T-Mobile sued for fraud at Metro stores

Yesterday, the City of New York sued T-Mobile for engaging in fraudulent business practices at its Metro by T-Mobile New York Division stores. Ars Technica reported that the allegations are against Metro for routinely selling used phones as if they were new and charging customers for services they didn’t want or even ask for.

The NYC government claims that Metro stores use abusive sales tactics on their costumers. Apparently, nearly 60 stores across NYC have sold preowned devices to consumers claiming they were new. The stores also allegedly charged costumers fake taxes, made them pay for unwanted services, and enrolled them in financing plans without consent.

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The lawsuit goes on to claim that the Metro website is guilty of fraud as well. The NYC government says Metro engages in deceptive business practices by advertising a 30-day return policy by which it does not abide. Metro’s fine print reveals that it is much more complicated than that, and most costumers do not qualify for returns.

The lawsuit is against T-Mobile, Metro’s New York Division, and several Metro store owners. T-Mobile directly owns and manages some of these stores, while others are owned by contracted dealers that operate under the Metro brand.

Though Metro just sells prepaid services over T-Mobile’s network, the lawsuit goes directly after the parent company itself, citing Metro’s 2018 rebranding campaign: Metro by T-Mobile is T-Mobile.

T-Mobile told Ars that it can’t comment on the claims yet, but it believes these allegations don’t line up with the integrity of its team. T-Mobile said it takes these allegations very seriously and is continuing to investigate so it can adequately respond to the lawsuit.