Forum Discussion
How to get a hold of Spam department
I would like to get a hold of the T-Mobil spam department and not go through customer service. T-Mobil's customer support via a phone call isn't helpful when T-Mobil has internally blocked your number from sending text messages. They try to go through their checklist to fix things on my device when my device isn't the issue.
I send up to 200+ messages very quickly with the same or similar messages to friends and family each Holiday. T-Mobile ends up blocking my number from sending text messages. So I can receive text messages, but I can't send them unless it is to internal T-Mobil numbers like 1112. This makes it very difficult to get any work done if I need to text someone who has text me.
T-Mobil engineering department that configures Spam block has their settings creating false/positives. A number shouldn't be blocked for sending up to 200+ messages quickly over 7-8 days per year (Holidays). I am told it will be blocked for up to 10 days with me currently on the 5th day. I would understand if I did this everyday or even multiple times per week, but blasting out 200+ message on Holidays 7-8 times per year and getting your number blocked is very annoying. Annoying enough now that I am considering using another service provider even with me being with T-Mobil for the past 24+ years (same number).
It would be great if T-Mobil created a web link on your account to request unblocking your number with the ability to provide an explanation. It would be even better if the engineers came up with better rules to actually block people that are spamming instead of creating false positives disrupting paying customers.
Update, Customer service while calling doesn't understand the issue. It is a T-Mobile backend SPAM block. Not a device/app/phone issue.
Looks like I am going to transfer to another service provider. It is disappointing that T-Mobile has put in so many road blocks to successfully talk to anyone who can help. After trying to talk to customer service including technical support (different levels) my phone is still being blocked from sending SMS/MMS only. I am able to receive SMS/MMS and I can use all of my other services. This is called a SPAM Block on my number from sending SMS/MMS. I was told by their experience department that this will last 10 days. I will note that sending 200+ SMS/MMS on a single day in rapid successions with varying messages w/ some being the same shouldn't get your number blocked from sending SMS/MMS. Specifically when you only do this 1-7 times a year. Given that T-Mobile no longer has an easy mechanism to deal with more complicated technical issues, and that they have a unreasonable time frame in which they block me, I can no longer use their services. T-Mobile has now lost a customer of 25 years, not that this means much to them at this point.
I have filed a compliant to the FCC. They have contacted T-Mobile, I wonder if this will help get this resolved. I suggested that T-Mobile have better mechanisms in place to resolve false/positives for blocking normal users in which T-Mobile backend services block SMS/MMS from going to the intended recipients on the notion that the number was SPAMing others. A 10 day block is unreasonable for false/positives. 200+ plus messages sent out in a single day shouldn't signal a number as spamming others. There should be some kind of long term heuristics with the number in combination with a single rapid succession of messages going out from a single number. 7 times a year to the same numbers shouldn't cause this kind of block.
After filing a compliant with the FCC a representative reached out to me. While this representative was polite it took 14 days to remove the SPAM block. Here was my last message to this representative. This person had the position of:
Senior Specialist, Team CEO, T-Mobile Consumer Group.Hello XXXXXX,
I would encourage you to read the whole e-mail.
Even though this appears to be resolved, at the moment, I do not feel the way I got this resolved is effective or efficient. The difference in clear and transparent communication between T-Mobile in the past verses today is astronomically different. I will mention again that the same thing happened last year and T-Mobile checked my account, explained exactly what happened. They noted how long I was with T-Mobile, looked at my history and were able to determine immediately it was a false/positive and fixed it within a couple of hours. This time it took 14 days with the most confusing and complex communication about what was going on and if/when it would be fixed. I had to file a complaint with the FCC to reach you. This is horrible customer service. I understand T-Mobile is now the dominate player in the market, but this shouldn't be at the cost of the customer. I had been so happy with T-Mobile that I stayed for 25 years. This time around it was so painful I just can't justify staying with T-Mobile anymore.
With this I understand T-Mobile is trying to push the idea that either I was spamming people, or that my number is being used by scammers. None of the evidence points in this direction even if someone on my contact list reporting one of my messages as SPAM. The evidence points to T-Mobile not having good SPAM detection filters in place and not having effective and efficient policies and procedures to resolve false positives. In addition, there is no clear direction moving forward on how I can prevent this from happening again on T-Mobile's network.
Evidence (At a high level)
- I had this occur last year under the same circumstance where I text friends and family on a holiday, T-Mobile at the time was quick to understand, explain, and resolve the issue with guidance on how to prevent this in the future. They did indicated that they had detected my number via their SPAM filters and that it had come up as a false/positive given the details of my account.
- I have conducted the same SMS/MMS messages to friends and family over the past year for different holidays and my phone wasn't blocked, nor was there ever any communication to me about my phone number spamming people.
- This issue occurred again given the same circumstances on Halloween this year, I text friends and family on a holiday. This time T-Mobile doesn't understand quickly, doesn't resolve it quickly, provides wrong or miss-leading information multiple times. I am told it is my phone, I am told that I do not have a block, then I am told I do, but it is the FCC. I am told T-Mobile doesn't have the means to remove the block, etc... I am then accused or it is implied multiple times that I am spamming people and that I have an outgoing block on my SMS/MMS messages. I am told multiple times that it will go away by different people within different time periods. 5 days, 6 days, 10 days, and it appears to have gone away after 14 days. T-Mobile still hasn't explained in detail what went wrong, or how I can prevent it from happening again.
- Why would I go to such lengths to resolve this if I was a spammer, I would have simply used someone's else's number or a spamming service and not my personal number of 25 years on the same account with the same service provider.
It may seem silly, but SMS/MMS is my main way of communicating with friends and family. I am not on social media. These past 14 days have been extremely difficult from the perspective of communication. Ever time someone texts me I have to call them back and some people don't answer their phones they only text.
While I don't have any authority over this situation I would encourage T-Mobile to come up with better policies and procedures around this situation even if it doesn't happen very often. Individuals like myself should be able to quickly understand what has happened and be able to go through a vetting process to determine if it is a false positive. There should be warnings before cutting someone off completely. This should happen even if someone has reported my number as spamming (even more so if this is the case), so someone like me can quickly get it resolved.
I would encourage you to drive positive and constructive change for the betterment in this area for T-Mobile. I can't imagine in T-Mobile's portfolio of customers that there are a lot of people that have been with you for 25 years.
