Mobile Phone Users Beware -- Tax Season Surprise May Be Waiting

Mobile phone users need to watch out. Cost cutting at carriers may be in high gear. Starting the last few months of 2008, T-Mobile has quietly changed many of its plans to almost surreptitiously delete detailed billing -- even when this has been included free for as long as most users can remember.

The information listing every single call is often used by business and personal phone users alike to file taxes, or to settle up with their employer on personal versus corporate phone usage. Since many business users only divide their calls when it comes to tax time, numerous people may find themselves in a filing deadline panic, trying to audit their calls without the detailed records.

T-Mobile's billing envelopes often resemble credit card statement mailings full of ads, promotions, and other inserts that users have grown accustomed to tossing in the trash as the bill is opened. Beginning in the latter part of 2008, T-Mobile started including another flyer in their bills. This one, looking much like the other ads, told users that their bill was going to be "a little thinner", with "less paper", and that it was "helping the environment."

Nowhere on the flyer does it say that the Detailed Billing feature is being removed, or that the lines for individual calls will no longer be included. One version of the flyer ambiguously states: "we're no longer including call details" and calls the change a "Summary Paper Bill," making it sound like they have changed or removed some of the column headings or tables to improve readability. Another version of the flyer doesn't even say that much -- instead it skips the "no longer including call details" statement completely.

T-Mobile was contacted by phone to request comment regarding this matter. Per their corporate policy that seems intent on delaying information release in these sorts of matters, such an inquiry is... you guessed it: available only via a paper and envelope snail mail letter sent to their PR department.

In addition to deleting the Detailed Billing feature, T-Mobile is now charging $1.99/mo to have it added back. (Though if you managed to see and read the flyer, it notes that there was a 30 day window in which to get it added back for free.)

In calls to their customer service line, it was not even clear at times that the new charge was in effect. In fact, while having the feature added back to two accounts, the customer service agent did not even mention that the accounts would be charged the new fee. Only after calling back and talking with a different agent was it indicated to us that the fee for detailed billing was going to be charged.

May we humbly suggest it would have been appropriate to place a very simple statement at the top of the actual bill where people would see it and know to read it? Perhaps some words like the following would have been simple and clear: "We have unilaterally changed the terms of your service contract and are removing the Detailed Billing feature from your account unless you call us within the next 30 days. If you call after 30 days, you will be charged $1.99/mo to have Detailed Billing."

Though it seems T-Mobile was trying to hide the change as much as they could manage, at least they had the decency to provide a solution to the tax season problem they apparently were well aware they were creating. On the T-Mobile website they have retained the detailed billing feature in the archived bills whether you have detailed paper billing or not, and increased the number of months that previous bills can be viewed by users. The number is now set at 7 months. This is just enough to provide their surprised, tax preparing users with the detailed previous months' bills necessary to do their tax preparation.

The T-Mobile Customer service line has information regarding on-line access to past bills by calling 611 from your T-Mobile phone. Call early to beat the rush on the major filing deadlines. One of the customer service agents we talked with did confirm that they have already been receiving numerous calls regarding the new billing changes and additional charges.

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