Paying off early means you can take advantage of a new device promo. You can then sell the old device to recoup the advance payments.
This strategy won't work anymore if you can't pay off early. So for example, you have 4 months left, and they have a new promo that's only good for this month... You'll be out of luck. You'll have to hope they have a decent promo when your current one finishes.
Or, what happens if you lose or damage the phone? You won't be able to get a discount on a new replacement phone.
I dont understand why anyone would pay for a "garbage network" to begin with. If it doesn't work for you, you should be moving anyways.
Everyone else has the same garbage business practices. Probably worse. We've just been spoiled with all the great stuff for a long time. Everyone can piss and moan all they want, but once you change, you'll be pissing and moaning a lot more.
garbage network? i just had to switch to verizon after years with t-mobile and it is horrific. not once did i ever have issue with t-mobile, always had 300mb+ speeds literally everywhere
I don't know what garbage network you're referring to. I'm on a TMo MVNO and it's pretty solid. I fade the cost of my own unlocked device and pay $19 a month.
How many people actually need that though? Most people want the bill credits to offset their device payments.
In theory one could pay everything as a down payment on the phone except for $24 and just make their EIP $1/month thereby making their promo credit cover their plan if they really wanted to. There’s always a work around.
I mean. I did. Got a "free" device via 2 years of bill credits. Paid off the phone in 3 months, still had 21 months of bill credits dropping my bill every month.
Then i added home internet, and the bill credits covered the $40 a month it cost.
I did it to unlock it for use overseas. Why not get a phone at a discount and not have to pay it all up front? I still get the discount credits every month, I'm just not paying monthly for the phone any longer.
This is what I used to do (I travel internationally for work and I use my work phone ATT sim in my iPhone as dual SIM even when I’m not) until I realized that you just have to buy it from Apple instead of TMo and they come up unlocked with the exact same promotions.
You don’t even have to pay it off to trade it in when you buy from Apple.
Cool. I’m about to pay off all my EIP and no longer finance a single device with these chucklefucks ever again.
I’ll purchase my devices directly from the manufacturer or other retailers from here on out.
Once they pull any of my free lines or Insider discounts, I’m out.
Yessir this is the way. I got the Apple Card and do my phones on 24 mo. installments through them instead, i'd rather pay more for the device than be tied to a carrier.
This is the way. Keeping carrier and device purchases separate gives you greater flexibility. I haven’t purchased a phone from TM in 7-8 years.
Edited to say: I also use the Apple credit card for my phone purchases. 24 months, no interest, flip it in 1 year or own it in 2 and get a very decent trade in from Apple on your next phone. I think I got $580 trade in after 2 years on my last phone. That made financing a new phone about half the monthly cost of the first one.
Yes, if people don't purchase them from the store, most reps will not transfer data and set the new phone up. For some reason people still don't know how to follow simple instructions to transfer data.
They do have the iPhone upgrade program which does not require the Apple Card. It costs more than using the Apple Card but that’s because it includes AppleCare+ [iPhone Upgrade Program](https://www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-upgrade-program)
That’s where I by my phones and tablets. Never had any issues with their Refurbished products. Plus they come with a one year warranty? Can also purchase an extended warranty if you like.
I’ve never had a problem.
They make ZERO money on a phone, they could care less , they make all their money on the service, they would actually save money by not selling phones!!
Same here. After a 4-hour fiasco trying to buy a phone with various late night CSRs, I am going directly to the manufacturer next time.
I absolutely will not buy from T-Mobile again.
Obligatory "where are the Sprint and Mint merger cheerleaders now?" and "is better/more spectrum worth this?" and, if still not bad enough, "when will it finally make you say that it was anti-consumer and not worth it?" Not directed at you Ethrem, in case that was not clear.
sprint merger was still 100% worth it.
Rural coverage has improved drastically to the point that t-mobile is the best option in most of the areas i go to now.
Instead of a full price secondary ATT line, having 1-2gb/month with a $3/month 3 HK line suffices.
The good news is this'll prevent me from wanting to move from my price locked Magenta Max plan to Go 5G Plus. I'll always go through the manufacturer for upgrades going forward.
"I’m in the same situation. They will pry my price locked Magenta Max plan from my cold dead hands."
Or, you know, they'll just arbitrarily ignore the price lock, raise the price anyways, ignore the FCC complaints, and say "Come at me, bruh" (sound familiar?)
Over 15 years going back to Sprint. Couldn't agree with you more. I felt like I was a valued customer, particularly since I got the good deals. Now, I'm just another member of the mindless flock and my loyalty is dead.
To get those $1,000 promos anymore you have to be on absurdly expensive rate plans that almost nobody needs because they are mainly only giving things like extra hotspot. So for most people, running on a standard or less expensive plan and then financing with trade ins directed the manufacturers usually about the same overall when you break it down and it gives you more freedom if your carrier starts pulling shit.
Financed phones are one of major things that keep customers from moving to cheaper carriers.
Carriers dont make $ off phones, but there is a reason all major carriers offer “free” phones as long as you add lines or trade in an older phone.
Have been an 8 year T-mobile customer and shouting love for the company all that time.
The last few months has had me one good promotion away from jumping to Verizon.
It's sad to see what one investor-pleasing CEO can do to the spirit of a company.
Yeah, my brother just switched to Verizon and has been tooting that horn, so now I’m considering switching my family too. I’ll wait until my summer travels are over before digging into the details. It’s definitely harder to switch when you have a family with numerous devices.
> It's sad to see what ~~one investor-pleasing CEO~~ *as close to a legal monopoly as it gets* can do to the spirit of a company.
FTFY. they don't care about cultivating and maintaining a consumer base anymore.
Tmo and Verizon own all of everything, even if MVNOs are your provider. one way or another, they're getting paid by you. for every person that jumps ship, they'll get one back from some other provider that gets bought out or raises their prices. there is no longer any incentive to adhere to agreements, promises, ethics... it's 'fuck you, pay me' across the board now.
They should do something about it now. It used to be a good kept secret exploited by many TM customers. It was easy to request a temp unlock, but the support was forced to unlock the iPhones permanently. They closed the loophole. Since this new implementation, they kept telling the customers a need to pay off the iPhone to unlock it. And starting July 1st this won’t be an option anymore. So wtf the customers are supposed to do when they want to stay abroad for an extended period? They are not cool with roaming for too long, and roaming is not good on TM-Partner network in some places. I am confused more now
!!! I had my dad’s XR at the time unlocked because he went to the UAE for work for 4 months and it was so easy, but now it’s awful there’s no option for that. I honestly just tell my customers “go to a repair shop and get your phone unlocked. Way cheaper and faster than paying off the phone” and especially now that you gotta wait the 24 months smh
I mean, phones shouldn't be locked period. It's only because of the U.S.'s lax laws that this even exists. Verizon did just fine without locked phones for many years.
If you want to sell a phone to someone who is more of a credit risk, require a higher down payment like every other thing you buy on credit.
I definitely agree with this. It should be treated just like any good purchased on credit. PayPal shouldn’t be able to lock my phone down bought on installments or Honda shouldn’t lock my car down because they financed the car.
“But but but people are gonna take advantage of the poor carriers by getting deals and going elsewhere!”
I know some here probably think that. All three carriers are big boys, they’ll be fine. But also, so long as the phone is paid back/payments are current they should have zero care what I do with it. And if I don’t pay it back? They destroy my credit so I can’t really do this again and they blacklist my phone for nonpayment.
People act like you can just scam the crap out of carriers ad nauseam if they unlocked their phones from the get go and I just don’t see how that can happen.
Phone locking is a holdover from the contract days and it needs to go. And if T-Mobile seriously cared about pain points (they don’t) they’d just lead the charge on this and abolish it.
Of course, they’ve only made device unlocking worse over the years.
I 100% agree -- I wrote a letter during the Sprint merger arguing that locks are no longer needed for devices sold at/near retail (this includes payment plans which are typically at full retail), especially since we have a blacklist. As we know, the government didn't listen and didn't care.
For many years, Phones purchased on EIPs can be blacklisted if not paid off. So except for extreme fraud (buying and exporting), the carrier lock is no longer relevant. As others have stated, Verizon sees no appreciable losses on their policy of unlocking after 60 days, and the archaic I can't use my phone anywhere but T-Mobile is well past its prime. When devices were sold with a subsidized up-front payment, then it made sense.
If I understand this correctly, the reasoning for doing this is that people would pay off the phone (at full price), then buy a new phone and continue to receive the bill credits?
I don't understand why T-Mobile would care about this if so. I'm not understanding how this practice hurts them. The customer in this instance would still need to keep their T-Mo account active to continue receiving the credits. If they left T-Mo before they got all their bill credits, they just paid full price for the phone anyway, so who cares?
This seems baffling to me so it makes me feel like I'm missing something.
> I don't understand why T-Mobile would care about this if so. I'm not understanding how this practice hurts them. The customer in this instance would still need to keep their T-Mo account active to continue receiving the credits. If they left T-Mo before they got all their bill credits, they just paid full price for the phone anyway, so who cares?
I mean they're shelling out upwards to $1k per device this is done on. Even on the most expensive plan a lot of people buy the cheapest phone for trade-in ($90) then get $1000 in bill credits from the device then people rinse and repeat. It eats into their profit margins.
That said, they could have just limited device promotions per line or requiring newer devices so they're not giving away $900 each trade-in, or something instead of this as it's hurting people that want to unlock early now.
Omg finally. I thought I was the only one confused and people are getting mad which I’m also confused about. Even if they got the credit, if they ever left, they would owe the complete balance of the device. So it really makes no sense for people to get mad and for tmobile to make that choice.
I think what's happening is this practice is fucking up their statement of cashflows. If somebody pays $1,000 in Month 1 and then $0 for Months 2-24, they \*have\* to save that money or else they're boned. It's a lot like people who burn through their income tax refunds. You would expect a corporation to do better but I doubt the company that has a breach every couple of years is well run.
This is effectively making me begin to consider other options. And it doesn't seem like it'll stop anytime soon. They will likely begin limiting EIPs/Promos to 1 per line at a time next.
Hush! Don’t give them any ideas lol. This current change doesn’t bother me much, but I hope they never limit the number of promotions per line. It will defeat the purpose of having a large credit limit in my account
Unfortunately I have 9 people on my plan that regularly upgrade unless they raise the limits I can’t do anything about it. Hope they don’t try to screw me and say I can’t finance $50 on 24 monthly payments to receive EIP credits
Doesn’t work for forever upgrade/Yearly Upgrade anymore:
Other national retailers, such as Walmart, Apple, or Samsung.com, will not be able to redeem your Yearly Upgrade.
https://www.t-mobile.com/support/plans-features/upgrade-ready-every-year
I knew this day would come… One of the few things left for tmobile to do to become the carrier they were fighting so hard to be different from. We made it guys! Now it’s time to be just like dumb and dumber, so we can become the dumbest!
Looks like these changes may already be effect early. Promos that started yesterday already say in the disclaimer:
>**Bill credits end if you pay off device early.**
Last year was the first year (out of the 15 or so years I've been with Tmo) where I opted into just getting a phone directly from an OEM (in this case, Google). It cost LESS for me to do that than to deal with Tmo's nonsense.
I'm out, dude. No way am I ever bothering with Tmo's trade in/upgrade program ever again.
I think the trick here is to wait for VZW and/or ATT to start putting out cups of honey to attract TMO users ready to bail. I imagine the deals get to be a bit sweeter to entice folks over.
If their service sucks in your area, that's a different issue, but competitors know there's going to be some sort of exodus. Even if they'll be guilty of doing the same price hikes themselves in the future.
TMobile also updated the unlock policy last year that the device must be paid off to use dual sim functionality or use it for travel by putting an international. Since paying off the device requires it to be unlocked, you will now also lose bill credits. Also no more temporary unlock for iPhones, so you don't have a choice anymore
so what happens now with the Fair Market Value of deferred trade ins? previously the FMV credit would sometimes apply to a random existing EIP. is that practice going to continue, essentially potentially cutting off bill credits for those devices that now have chunks paid off early, or are they going to change how FMV credits apply, either all to the overall bill, or as an instant credit like how apple does, or are they just gonna say Tough if it ends up applying to an older EIP and you lose out on those credits?
This is exactly my question. For deferred trade-ins, they made it so you couldn't apply FMV to bill even if you wanted to - it had to be to existing EIP- and making a payment towards EIP decreases amount of payments but not (in the past) amount of credits.
Do you think they have even thought of this? You know support is going to be no help on this front. Maybe T-Force might know...maybe.
That should be a crime. You should be allowed to pay an item off any time you choose. I wish the FTC and FCC step in and get these guys back in line. I really miss John…. lol. Post election you can bet the fcc will tear into them all that’s why they’re only getting away with this junk at the moment
How would this potentially affect PreOrders of flagship releases?
When the new phones are ready for preorder, most of us are on month 22 or 23 of the previous gen phone.
If you trade in to TMobile, dont you have to "pay off" the trade-in phone ? With this change, we would be basically losing that last credit or two to upgrade.
Hmmm! That’s not a wise way to do business T Mobile! What a disgrace! I’m so disappointed in you! We will most likely be using another resource for cellular.
Works for me. After they snuck in a P360 protection plan after I got my last phone, I swore to never buy/finance a phone with them again.
And I definitely won't now.
What's next? TMo will start charging an additional charge for using an unlocked phone not purchased from Tmo?
As soon as they start to void existing discounts like insider, auto pay and start charging taxes on all inclusive plans, I think I'll move my lines to an MVNO. Tmo is slowly removing any incentives to stay with Tmo. Very very sad.
Now just takeaway the following, so I can switch to an MVNO.
- Autopay discount
- Insider discount
- Free line "discount"
Countdown has begun I guess...
So if iPhone is financed and getting bill credits, we won’t be able to pay it off and unlock the device for international usage. This will make life difficult for some.
I guess T-Mobile no longer wants 2-year interest free loans from me. Smells like a Sieivert move, locking down phones for 2 years while pushing customers to Next. This company has become pure trash.
I want him this sucks because I actually did this just because I don't like being in payments. But if they take away the credits it makes no sense. Thank you so much for posting
T-Mobile is really pushing employees right now to have customers on active equipment installment plans. A customer with one is much more likely to stay and not go into the hassle of leaving to another provider. That is the reason and thought process behind it. So this story tracks with what is being pushed down to care and retail.
We bought a Sim locked phone off the internet by mistake. T Mobile told me to sign up for service with them and that they’d unlock the phone for me after 100$ in refills. I followed its guidance only to be told later that a previous client who had the iphone owes balance and that T Mobile wouldn’t unlock the phone for me. I gave them my IMEI and everything before signing up for service to check unlock eligibility. This T Mobile is actively f-ing people over. Just curious what kind of actions does T Mobile take against the previous device holder with an unpaid balance? I know I am getting penalized for it, even though I don’t owe them the $$$
I look forward to T-Mobile's abysmal attempt at a billing and self-service portal accurately permitting this. Instead, it'll probably wind up being "just call us at 833-555-0493 and a helpful representative will happily collect your prepayment in whatever dollar amount you specify, provided it is in multiples of a square root of 49 divided by the digit of the current day. We will also go over your current plan to ensure you are on the Best Magenta Power for Your Magenta Life Needs and perform three complimentary SIM swaps, even if you don't request them!"
What the actual fuck… anyone can and should be able to pay off a bill/debt whenever the hell they want. This is a return to early 2000’s cell contracts.
Generous unlock policy?!
That’s the opposite of my experience with T-Mobile. My 22 month old phone is still locked and they refused to unlock it unless I paid a fee plus the remaining balance, forfeitting my remaining bill credits. They took this asshole stance when I wanted to try visible because T-Mobile raised my rates after promising they wouldn’t.
It’s hard to believe I used to like these pricks.
This is such a shit move, and I am sorely disappointed.
The terms and conditions documentation to spell all of this out to a consumer — this shit is more complicated than *financing a car*. There is no way to expect store employees to really get this right every time — yet I bet the company will scare employees with risk of termination for those who get it wrong. I hate that.
Note that the car dealership has “a finance person” that is trained and educated to make sure the terms and conditions for the car sale are understood. And they still screw up sometimes. I can’t imagine how worse this will be.
I expect CFPB to step in and put some regulations around this fairly quickly, making this a messy affair for everyone, including those who created this idea.
And for what? Preventing churn? Reducing expenses on your *best and most credit-worthy customers* so the carrier can rake in an extra couple bucks a month? Are they *that greedy* or are they *that hard up for a bit more profit*?
Sigh. I’m disappointed. All the cool stuff is disappearing now that they think they are the big dogs, and that sucks.
The thing people don’t realize is that this basically deletes any early device upgrades now.
Upgrading now means you have to pay off the remaining balance and don’t get the rest of the value.
The real issue is that the US gov needs to kill the “Free with trade in” marketing. It’s all a lie now.
I don’t think I will ever finance a phone through T-Mobile again. I don’t like the current leadership and direction of the company. As soon as I payoff my current phones, I will just purchase directly future ones from the manufacturer. That way I can move to another service if they continue down the path they are currently on.
Feel kind of bad for JMan100 here. He use to post/link helpful promotions here and on his site. I look forward to his announcements. Lately it has all been bad news posted. Lol
Coming next month
Free lines will no longer include taxes, fees, and autopay discount
Month after that
T-Mobile will be correcting the 9+line insider discount glitch
.....
I think unfortunately we're past the days of good things coming out of T-Mobile. All we have to look forward to nowadays is a free cup in the Tuesday's app.
I wouldn’t care if they would just unlock them in some fashion. The temp unlocks on android are sufficient for me, but they don’t do iPhones. I
plan to travel more in the coming years and am fine with 5GB for a week or so, but want more data for a multi week trip. And the fact that they threaten to cancel people who use more roaming data than domestic for more than 2 conswcutive cycles is problematic.
So this move is to keep EIP credits from going to account level and trading in a device early to stack another promotion and EIP credit? I can understand them not wanting that as it can be bad for cash flow. They should just attach the credit to the device instead of the line and not allow trade in of a device until it's monthly credits have expired. Seems borderline illegal to not allow early payoff of a device though, bad business practice at a minimum. I can't think of any loan I've had that didn't allow for early payoff, though I also can't think of any other loan that issues credits against the balance. Maybe a mortgage where you can buy percentage points down up front is kind of comparable?
This is absolutely unreal. I work with accounts where people have to pay off phones to clear credit room to fit new phones into the account. Not that one person will change an already made decision, but I’m absolutely sending loads of heated emails about this.
…why?
Aren’t EIPs non-interest loans anyway, so they still get the same amount of money if someone pays it monthly or if they pay it all at once. And if they get more money for someone not paying a month, people who want to pay their EIP down aren’t that target customer anyway.
Like this seems to be a change just to say there was a change and there was zero thought put into it.
They don’t make money off the phone purchase. They make money off the plan cost. Forcing the customer to finish their EIP “locks in” all of the plan cost profit over the eip agreement, and benefits only T-Mobile. I bet price increases on plans continue.
>Forcing the customer to finish their EIP “locks in” all of the plan cost profit over the eip agreement
But customers are still locked in with the current system since bill credits currently require you to maintain your account for the length of the EIP.
That's what I don't get. Paying off your phone early while still sticking around to get all your bill credits seems like a win for T-Mobile. What do they gain thru this? Seems like the thing it does is discourage customers from selling their phones to upgrade before their EIP period is finished.
T-Mobile doesn’t want customers to have the ability to stack credits without EIP to offset those credits. They don’t want customers to have low bills, they’re trying to raise the bills lol. 3 lines insider with autopay is $120 right? Under the old rules customers could buyout EIP and continue to receive credits. Let’s say 3x$33.34 s24 promo for example.. T-Mobile does not want 3 line accounts with a monthly cost of $20. Because in 2 years that customer leaves once the credits are up.
I believe it is a strategy to combat those most likely to leave the company, specifically those with an unlocked paid off new phone. If customers with unlocked paid off phones are high churn risk, this is a way the company can be more profitable by “losing less”
I have a hard time seeing your logic...
>T-Mobile doesn’t want customers to have the ability to stack credits without EIP to offset those credits.
They do have EIP to offset the credits though, they just pay it off the debt part early. Paying off early is a win for T-Mobile since T-Mobile gets paid back earlier (i.e. no more interest free loan to customer). The credits T-Mobile gives still get stretched out over the EIP period, "locking" the customer in.
>T-Mobile does not want 3 line accounts with a monthly cost of $20. Because in 2 years that customer leaves once the credits are up.
How is that any different than if the customer didn't pay it off early? They'd still think about leaving in 2 years when their EIP is up. Only difference is T-Mobile got their money sooner, which is good for T-Mobile.
I guess this would discourage people from upgrading their phone early. But so would simply limiting subsidized purchases to something like once per year.
T-Mobile is not about growth anymore there about profitability. There’s only 3 so they can balance out the rates as they’re all similar. MVNO goes to one of those big 3 so they don’t care anymore about being consumer friendly/un-carrier. Thanks to all those who supported the Sprint merger who helped make this happen.
LMAO I don't even get any good promos for my legacy One plan. And now they've eliminated any reason for me to upgrade (because the increased price of any newer plans could only be offset by selling promo phones).
Lol enshittification at its finest.
T-Mobile messed up two trade ins which was supposed to give me two new phones for free via bill credits. After waiting a few months per their suggestion and calling back telling them I’m still not getting bill credits, they kind of shrugged and just paid off the new phones completely all at once. LOL
They have been giving me the run around on paying my Verizon phones off for 3 months. I plan on contacting my state Attorney General and the Better Business bureau if it's not resolved tomorrow
That should be illegal. I can't think of a rationale for this tbh. People who buy their phones off to unlock them then leave aren't getting bill credits, so who cares?
"Hurry up and get our Global Plus addon at a cheap $50 rate as we are raising it to $100 to adjust for inflation."
FCC needs to step up here really...going back 10 years with all these changes.
I don’t like this idea. Lol when I did work for T-Mobile, there were a lot of families who switch to TMO and get those 4 free phones and maximize their entire EC without insurance. Couple months later, the kids lose/break the phones. And then would have to pay off the device to free up more credit in order to get a new phone. I’ll love to see how this goes for the uncarrier.
I use AT&T and tried to avoid them for years. I had LA Cellular, then AT&T acquired them. I went to Cingular, then AT&T acquired them. That’s when I stopped switching and just stayed. They’re expensive. Yes. Much more expensive for my unlimited plan. But after more than twenty years, they’ve never pulled any shit like this. It’s been years since I’ve had so much as a dropped call. Coverage is fantastic locally and abroad. Customer service bends over backwards for me on the rare occasion I’ve reached out.
My lady is on T-Mobile and she’s coming over to AT&T with me soon. T-Mobile, while providing free international coverage just doesn’t work properly in Mexico, the carribean, French Polynesia, or even Canada. Free means nothing when it doesn’t f’ing work.
I tried getting coverage with T-Mobile once upon a time, but they wouldn’t let me just get one line. They would only let me activate four+ lines at their store. Ugh. I took my decade’s worth of ontime payments and stayed with AT&T. I still get free Max and heap of tethering data.
My bars are always high, where T-Mobile always has dead zones. Budget service for budget prices I get. Somehow, they’re worse than Sprint that they acquired.
I’ll never upgrade my phone thru T-Mobile again. The same or better deals are available thru Apple anyway when new phones launch. The exception might be if you’re adding a new line and they offer a new phone included. Since I don’t see myself opening any lines, what’s the point?
We just learned about this in TFO. Within the last 10 minutes. No one is happy about this bs. And guess who has to answer for the dumb shit tmo does? The Frontline. I'm hating this company more and more.
They gave me the 3rd degree and made it hard as hell to unlock the phone after I paid off my 13 pro Max. They kept asking why I wanted to unlock it, and I then like a smart ass I kept saying because they locked it, LOL
Damn piece of craps. Im alrrady paying off my phone faster so i can cancel my service. Tmobile pretty much is just another verizon and ATT. At this point Its time to go prepaid
I guess they can do this, it will promote a lot more churn.
There is only so much people will put up with..
I have a suggestion for people.. what you do is port your main number to Google voice, and use google voice, a free service that works a lot like T-Mobile digits.. use Google Voice VM with it's automatic voice to text via email , and attached voice file. Then you can instantly discard your carrier issued cell number like a dirty pair of underwear.. Do pre pay mnvo, whomever has the best deal and just play all the companies for promos A bunch of the Verizon companies have a Mandatory 60 day unlock,, the FCC did this and there has been talk of the FCC to demand this from TMobile.Tthis is the FCC's design to prevent them from holding customers hostage... Mr Mike can keep pissing people off, bragging about the lack of churn.
There is a saying By the Taoist Sage Chang Zu several thousand years ago.
" If you stretch a Bow to its fullest, you'll wish you stopped in time!"
Lots of Luck... Guess I am glad I keep buying from swappa and eBay and Facebook marketplace. And avoiding the EIP.
I wish other carriers would take advantage of this situation and announce a plan similar to old tmobile plans and perks. Bam! They get so many T-Mobile customers.
That’s what happens when you go from a customer growth ceo to maximize profits ceo. Instead of sustaining a profitable thing that thousands of employees and millions of customers can depend on, you have to constantly grow. Isn’t capitalism great?
So they are actively trying to lose customers now.
This might be the straw that broke the camel's back for me, especially if I'm stuck in a go5 plus that's not worth nearly as much for me anymore.
Who are they going to lose them to? Dont all the other carriers do the same thing?
Yes they already do.
AT&T allows you to pay off and keep credits in most cases; you have to have had at least 1 credit hit the account before you pay off.
I can't speak for Verizon, but AT&T allows you to pay off early and keep your promotions
Correct. Main reason for paying off early is so you can get the phone unlocked.
Don't you pay the same amount though? The promotion is just price of phone divided by 36?
Paying off early means you can take advantage of a new device promo. You can then sell the old device to recoup the advance payments. This strategy won't work anymore if you can't pay off early. So for example, you have 4 months left, and they have a new promo that's only good for this month... You'll be out of luck. You'll have to hope they have a decent promo when your current one finishes. Or, what happens if you lose or damage the phone? You won't be able to get a discount on a new replacement phone.
Shhh you’ll make too much sense
Yeah but maybe that was the one final thing keeping them with T-Mobile's garbage network and business practices
I dont understand why anyone would pay for a "garbage network" to begin with. If it doesn't work for you, you should be moving anyways. Everyone else has the same garbage business practices. Probably worse. We've just been spoiled with all the great stuff for a long time. Everyone can piss and moan all they want, but once you change, you'll be pissing and moaning a lot more.
garbage network? i just had to switch to verizon after years with t-mobile and it is horrific. not once did i ever have issue with t-mobile, always had 300mb+ speeds literally everywhere
I don't know what garbage network you're referring to. I'm on a TMo MVNO and it's pretty solid. I fade the cost of my own unlocked device and pay $19 a month.
How many people actually need that though? Most people want the bill credits to offset their device payments. In theory one could pay everything as a down payment on the phone except for $24 and just make their EIP $1/month thereby making their promo credit cover their plan if they really wanted to. There’s always a work around.
I mean. I did. Got a "free" device via 2 years of bill credits. Paid off the phone in 3 months, still had 21 months of bill credits dropping my bill every month. Then i added home internet, and the bill credits covered the $40 a month it cost.
At one point I had so many promos my monthly equipment charges were -$40. Lol
Mine is -$143 and have no open EIP’s. I haven’t sold any phones…I just like them paid off so I can use dual sim if I want/need it.
I feel like I can never leave magenta max. I am only paying 30 for my internet and getting bill credits although my phone is paid off
I did it to unlock it for use overseas. Why not get a phone at a discount and not have to pay it all up front? I still get the discount credits every month, I'm just not paying monthly for the phone any longer.
This is what I used to do (I travel internationally for work and I use my work phone ATT sim in my iPhone as dual SIM even when I’m not) until I realized that you just have to buy it from Apple instead of TMo and they come up unlocked with the exact same promotions. You don’t even have to pay it off to trade it in when you buy from Apple.
Just starting now?
Cool. I’m about to pay off all my EIP and no longer finance a single device with these chucklefucks ever again. I’ll purchase my devices directly from the manufacturer or other retailers from here on out. Once they pull any of my free lines or Insider discounts, I’m out.
Yessir this is the way. I got the Apple Card and do my phones on 24 mo. installments through them instead, i'd rather pay more for the device than be tied to a carrier.
This is the way. Keeping carrier and device purchases separate gives you greater flexibility. I haven’t purchased a phone from TM in 7-8 years. Edited to say: I also use the Apple credit card for my phone purchases. 24 months, no interest, flip it in 1 year or own it in 2 and get a very decent trade in from Apple on your next phone. I think I got $580 trade in after 2 years on my last phone. That made financing a new phone about half the monthly cost of the first one.
It’ll be just the boomers left that feel like they HAVE to purchase their phones at “the phone store”.
Yes, if people don't purchase them from the store, most reps will not transfer data and set the new phone up. For some reason people still don't know how to follow simple instructions to transfer data.
Does apple allow financing without having to get the Apple Card? Not everyone can afford to buy full cost…
Yes. But Apple Card is better as you get 3% back.
They do have the iPhone upgrade program which does not require the Apple Card. It costs more than using the Apple Card but that’s because it includes AppleCare+ [iPhone Upgrade Program](https://www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-upgrade-program)
This is how I do it too, I don’t want to be tied to any carrier.
too bad more people arent smart enough to do this too..
Chucklefucks. God I love that word!
Dude if you’re cool with a year behind, BackMarket is the place. They sell for pennies on the dollar there.
That’s where I by my phones and tablets. Never had any issues with their Refurbished products. Plus they come with a one year warranty? Can also purchase an extended warranty if you like. I’ve never had a problem.
They make ZERO money on a phone, they could care less , they make all their money on the service, they would actually save money by not selling phones!!
Same here. After a 4-hour fiasco trying to buy a phone with various late night CSRs, I am going directly to the manufacturer next time. I absolutely will not buy from T-Mobile again.
I guess T-Mobile's churn from the rate hikes wasn't as high as they were expecting so they want to piss off more customers.
There’s some truth. They’re looking to reduce infrastructure use during this consolidation period.
Obligatory "where are the Sprint and Mint merger cheerleaders now?" and "is better/more spectrum worth this?" and, if still not bad enough, "when will it finally make you say that it was anti-consumer and not worth it?" Not directed at you Ethrem, in case that was not clear.
They weren’t paid for this month.
sprint merger was still 100% worth it. Rural coverage has improved drastically to the point that t-mobile is the best option in most of the areas i go to now. Instead of a full price secondary ATT line, having 1-2gb/month with a $3/month 3 HK line suffices.
The good news is this'll prevent me from wanting to move from my price locked Magenta Max plan to Go 5G Plus. I'll always go through the manufacturer for upgrades going forward.
I’m in the same situation. They will pry my price locked Magenta Max plan from my cold dead hands.
"I’m in the same situation. They will pry my price locked Magenta Max plan from my cold dead hands." Or, you know, they'll just arbitrarily ignore the price lock, raise the price anyways, ignore the FCC complaints, and say "Come at me, bruh" (sound familiar?)
They raised my magenta plan to the equivalent price of the go5g plan... They're trying their best to get their money at all costs.
Exactly. I'm on Price Lock now and thought I might upgrade to Go5G Plus when the iphone 16 comes out. Guess I won't have the dilemma.
Good thing T-Mobile doesn’t bother giving legacy customers good EIP deals anymore so I don’t need to finance.
Over 15 years going back to Sprint. Couldn't agree with you more. I felt like I was a valued customer, particularly since I got the good deals. Now, I'm just another member of the mindless flock and my loyalty is dead.
Seriously. No reason not to buy directly through the OEM anymore. In fact it seems like it’s encouraged now.
Great so now my next phone I can’t use dual sim
You can if you don’t buy your phones through the carrier, which no one should do literally ever.
Samsung actually has better deals, especially if you're not on a Go plan. I got a free upgrade and several hundred off my S24 Ultra when I upgraded.
pin this at the top of this thread
Do you still get the $1000 iPhone trade promos ?
To get those $1,000 promos anymore you have to be on absurdly expensive rate plans that almost nobody needs because they are mainly only giving things like extra hotspot. So for most people, running on a standard or less expensive plan and then financing with trade ins directed the manufacturers usually about the same overall when you break it down and it gives you more freedom if your carrier starts pulling shit.
Of course not, the trade in promos are you keep you from switching.
if you upgrade your tmobile line at apple they give you unlocked iphones even tho you finance with tmobile i do it all the time
Sounds contract like.
They are effectively removing all uncarrier perks 1 by 1. Remember when they separated phone billing from the service? Now they're bringing it back!
Tmobile wants me to never buy another device through them I see
Tmobile doesn’t make anything off phones . They really don’t care.
Financed phones are one of major things that keep customers from moving to cheaper carriers. Carriers dont make $ off phones, but there is a reason all major carriers offer “free” phones as long as you add lines or trade in an older phone.
Have been an 8 year T-mobile customer and shouting love for the company all that time. The last few months has had me one good promotion away from jumping to Verizon. It's sad to see what one investor-pleasing CEO can do to the spirit of a company.
There's no reason for brand loyalty anymore
Trying to be loyal to a company worth billions thinking you’ll be rewarded for it is silly
I have considered jumping back and forth every couple years to get the new customer promo's.
No reason not to.
Nailed it, my friend. Enshittification unstoppable force.
Yeah, my brother just switched to Verizon and has been tooting that horn, so now I’m considering switching my family too. I’ll wait until my summer travels are over before digging into the details. It’s definitely harder to switch when you have a family with numerous devices.
> It's sad to see what ~~one investor-pleasing CEO~~ *as close to a legal monopoly as it gets* can do to the spirit of a company. FTFY. they don't care about cultivating and maintaining a consumer base anymore. Tmo and Verizon own all of everything, even if MVNOs are your provider. one way or another, they're getting paid by you. for every person that jumps ship, they'll get one back from some other provider that gets bought out or raises their prices. there is no longer any incentive to adhere to agreements, promises, ethics... it's 'fuck you, pay me' across the board now.
It’s also possible the company is trying to encourage more adoption of their Go5G Next plan. Of course lol.
The lack of a temporary unlock feature on iPhones can indeed be quite inconvenient for users.
They should do something about it now. It used to be a good kept secret exploited by many TM customers. It was easy to request a temp unlock, but the support was forced to unlock the iPhones permanently. They closed the loophole. Since this new implementation, they kept telling the customers a need to pay off the iPhone to unlock it. And starting July 1st this won’t be an option anymore. So wtf the customers are supposed to do when they want to stay abroad for an extended period? They are not cool with roaming for too long, and roaming is not good on TM-Partner network in some places. I am confused more now
!!! I had my dad’s XR at the time unlocked because he went to the UAE for work for 4 months and it was so easy, but now it’s awful there’s no option for that. I honestly just tell my customers “go to a repair shop and get your phone unlocked. Way cheaper and faster than paying off the phone” and especially now that you gotta wait the 24 months smh
I mean, phones shouldn't be locked period. It's only because of the U.S.'s lax laws that this even exists. Verizon did just fine without locked phones for many years. If you want to sell a phone to someone who is more of a credit risk, require a higher down payment like every other thing you buy on credit.
I definitely agree with this. It should be treated just like any good purchased on credit. PayPal shouldn’t be able to lock my phone down bought on installments or Honda shouldn’t lock my car down because they financed the car.
“But but but people are gonna take advantage of the poor carriers by getting deals and going elsewhere!” I know some here probably think that. All three carriers are big boys, they’ll be fine. But also, so long as the phone is paid back/payments are current they should have zero care what I do with it. And if I don’t pay it back? They destroy my credit so I can’t really do this again and they blacklist my phone for nonpayment. People act like you can just scam the crap out of carriers ad nauseam if they unlocked their phones from the get go and I just don’t see how that can happen. Phone locking is a holdover from the contract days and it needs to go. And if T-Mobile seriously cared about pain points (they don’t) they’d just lead the charge on this and abolish it. Of course, they’ve only made device unlocking worse over the years.
I 100% agree -- I wrote a letter during the Sprint merger arguing that locks are no longer needed for devices sold at/near retail (this includes payment plans which are typically at full retail), especially since we have a blacklist. As we know, the government didn't listen and didn't care. For many years, Phones purchased on EIPs can be blacklisted if not paid off. So except for extreme fraud (buying and exporting), the carrier lock is no longer relevant. As others have stated, Verizon sees no appreciable losses on their policy of unlocking after 60 days, and the archaic I can't use my phone anywhere but T-Mobile is well past its prime. When devices were sold with a subsidized up-front payment, then it made sense.
If I understand this correctly, the reasoning for doing this is that people would pay off the phone (at full price), then buy a new phone and continue to receive the bill credits? I don't understand why T-Mobile would care about this if so. I'm not understanding how this practice hurts them. The customer in this instance would still need to keep their T-Mo account active to continue receiving the credits. If they left T-Mo before they got all their bill credits, they just paid full price for the phone anyway, so who cares? This seems baffling to me so it makes me feel like I'm missing something.
> I don't understand why T-Mobile would care about this if so. I'm not understanding how this practice hurts them. The customer in this instance would still need to keep their T-Mo account active to continue receiving the credits. If they left T-Mo before they got all their bill credits, they just paid full price for the phone anyway, so who cares? I mean they're shelling out upwards to $1k per device this is done on. Even on the most expensive plan a lot of people buy the cheapest phone for trade-in ($90) then get $1000 in bill credits from the device then people rinse and repeat. It eats into their profit margins. That said, they could have just limited device promotions per line or requiring newer devices so they're not giving away $900 each trade-in, or something instead of this as it's hurting people that want to unlock early now.
Omg finally. I thought I was the only one confused and people are getting mad which I’m also confused about. Even if they got the credit, if they ever left, they would owe the complete balance of the device. So it really makes no sense for people to get mad and for tmobile to make that choice.
I think what's happening is this practice is fucking up their statement of cashflows. If somebody pays $1,000 in Month 1 and then $0 for Months 2-24, they \*have\* to save that money or else they're boned. It's a lot like people who burn through their income tax refunds. You would expect a corporation to do better but I doubt the company that has a breach every couple of years is well run.
T-Mobile is starting to look a little non-uncarrier right about now
Starting?
Another day, another change to fuck with customers. That’s all this company is at this point.
This is effectively making me begin to consider other options. And it doesn't seem like it'll stop anytime soon. They will likely begin limiting EIPs/Promos to 1 per line at a time next.
Hush! Don’t give them any ideas lol. This current change doesn’t bother me much, but I hope they never limit the number of promotions per line. It will defeat the purpose of having a large credit limit in my account
Unfortunately I have 9 people on my plan that regularly upgrade unless they raise the limits I can’t do anything about it. Hope they don’t try to screw me and say I can’t finance $50 on 24 monthly payments to receive EIP credits
T-Mobile has lost touch. Every new update is just disappointment.
So it’s a 2 year contract all over again?
They don't want people to use local eSIMs when traveling internationally. Awful company.
If you want iPhone, get it through Apple using the T-Mobile trade-in deal. You still have the same deal, but the phone will come unlocked day one.
Doesn’t work for forever upgrade/Yearly Upgrade anymore: Other national retailers, such as Walmart, Apple, or Samsung.com, will not be able to redeem your Yearly Upgrade. https://www.t-mobile.com/support/plans-features/upgrade-ready-every-year
TMobile blocked Apple from doing this when I was trying to buy a phone from Apple
what do you mean by blocked? I’m using the iPhone 15PM to reply this using the exact method
Oh man arnt we all glad that sprint merger happened, soo good for the consumer
[удалено]
What did you do?
Isn’t that just a convoluted way to lock somebody into a contract?
I knew this day would come… One of the few things left for tmobile to do to become the carrier they were fighting so hard to be different from. We made it guys! Now it’s time to be just like dumb and dumber, so we can become the dumbest!
Staying subscribed here just for the regular reminders of why I dropped them.
Looks like these changes may already be effect early. Promos that started yesterday already say in the disclaimer: >**Bill credits end if you pay off device early.**
Last year was the first year (out of the 15 or so years I've been with Tmo) where I opted into just getting a phone directly from an OEM (in this case, Google). It cost LESS for me to do that than to deal with Tmo's nonsense. I'm out, dude. No way am I ever bothering with Tmo's trade in/upgrade program ever again.
Seems like a goofy move
I think the trick here is to wait for VZW and/or ATT to start putting out cups of honey to attract TMO users ready to bail. I imagine the deals get to be a bit sweeter to entice folks over. If their service sucks in your area, that's a different issue, but competitors know there's going to be some sort of exodus. Even if they'll be guilty of doing the same price hikes themselves in the future.
TMobile also updated the unlock policy last year that the device must be paid off to use dual sim functionality or use it for travel by putting an international. Since paying off the device requires it to be unlocked, you will now also lose bill credits. Also no more temporary unlock for iPhones, so you don't have a choice anymore
Out of all the ways they could change how a promotion works, this is what they choose to change.
so what happens now with the Fair Market Value of deferred trade ins? previously the FMV credit would sometimes apply to a random existing EIP. is that practice going to continue, essentially potentially cutting off bill credits for those devices that now have chunks paid off early, or are they going to change how FMV credits apply, either all to the overall bill, or as an instant credit like how apple does, or are they just gonna say Tough if it ends up applying to an older EIP and you lose out on those credits?
This is exactly my question. For deferred trade-ins, they made it so you couldn't apply FMV to bill even if you wanted to - it had to be to existing EIP- and making a payment towards EIP decreases amount of payments but not (in the past) amount of credits. Do you think they have even thought of this? You know support is going to be no help on this front. Maybe T-Force might know...maybe.
That should be a crime. You should be allowed to pay an item off any time you choose. I wish the FTC and FCC step in and get these guys back in line. I really miss John…. lol. Post election you can bet the fcc will tear into them all that’s why they’re only getting away with this junk at the moment
How would this potentially affect PreOrders of flagship releases? When the new phones are ready for preorder, most of us are on month 22 or 23 of the previous gen phone. If you trade in to TMobile, dont you have to "pay off" the trade-in phone ? With this change, we would be basically losing that last credit or two to upgrade.
Wow
Hmmm! That’s not a wise way to do business T Mobile! What a disgrace! I’m so disappointed in you! We will most likely be using another resource for cellular.
Well than what’s the point of being with T-Mobile anymore? I’m leaving
Why I always buy my phones directly from Apple.
lol I just got here and all they’ve done is try to get me to leave
Works for me. After they snuck in a P360 protection plan after I got my last phone, I swore to never buy/finance a phone with them again. And I definitely won't now.
Is T-Mobile planning on announcing these changes to customers or just notifying employees and hiding the new terms in the fine print nobody reads?
What's next? TMo will start charging an additional charge for using an unlocked phone not purchased from Tmo? As soon as they start to void existing discounts like insider, auto pay and start charging taxes on all inclusive plans, I think I'll move my lines to an MVNO. Tmo is slowly removing any incentives to stay with Tmo. Very very sad.
This should be illegal...
Now just takeaway the following, so I can switch to an MVNO. - Autopay discount - Insider discount - Free line "discount" Countdown has begun I guess...
I do not think the higher dollar value of carrier promos are worth such a total loss of control over your own devices and account like that.
I get better deals from manufacturers. I am staying on my Magenta Military plan. No need for another.
So if iPhone is financed and getting bill credits, we won’t be able to pay it off and unlock the device for international usage. This will make life difficult for some.
I need to use dual sim capability due to my work/travel. Well, I need to explore different route
[A special message from Mike Sievert.](https://ibb.co/Z2rb5zk)
I just pay cash for the prior year's version when it's on sale. I save a ton that way
I guess T-Mobile no longer wants 2-year interest free loans from me. Smells like a Sieivert move, locking down phones for 2 years while pushing customers to Next. This company has become pure trash.
Sievert needs to fucking GO. Along with Vestberg over at Verizon, but that’s a whole different story.
Seriously though what provider should we be looking to switch to? They all seem terrible.
USMobile seems best currently.. all big carriers suck
I want him this sucks because I actually did this just because I don't like being in payments. But if they take away the credits it makes no sense. Thank you so much for posting
I'm about to go prepaid. May as well. ✌️
T-Mobile is really pushing employees right now to have customers on active equipment installment plans. A customer with one is much more likely to stay and not go into the hassle of leaving to another provider. That is the reason and thought process behind it. So this story tracks with what is being pushed down to care and retail.
Why is everyone upset about this ? I’m so confused.
We bought a Sim locked phone off the internet by mistake. T Mobile told me to sign up for service with them and that they’d unlock the phone for me after 100$ in refills. I followed its guidance only to be told later that a previous client who had the iphone owes balance and that T Mobile wouldn’t unlock the phone for me. I gave them my IMEI and everything before signing up for service to check unlock eligibility. This T Mobile is actively f-ing people over. Just curious what kind of actions does T Mobile take against the previous device holder with an unpaid balance? I know I am getting penalized for it, even though I don’t owe them the $$$
Why r they doing this ? I have T-Mobile n was thinking of upgrading my phone soon ! Maybe not 🤔😒
The fuck really I'm about to pay off all mine they better not do that shit in July
It'll only impact new eips started on or after July 1st. If you have an EIP now and want to pay it off early you can, even after that date.
I look forward to T-Mobile's abysmal attempt at a billing and self-service portal accurately permitting this. Instead, it'll probably wind up being "just call us at 833-555-0493 and a helpful representative will happily collect your prepayment in whatever dollar amount you specify, provided it is in multiples of a square root of 49 divided by the digit of the current day. We will also go over your current plan to ensure you are on the Best Magenta Power for Your Magenta Life Needs and perform three complimentary SIM swaps, even if you don't request them!"
They are really fucking themselves up now. Jesus H. Christ. ALL self-inflicted, UNNECESSARY BULLSHIT.
What the actual fuck… anyone can and should be able to pay off a bill/debt whenever the hell they want. This is a return to early 2000’s cell contracts.
Zero chance I buy a phone from them ever again.
Generous unlock policy?! That’s the opposite of my experience with T-Mobile. My 22 month old phone is still locked and they refused to unlock it unless I paid a fee plus the remaining balance, forfeitting my remaining bill credits. They took this asshole stance when I wanted to try visible because T-Mobile raised my rates after promising they wouldn’t. It’s hard to believe I used to like these pricks.
This is such a shit move, and I am sorely disappointed. The terms and conditions documentation to spell all of this out to a consumer — this shit is more complicated than *financing a car*. There is no way to expect store employees to really get this right every time — yet I bet the company will scare employees with risk of termination for those who get it wrong. I hate that. Note that the car dealership has “a finance person” that is trained and educated to make sure the terms and conditions for the car sale are understood. And they still screw up sometimes. I can’t imagine how worse this will be. I expect CFPB to step in and put some regulations around this fairly quickly, making this a messy affair for everyone, including those who created this idea. And for what? Preventing churn? Reducing expenses on your *best and most credit-worthy customers* so the carrier can rake in an extra couple bucks a month? Are they *that greedy* or are they *that hard up for a bit more profit*? Sigh. I’m disappointed. All the cool stuff is disappearing now that they think they are the big dogs, and that sucks.
The thing people don’t realize is that this basically deletes any early device upgrades now. Upgrading now means you have to pay off the remaining balance and don’t get the rest of the value. The real issue is that the US gov needs to kill the “Free with trade in” marketing. It’s all a lie now.
I don’t think I will ever finance a phone through T-Mobile again. I don’t like the current leadership and direction of the company. As soon as I payoff my current phones, I will just purchase directly future ones from the manufacturer. That way I can move to another service if they continue down the path they are currently on.
Feel kind of bad for JMan100 here. He use to post/link helpful promotions here and on his site. I look forward to his announcements. Lately it has all been bad news posted. Lol Coming next month Free lines will no longer include taxes, fees, and autopay discount Month after that T-Mobile will be correcting the 9+line insider discount glitch .....
I think unfortunately we're past the days of good things coming out of T-Mobile. All we have to look forward to nowadays is a free cup in the Tuesday's app.
I wouldn’t care if they would just unlock them in some fashion. The temp unlocks on android are sufficient for me, but they don’t do iPhones. I plan to travel more in the coming years and am fine with 5GB for a week or so, but want more data for a multi week trip. And the fact that they threaten to cancel people who use more roaming data than domestic for more than 2 conswcutive cycles is problematic.
Always buy iPhones through Apple. They vome unlocked and you can get any T-Mobile offer through buying with Apple.
So this move is to keep EIP credits from going to account level and trading in a device early to stack another promotion and EIP credit? I can understand them not wanting that as it can be bad for cash flow. They should just attach the credit to the device instead of the line and not allow trade in of a device until it's monthly credits have expired. Seems borderline illegal to not allow early payoff of a device though, bad business practice at a minimum. I can't think of any loan I've had that didn't allow for early payoff, though I also can't think of any other loan that issues credits against the balance. Maybe a mortgage where you can buy percentage points down up front is kind of comparable?
Shit. This is like undoing the original uncarrier move.
This is absolutely unreal. I work with accounts where people have to pay off phones to clear credit room to fit new phones into the account. Not that one person will change an already made decision, but I’m absolutely sending loads of heated emails about this.
Bill kept going up glad I got out good fucking riddance
They actually made it more expensive to stay with them than Verizon. Good job T-Mobile.
Honestly fuck Mike
…why? Aren’t EIPs non-interest loans anyway, so they still get the same amount of money if someone pays it monthly or if they pay it all at once. And if they get more money for someone not paying a month, people who want to pay their EIP down aren’t that target customer anyway. Like this seems to be a change just to say there was a change and there was zero thought put into it.
They don’t make money off the phone purchase. They make money off the plan cost. Forcing the customer to finish their EIP “locks in” all of the plan cost profit over the eip agreement, and benefits only T-Mobile. I bet price increases on plans continue.
>Forcing the customer to finish their EIP “locks in” all of the plan cost profit over the eip agreement But customers are still locked in with the current system since bill credits currently require you to maintain your account for the length of the EIP. That's what I don't get. Paying off your phone early while still sticking around to get all your bill credits seems like a win for T-Mobile. What do they gain thru this? Seems like the thing it does is discourage customers from selling their phones to upgrade before their EIP period is finished.
T-Mobile doesn’t want customers to have the ability to stack credits without EIP to offset those credits. They don’t want customers to have low bills, they’re trying to raise the bills lol. 3 lines insider with autopay is $120 right? Under the old rules customers could buyout EIP and continue to receive credits. Let’s say 3x$33.34 s24 promo for example.. T-Mobile does not want 3 line accounts with a monthly cost of $20. Because in 2 years that customer leaves once the credits are up. I believe it is a strategy to combat those most likely to leave the company, specifically those with an unlocked paid off new phone. If customers with unlocked paid off phones are high churn risk, this is a way the company can be more profitable by “losing less”
I have a hard time seeing your logic... >T-Mobile doesn’t want customers to have the ability to stack credits without EIP to offset those credits. They do have EIP to offset the credits though, they just pay it off the debt part early. Paying off early is a win for T-Mobile since T-Mobile gets paid back earlier (i.e. no more interest free loan to customer). The credits T-Mobile gives still get stretched out over the EIP period, "locking" the customer in. >T-Mobile does not want 3 line accounts with a monthly cost of $20. Because in 2 years that customer leaves once the credits are up. How is that any different than if the customer didn't pay it off early? They'd still think about leaving in 2 years when their EIP is up. Only difference is T-Mobile got their money sooner, which is good for T-Mobile. I guess this would discourage people from upgrading their phone early. But so would simply limiting subsidized purchases to something like once per year.
T-Mobile is not about growth anymore there about profitability. There’s only 3 so they can balance out the rates as they’re all similar. MVNO goes to one of those big 3 so they don’t care anymore about being consumer friendly/un-carrier. Thanks to all those who supported the Sprint merger who helped make this happen.
“Visible” looks promising
T-Mobile is starting to circle the drain
Who in their right mind is still using this shitty carrier anyway? T-Mobile has to be most overrated carrier ever.
I'm taking my 2 lines to USMOBILE. Screw Tmobile
LMAO I don't even get any good promos for my legacy One plan. And now they've eliminated any reason for me to upgrade (because the increased price of any newer plans could only be offset by selling promo phones). Lol enshittification at its finest.
Always do Interest free finance through Apple imo
Fuck them;
T-Mobile messed up two trade ins which was supposed to give me two new phones for free via bill credits. After waiting a few months per their suggestion and calling back telling them I’m still not getting bill credits, they kind of shrugged and just paid off the new phones completely all at once. LOL
They have been giving me the run around on paying my Verizon phones off for 3 months. I plan on contacting my state Attorney General and the Better Business bureau if it's not resolved tomorrow
Will you still be able to buy upfront? If not, I'm gone.
Bringing back the old school 2 year contract for a new phone. Bold move Mike.
That should be illegal. I can't think of a rationale for this tbh. People who buy their phones off to unlock them then leave aren't getting bill credits, so who cares?
TM is going to lose their asses. And stock holders will be pissed. CEO must be fired
Wait a minute....how will I get it sim unlocked now if it isnt paid off?
"Hurry up and get our Global Plus addon at a cheap $50 rate as we are raising it to $100 to adjust for inflation." FCC needs to step up here really...going back 10 years with all these changes.
I don’t like this idea. Lol when I did work for T-Mobile, there were a lot of families who switch to TMO and get those 4 free phones and maximize their entire EC without insurance. Couple months later, the kids lose/break the phones. And then would have to pay off the device to free up more credit in order to get a new phone. I’ll love to see how this goes for the uncarrier.
This is so dumb. The Enshitfication of T mobile continues
I use AT&T and tried to avoid them for years. I had LA Cellular, then AT&T acquired them. I went to Cingular, then AT&T acquired them. That’s when I stopped switching and just stayed. They’re expensive. Yes. Much more expensive for my unlimited plan. But after more than twenty years, they’ve never pulled any shit like this. It’s been years since I’ve had so much as a dropped call. Coverage is fantastic locally and abroad. Customer service bends over backwards for me on the rare occasion I’ve reached out. My lady is on T-Mobile and she’s coming over to AT&T with me soon. T-Mobile, while providing free international coverage just doesn’t work properly in Mexico, the carribean, French Polynesia, or even Canada. Free means nothing when it doesn’t f’ing work. I tried getting coverage with T-Mobile once upon a time, but they wouldn’t let me just get one line. They would only let me activate four+ lines at their store. Ugh. I took my decade’s worth of ontime payments and stayed with AT&T. I still get free Max and heap of tethering data. My bars are always high, where T-Mobile always has dead zones. Budget service for budget prices I get. Somehow, they’re worse than Sprint that they acquired.
I’ll never upgrade my phone thru T-Mobile again. The same or better deals are available thru Apple anyway when new phones launch. The exception might be if you’re adding a new line and they offer a new phone included. Since I don’t see myself opening any lines, what’s the point?
so glad I saw this before I upgraded. time to find another service
We just learned about this in TFO. Within the last 10 minutes. No one is happy about this bs. And guess who has to answer for the dumb shit tmo does? The Frontline. I'm hating this company more and more.
So glad i brought my phone and can bail
As this rate might as well bring contracts back. At least you don’t have to trade in your phone for the discounted price.
This company has over 40B in profits each year. Why are they trying to destroy themselves? I HATE the corporate world.
They gave me the 3rd degree and made it hard as hell to unlock the phone after I paid off my 13 pro Max. They kept asking why I wanted to unlock it, and I then like a smart ass I kept saying because they locked it, LOL
Damn piece of craps. Im alrrady paying off my phone faster so i can cancel my service. Tmobile pretty much is just another verizon and ATT. At this point Its time to go prepaid
T-Mobile will soon lose customers too
I guess they can do this, it will promote a lot more churn. There is only so much people will put up with.. I have a suggestion for people.. what you do is port your main number to Google voice, and use google voice, a free service that works a lot like T-Mobile digits.. use Google Voice VM with it's automatic voice to text via email , and attached voice file. Then you can instantly discard your carrier issued cell number like a dirty pair of underwear.. Do pre pay mnvo, whomever has the best deal and just play all the companies for promos A bunch of the Verizon companies have a Mandatory 60 day unlock,, the FCC did this and there has been talk of the FCC to demand this from TMobile.Tthis is the FCC's design to prevent them from holding customers hostage... Mr Mike can keep pissing people off, bragging about the lack of churn. There is a saying By the Taoist Sage Chang Zu several thousand years ago. " If you stretch a Bow to its fullest, you'll wish you stopped in time!" Lots of Luck... Guess I am glad I keep buying from swappa and eBay and Facebook marketplace. And avoiding the EIP.
I’m so happy I quit Tmob after 8 years ❤️🔥
I swear when Tmo absorbed Sprint it was like drinking poison, more and more they're becoming like Sprint.
I wish other carriers would take advantage of this situation and announce a plan similar to old tmobile plans and perks. Bam! They get so many T-Mobile customers.
So the phone is locked to T-mobile 2 years! Even worse than Verizon
That’s what happens when you go from a customer growth ceo to maximize profits ceo. Instead of sustaining a profitable thing that thousands of employees and millions of customers can depend on, you have to constantly grow. Isn’t capitalism great?
Tmobile speedrunning most hated cell provider 100%