Today, T-mobile took some heat as the FTC accused T-mobile of cramming, meaning charging customers with unauthorized services by third-party companies. What happened was that T-mobile allegedly placed charges for third-party services on customers’ bills, according to the FTC. Also, the agency also says that T-mobile was covering this up quite well so that the customer could not know, and Chairman of FTC, Edith Ramirez demands the company repay all of its customers who were used by T-mobile. Is this truth? We do not know yet, but John Legere has given us a statement, explains what these charges were to T-mobile.
The CEO of the “Uncarrier” called these charges “unfounded and without merit.” Why? Well, for starter, the Legere told us that the carrier had stopped billing for the questionable premium SMS texts that the FTC was talking about last year, the company had also started a refund program to refund in full. The CEO criticized the execution, calls the lawsuit is “not only factually and legally unfounded, but also misdirected.” What does this mean, was FTC did not gather enough information about this before filing the suit? Will this put a KO punch on the merger between T-mobile and Sprint? Are these charges even valid, legally and evidently? The information both side has given us are too little to make a judgement right now. But here is the letter that Legere wrote to show his reaction against the charges, read it, and tell me, do you believe him or not?
We have seen the complaint filed today by the FTC and find it to be unfounded and without merit. In fact T-Mobile stopped billing for these Premium SMS services last year and launched a proactive program to provide full refunds for any customer that feels that they were charged for something they did not want. T-Mobile is fighting harder than any of the carriers to change the way the wireless industry operates and we are disappointed that the FTC has chosen to file this action against the most pro-consumer company in the industry rather than the real bad actors.
As the Un-carrier, we believe that customers should only pay for what they want and what they sign up for. We exited this business late last year, and announced an aggressive program to take care of customers and we are disappointed that the FTC has instead chosen to file this sensationalized legal action. We are the first to take action for the consumer and I am calling for the entire industry to do the same.
This is about doing what is right for consumers and we put in place procedures to protect our customers from unauthorized charges. Unfortunately, not all of these third party providers acted responsibly—an issue the entire industry faced. We believe those providers should be held accountable, and the FTC’s lawsuit seeking to hold T-Mobile responsible for their acts is not only factually and legally unfounded, but also misdirected.
— John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile USA
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