You might recall that last June we told you about the experiences of a newly hired Metro employee. After just a few days of working at a Metro store, this new rep said that the level of illegal and improper actions that he saw take place was at "another level." For example, system numbers were blocked to prevent customer surveys from being sent. Instead, store personnel filled out their own surveys and submitted those instead.
Someone claiming to have firsthand experience of wrongdoing by Metro sends us a disturbing email
Additionally, fake receipts were printed and distributed. In some situations, no receipt was handed out at all. The store reportedly owned some kind of machine that was used by employees to make it appear as though customers' phone numbers were being inputted on it. The new employee said that his fellow reps would use this machine to pretend to port over a customer's phone number. He also witnessed his colleagues overcharging customers and said that a lot of the shady business he saw taking place in the store was "straight up theft since they weren't using the official POS (Point of Sale) machine and just taking payment on something separate."
T-Mobile's new CEO Srini Gopalan. | Image credit-T-Mobile
Today, I received an email that cited the aforementioned story and the writer of the missive requested anonymity "to protect myself, former coworkers, and current employees who may possess insider knowledge from potential retaliation or adverse action." While he doesn't specifically mention that he worked for Metro, judging from his email, it would appear that at one time he did toil for the MVNO.
Why Metro customers are prompted to say the word "Yes"
His letter is shocking as he writes, "Concerns have been reported through available channels to multiple state labor departments and to T-Mobile corporate offices. In several instances, these reports have not resulted in clear remedial action or substantive follow-up. Based on outcomes observed to date, certain reported sales practices that raise ethical or compliance concerns appear to continue when they remain revenue-generating."
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He also states that Metro employees are told to get a customer to verbally say "Yes" during transactions as proof that the customer has consented to the purchase of items even if the customer doesn't really understand the entire purchase he/she is making. Such items being consented to could include "the addition of services, features, or charges that are not clearly or comprehensively disclosed. This raises concern that verbal confirmation may be used to demonstrate consent without ensuring informed decision-making."
The next claim made in the email is that managers and higher-level personnel were able to bypass certain customer account protections to access customer accounts. Read the following very carefully because it is extremely disturbing. "These methods have included the use of alternate email addresses to receive one-time passcodes, the blocking of Metro system text notifications, and changes to customer account PINs without clear authorization. Such access has reportedly been used to implement account changes, including feature additions, rate plan modifications, and the addition of new lines."
Customer accounts were allegedly hacked into by top executives and modifications made without consent
In other words, top executives of the companies that own Metro stores have allegedly accessed customer accounts to add transactions and purchases that the account owner didn't agree to or even know about. Keep in mind that most individual Metro stores are owned by independent businesses that sign an Authorized Dealer agreement with Metro by T-Mobile. T-Mobile owns the brand, network, and rate plan.
While the independent Metro store owner would face criminal responsibility, so could T-Mobile if it knew about the criminal behavior and ignored it. This seems to be what the writer of the email is insinuating by mentioning that T-Mobile was notified about these allegations and seemingly took no action to stop the, from continuing.
The email adds, "There have been recent instances in which customer accounts were modified in this manner without informed consent. Customers have raised complaints regarding these changes; however, there appears to be limited corrective response or resolution from Metro or T-Mobile. Additionally, online customer feedback, including Google reviews, is reportedly removed without documented investigation. Customers seeking assistance through customer service channels often report ineffective outcomes, and there appears to be no clearly identifiable or accessible mechanism for addressing these allegations."
It also appears that management is being accused by the author of the email I received of remotely accessing the computer screens of Metro employees to modify transactions even while these transactions are actively in progress. Lastly, the email accuses certain Metro stores of operating with two separate payment processing systems. "There is an authorized store point-of-sale system and a separate sub-dealer–provided system. The sub-dealer system is allegedly used to process activations as cash transactions outside of the official point-of-sale system, resulting in limited or no transaction records available through standard store reporting tools."
In case you are wondering about where the author of the email was able to obtain this information, he says that the above claims "are based on firsthand experience and corroborated employee accounts." He says that while he wrote the email "in good faith," the actions listed above "...raise serious concerns related to customer privacy, financial transparency, labor practices, and regulatory compliance.
This is what T-Mobile's new CEO must do
Previous articles we've written about alleged unethical and downright illegal actions performed by reps at T-Mobile Corporate and TPR stores were read by T-Mobile executives such as recently promoted Chief Operating Officer Jon Freier. In 2024, when he was the President of T-Mobile's Consumer Group, Freier wrote in an internal memo to reps that "an article on PhoneArena,.com and posts on Reddit suggest that tactics contrary to our values, mission, vision, and code of conduct are being employed due to extreme pressure from leadership."
With a new CEO running the show, now would be the time for Srini Gopalan to announce that T-Mobile (both Corporate and TPR stores), Metro, and all other MVNO brands that T-Mobile owns like Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile introduce a zero-tolerance policy against behavior that negatively impacts customers. Make it the next Un-carrier pain point and get rid of the monthly metrics performance goals that force reps to do illegal and unethical things in order to keep their jobs.
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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.
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