This shady behavior from T-Mobile reps continues and will never end until Gopalan makes this change
T-Mobile reps compete among each other to meet performance goals creating the pressure to illegally "cram" customers' accounts.
T-Mobile reps are still cramming and scamming customers. | Image by PhoneArena
Just because it has been some time since we've written an article about a rogue T-Mobile rep accused of "cramming" unwanted and unrequested services and products down a customer's throat doesn't mean that it has stopped happening. Not only has a T-Mobile customer posted on social media about being the victim of a cramming attack, the product being added to his bill without permission is one used often with this scam: Protection360 insurance.
Another T-Mobile customer had Protection360 Insurance crammed down his throat
The T-Mobile customer who wrote about the incident on Reddit under the username "DillettanteOfFilth" said that he declined Protection360 three times for his new iPhone while in the store. A different employee came out with his new handset to "finish the transaction," and once he was back home, he noticed that he was charged twice the amount he was supposed to be for his upgrade, a 20W charging adapter, and basic screen protection.
What should T-Mobile do to end "cramming?"
Now you might wonder why the customer didn't notice that he was the victim of a cramming attack until he got home, and there is a simple reason for this. He uses someone else's T-Mobile account and pays that person for his share of the monthly bill. He already had forwarded what he figured the cost of his device upgrade would be. He also had appointments that he had to go to and left the T-Mobile store without double-checking the invoice until he got home.
As we've pointed out before, the problem is the monthly metrics performance goals
He knew what had happened the day after his visit to the store when he received a message from the carrier thanking him for adding Protection360. The victim said, "Sounds kinda scammy to me," and he's not wrong. Cramming is a big problem and while you can blame a rep who does it to you, much of the blame in this situation belongs to T-Mobile.
A real-life example of monthly performance goals for a T-Mobile COR store in 2024. | Image by Reddit
The carrier demands that reps meet certain monthly performance goals called "metrics" and reps who fail to meet them can end up losing their jobs. This puts immense pressure on a rep to sell a certain amount of screen protectors, power adapters, and insurance contracts and many of them resort to cramming to put food on their table.
You might think that carriers like T-Mobile would be quick to fire a rep who does this, but we never hear about companies that lay off reps who practice cramming successfully. Could the huge amount of revenue these salespeople generate be one of the reasons why we don't see any press releases about reps being forced out?
Wait, let me rephrase that. Could the extra revenue generated by cramming be why we never hear about layoffs at T-Mobile unless it is related to the carrier's digital transition?
Another Redditor is now an ex-T-Mobile customer after the same thing nearly happened to him. After a rep at T-Mobile tried to sneak the Protection360 insurance on his account even though he did not request it, he left the carrier after two weeks and jumped to Xfinity.
Here's what T-Mobile CEO Gopalan needs to do immediately
Here's the thing. What T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan needs to do is announce his second Un-carrier event of his tenure at the top and eliminate the use of metrics to determine how well a sales rep is doing. Right now, T-Mobile is rewarding reps for illegally cramming customers.
Other wireless providers do this too, and T-Mobile could receive some much-needed praise for being the first to eliminate their use. Those reps that end up in the bottom 25% of the Un-carrier Leaderboard (UCL) could be let go.
Sales Production, including revenue generated by sales of Protection360, is weighted highly when ranking reps in the UCL. If you're a rep who has been in the bottom of the list and is close to being terminated, what are you going to do?
Yes, morally, and legally, if you're a salesperson at T-Mobile you shouldn't even consider a practice like cramming. But the problem is that the T-Mobile UCL ranks reps against each other and even if there are only a few reps in your store who use cramming to meet their monthly goals, your score will be impacted. This will force you to join them in order to compete.
It gets really tough when you have a family to feed. The temptation to do something illegal or starve leads an otherwise honest person to commit a crime.
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