We regularly receive tips about questionable actions being taken at T-Mobile’s third party retailers. These tips detail how the companies treat their employees and their customers poorly, and subsequently, harm T-Mobile’s reputation.
We have fielded concerns from every spectrum of personal, unprofessional and unethical behavior from multiple levels of many organizations. In particular, one third-party retailer (TPR) continues to stand out: Arch Telecom.
Let’s catch you up if you’ve missed anything.
This particular TPR has had whistleblowers exposing demeaning sales practices en masse, which caused Arch Telecom to set the record straight and try to burn receipts. The response was so overwhelming, a higher-up leader “Q” was let go due to their toxic leadership being exposed.
The company undoubtedly got a slap on the wrist from T-Mobile, as they had an all-employee communication reinforcing their commitment to stop bad sales practices. Unfortunately it appears they haven’t quite learned their lesson yet.
Before we get too far in, we will say that all of this information was gathered from a trusted source, but has not been confirmed directly from Arch Telecom or T-Mobile. We have numerous screenshots of internal communications, but even so, we can’t fully confirm that all of this information is 100% accurate. We do, however, believe it to be the truth.
New Arch Telecom Trick #1 – Sneaky Bundles
In a private voice recording shared with The Mobile Report, a manager in an Arch Telecom-run T-Mobile store was detailing a new way to sell T-Mobile Home Internet. We won’t be sharing the recording for privacy reasons, but the recording had the manager speaking about bundling a voice line, a tablet, and the T-Mobile Home Internet service together.
When bundled, a discount is applied, and employees were told to offer the bundled price as home internet service. Essentially, when selling just home internet, the employee is actually selling home internet bundled with other things the customer doesn’t want, while maintaining the same price.
This contradicts what Arch Telecom has made clear to their employees back in July, as shown in the communication below.
Here’s how the “bundle” works: T-Mobile Home Internet is typically $70 per month. If you have a voice line, the service gets a discount down to $50 per month. The cheapest talk and text only line is $20 per month.
So, any time a customer wants T-Mobile Home Internet, the sales person is also adding a voice line, whether the customer knows it or not.
The recording was also detailing how a tablet plan also fits into the deal, but we confirmed via a corporate retail manager that the math was a bit off on that one. The manager in the recording was misrepresenting the monthly cost, effectively misleading sales teams to lie to customers for more added services. Not a good look.
Arch Telecom Trick #2 – Exploit a T-Mobile $5 Tablet Deal
We were also able to confirm other shady sales tactics via internal communications shared with us. Not only is Arch Telecom promoting an aggressive ‘bundle’ scheme with Home Internet, they’re exploiting what should be customer value & savings on tablet plans.
You might have picked up on the terminology “Next Tab”. This is in reference to T-Mobile offering ‘connected devices’ for just $5 per month when on the Go5G Next plan. Typically, on other plans, a tablet on promotion will require a 5GB data plan, which comes to $20 per month with autopay.
Arch Telecom has picked up on the fact that they can offer four tablets on the Go5G Next $5/month plan for the same price. Instead of what should be leveraged as customer value, it’s instead going right into the pockets of Arch Telecom.
Market Directors are proactively pushing their leaders to push tablets with extreme daily goals in the hundreds. The only way stores can succeed with unreasonable goals is to bundle multiple tablet lines together.
How is this allowed?
You might be thinking “why doesn’t T-Mobile corporate have a way to check for these kinds of fraud?”. Well, it turns out they do.
T-Mobile seeks fraudulent activity on new accounts through the NEON report. NEON means “No Equipment On Network” and aims to catch when a line is sold that has no network usage. It would be flagged as a ‘dummy’ or ‘unneeded’ line (AKA a fraudulently added line). Stores, including Arch Telecom, aren’t paid for lines that show up on the NEON report.
Unfortunately, for some reason, the tool is not monitoring the specific $5 tablet lines. It’s unclear if this was intentional on T-Mobile’s part or a mistake.
Arch was quick to notice, and as long as T-Mobile’s eyes are turned away, they’re taking advantage of this fluke. Why report it when you can exploit it instead?
How you can stay safe when shopping at T-Mobile (and other phone stores)
In the end, you as the customer will unfortunately have to be on the lookout. The best thing you can do if you plan to shop at any wireless carrier store is be vigilant.
When shopping at a store, be polite but firm with what you want. You can say no at any time. If anything ever feels ‘off’ or ‘fishy’ to you – ask for everything in writing, and get a business card and take it home.
It can be hard when you feel the FOMO, but when a salesperson tries to rush you, they might be breezing over something important. Their haste and obfuscation of the big picture should be the biggest red flags as a prospective customer. Which is ironic, because many people in the wireless industry are trained against social engineers who use rushing/urgency to steal customer information.
In addition, it may unfortunately for now be necessary to avoid third party stores entirely. You can tell if a T-Mobile store is a third party by looking for signage around the entrance. If you see “Authorized Retailer” or “This store is operated by [company]” then it’s a TPR.
You can also check if a store is corporate-owned using T-Mobile’s store locator tool. If a store is listed as “T-Mobile Store” or “Experience Store” (or if it’s a kiosk located somewhere like Costco) it means it’s corporate-owned.
T-Mobile gives any prospective customer many ways to sign up. Shopping online in the comfort of your own home can circumvent a great deal of this. T-Mobile is glad to earn your business in a way that makes you happiest.
Our Thoughts on the Third Party Model
T-Mobile is plagued by their TPR sales model which allows companies to build and staff locations to sell and support T-Mobile products. These companies typically apply extreme pressure to sell to their teams, understaff locations to save on labor cost and put the numbers before the customer experience. The short-term gains might be tempting, but it has been a longtime epidemic damaging the T-Mobile brand. Arch Telecom is but one of these companies nationwide that are supposed brand ambassadors for T-Mobile.
Years ago, when T-Mobile was a smaller carrier, it made sense to aggressively push for retail presence through these third-party retailers. T-Mobile didn’t necessarily have the capital to build and staff locations everywhere, but could support and pay others to take on some of those burdens. Today, however, as one of the big three? They have the ability to take a more deliberate approach and rethink this strategy. Whether it is increased standards or terminating agreements with the terminally shady businesses, it is long past due to have that decision be made.
What should T-Mobile do about their third-party retailer model at this point? How can they properly oversee these locations to prevent these companies from trying to “beat” their system? Have you been scammed by a third party location (or even a corporate store)? Sound off below.
