Forum Discussion
Charges for conference call numbers
I am a new T-Moble customer as of August. Today I received a rude shock when I learned that some conference call phone numbers (in the US) are "out of plan" and that T-Mobil will charge me extra...
Ok here's what is going on and what they are trying to stop. Traffic pumping
AT&T actually started blocking people from connecting to these numbers and continue to add to the list. There is a legal battle going on over it.
AT&T/Cingular blocks cellular customers from free conference call services | Ars Technica
Verizon has been rumored to start charging or cutting off depending on the outcome of the verdicts.
It's an obscure issue, and I assume that T-Mobile has no other way to deal with it financially, but the company gets an F for communicating this issue with users.
My plan description simply says I can dial any US number. Granted, the 32-page Terms and Conditions legal document states that "You may have to pay extra for calls to some numbers (e.g., conference & chat lines, broadcast, calling card, international, 900 or 976 calls, etc.)", which allows the treatment/charge legally, but there's no excuse for not explicitly informing users of the matter. Without this information, my job was placed in jeopardy (and I was professionally embarrassed) when I was unable to dial in to a conference call this morning with a dozen people representing a US Gov't client. (The automated voice announcement that the call could not be completed due to insufficient funds in my automatically prepaid account didn't help, either.) It wound up being a twilight-zone episode when I had to make multiple calls to customer support to try and figure it out - not one of the four agents I spoke with had a clue as to what was going on.
For the record, I've called the same conference line many times before (checked my usage log) and never encountered the problem of not being able to get on the call, nor was I charged the nominal penny-per-minute.
Abysmal communications, poor service management, and incompetent support - not a good report card for T-Mobile.
