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Comment by paulpan | Hacker News Reader

Older plans (pre-2022) should be under the "Un-Contract": https://www.t-mobile.com/news/press/uncontract-carrier-freed...

Notably "By contrast, the Un-contract is all give, no take. You can keep your existing Simple Choice plan and we won’t raise your rates. As part of this commitment, customers on existing Simple Choice promotional plans − like the Un-carrier’s ultra-popular 4 lines for $100 with up to 10 GB of 4G LTE data − can keep them for as long as they’re T-Mobile customers."

Seems like a shut-and-close case for a class action lawsuit. Whoever made the decision to push ahead with this seems to have missed some internal due diligence - or there's some tiny legal footnotes I'm missing.

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T-Mobile forces customers into arbitration unless you've opted out. Probably straightforward to arbitrate based on terms, but I recommend filing an FCC complaint. Regulators light a fire.

https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

Go to Phone > Billing (or go directly from here) https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/3600012...

Phone Issues: Advertised Rate

Text box content:

    T-Mobile is forcing me to upgrade my mobile plan even though I signed up with 
    their  advertised Price-Lock https://www.t-mobile.com/support/account/price- 
    lock

    There is no option to opt-out as of $today's_date. This is a violation of 
    my contract, and they are relying on the fact that most consumers do not have 
    enough knowledge/time to call in and argue with customer representatives for 
    hours. https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/t-mobile-will-migrate- 
    customers-higher-cost-plans

    T-Mobile is also forcing customers who want to opt out and keep to their 
    current contracted plan to listen to an unsolicited sales pitch -- this may 
    violate telephone advertisement and spamming laws.

    While the company claims that customers can opt out, multiple customers have.    
    reported that phone reps refuse to allow opt-out when they call, which is in 
    general disingenuous behaviors. I believe that the FCC should force T-Mobile 
    to provide this option through email or an online menu.

FTC complaint can be made here: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/

> T-Mobile forces customers into arbitration unless you've opted out. Probably straightforward to arbitrate based on terms, but I recommend filing an FCC complaint. Regulators light a fire

File an arbitration claim [1]. Complain to the FCC, and copy the FTC [2] as well as your state consumer affairs regulator [3]. (Ideally, send letters via mail.)

[1] https://apps.adr.org/SimpleFile/faces/SimpleFile.jsf

[2] https://www.ftc.gov/media/71268

[3] https://www.usa.gov/state-consumer

> There is no option to opt-out as of $today's_date

There actually is:

> Customers can opt out by contacting support after October 17th

https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/174uelk/megathread...

I wonder if this is part of their anticipated legal defense. Oh, you can opt out! No problem! The fact that 90% of customers won't know that fact isn't our fault...

Arbitration is turning into a horror movie for many of these large companies. They thought it was a way to cut the cost of consumer litigation and get disputes settled in an environment that tends to be more corporate friendly. But that only worked when there were just a few claims against the company at a time. Once they started engaging in behavior that caused larger numbers of customers to want to sue, the arbitration fees, which are paid by the corporation, started adding up rapidly and made the entire thing far less attractive than a class action lawsuit and whatever small number of customers that opt out of the class.

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