T-Mobile Class Action Says Promotion Leads to Unauthorized Charges

A California woman says T-Mobile has been running a deceptive promotion designed to fraudulently induce mobile phone subscribers to switch carriers.

Plaintiff Suzie Cesarina says she and other subscribers were overcharged after they switched to T-Mobile service in response to a promotional offer of four lines for $100. She alleges T-Mobile has violated provisions of federal and California consumer protection laws.

Cesarina says she signed a contract for T-Mobile services in November 2016 after viewing an advertisement that offered four lines with unlimited talk, text and data for $100, plus two free tablets. The tablets turned out to be subject to an activation fee, which T-Mobile promised to reimburse, she claims.

To sign the contract, she says she was presented with a handheld signature pad and asked to sign. The sales associate allegedly said her signature would then be applied to all relevant purchase documents. Cesarina says she was never given a chance to see the documents she signed, neither before nor after the signature – she believed she was only signing for the payment.

Later, Cesarina says T-Mobile failed to honor the terms of the promotion. The plaintiff says she was charged well in excess of the advertised $100 per month fee, and T-Mobile never reimbursed her for the tablet activation fee as promised. T-Mobile then billed her by making recurring charges to her payment account, which Cesarina says she never authorized.

Because she was never given a copy of the contract terms, Cesarina says she never saw an explanation of the charges. She says she asked T-Mobile to cancel any additional charges she didn’t agree to. But T-Mobile continued to make repeated withdrawals of funds from her account, she claims.

The charges continued for several months without Cesarina’s authorization, according to her T-Mobile class action lawsuit.

Cesarina claims T-Mobile’s conduct violates the federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act, or EFTA. The EFTA requires among other things that the consumer must get a copy of an authorization for electronic fund transfers at the time the authorization is made, and that the consumer can stop payment of a preauthorized transaction by notifying the financial institution up to three business days before the scheduled date of transfer.

Cesarina proposes to represent four different plaintiff Classes. One EFTA Class would cover all U.S. persons whose bank accounts were debited on a regular basis by T-Mobile without a written and signed authorization within one year prior to the date this action was filed. The EFTA Class 2 would cover all U.S. persons whose bank accounts were debited after they revoked consent for such debits.

The Telephone Service Class would cover all California citizens who within the applicable statutory limitations period purchased the four lines for $100 package advertised as such, and the Tablet Class would include all California citizens who accepted an offer of tablets that were advertised as free.

She seeks a court order requiring T-Mobile to run a corrective advertising campaign and an award of damages, restitution, court costs and attorneys’ fees, all with pre- and post-judgment interest.

Cesarina is represented by attorneys Todd M. Friedman and Adrian R. Bacon of Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman PC.

The T-Mobile False Promotion Class Action Lawsuit is Cesarina v. T-Mobile USA Inc., Case No. 8:17-cv-02054, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.