If you are a T-Mobile cell customer, you better check your August bill for an announcement about a costly new fee. It will now cost you $1.50 a month for a paper “summary” bill. And should you want a detailed paper bill, that will be $3.49 a month.
*MOUSE PRINT:
“After considering a number of factors including rising costs for paper, printing, and postage, as well as environmental impacts associated with printing paper bills, T-Mobile has started to charge customers who would like to receive a paper bill. The charge does not directly reflect our costs of printing and distributing bills. The company has provided alternative options for our customers to receive the information on their bills and continues to promote paperless billing as a “free” option (www.my.t-mobile.com or www.t-mobile.com/billingupdate)
Beginning with August bills, current T-Mobile customers will receive notification that provides them with instructions on how to “opt out” of the paper bill charge by receiving a paperless, electronic bill. If customers do not sign up for paperless billing, then those receiving “summary” paper bills will begin to see a charge of $1.50 on their bills after September 12. Customers who currently receive “detailed†paper bills will see a $1.50 charge for the paper bill, in addition to the existing $1.99 charge for detailed billing information (totaling $3.49).Â
Most new customers will see a $1.50 paper bill charge on their first bill — this charge will be credited for their first month, allowing customers time to opt out if they wish to receive paperless bills free of charge.
Certain T-Mobile customers are exempt from this charge, including prepaid and government customers, among others.” [As reported by PhoneScoop.com]
So, if you are in the habit of tossing out bill stuffers, or not reading the notices printed on your bill, you could be in for an expensive surprise unless you opt-out of paper billing and opt-in for online billing.
While other carriers like Verizon and AT&T already charge $1.99 a month for an itemized cell bill, their summary bills are apparently still free. T-Mobile appears to be the first to charge a fee for a paper bill, no matter the type.
WARNING: This blog is NOT the way to communicate with T-Mobile. It is not related to T-Mobile. If you are trying to elect the free billing option or complain about the new charges for paper bills, call the customer service number on your latest bill. Do NOT post your phone number here.
What’s bad about this is that they can manipulate your bill after the fact.
And further: WTF? The rising cost of postage? They charge me eighty bucks a month and can’t afford a 29c stamp?
What I wonder about this change is now that my bill isn’t sent to a physical address if I can change my address to avoid local municipality charges for E911….hmmm, that could be a possible up side to this….
The flip side was a Credit Union that would give a $25 credit to any customer that switched to paperless statements. Well, I only had about $3 in the account, so this was a no-brainer! I switched to paperless, then promptly asked to close my account after the $25 was credited.
As always if this is objectionable you can always try to use the “materially adverse” change rule to get out of the contract.
A bill for the bill eh? It is truly the end of days. LOL.
Although I suspect other companies are just rolling these charges into product costs etc. Pick your poison 😉
Ahem, what if you do not have a computer? Not EVERYONE has one. Could you get “smoke Signals” NO!! wait. not environmental cool.
If your contractual period is up, you now have two options.
1. Go paperless
2. Drop T-Mobile
Frankie
a damn good reason not to use t-mobile!
forget T-Mobile when my contract is up im going 2 Metro PCS no contracts and unlimted talk and text. Metro is crushing the contract companys. yippy skippy
since we are the customers ,lets send those greedy companies a message:when our contract is up,you will lose one customer at a time:
I concurr, I beleive 2 Metro PCS is the way to go.
I have no problem with AT&T for my cell phone service. we dropped our land line 2 years ago because of all the taxes and fees the government put on it. Id call my brother in wisconsin and talk for 3 minutes and the taxes were crazy. With the cell as our Home phone we can call all over the country and not get additional fees. I get paperless billing on everything where it is available, not so may bills to shred at the end of the month. We do have one other phone which is the 19.95 a year MagicJack which is a horrible connection but great for having an extra phone number when you dont want to hand out your cell phone number to someone.
The only “green” being saved is what is in their pockets.
It just shifts part of their costs of paper, etc. onto the consumer (and pocketing the rest?).
If T-Mobile is truly dedicated to environmental concerns, wouldn’t they get more compliance if they offered a $1.50 REDUCTION in the bill to entice consumers to switch to paperless rather than imposing a new fee?
Hmm…
they DO have to pay Katherine Zeta-Jones and she is super HOT! I guess that might be worth a $1.50 a month.
OK metro pcs fans/sales people – whoever you are. i just checked their coverage and it SUCKS!!!
I don’t mind saving some trees, but I’m not too thrilled about having to pay
on line with a credit card. That’s something we do as little as possible. This
whole cell phone bit is just getting “Too way out of hand”. How did we ever
survive before this. Cell phones ! It’s like having another car payment.It’s BS
Al: I don’t think you have to pay online via your credit card. If I understand correctly, it’s only your bill that you need to download and you can pay it however you want. Can anyone confirm this?
i concur. send them a jar full of pennies.
Im has the right idea. Rather than charging for paper statements, T-mobile should offer a discount to those who want on-line statments. That would give the client an incentive to accept on-line statments. Are you listening T-mobile?
i think the extra 1;50 a month on the bill is just an excuse to put more money on their pokets i can,t wait to get out of my contra to get out of t- mobil.just go to other mobil that offer more for less money.
$1.50 a month is not fair specially those people don’t have computer. You probably loose customers.
Myself at this time OK . However , when my contract about to end this time I, will make decision .
your new change stinks
I would like my bill sent to my e-amil and opt out of the other. I can not find what to do. Please send me instructions.
Well, just another way to screw their customers every way possible.
yo creo que es demasiado dinero que se quieren envolsar no estoy de acuerdo con los cargos que quieren poner de un dolar cincuenta si lo cargan a mi cuenta no sera por mucho tiempo en cuanto se acabe mi contrato me salgo de t mobile.
T MOBILE IS GOING TO BE REGREATING THIS PICK POCKET DEAL, EVERY TIME A COSTUMER DO NOT RENEW THE CONTRACT. ADIOS T MOBILE
I’m switching to paperless billing, but as soon as my contract is up, I’m out of t-mobile.
can you still pay at local store with credit card.instead of on line
Write Richard Dotson, T-Mobile CEO, at rdotson@t-mobile.com. Sample letter:
Mr. Dotson:
I have received notice that T-Mobile would be adding a $1.50 per month charge to my account for receiving a paper bill, and I wish to register my dissatisfaction with the company’s unilateral decision. Prior to September, T-Mobile provided paper bills to its customers; this normal cost of doing business was covered by the monthly fee for service. Therefore, the new, additional fee of $1.50 amounts to an increase of the monthly service fee, as it covers no new service provided by T-Mobile to its customers. Among these reasons that T-Mobile has put forth for the new fee are:
> Increases in postal charges and printing costs. From one year to another, postal charges, especially in bulk business shipments, such as those for mobile phone bills, have not increased by more than a few pennies, at a maximum; the same is certainly true of printing costs — much likely less, in fact. Clearly, these are not a valid reasons for charging the new fee.
> An interest in preserving the environment. This is certainly a noble cause. However, if T-Mobile were truly interested in promoting environmentally-friendly action, it could simply encourage paperless billing by sharing the associated cost savings with customers; imposing a confiscatory fee is disingenuous in this regard, with T-Mobile providing nothing of its own toward the stated noble end while reaping considerable profit from its customer base. Would you be lobbying for a new fee on US businesses to promote recycling if this fee did nothing to provide T-Mobile with a competitive advantage and there was no means of recouping this fee? Again, charging a new fee for this reason is certainly invalid.
> T-Mobile employees will also be paying the fee. This is virtually meaningless, as these T-Mobile employees are simply a subset of T-Mobile customers. Would you be happy to accept the above-noted recycling fee simply because government agencies were similarly forced to pay it? I think not, and using this as a support for charging your customers a new fee is rather pitiful.
T-Mobile used to be a company that prided itself on its customer relationship. The unilateral imposition of the paper bill fee is a decided step in the opposite direction of this philosophy. I suggest that you direct your company to reconsider its choice in this matter.
Sincerely,
T-Mobile customer
Charging for paper bills is out right discrimination against those customer who wish to receive paper bills. If T-mobile is really so environmentally friendly why don’t they print their bills on recycled paper and continue to provide paper bills free of charge? This is just a way for them to make more money by ripping off the customer. There is only one way for this to end: a large class action lawsuit against T-mobile. Look for me at the front of the line.
If T-mobile is truly environmentally friendly they will insist its customers get 100% recycled paper bills with bio-degradable ink instead of using paperless billing on the internet. The use of the internet has its own negative impact on the environment. The amount of electricity needed to run the internet and computers is more harmful to the environment that the ink and paper T-mobile uses for paper bills. Not to mention that computers are considered hazardous waste. Paper is recyclable; computers are not. 100% recycled paper and bio-degradable ink is readily available at a low cost.
Please dont charge from me $1.50for paper bills !!!
You are forcing us to waste more time sitting at the damm computer, which is already ruining our lives. I will be looking for some other supplier for cell phone disservice better than yours, unless you drop this new rule.
LET ALL T-MOBILE CUSTOMERS BILL T-MOBILE FOR OUR COMPUTER TIME @$75.00 PER HR MIN.1HR SEND BILLSW TO T-MOBILE CINCINNATI OHIO PO BOX 742596-2596 SEE HOW THEY LIKE IT !
I THINK THAT THIS IS VERY STUPID ALOTS OF PEOPLE WILL LEAVE T-MOBILE THIS IS NOT RIGHT. YOU WILL LOOSE ALOTS OF CUSTOMERS AND ALSO I WILL BE THINKING OF LEAVING T-MOBILE AFTER FOR SO MANY YRS. I WAS SO HAPPY WITH T-MOBILE. THE COMPANY SHOULD NOT DO THIS BECAUSE IS NOT FARE FOR PEOPLE WHO DO NOT HAVE COMPUTERS. FIX THIS SITUATION…LOTS OF LUCK…