I am so fucking pissed right now.

[alarimer]

I just got a bill from Tmobile. A company I no longer have a contract with. I switched service on Jan. 4. So I used them from Jan. 2-Jan 4 and they are charging for the ENTIRE FUCKING MONTH. 100 dollars. Fuck you Tmobile. Fuck you, you piece of shit.

All they could tell me was that it was in the service agreement. If that's true, it needs to be illegal. I'm not paying it. I am going to bad mouth them all over Twitter, in the hopes they decide to drop this.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

1. Hmmm,

If you are concerned about your credit scores you should know that they will report non-payment to the credit agencies and it will effect your scores. They'll also set the debt collectors upon you...

[alarimer]

2. I will not be extorted

They change their terms all the time; how am I supposed to keep up?

This is a porting fee, no more no less. Illegal as hell.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

3. I was with Verizon for years and years...

last summer I switched carriers, I had been out of contract for over 2 years. I switched with 8 days left in my billing cycle. They sent me a bill for the full month. I called and asked how that could be as cell phone service is paid a month in advance. Representative said, "It's a very complicated system and works out to 1/2 a month is advance. I said fine, send me a new bill for 1/2 month's service and reflecting the 8 days of credit. Nope. They kept sending me the same bill, I kept calling. They began calling me with a recorded message to call back. First few calls I did and explained the problem. After that I just rejected the call when the number came up. After 4 months they sent it to a collection agency and dinged my credit scores, one for 90 points! Now I don't give a crap about my scores, I'm at that point in my life where I have as much credit as I want (and more than I need) I have a paid for automobile and no intentions of buying another...I can afford to let them do their worst. All I'm saying is that while you may want to stand on principle, they can cause you more heartache than the $100. is worth. Analyze your particular situation, and go from there. It can take years to recover 90 points on a credit score.

Do you have copies of all your past bills? That was my problem...I'd been paying the bills on line for so long, had opted out of the paper statements and they only keep the most recent 6 or perhaps 12 on the site. So I had only my memory to go on, I don't even bank with the same institution I did when I first opened the Verizon account. To make it worse, when I first switched they locked me out of the web site...it magically reopened 2 months later...with nothing but the last unpaid bill on it. If you live in a state with a Democratic Attorney General you could try contacting that office.

[Incitatus]

16. I don't think it hurts that much.

I had an issue with a phone company where I refused to pay. It did show up on my report and I got at least 100 debt collection letters that I threw away, but everything else like credit card and loan payments were in good standing and a good debt/credit ratio. It didn't hurt my ability to get a house and car loan or additional credit.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

17. There is no rhyme nor reason to some of this stuff...

I bought my first house before credit reporting services had been created...Life was simpler.

I was rather shocked to see a 90 point drop on one score, to be honest. Of course the very next week I received notice from one of my credit cards, 'we've raised your credit limit'. I simply advised alarimer to evaluate the situation before making a decision.

[Purveyor]

4. It is true and you are obligated to pay. Somebody called into Clark Howard a few weeks back on this

very topic.

Sorry.

eom.

[alarimer]

6. Well some people have managed to get them reduced

I'm escalating the call now.

I suspect I've been hung up on.

I'm going to Twitter-bomb them next.

[Purveyor]

8. Good luck my friend. Give 'em hell! eom

[alarimer]

9. I simply escalated the call

I guess they got sick of me.

But it worked. I was all over the web looking and people are complaining endlessly about this.

It isn't right at all.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

5. I was a T-Mobile customer once.

They made me a firm believer in the no contract pay as you go phones.

[alarimer]

7. Update: I escalated the call and they pro-rated the amount

This after speaking to three customer service agents.

So, complaining sometimes works.

[riderinthestorm]

10. Oh boy, I had a miserable experience trying to extricate myself from TMobile as well. HATE them.

and have made it a point to make sure all of my friends and family know how they also tried to extort a ton of $$ from us at the end as well. While my story isn't exactly like yours, they also tried the $120 full month fee on us.

I swapped from TMobile to US Cellular. My grown daughter decided to swap off our old TMobile plan since she'd be hanging out there as an expensive single line, and move onto her boyfriend's TMobile family plan (so remember she stayed with TMobile the whole time).

Unfortunately TMobile didn't swap her billing over (their error). My daughter discovered it within a few days since she does everything online and she was watching. She called, and called, and spoke to reps who assured her they'd get it swapped over - they didn't. Still charging her $120/month when she should have been his family plan with a $10 monthly line fee... It took 4 months to get it worked out. Snail mails, billing, working our way up the chain of supervisors...

They finally reduced the fee to the original $120 (her bill was now almost a whopping $500) but we never could get them to budge on THEIR own billing error.



Never again.

[narnian60]

11. My husband swears by the "get ugly" philosophy

when dealing with companies that are trying to rip him off. I have to leave the room when he's on the phone and in that mode. I adhere to the "catch more flies with honey" way of thinking myself.

[agracie]

15. I agree. If you are polite and ask for help, you usually get a break. nt

[Tuesday Afternoon]

12. Strike a match to it and let it burn. Burn. Baby. Burn.

I would not worry over it in the least.

[Trascoli]

13. LOL

I'm not paying it. I am going to bad mouth them all over Twitter, in the hopes they decide to drop this.

[alarimer]

14. I know, I know. It's not like they care.

But it's fixed now. I'm sorry I brought it up.

Next time, I'll pay closer attention. It's just outrageous to me that they're allowed to do this.

[Hard Assets]

18. 10 years ago, I left Tmobile with Sprint.

They STILL chase me with a dead $333.93 bill with stupid collection agencies. We simply told them that Tmobile is in the wrong, and won't admit it, and are still after me with that bill that won't die.

They are breaking the law with that, and I might seek redress..

[alarimer]

19. They change the terms at will, while you have no similar recourse

And I've switched companies before and it wasn't an issue, so this really made me angry.

[Chan790]

20. Actually, their changes provide you with a recourse.

Every time they change their terms you legally have a right to inform them in-writing within so-many days (30, I think.) that the new terms are unacceptable and walk away from your contract. They can still ding you for the month but they can't charge you a termination fee or send the remainder of the contract past the current month to collections.

[Munificence]

21. Time Warner

I had this similar thing happen with Time Warner. We had supposedly "been out of contract" for 3 years. Well were moving to another state so I went by Time Warner to drop off the equipment. The gal behind the desk checked all the equipment to make sure it worked and said "You are good to go". I said "well do I owe anything on the accountant and if so I will pay it". She pulled up my account and said "Nope everything is paid in full and you have been out of contract for several years".

Flash forward 5 months and I started getting calls from dept collectors...not only to me but they were calling family members also trying to track me down...finally decided to deal with it and see what it was as I did not owe anyone any money that I knew of. Well I finally asked the debt collectors who it was for and low and behold it was a debt from Time Warner.....they said I canceled my service early and had to pay an "early termination fee" of $145.00.

I told them to eat dirt! Never paid it and it did show up on my credit report...knocked it down to like 720...whooopidy doooo!