T-Mobile Sued For Forcing People To Accept (And Pay For) Text Messages
from the pls-dnt-mk-me-gt-txt-msgs dept
It's not too hard to remember the day when a lot of people couldn't receive text messages on their mobile phones. I still sometimes ask people to see if they use text messages. Apparently, if they're on T-Mobile, I shouldn't even bother. Even if you don't want to use text messaging, T-Mobile requires users to accept messages... and to pay for them. That's resulted in a class action lawsuit against the company for unfairly forcing people to pay for text messages they don't want. While it may not be a huge issue right now, if SMS spam picks up, it could become a very important issue.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: class action, text messages
Companies: t-mobile
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ya, same here
Every time someone sends me an SMS (I never actually "want" an sms) I get charged 25 cents. And there's nothing I can seem to do about it. That said, spam really ticks me off.
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Re: ya, same here
A few days later I end up with some txt spam on my phone and being charged for each one.
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Re: ya, same here
always having it their way , and we users
don't have very many options as long as a controlled last mile.
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Re: ya, same here
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Sales Management, Marketing, Sales
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Call Cust Service
Note: I used this aginst sprint when I was geting SMS spam, sprints solution was to not charge for the first 100 incoming messages. (I had to talk to one of there special retention people and dident have a contract at the time)
Keep in mind, if you are geting SMS spammed, you can take the company spamming you to your local small clames court. Its easy to show damages (your cell phone bill) who sent the message (follow the money). And a few Certifiyed letters to the company to prove you asked them to stop. If your not incline to doing all the leg work a lot of college students have the free time to do it for you.
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Re: Call Cust Service
> students have the free time to do it for you.
Maybe you could get a few of those college students to teach you the difference between "your" and "you're" and "there" and "their" and, well, just basic grammar in general.
I mean, "Certifiyed"? Seriously?
Honestly, does no one know how to speak/write properly anymore?
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Re: Re: Call Cust Service
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Yep. And I've also noticed that lately an inordinate amount of people seem to mistakenly equate criticism with rudeness.
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Thank you. =P
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Call Cust Service
> appropriate than "amount" in this instance.
Not necessarily. That's merely a question of style and personal aesthetic. "Amount" is not wrong. It's just not your preferred word.
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Re: Call Cust Service
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So basically, if you never had any business using text messaging on their "Re-branded Motorola" phones which were hellish to text anyone, but you wanted Voice-Mail, you would constantly receive unwanted Text-Messages which you were forced to pay for.
They have several other fishy billing schemes... but then again, Motorola isn't doing so well these days, so they must get their money somehow.
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I don't know about other companies
I'm sure the other ones probably have it as well.
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Dropped
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My experience with Sprint.
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Re:
I don't text from my phone. If I ever get myself a smartphone with a full keypad, I might, but not with the razor I now have.
EtG
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T-mobile
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Finally
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this is just a scam
this should be investigated and sued if possible.
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i have a T-Mobile line that the family uses when we go to Europe.
i wonder if my prepaid card has a negative balance now.
looks like i need to get a new carrier.
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You shouldn't have to pay at all.
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Re: You shouldn't have to pay at all.
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They charge to recive?
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No spam or charge on VZW
Also, I'm extremely careful about giving my number out. Only when it is required and only when there isn't someplace else that I can go where it is not required.
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Text messaging seems cumbersome
using it. I read that text messaging and generated 52 billion
dollars in revenue in 2007 it's incredible.
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t-mobile text messages
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Glad to see....
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Verizon makes it difficult to get a refund on thes
Include Verizon in this as well. A few months ago, our family plan started receiving messages from spammers. I called Verizon and spoke to customer service, who stated to me that having DROPPED the unlimited plan that we would be charged for all incoming text messages.
I retorted and stated that was fine, if only the text messages weren't ads produced by Verizon. Of course, this got her attention as she denied the allegations that Verizon sends spam ads.
I asked for a refund of the messages that weren't originally from numbers we normally text and was refused. Big mistake on their part.
After making another phone call, I got the refund AND SMS feature turned off completely.
T-Mobile deserves this lawsuit. Strictly because they WON'T turn off the service to customers.
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Stop hating on T-Mobile they are the best
This class action suit is horrendously stupid. So they sue T-Mobile over 10cent text messages, some attorneys will get a couple cool million each, I may get a dollar or two from the settlement, and then T-Mobile will have to increase their prices to pay for said attorneys' new BMWs.
Disgusting!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Re: Stop hating on T-Mobile they are the best
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Re: Stop hating on T-Mobile they are the best
I agree, class action lawsuits is the incredibly expensive and counterproductive, but what t-mobile does is outrageous, and sometimes you do what you have to do to make an sob to stop
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Re: Stop hating on T-Mobile they are the best
Second, attorneys for a class action have to FRONT THE MONEY for the lawsuit. Have you ever heard of somebody paying to be a member of a class action? Who do you think pays for the filings and motions, etc., for every member across the country???
Asswipe.
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TCPA still in effect?
I got text spam on my Sprint phone, at 50 cents a pop! When I called them up, their help(less)desk Indian's script said I could go online to block texting on my account. I would've assumed that I could do that over the phone with the phone company. Guess not.
One of the spams came from a bar in the next town, some party they were having. I drove over there, showed the owner the spam on my phone, and demanded he stop spamming me or I'd sue him. He called the ad agency and ripped them three new ones for involving him in spamvertisement, void contract, full refund, wasn't paying them, the works. He invited me to stay for a free beer, and while I was enjoying that, the ad agency rep showed up. All the customers could hear the owner ripping this guy another one from the office. I left very happy.
The moral of this story is: being spammed by a local company's ad agency is very entertaining, satisfying, and may involve free beer ;)
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T-mobile charging more for text that what is on th
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T-mobile charging more for text that what is on th
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force to pay incoming textmessage
next they show me how to opt out of of messaging, it is free
try customer service with all options displayed then pick the one you want
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T.Mobile
quiltluci@hotmail.com
sincerely,
Lucille A. Quilt
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