Former Metro DM gives us the 411 about port number fraud committed by the T-Mobile unit
To prevent the price hike from attracting attention, customers will be charged for phone cases, screen protectors, chargers, speakers and headphones, even if they walk out of the store with just their phones. When the store’s POS system scans these accessories, the accessories are returned to inventory and sold again, this time for real.
To reiterate, Metro representatives obtained the ported phone numbers in order to reduce the purchase price of the phones for new customers. Customers will pay more for the phone than they would for the same phone with a ported number. To make up the difference, accessories were provided, but not to customers who left the store with just a new phone. The accessories are put back into stock and sold again.
Today, I received an email from a former metro district manager who requested anonymity. Basically, some Metro store owners have a dedicated team responsible for obtaining port numbers from third parties. Eventually, the owners of these stores owned other retail stores belonging to other prepaid brands and were able to obtain some port numbers from these stores. Port number leaders asked sales representatives to seize more than $100 worth of counterfeit accessories, which will be charged to customers on every sale associated with the program.
“Also, when a customer wants to upgrade, we pretty much have to get them a new line so we can use the port number. Even for a simple toll-free call, we have to upsell it and charge it for $150/$200 Quote, just for a basic free phone When we have a customer buy 2 line, 3 line or 4 line (multi line/family plan) we have to upsell so we can add a tablet and tell the customer it is Free, but not really.
The previous DM gave us an example. If an iPhone 11 is free when transferring a number, and a customer comes to a store wanting a new product, the sales rep will price it at $300 instead of the actual cost of $115 to $120. The actual cost of the transaction is as follows:
- toll free
- First month – $60
- Insurance – $16 (mandatory)
- Tax-$25-$30
The owner of the Metro store where the former DM worked has been accused of fraud in other matters, which we will not discuss in depth in order to preserve the anonymity of the former Metro regional manager. Needless to say, using port numbers and accessories to trick Metro customers and help stores make extra profits seems to be a problem T-Mobile It takes more than just lip service.
2024-12-24 00:37:21