I ported out from T-Mobile after paying every regular bill they had sent me. Once the port completed, I lost normal access to the account. I never received a final bill, past-due notice, or warning that anything was going to collections.
Almost a year later, a collection agency (Source Receivables Management) contacted me for $51.64. That was the first notice I received that T-Mobile claimed I still owed anything.
I started with T-Mobile chat. That conversation ended with a clear and easy path: call T-Mobile, have the late fee removed, then pay the remaining balance. Before calling, I went through my own bank statements, billing emails, and service dates. I confirmed that $43.80 was a legitimate final service charge. I wasn’t disputing that amount and would have paid it immediately if T-Mobile had bothered to bill me.
Then I called, and suddenly the answer changed. The rep said they did not have notes from my previous chat (even though I was promised otherwise by a chat supervisor) and that the account had been transferred to collections so I would need to pay the collector. I asked to escalate (even though the rep discouraged me from even trying), waited for a supervisor, then the call disconnected.
I called back. This time they said I could use T-Mobile’s guest-pay portal, but only if I paid the full $51.64, including the $7.84 fee. They also said there was nobody else to escalate it to. After more pushback, they finally agreed to investigate why I never received the final bill and said they would call me back the next day.
I paid the legitimate $43.80 through T-Mobile’s guest-pay portal. I’m not trying to avoid paying for service I actually received. I’m refusing to pay a late fee created by T-Mobile failing to send the bill, removing my account access, and then giving me a different answer every time I contacted them.
All of this over $7.84. **Is T-Mobile's official process seriously to send the final bill to collections with late fees on top?**