Back in February, we ran Sam C’s complaint about a T-Mobile price increase for text messages, raising it from five cents to ten cents per message. On the page detailing the change a footnote remarked how long the “discounted” price would remain in effect. Our complainant compared it to the novel 1984, wherein, “Winston notes that people had demonstrated to thank Big Brother because their chocolate ration had been increased to 20 grams. (when it had actually be reduced to 20 from 30).”

The rate increase really annoyed Sam as all he could do about it was kvetch.

However, an email from an alleged T-Mobile customer service rep tells us differently. “Customers actually had 30 days after recieving their statements in january 2006 detaiing the increase in charges to cancel WITHOUT an early termination fee,” says Matt G.

Thanks Matt! Now that’s what we call customer retention!

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