the contracts they have signed or the missteps they have made and insist on some corporation making it all better for them. I know these are the same ones whose mommies used to march onto nursery school to fight their battles for them and kiss all their boo-boos, but you're a big kid now, and the corporation is not your mommy. Ditto re those who can't accept the idea that sometimes shit happens and there's no one to blame. So boohoo, your cellphone got stolen and someone made calls. T-Mobile should waive its contract terms just for you and take your financial hit because life was mean to you? What are all these whiners going to do when life throws them a real curveball and there's no corporation to blame? If one of my kids came to me with the type of woeful tale I see far too often on this blog,I'd tell 'em to grow up and deal with it. I read The Consumerist for helpful information and enlightening commentary, and hope for fewer posts of the "life's not fair" genre.

@MommaJ said:I know these are the same ones whose mommies used to march onto nursery school to fight their battles for them...

So you're a part-time psychic, too?

Wow, that's a lame comeback.

Anyway, T-mobile offers protections against allowing International calling, another T-Mobile customer already stated he has his turned off. Failure to enable a security feature is the user's problem. He never makes international calls, why should he have the feature enabled?

Don't respond with the, "how are customers suppose to know this and that" crap. It's simple, you purchase a piece of equipment, if you don't know what it does then you are a moron. I have international calling turned off on all my phones, I also have SMS and MMS turned off because I don't use them. I have friends who continually complain about getting "SPAM" texts and I tell them to turn off the damn feature, they refuse to, so how do you respond to that?

As far as the missing/stolen debate. It's a risk. If you are unsure where something important is located, something that can cause financial harm to you if used improperly you risk having that harm inflicted if you are unsure that it was stolen. You weigh it against the inconvenience of reporting items stolen and dealing with that. If you get bitten, it's your fault.

Depending on the circumstances, it can take a day or two before someone even notices the phone is missing. My mom keeps her phone in her purse, and somehow it got out of her bag and left at a Trader Joe's (or in the parking lot, I'm not sure which), and she had no idea the phone was missing until someone from Trader Joe's called home from her phone that night. Fortunately in our case no one used the phone inappropriately.

According to Verizon's website, they don't have a fixed policy as to time, but they will credit calls you didn't make before you call to report it stolen or lost:
[support.vzw.com]
Also I believe Verizon doesn't activate international calling by default.

Even if a company isn't willing to remove the charges entirely, it's not reasonable to ask they pay full price, they should at least give a price break (being that they don't pay anywhere close to what they charge for the long distance, and considering that the customer didn't actually make the calls...).

It could have been a lot worse than $239. However, the caller has a lot of great points and from personal experience, T-Mobile is penny wise and pound foolish.

We need more cell phone companies to become national and clean up shop on crappy cell phone CS.

@CaffeinatedSquint:

"Can you hear me now? Good!"

@warf0x0r: they will suspend the number until you call back and say you found it. It takes 30 seconds for each call. I have to do this frequently becasue our employee's lose their phones. heck I can suspend phone numbers from our online account access page. quick and easy.