T-Mobile customer has no grocery money left after being overcharged by carrier

Anyone can make an accounting mistake and usually, disputed charges are reversed without a fuss by financial institutions after investigation. But if a large fund was withdrawn from your account and there was no explanation for it, you'd be right to be mad. This is what happened with one T-Mobile customer.

Reddit user VenusMagna's husband was charged more than $357 by T-Mobile and when they called T-Mobile, the carrier had no answer for why they were overcharged and asked them to dispute the payment.

VenusMagna owes nothing to T-Mobile as they neither bought anything through T-Mobile nor were a part of any contract.

The pair decided to leave T-Mobile for a different carrier last week which, according to them, was offering a better service in their area for a lower monthly fee.

The couple was already fuming over the fact that they were forced to migrate from their grandfathered military plan to a more expensive plan. $357 was four times as much as their average monthly bill.

While it's reassuring that T-Mobile has encouraged them to dispute the charge, what's worrying is that the deducted amount was the pair's grocery money and their bank has told them it could take anywhere between 60 and 90 days before they get it back.

Of course, just because a customer thinks they were overcharged by T-Mobile, it doesn't necessarily mean the carrier is at fault. For instance, it's possible that the customer unknowingly texted premium rate numbers.

Regardless, this is a reminder to keep a low balance on debit cards you use for monthly automated payments or choose a card with low limits for such transactions to prevent incidents like these.

This is a sensitive time for T-Mobile. The carrier has upset many subscribers after hiking monthly fees. Customer confidence has also been shaken by unauthorized recurring charges for products they never ordered.