Unions charge T-Mobile with shady business practices - CNET

The group also claims the company's flashy marketing isn't what it seems when you read the fine print. The carrier's no-contract plans, for example, often require customers to either buy in an installment plan or lease a phone through T-Mobile. Cancel that service, however, and consumers are still on the hook for the unpaid cost of their phones, which can be more than a two-year contract's early termination fee.

Change to Win's complaint also questions T-Mobile's ads claiming to pay the early termination fees for people switching from AT&T, Verizon or Sprint. That's because customers still have to pay those fees upfront, and can wait eight weeks or more before getting reimbursed. Some customers say they never got those reimbursements, and that has made their credit ratings suffer, according to the group.

Despite these allegations, recent customer satisfaction surveys from JD Power and Consumer Reports rank T-Mobile No. 1 among the big four national carriers in overall customer satisfaction.

The complaint

Change to Win claims it has conducted a review of T-Mobile's advertisements and promotions and examined more than 5,500 customer complaints filed between January 2013 to September 2015 with the Better Business Bureau, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission and the FCC.

The group's most damning accusation could be what it calls a patte of complaints from people enrolled in add-on services, such as phone insurance plans, upgrades to unlimited data plans or a leasing program. Some people said they never intended to sign up for these programs and had trouble cancelling these unwanted services, according to the complaint.

T-Mobile's retail employees told Change to Win they're pushed to add services to 90 percent of all new accounts.

"Employees are under a lot of pressure to reach these targets by encouraging them to enroll as many people as possible in these programs," said Nell Geiser, Change to Win's research director. "So it's not a surprise if people [are] being signed up for services they didn't authorize or want."

T-Mobile didn't issue an official statement on the FCC complaint and declined to comment on the allegations directly. Instead the company pointed to a tweet from its outspoken CEO John Legere from December when the group filed a similar complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"We stand by our ad! Contrary to the click-bait headline, we haven't been accused of false advertising by any regulatory body."

The FCC did not respond to requests for comment on the complaint filed.

While it's true that no federal regulator has taken any action, New York Attoey General Eric Schneiderman's office said last month it has launched an investigation into T-Mobile's practices.