

T-Mobile settles with FTC for $90M in 'cramming' case - hotgoldminer
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/12/19/t-mobile-ftc-cramming/20637435/

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trynumber9
I never really paid much attention to my phone bills (it was set to auto-pay).
A few months back I received a letter in the mail about a T-Mobile refund and
was quite skeptical. But eventually I found a PR on T-Mobile's own site and so
decided to submit a claim. Turns out they had charged me some $200 on
fraudulent services that I never asked for or even remember receiving.
Rightfully they did refund the amount just last month.

This kind of behavior shouldn't have happened in the first place. I'm happy
the FTC is fining them. It's really stupid to steal from your most loyal and
trusting customers. Unfortunately, it seems every US carrier did this. What am
I supposed to do? Who do I switch to in order to `punish` the terrible
companies? I've since turned off auto-pay and switched to a no contract plan.
But I really don't know what to do to reward the good players in telecom. It
seems there are none.

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ccvannorman
Humanity is working towards a system* that doesn't rely on a large corporation
to carry out basic needs like phone calls. Until that happens, this behavior
should be expected (if history is any guide, nothing will change in the
telecom business soon.)

*e.g. mesh networks, which are technically feasible and highly desirable for end users, so I posit that over time we will drive towards them and get there one way or another.

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Taek
I was a bit surprised to see this from T-Mobile, but the charges go back to
2010 and it also looks like other major carriers have been hit with similar
charges.

T-Mobile still has my vote as the 'least-evil' but it looks like there is
still room for improvement.

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yuhong
I still wish they could actually admit wrongdoing.

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chasing
I don't understand why there's not more of an effort to name-and-shame in
these cases. T-Mobile doesn't exist in the abstract: It's people in offices
making decisions.

Who is behind this? Who OK'ed it? Who knew?

Name them. Shame them. It's one of society's more powerful tools.

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eli
I wonder if I was partly responsible for this. I filed an FTC complaint a year
or two ago after my T-Mobile bill had bogus charges tacked on for a second
time. Customer service _insisted_ it was impossible for charges to be added
without my permission and I must have forgotten signing up for daily
horescopes.

I'm still a customer. Aside from this, I've been very happy with them. But
that really ticked me off. They must have seen the volume of refund requests
on these guys and known they were bogus.

