Before leaving the country, Fermin left his Blackberry on his table along with some junk mail. His mother came over while he was gone to clean up, and swept up the phone along with the junk mail and tossed it. Someone found it in the garbage and used it to make $6,000 in fraudulent calls. Fermin negotiated with T-Mobile to pay $2,000, then they changed their minds without notice and decide to hold him on the hook for $4,000. What’s a consumer to do?

Fermin writes:

While I was out of the country on a vacation in the beginning of July I left my blackberry at home with its battery removed and the case popped on top of my dining table along with some junk mail I had picked up from my mail box at the last minute. While I was out my mother came over to do some cleaning and she threw swept all the junk mail along with my cellphone into the trash and threw it out. Apparently someone found the cellphone and proceeded to make over $6000 worth of long distance calls.

T Mobile let this go on until it passed the $6000 mark before suspending service to the phone. So upon returning from vacation I was presented with this nightmarish bill from Tmobile for a phone I had lost and calls I could have never made. I have made several calls to Tmobile, they have a special department ( High Balance Department ) which is not tended by customer service reps but some kind of specially trained employees that are only there to get you to pay. After several different calls I got my issue escalated to a supervisor. After discussing the situation with this supervisor for a while he offered me a settlement of 10 payments of $200 to settle the debt. I reluctantly agreed as I had no other parent options, not paying this bill would ruin my carefully cared for credit history.

After I finished with the supervisor, I went up to my PC and checked my account balance and it was at the agreed $2000 mark. Today I went to make my first payment and found that my account balance had been raised up to $4000 without notice and when I tried calling that same number all I got was another rep that said I would have to pay the first $2000 before I could enter into the agreed 10 payments of $200.

I have not missed a payment on anything on my entire life, my credit record is flawless. But T-Mobile first let my account run to stratospheric heights and now is holding my credit history ransom . I have done some research as you can imagine, and there is no federal law that makes telecoms put a hard cap on what an account can run to before notifying the owner or suspending the account. So I find myself without a cellphone, a $6000 bill and my financial future on jeopardy because of some predatory tactic T-Mobile employs and the FCC not doing anything about it.

I really dont know what to do, I dont have the money to pay, I cant buy a new cellphone and activate a line as long as I have to be paying for this. Im so scared my credit history will be ruined for a decade or more. I really could use any help I can get.

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