While visiting the Philippines with her grandson, Esther had a family emergency and needed to use her T-Mobile phone. She expected a larger than usual bill when she got home, but didn’t expect it to be more than $1,200, including data roaming when Esther doesn’t have data service on her phone in the first place. A friendly customer service representative told her that she would only have to pay $296.14 due to a billing error. Then T-Mobile turned around and told her that yeah, they needed the entire $1,200.

On October 21,2011, I called T-Mobile customer service in regards to my outrageous cell phone bill of a little over $1200.00. I spoke with [A] and explained to her that I was in the Philippines and had my daughter call me as I had her son with me and an emergency had occurred. I was not aware that I would be charged for receiving calls and I also had cell phone to cell phone usage at $0.25 a minute.

[A] was apologetic and informed me that they would fix my bill and I would only have to pay $296.14. I paid that with a check on November 4, 2011 and a couple days later, I received a message from T-Mobile stating that I was still required to pay the balance. I called them back to explain that I had spoken with an [A] and she had assured me that this would be resolved if I paid the $296.14, but the only thing they were willing to do was remove the $163 fee for the internet service that I did not use nor have on my phone.

Among the charges were roaming fees which I was also not aware of. Since that time, I have had to make payments because I am unable to afford to pay off this bill. I feel that it is unfair that they have taken advantage of my ignorance and were unwilling to honor the arrangement that [A], with their customer service department, had agreed to make with me. I have been a loyal customer since 2004 and this is the treatment that I deserve?

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