Friday, March 16, 2012

Ripoff Report

Ever get a weird text on your cell phone and ignore it?

Then please pay attention to your next cell phone bill.

I was going to pay my cell phone bill this morning and found this:

Screen Shot 2012 03 16 at 10 23 59 AM

WTF? One time use charges? That'll add up over a year…wonder what it is.

Screen Shot 2012 03 16 at 10 24 26 AM

Dammit. I never ordered any of their shit.

So I called T-Mobile. And the customer service person was very apologetic and immediately reversed the charges. She also went on to say, "they're complete bastards". No - hang on…I think I said that.

But what she did say was this: "Just yesterday, I had to reverse nearly $200 of charges on someones cell phone bill from this company."

Here's how it works:

  • They get your cell phone number (like a telemarketer).
  • You get a strange text message.
  • You open the message to see what it says.
  • By opening the text message - you just agreed to accept the services and they charge you.
  • There's nothing (yet) illegal about doing this.

Here's the company web-site.

And here's some more info from people that have been harassed by this horrible effing company.

And here's the LinkedIn page of their demon-spawn-child CEO Russell Klein, which brings up another point: Russell K. is a Harvard Business School graduate. This simply reaffirms that Harvard and Yale have no shortage of graduates that just love to $#*% with your wallet. Seriously? Harvard? Yale? If you guys are really the modern fonts of all that is knowledge and wisdom - then why do you keep graduating lobbyists on K Street, bankers on Wall Street and lawyers on 1st Street that are completely @#*$&ing over our economic well-being?

Dear Russell,

If you're reading this - there isn't a level of Hell deep enough for you and your fellow graduates. You provide so little value yet you charge so much. Why? Because after all the reversed charges from angry, sucker punched "customers" that have to take the time to call their cell phone companies - you need to make sure you still have some money left over (from the customers that either don't hate your "service" or just didn't take the time to check the details of their cell phone bill).

Wait - I take that back. I don't think you have a single customer that doesn't hate what you guys do. I can't imagine SendMe has one - just one - customer that pays for your service and loves what it does. Not one.

Not. A. Single. One.

5 comments:

Bill and Connie said...

I got one of these charges a while back too. What a rip off!

BTW I see you are a fan of Bryan Sutton. He is awesome. I was just listening to his version of Beaumont Rag. I have a David Grier channel on my Pandora on my Android. Are you a flatpicker?

Phil Read said...

Hi Bill - Thanks for the nice comment! On the other hand, I think I'm a fan of another Byran Sutton:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1340613/
He uses Revit for major motion picture set designs. Incredibly talented! But I'll be sure to check out your Bryan Sutton too!! -Phil

Eddy Krygiel said...

I had the same problem with each of the cell phones in my house. If you call your provider, you can have a parental block installed on the lines and then you can't 'accept' the charges without entering in a code.

totally bogus they can do that

Chad Lukenbaugh said...

Thanks Phil!
I read this and thought, surely this hasn't happened to me too....I pull up my acct and sure enough, there's $30 from this month and $20 from last month. BULLROARE & SayNow....I immediately announced to several people in the office and they also found charges on their bills...thanks for the heads up!!

Eddy Krygiel said...

just covered in the times...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/your-money/beware-of-cramming-on-your-cellphone-bill-the-haggler.html?ref=technology