Worst of the Week: ‘Un-carrier’ comes with challenges

Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
T-Mobile US CEO John Legere has been a favorite of Worst of the Week, both for his unfiltered tweeting and his flowing locks.
Damn! That’s some good hair!
And, that tweeting?!? While I have previously questioned this habit, it does lend an air to Legere that he is about as stable as Crispin Glover.

(Two points for that ancient reference!)
This week, Legere gets some WOTW love not for taking on his wireless carrier rivals or his fashion, but for his taking on of those that would dare to be-smirch his good name and that of T-Mobile US. In this instance, that would be the Federal Trade Commission, which has recently claimed the self-proclaimed “un-carrier” did a very carrier thing in profiting to the tune of “hundreds of millions of dollars” from the confusion that is wireless billing.
The FTC claimed the carrier had profited by providing billing services for what turned out to be fraudulent premium messaging services. Legere countered by stating that yes indeed T-Mobile US did profit from such arrangements, but not to the level that the FTC has claimed (which makes it better?) and that it was attempting to reach out to consumers in order to refund those charges.
The best part is that Legere hinted that all of this nonsense was part of a conspiracy by T-Mobile US’ rivals to take a shot at the carrier’s recent success. This coming from a carrier that has itself done pretty well in swaying D.C.
Legere noted in his blog posts that the carrier stopped working with premium SMS providers late November and that it instituted the out-reach program in June. I know that T-Mobile US has been pretty busy this year offering up cash incentives to lure consumers and giving away free trials, but if the carrier realized there was a problem with the premium SMS arrangement, why did it take six months to take the next step and offer to refund those bogus charges?
As for the refund process, T-Mobile US said consumers can make a request into the carrier or that the carrier will reach out between June and September to those consumers that have not made a request to let them know the process involved in making a request. The carrier also said it would set up a special website this month with more information. I am also going to assume that T-Mobile US will pay any interest accrued on keeping those tainted funds in its bank account. (That would be “un-carrier.”)
Now, I must admit that I was a T-Mobile USA customer during this time period in question, as were several members of my family that were on my account. One month I noticed a $10 charge on my bill from a company offering gossip services, and found out that indeed my niece had subscribed to the service.
I called into T-Mobile USA to have that service removed, but was told that it had to be done from the handset. I had my niece remove the service, but the charge returned again the next month. I again called in to have it removed and was told that it would be removed on the next billing cycle. Of course, it reappeared the next month and after calling in again to T-Mobile USA was told it needed to be removed from the handset for the service to stop.
Needless to say the charges never stopped and this in part led to me eventually moving all of those lines away from T-Mobile USA. So far I have not yet hear from T-Mobile US on any sort of refund, though this whole process does at least alleviate concerns that I was just losing my mind, and that has to be worth something.
I know all of these shenanigans happened under a different regime at T-Mobile USA, but the current regime’s non-stop “un-carrier” claims have set a higher bar for how T-Mobile US needs to react. T-Mobile US is indeed doing the right thing by at least acknowledging it did the wrong thing and that it’s attempting to at least financially compensate those that were wronged. However, instead of shouting conspiracy or touting that you have stopped the practice, the “un-carrier” way should have been to react a bit more timely on the situation and just take full responsibility.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–Samsung reported disappointing results this week, with the world’s No. 1 smartphone provider claiming its getting squeezed by Chinese vendors on the low end and Apple on the high end. Tissue for that issue?
Perhaps the real problem for Samsung is that it has been on such a device-launching-frenzy that consumers have finally become so saturated with new Samsung’s hitting the market every week, they have become paralyzed to purchasing a new one fearing it will be obsolete in a matter of minutes.
I know Samsung has a bit of an Apple-complex, but maybe it might be worth taking a cue from its cross-Pacific Ocean rival and replace the free Red Bull in the marketing department’s fridge with some soothing green tea.
–Speaking of the Samsung-Apple rivalry, I do have to give props to Samsung for its latest dig:

I take back that previous comment about cutting back on the marketing department’s Red Bull supply. If this is what they produce when all hopped up on caffeine then let it flow.
–Finally, this was a big week for me personally as Canada announced plans for another spectrum auction to begin early next year. Few items in the wireless space get me as excited as “Canada” and “spectrum auction,” so to have them both happen this week was almost too much to handle. Definitely a bad week to quit my bad habits.

I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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