UPDATE: We received a statement from T-Mobile today regarding this story. We’ve also been asked to remove the screenshots that accompanied the original story because they contained sensitive information. Here is the official statement from T-Mobile:
“We do not tolerate fraud of any kind and take these claims very seriously. This situation occurred at one of our third-party retail locations and we have taken action to address it. We also continue to improve our monitoring systems so we can better prevent, identify and respond to these types of issues.”
The original story (minus the screenshots) follows.
According to the whistleblower, the whole scheme revolves around this District Manager illegally obtaining ported phone numbers through an outside source and using these phone numbers to manipulate phone prices and discount them in Metro’s phone system. The letter says that Metro reps were told to sell these discounted phones at higher prices which defrauded customers.
The letter says that prices for higher-end phones are significantly more expensive if purchased with a new line than if a customer buys it using a number ported over from another wireless provider. The former Metro rep says that an undisclosed person known as Jesus provided ported phone numbers to the District Manager. The latter and Jesus both gave Metro reps ported phone numbers, account numbers, and transfer pins allowing them to offer customers a larger discount on new phones.
“As employees, we were not only encouraged but expected to use these ported numbers to greatly improve the sales numbers of the stores. We were instructed to quote higher prices of phones to customers and once they agreed to the price, we would use ported numbers to get the discounted price in the system but then ring out accessories to make up the difference. We were not allowed to sell phones under a certain price so we were required to scan as many accessories as possible to have the customer still pay the full quoted price of a phone. This is where the theft of customers happens.”-Former Metro by T-Mobile employee
If a customer could not afford a new phone, the whistleblower says that the purchase was still approved by the District Manager, and while the customer would be charged for accessories such as “phone cases, screen protectors, chargers, speakers, headphones, etc.,” they would walk out of the store with only a phone. If a customer agreed to the artificially high price quoted for a new phone, employees would scan the aforementioned accessories which were never given to the customer but were returned to the store’s inventory to sell again.
To prevent customers from getting suspicious, the District Manager had the employees disconnect the receipt printers from the computers. Customers were told that the store was out of receipt paper, or that the store did not give out receipts. Refunds of accessories were denied since the store’s commissions were mostly from sales of accessories even if they were not real. Customers complaining about their purchases were turned away.
This scheme resulted in inflated accessory sales which allowed the District Manager and Metro employees to receive high commission checks and bonuses. Other sketchy “theft tactics” employed by the District Manager included purchasing older phones such as the Revvl 6, Motorola G Power, Samsung A14, and A15 at a discount and offering the units to customers at higher prices. The extra profits were used to pay company bills.
“Registers were to be opened and closed at $125 daily. When variants in the registers happened, employees were expected to resolve the variants themselves. Instead of employees being directly charged back for money variants, customers were deceived on the total invoice amounts during purchases. Phone activation sales would be rounded up so registers would have overages at the end of the day. This would allow employees to resolve variants over time by deceiving customers on their purchase totals.”-Former Metro by T-Mobile rep
Reps were also told to quote higher activation fees which the former Metro rep called “a very common practice.” By quoting the higher activation price, accessories not ordered by the customer could be added to the activation making it appear as though the stores sold more accessories than they really did. The former Metro rep sent me screenshots of text messages supposedly showing Metro employees requesting port numbers from the District Manager (referred to in the texts as Mo) who was known to these employees as Jesus.
If we hear back from Metro or T-Mobile, we will upgrade this story with the statement. The letter from the whistleblower included the name of the company that runs these Metro stores and the name of the District Manager. Since these are unproven allegations, we have not included either name in this article.
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