T-Mobile Consumer Entrapment with Warranties and Hidden Fees, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Consumer Entrapment: Definition - when a customer is locked into a long-term contracted service, with no use of a device or promised service, but it still being charged a monthly fee for said contracted service; however the consumer is unable to receive service due to hardware failure or inability of the device to function at no fault of the consumer (i.e. manufacturers defect, design flaw, software failure).

Although the consumer is covered under a 1-year manufacturer's warranty, the user cannot receive a working device without paying an additional "Warranty Servicing Fee" of an additional $20 to receive the originally agreed upon 1-year manufacturer's warranty or without adding a "Premium Handset Protection" charge of an additional $3.99 per month. If a contracted user opts for the handset protection bundle, then the "Warranty Servicing Fee" is reduced to only $5, but it still does not eliminate the hidden fee for T-Mobile to provide a working device, to continue a monthly paid service. 

If a user rejects to pay the hidden fee, the user will not receive a working device, but will continue to be charged a monthly contracted fee even though the users cannot place calls, use data, or send information. The user will remain in a "limbo" of sorts until he/she is forced to pay the additional hidden fees on top of their existing monthly fees. If you wish to contact the Manufacturer of the mobile device directly to dispute the "warranty servicing fee" you will be referred back to the mobile company. You cannot move forward without paying the hidden fee, but you will certainly continue to pay a monthly service charge! Something about this just doesn't seem right.

This ladies and gentlemen is extortion, fraud, and consumer entrapment. You do not have put up with this and pay additional hidden fees, especially when they're not made known or referenced when signing an initial contract at the Point of Purchase, whether that be in-store, at a kiosk, or online. 

The Terms and Conditions provided by T-Mobile are stacked against the consumer in such a way that T-Mobile reserves the right to waive a court by jury and only provides conflict resolution through a binding arbitrator, they reserve the right to change their terms and conditions at any time with or without notice to you, the consumer. You may wish to file a claim to receive lost payment, however you will first have to deal with T-Mobile's arbitrator, if you cannot resolve the conflict then you are limited to small claims court.

This is the route that I will be taking, in order to receive a refund of my initial 11 months of contracted service, the initial cost of the phone, and any additional hidden fees that I was charged during my 11 months of contracted service. These actions will ultimately close my account with T-Mobile and I will attempt to receive my lost (actually Stolen) money from a rather corrupt company. If I do succeed, then I will be glad to receive my payment back; however it is undue stress and time lost, but in the end, I will not be taken advantage of by a company without due course and without the company having to admit it's fault. 

I highly advise you to read your terms and conditions if you are in this similar situation, we cannot allow companies to steal our money, simply because we don't want to take the time to fight back!