[Fredslist] Please helep me "nail" T Mobile - all it takes is a stamp and an envelope

Sun Mar 23 08:30:12 EDT 2008

Jane,
Deja vu!  I had a similar situation a few years ago with Verizon.  My daughter lost her phone and by the time she realized it there was almost $3000 of calls.  Verizon was adamant about who was responsible to pay - me.  I went through months of letters, calls, and threats.  They told me my only recourse was through small claims court where I would lose because of the language in the contract I signed.  In the good, old days of AT&T. they would acknowledge that the calls were fraudulently made and relieve you of the charges.  At one time I had $8000+ in calls on a credit card number that had been illegally used by people all over the world.  AT&T forgave the charges.  That means, of course, that will all pay part of it as the cost of AT&T doing business.

I hope Lisa and Kris are more successful.  They can also try one of the organizations that negotiate large debts like this and see what they can get.  
The cell phone companies have run amok and we are all paying for it.  Perhaps letters need to go to the FCC for more regulation.
Linda

Linda Lamel 212 371-8257 linda at lamel.net

From: JanPresent at aol.comDate: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:22:00 -0400To: fredslist at gothamnetworking.comSubject: [Fredslist] Please helep me "nail" T Mobile - all it takes is a stamp and an envelope

Hello down the network:

If it is Gotham's truth that it is better to give than receive, I need you to give. An envelope and a stamp is all that is necessary. If anyone works for TMobile I apologize, but they have simply infuriated me.

A wonderful young woman, and a gifted teacher, who left Leadership High in June to get married, Lisa Mueller Welsein, needs our help. Please read the letter I have written to the CEO of TMobile. Lisa is in Kenya, her SIM card was stolen when she went to have her cell phone repaired, and some local criminal ran up $7000 in calls. TMobile has turned a deaf ear to her, and she and Kristoffer now owe $6400, which they can ill afford, they are already up to their ears in college and grad school loans. If you read my letter you will understand it all. I am asking everyone I know to write a letter to the CEO and TMobile, snail mail, demanding that he personally take notice of the problem.

If you call them, which I did, (their offices are in Bellevue, Washington,) the operator will not put you through, they will not give you an email address. I think the only thing to do is barrage this man with a slew of protest letters. Do your own version of mine, but please do it. This is so unfair to Lisa and Kris, they are just starting out in life, Kristoffer is working for the International Food Bank of the UN, they have student loans. It makes me very very angry. We must do something about it.

I can tell you, knowing Lisa, she would do the same for any one of you. Please take a few moments of your time, address the envelope, put a stamp on it, mark it "personal and confidential" in several places and mail it. Then let me know you did it and I will love you and be grateful to you forever. I will be in your debt. This is wrong, it needs to be made right, We need to get this guy's attention. Please!!!!

JP

March 20, 2008

Mr. Robert Dotson
President and Chief Executive Officer
T Mobile
12920 SE 38th Street
Bellevue, WA 98006

Dear Mr. Dotson:

I am writing directly to you in your capacity as President and CEO of T Mobile.  I need to alert you to situation which, I believe, deserves your attention, one where you have the power and authority to rectify a terrible mistake. Incidentally I am a T Mobile customer.

Lisa Marie Mueller Welsein and her Danish husband Kristoffer are young friends of mine, recently married. Kristoffer is employed by the United Nations and accepted a post in Nairobi, Kenya. Kristoffer works for the International Food Bank, and Lisa, a gifted teacher is seeking employment.  Below is their T Mobile information.

*The name on the account it: Lisa Marie Mueller Welsien**The phone number: 917-412-2354 (my husband's line on the account is202-294-0302)**Account number: 513008005**The last four digits of my SS: 2704*

They arrived in Nairobi just prior to the ethnic fighting which took place in the past few months. Lisa's phone was not working properly and she asked a local merchant to repair it.  Just arrived, and in need of communication with her worried family, she was not familiar with the way things work in a third world country like Kenya, having been raised in a rural area in Massachusetts. As you are probably not surprised to learn, her SIM card was stolen by the vendor, sold to a third party who immediately ran up over $7000 in telephone calls.

Please read what she wrote to me at the beginning of the year:
I am using my cell phone with a Kenyan sim card, but I thought the Americansim card was in a different location.  I did not find out that the man whorepaired my cell phone stole my American sim card until 2 days ago.  Hepulled a very smooth fast one on me, and the Diplomatic Police here in Kenyaare still investigating.  I have a meeting scheduled with them tomorrow, andprovided them with the most updated call logs that I could get from T-Mobiletoday (although they won't give me the logs since January 28th and sincethen the user has put over $2,000 on the bill).If I had known the card was stolen I would obviously have reported it, butT-Mobile's complaint with me is that I didn't report it and so I have to payit.  If I was in America, I could sue the man for the money but most peoplein Kenya don't make that much money (almost $7,000) in an entire year.One final thing: the reason my cell phone account wasn't canceled when Imoved to Kenya two months ago is because T-Mobile would not allow us tobreak our contract penalty-free until we had proof of our address in Kenya.

The final bill that T-Mobile is charging me is $6,857.14 Kristoffer and I are not looking forward to adding $6400 to our already-steep educational debt which we are paying off on one income at the moment.  Sort of defeats the purpose of saving money in a developing country when you have to pay off some crook's funny business.

I know Lisa has "gone through channels" in Nairobi and has reached out to other individuals at TMobile to no avail. I believe it is a tragedy that an innocent young couple, who have been taken advantage of by a criminal, should be obligated to pay that debt.  I think it really bad business practices that no one at TMobile has reached out to help this young couple who are doing great work for the UN. I appeal to you, as head of a company with 39,000 employees to make this problem disappear. I have no personal interest in this other than these two young people are like family to me. 

I look forward to a speedy response and, I hope, a resolution to this problem.

Sincerely;

Jane W. Present

Jane W. Present799 Park AvenueNew York, NY 10021Phone: 212-988-7602Fax: 212-988-7315E-mail janpresent at aol.com

Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL Home.
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