More employees reveal why it's possibly the worst time to be a T-Mobile customer
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After T-Mobile was put on blast by disgruntled employees not happy with its pushy sales tactics, some people working for Arch Telecom, which is the third largest T-Mobile retailer with more than 400 stores across the nation, have come forward with stories of their own.
In its quest to be the market leader, T-Mobile seems to have given a free pass to the management to employ whatever strategy they deem fit to get customers to spend as much as possible.
This had presumably led to the management putting an unhealthy amount of pressure on sales representatives to not let customers leave without spending more than they intended to. As a result, sales representatives often coerce people into buying extras like accessories and insurance by making misleading and dishonest statements. Failure to do that could lead to admonishment from supervisors and managers as well as low commissions.
If customers think they can avoid getting talked into making unwanted purchases by shopping elsewhere, they might be surprised to find that the practices extend to third-party retailers as well.
T-Mobile's preferred retailer Arch Telecom accused of squeezing customers for every dime
According to a post on Reddit by an Arch Telecom employee, the company isn't any better than T-Mobile when it comes to encouraging shady sales tactics. whitexscvlex has warned both customers and employees that Arch Telecom puts money over everything else.
Whether you’re a customer or an employee. Trust me when I say, STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY! This company cares nothing about customers or employees, all they care about money.
Their shady practices continue, just last year Arch leadership instructed us to use approved addresses (even if it doesn’t match the customers) to get approval and sell the Home Internet service which goes against all of T-Mobiles plans to ensure that customer have a good experience by keeping an eye on the towers capacity to ensure quality signal.
They’ve REQUIRED you to be active on GroupMe, a messaging platform for the districts stores and markets to communicate, but often the leadership will call you out and essentially try to embarrass you in front of ALL your peers unless you don’t stand for it, then you’re on the bad list when you explain your business it’s “excuses” to them if you’re not performing.
whitexscvlex, Reddit, June 2024
To back up their claim, the employee has asked people to look up employee reviews on Indeed and Glassdoor. On Glassdoor, the company is rated 3.2 out of 5 stars, and its CEO Alex Ghai, has a 63 percent approval rating.
It appears that Arch Telecom sets unrealistic sales targets and bullies employees into helping them meet them even if it means scamming a customer. The management doesn't shy away from embarrassing employees in front of each other and pitting them against one another to pressure them into doing whatever it takes to make as many sales as possible.
Currently employed by arch and I've never felt like a such a slimy person as I have while working here. Nothing we are taught to do is to help customers it's only about conversion by any means necessary
Vz_infamous, Reddit, July 2024
Employees are taught by their direct managers to talk customers into migrating from their plans to a worse plan to add voice lines, hotspots, and tablets in a bundle deal. Sometimes, they even resort to lying and telling customers certain things are free even if they aren't, misquote monthly pricing, and withhold tax information.
At any rate, the rep at the store (who was the DM at the time) assured us that the two lines were free because of the special promotion.
Well, jump forward a few bills and all of the accessories are on the bill, being charged monthly for the next year. Worse than that, one of the phone lines has a $25 monthly charge.
On top of that, he (and another rep who rang us up) said we could choose phone cases and screen protectors for free as well.
JohnJSal, Reddit
Employees are even asked to put regular customers on a business account just to meet category goals.
My other favorite “play” they run.
Question for Reddit folks: if you went in for a consumer account and were approached about a business account and you have no business you’re like um what? Am I right?
“You’re low on TFB (Small Business lines), put a few of your next customers on sole proprietor account with SSN.”
whitexscvlex, Reddit, June 2024
Come to find out after getting the bill in the mail there was now 3 extra lines not requested on my account a “pixel phone” I didn’t order, home internet, and insurance on tho extra lines I didn’t order. Kinda crazy she was able to add all that to my account and get away with it. Of course I couldn’t access my account online bc it was a business account and Tmobile can’t seem to figure out how to get that fix. Long story short I had let the account go because Tmobile refused to assist with the clear fraudulent transactions and Arch was of no use!
Existing-Sky9665, Reddit, June 2024
After whitexscvlex posted on Reddit, they were contacted by someone from the leadership team who made a veiled threat to get the post taken down.
Other Arch Telecom employees and customers have also narrated their experiences on Reddit, revealing questionable strategies Arch Telecom uses. For instance, it has been accused of recording people on the sales floor and adding lines to customer accounts without being asked.
They also used to record the sales floor with audio-totally illegal in a number of states
TMUStoUnionize, Reddit, June 2024
While T-Mobile cannot be held responsible for how Arch Telecom is run, the way they are both accused of employing essentially the same shady tactics to boost sales makes you wonder if this is an agreed-upon strategy.
After all, T-Mobile was sued earlier this year by individually-owned T-Mobile stores who said that the carrier teamed up with Arch Telecom to close or buy minority-owned locations. The lawsuit also claimed that T-Mobile controlled most aspects of Arch Telecom's business.
The higher-ups at T-Mobile were seemingly appalled after learning about the unethical conduct of its store staff and encouraged them to report such behavior to their supervisors, even though supervisors are the ones who reportedly encourage this behavior in the first place.
Whether the executives were actually unaware of what was going on or just feigning ignorance is not known but if T-Mobile really cares, it should not only get its own business in order, but also tidy things up at third-party retailers.
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