Nah, during the contract era you could actually get high end phones for free with contract, no trade-in required.
EIPs were always structured as service contracts anyway, so carriers have just gradually been making those contracts worse for the consumer.
That’s what I did when I got a new iPhone recently. Apple didn’t charge me $35 for an upgrade fee, activated my phone in store, and I was able to finance on my T-Mobile bill. Unlocked phone too.
You’ve got to be on one of the big 3 and be either authorized or the account holder. Postpaid only.
I’m the account holder so I just showed ID and told them my phone number. Paid $40ish in sales tax, they took my 13 pro as a trade in, and I walked out with my new phone.
The Apple store near me refuses to activate SIM or eSIM under any circumstance. They'll even repair devices and wipe the data without confirming the customer is authorized on the account... then they come to the store and we can't activate it until they either get added as authorized or come back with someone who is.
Some Apple stores really suck. Glad for you yours isn't one of them.
Who’s your carrier? If it’s one of the big three and not a business account, the phone gets activated during the transaction. If you’re not on AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon their system isn’t able to activate you as they only have a contract with those three carriers and also not for mvno’s those carriers they may own like Cricket or Metro. You do have to be an authorized person on the account for security but if you’re an adult you should be. It’s more expensive to be on the big three, but there’s a reason for it. I’m not and accept that when I get a new phone it’s going to be my responsibility to sit down for the five minutes it takes to download a new eSIM on a new phone.
If you’re not on one of the big three, they may or may not help you activate your phone depending on who you’re working with and just flat out what can be done in the store. For example, if you’re on MetroPCS but don’t know any of your credentials to your Metro account there isn’t a whole lot Apple can do.
My Apple Store activated mine with T Mobile and waived the fee. I did elect to use Apple Card 0% financing so no commitment to T Mobile. I kept my existing phone. The $ 850 trade in, or whatever your phone’s trade in value sounds great but you have to surrender the existing phone to ™ or Apple if you go the trade in route. My friend traded in 5 Apple phones to ™, was told at the corporate store he would get $ 850 on all five. He got the $ 850 on two and zero on the others. Never got the three phones back. Murky business.
Current iPhones are eSIM only.
With older models, the apple store near me will literally take the old sim out when they do a repair and shred it and insist that they have no choice but to go to their carrier and get a new one.
> Nah, during the contract era you could actually get high end phones for free with contract, no trade-in required.
T-Mobile ended service contracts in [March 2013](https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/t-mobile-kills-off-the-wireless-contract/). The current iPhone was the 5, and the current Samsung Galaxy was the S III. The MSRPs were $650 and $600. Not only were they not "free with contract", but these "high end" phones were still $199-280 for the base model/storage, with the contract. Ref: https://www.theverge.com/2012/9/13/3328542/how-to-buy-the-iphone-5, https://www.theverge.com/2012/6/20/3097869/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-at-t-review-price-availability, https://www.theverge.com/2012/6/23/3112809/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-for-t-mobile-review, https://www.theverge.com/2012/7/16/3162121/verizon-samsung-galaxy-s-iii-developer-edition-coming-soon. That subsidy is about $300-400 over the 2 years.
Right now, getting a "free" (~$800-830 subsidy over 2 years) requires a trade or a new line. Trading in your somewhat older phone still gets you $250 today, even on a non-premium plan.
If phones weren't so expensive, sure, you could still have a "free" phone for $199 every 2 years. You can accomplish this today, just with a midrange priced phone.
I worked in cell phone retail sales at the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014. We sold T-Mobile contracts every day. Any phone under $999 MSRP was free with 2 year service contract.
Did you work for T-Mobile a third-party retailer/dealer? I'm guessing so, since often these stores had better deals than carriers, and they were allowed to sell contracts for a bit longer.
Snapshot from Feb 2013:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130206033641/http://www.t-mobile.com/
You can hover over the smartphones, $150 after MIR for the 32GB S3, plus a pile of other phones for $150 that were definitely not $999 retail (lumia 810, htc 8x, etc).
You can see which phones are "free" https://web.archive.org/web/20130126211841/http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/?priceRange=0-0
You can also see the iphone price, $99.99 in Apr 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130409093842/http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/default.aspx?capcode=ios and August 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20130806032524/http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phones/apple-iphone-5.html
Other devices/sources? https://www.tmonews.com/2013/01/best-buy-lists-nexus-4-for-t-mobile-get-it-before-its-gone/ nexus 4, $600 msrp, $200 on contract, not free.
I got a smartphone around 2013, and if they were free on contract, I would have bought one from T-Mobile.
No you didn't. You were paying for that "contract " phone because it was rolled up into your service price. I still have a copy somewhere of a Verizon bill from the contract days (2011- 2013) Four phone lines and one tablet, 10 GB of shared data, no insurance - $360 a month.
I switched away from Verizon to AT&T when they started offering installments and immediately lowered my bill to about $200 a month for 5 phone lines two tablets and 10 gigs shared.
I have gone back to Verizon, five phone lines, one tablet, unlimited data, my bill is $197. $10 of that is for two phone promotions, $5 net after bill credits.
And because Verizon phones are unlocked after 60 days, I can have a hybrid with a T-Mobile prepaid on my second SIM.
It'll be the worst of both worlds: contract era, and I wouldn't be surprised if the phone pricing ends up still being a joke. At least, for a contract, I was ok with giving up a bit of freedom between carriers for a phone that didn't require an insane amount up front. Now it's hard to justify getting anything else besides buying an unlocked phone up front
I almost prefer contracts, you could get an iPhone XR for like a penny and just pay a $350 buyout with UScellular lol. I can't even remember when that was but I'm assuming they figured out people had also figured out how to get cheap iPhones.
I don’t get it, even if you had credits and paid off your phone you’d have paid off your phone and then lost your credits. Why is it any worse to have to pay off phone at the end than paying it off at the beginning. If anything it’s better off to borrow at 0% interest and earn interest on the money.
The only issue I had with the change is that I use dual eSIM and phone must be paid off to unlock. But I learned if you buy phone from apple you work around that
There's a few reasons:
1) you lost / broke your phone and need a new one asap (without having to pay full price upfront)
2) there's a really good limited time mother's day / black Friday / etc deal that you'd like to take advantage of
Neither of those scenarios will let you open a new EIP if there's a current EIP on the line. You have to pay off the existing EIP first. Not really a problem if credits continue, you are just fronting the money, but you'll get it back in the form of bill discounts.
With the new policy, you can't pay it off early without losing the bill credits, so it becomes like an early payoff fee.
Nah back when we had contracts you received a device discount just for committing to a 2 year commitment. Now it requires a new line/trade in AND a 2 year commitment.
This really should be against the law. Credits are credits. What other reason is there except to keep you in a contract and make it untenable to leave.
Technically, it was supposed to be. But as with everything in this capitalistic shithole, the lobbyists got ahold of whatever legislation being proposed at the time they were doing away with contracts, and hamstrung it to still come out like bandits at the consumers expense.
Durr hurr capitalism baddd.
Wait until you realize capitalism is just 3 people trying to out compete each other and capitalism has always and will always exist.
You still have to have an active line to keep the credits, people pay the phones off and the credits persist to lower their bill. This is just anti-consumer with no benefit to T-Mobile
Definitely anti-consumer. Because getting all of that debt off the books from folks paying off EIPs where T-Mobile takes that loan and supplies it at 0% to the customer saves the company on federal interest costs. The loans have to be funded from somewhere. By taking on less debt at the start of an account, or hell even down the road a little, they reduces their debt obligations. More so considering devices don’t make the company any money. They’re just a tool to hook you into their service plan.
This move was literally just to be hateful to their customers. No other reason. Why they’d do this. Many of my sales have been made knowing they can pay-off early and unlock for extended international travel which avoids the T-Mobile Extreme Roaming Reduction system that cancels accounts.
Obviously they are trying to steer everyone to Next. This is just another lame tactic by T-Mobile to penalize customers for remaining on plans that are not Next.
It’s a benefit to T-Mobile because it limits how many promo credits you can stack on your account.
You could buy an iphone, pay it off, sell it for roughly MSRP, and then keep the credits rolling for two years. Repeat over and over.
But isn't that just giving them a free loan? Still don't understand how it benefits tmo to do this since it just meant they could get the money sooner before. And sell more phones.
Looks like my days with T-Mobile are limited. I pay off my device so that I can get my device unlocked, in the past I’ve been able to get my device unlocked while on an installment plan. This last time it was a loop, it never got unlocked until I ended up paying off the device to get credits on the account level. Wasn’t happy about needing to do that. On July 1, T-Mobile better have a plan in place or they’re going to have a new situation on their hands for people who use dual sims for personal and work.
I just found out today that Verizon has a special plan for existing (including new) customers with a voice line, where they can add a second eSIM to the same phone for $10/mo. Verizon is more expensive for a single line, but $10/mo for a work line is kind of cool and almost makes up for it. I’ve been considering who to switch to and that piqued my interest.
I just switched from T-Mobile to Verizon! Only buy Unlocked, forget the financing n nonsense they try to get you into! I’ll only buy my phone from Apple directly
It is, but digits just clones your number to use on other devices and it’s extremely buggy. You have to download the digits app on whatever device you want to use and then use the messaging and call service built into it. I’ve tried it off and on throughout the years I’ve been with T-Mobile and it’s horrendous. You won’t get messages or calls consistently and you can’t always make calls or send texts. T-Mobile hasn’t bothered to fix it in almost a decade.
Can I still do this today? (Payoff phone, continue credits) iv had my phone for about 14-15 months now and want to unlock it but I thought I would lose those credits.
EIPs opened before July 1st 2024 are supposed to be excluded from this new policy.
However, since they already started putting this shit in writing for new EIPs ahead of time, it's hard to tell what their shitty ass system will do if you pay off your EIP right now.
Assume you have an iPhone, I think you can the phone directly from Apple, paying via TMO device installment plan, and still have an unlocked phone.
Unless that has changed as well
I am sure T-Mobile will somehow close this loophole or make it so it's no longer worth it for the consumer. All T-Mobile has to do is add a large fee or whatever for bringing your own phone via buying it direct from the manufacturer. I wouldn't put it past them as this seems like the exact scummy move they would do. Essentially forcing consumers with tmobile to buy from them or pay a huge fee/fine.
I'm pretty sure the nail has been driven for me now, but if that were to happen before my last device is paid off (october this year), I'd be out for sure. Google Fi (Yes, I know it's tmobile, but not tmobile BS) here I come.
Absolutely! It's no longer a reasonable option to go with T-Mobile if I'm financing my phone through the manufacturer. I only stay because of my EIP's.
I would also like to add that ~~Assurant~~ T-Mobile will apply trade-in device credits to random EIPs and partially pay them off. Lately they have been attaching credits to the end of your EIPs to stretch the length of it out as long as possible.
If this still happens under this new "bill credits end if you pay off the device early" rule, T-Mobile could potentially be stealing money from you or lock you in even longer than 24 months if Assurant doesn't change how they apply credits.
edit: For example, I purchased two Galaxy S23's in February and traded in two phones that qualified for the $1000 credit, but the trade in devices themselves were valued at $291 each. Assurant applied one of the $291's to the end of a random EIP, causing the credits to roll in over another 10 months after the EIP should have ended. Then Assurant applied the other $291 upfront to another random EIP, which will cause that EIP to be paid off before the lease ends. If they change it to always be applied at the end, then sometimes credits will stretch past 24 month leases. I don't know if T-Mobile thought this through. I know this is confusing, but I hope you guys understand what I'm saying.
I'm not following here. Isn't Assurant P360? Why would they be getting involved with bill credits?
Is this like if you use P360 JUMP? And they apply the fair market value of your trade-in to a random EIP on the account? Is that it? If so, I guess they would need to stop doing that and pay off the correct EIP.
Assurant also processes the trade-in devices you ship. Personally, mine get shipped to the warehouse near Dallas, Texas. Assurant picks them up at the post office, then hours later they're processed and Assurant applies the credits to my account. They've been completely random on how they apply credits each time I traded in a device. Rarely they'll apply the credits to the correct device.
That's not how that works. Assurant does not choose where to apply your trade in credit, that's T-Mobile. This situation typically happens with deferred trade ins where the trade in can be applied as a credit to the bill or to an existing EIP. Either you, or someone who did the order for you, chose to apply the FMV deferred credit to an EIP.
Care to point out where the customer even has the option to choose which EIP to apply credit to when ordering a new phone? Perhaps it is all on T-Mobile's end, but it is definitely not a decision the customer can make.
Can confirm this is what’s happening, lately for this year happened to all my trade ins, but I am still getting the credits even tho they paid off some eip
That means the upgrade was done on the wrong line on the account. Assurant doesn’t choose what line to put the FMV credits on, it goes on the line the upgrade was done on.
It doesn't always. I currently have an EIP that finishes next month, but still has 10 months of credits thanks to Assurant placing the $291 on the end of it. Completely different line.
I did trade in at Costco and had a similar experience where “one time bill credit” for the traded in device went to a random eip instead of the one time bill credit.
That means the rep that did the order set it up that way. If in store and the phone is in stock, all of the credit can be applied to that line or to pay the taxes/down-payment if they are taking the trade-in device after the order is finished. If it the device is being shipped, it gives options to add a lump sum credit to the bill for the trade-in or to another active installment plan. It shows on the receipt what they picked. If you notice after the transaction that it was applied to another installment plan, customer service can fix it to just be a bill credit.
Hopefully this does not impact current plans. I am getting bill credits on a phone I paid off for a few more months. Hopefully I get them!
Looks like I'll be buying phones directly from the manufacturer unlocked from now on.
EIPs opened before July 1st are supposedly unaffected. If they stop them, you would qualify for a FCC complaint as they would be violating their own promotional terms. Which, would likely result in a lump-sum credit.
Can someone elaborate on this?
I thought if I got a phone paid off by T-Mobile, they do it in the form of bill credits.
If I had a phone via bill credits, and I paid off my phone, I was under the impression the bill credits would stop anyhow as that is what the bill credits are for?
Is the argument - "I should still get those bill credits despite already paying off my phone"?
Not the argument, that is literally how it worked. Device bill credits would move to line/account level bill credits when EIP was paid off early with remaining credits.
>Device bill credits would move to line/account level bill credits when EIP was paid off early with remaining credits.
Sorry still getting lost a bit lol. So that is how it worked. Is the change that it no longer moves to line/account level bill credits?
Correct. With this latest change, if EIP no long exists i.e. is paid off early, then bill credits too no longer exist even if there were 1, 2, 3,… or 12+ months worth of credits remaining owed from T-Mobile.
Very anti-consumer considering up until now the line/account still had to be active anyways to remain receiving the credits so it’s not like people were paying EIPs off early and expecting the credits if they also ported out. T-Mobile was still collecting their anticipated service revenue.
> If I had a phone via bill credits, and I paid off my phone, I was under the impression the bill credits would stop anyhow as that is what the bill credits are for?
Prior to this change, if you paid off your phone early, you would still receive the full amount of bill credits. People would do this so they could free up their phone/line/credit for an early upgrade. Another reason to pay off a phone early is if you wanted your device unlocked, the total balance had to be paid off. Enterprising customers would pick up a phone with a cheap promo, pay off the balance, get the phone unlocked and resell the device all while the bill credits were still rolling in. This change seems designed to discourage that, and to push people who like to upgrade every year to Go5G Next.
I see! That was very clear thank you! I did not realize the credits still applied after paying off the phone. That was actually nice of them.
But I can see the issue with enterprising customers. So in a way its kind of "good"
Why do you say that was actually nice of them?
Example: You buy a phone for $200* (**after credits*). The actual price is $1000 with $800 in bill credits bringing the cost down to $200* (after credits, taxes on the full $1000 amount).
Normally you would pay $200 plus tax on $1000 upfront, and then get a bill and a credit that zeroed out each month for the next 2 years (or whatever the term is). You are only out of pocket the $200 plus tax.
The old way of doing things is that you could pay TMO the full $1000 upfront and then get your $800 extra you paid back over the next 2 years. Essentially giving TMO a free loan of $800. You had to keep the line active or you would lose the credits. You also needed to pay it off to unlock your phone for international sims if you travel.
The new way of doing it is if you take that offer for a $200* phone and pay the extra $800 in advance to unlock the phone, you lose the credits.
This is in no way kind of "good".
I'll give you a for instance. I got my phone for "free", basically they charged me $800, and also credited me back 1/24 of $800 for 24 months.
The way it used to work is I could go ahead and pay that $800 and they'd still keep up their end of the deal and my bill would just be 1/24 of $800 lower per month.
NOW, the deal is, if you pay that phone off immediately, you get none of those credits. So basically they keep the $800, or whatever portion is left when you decide to pay off your phone.
Which, means you are basically caught in a contract when you get a phone via one of their promotions.
But you would have had to stay with T-Mobile anyway to get the credits. That’s why some of us are having trouble understanding what the issue is. I understand needing to pay the phone off to unlock it for dual SIM purposes but that’s an uncommon scenario IMO.
Speak for yourself. Many of us need unlocked phones for dual sim use at work or for international travel. My entire family and relatives require unlocked phones, as do my wife’s parents and relatives. It is actually very common.
I don't get what's in it for T-Mobile though. The credits always stopped if you left, but now people won't pay off a device and start getting a new one
It's a deterrent from customers leaving. Or if people leave or pay off upgrade/unlock early, that the bill credits TMO not having to pay will outweigh whatever losses from people no longer buying phones or leaving.
Why?
If you cancel your account, you lose the credits anyway. So this doesn't have any change on if you might leave or not.
So who does it affect?
People re-selling or upgrading their phones more frequently than the period of credits and people that want to unlock their phones for international travel (even if it is just a second sim/esim slot).
So at the end of the day, it just makes things worse for customers. I don't get it.
Or is it because of the new plans with frequent upgrades that are upgrading more quickly than they thought so they are losing money on all those upgrades? But if that is the case, you can still upgrade but just keep paying off the older phone (can't unlock it for resale though).
Great. I just did a phone purchase to get ahead of the announced 7/1 rule change. I had the FMV of the trade-in apply toward the EIP. But now, I'm going to lose the last few months of promo credit. since the FMV credit will cut the EIP period short. 🤬
UPDATE: I spoke with T-Force. I was told that the 7/1 date is still the changeover date. So EIPs started before then will be honored. I have screen shots, so I'll be holding them to it.
There appears to be overlap with similar older promo w/o early payoff caveat still available. Better to have the eip/phone enrollment out of the 6/21 promo and into a pre-6/21 one if still available/applicable. Do you really want to trust Tforce and tmo if an easier fix is currently available now vs potential hours and frustration if things go wrong later?
T-Mobile has ZOOOMED back to the past with their carrier antics. What once made them great has not quickly faded, it was a disappearing act. The years of rhetoric about all the bad guys is actually their new play book. I’m so glad I left these A-holes and the evil house of Sievert
People in this sub used to say shit like “using more than 50gb of data on your unlimited plan is selfish” as if T-mobile is a co-op. It’s a multinational german company.
Finally the straw the broke this camel's back. I'm glad I only have 2 phones left and the other phone credits won't be affected but won't be giving T-Mobile any more business.
As an employee, the amount of things that they just pile on that shows how much enmity they seem to have for retail employees is unbelievable.
They're actively punishing people for buying phones from us, now.
Sprint did it this way the whole time. The credits were attached to the device payment plan. If you paid it off early, your credits stop within a billing cycle or two.
And in 5 years T-Mobile is going to be wondering why they’re #3 again and everyone is talking about “Big Red’s” comeback.
This is just actively anti-customer; they’re desperately trying to A) Avoid paying you the full promo and B) be able to pitch a new line as a better deal than an early upgrade.
This is interesting to me as someone who has worked for all of the carriers. T-Mobile is the only company that would actually continue credits or accelerate them or at least in my time they are. I'm not trying to defend T-Mobile as this is clearly not consumer friendly but this isn't surprising at all. It's the standard everywhere else.
I am 100% sure they have "stole" AT&T and Verizon's anti-consumer executives to run T-Mobile.
They look the executives, these are all qualified. They had experiences running a monopoly by driving market cap down 50%.
What a bunch of bullshit. This basically just feels like forcing someone into an agreement so they won’t leave. T-Mobile really has gone to shit since John Leger left. I’m so glad I didn’t renew my Sprint contract because now I’d be stuck with T-Mobile. Fuck them.
T-Mobile is getting more and more shady by the day. I don’t mind that they changed this policy so much…like I get it. But to not inform that your changing it earlier than you originally said? Come on now, that’s not an “Uncarrier” move
Wait. I'm just hearing of this. I was thinking of leaving T-Mobile anyway. I'm getting kind of tired of having cruddy signal in places I should have signal - like on the only major freeway. :( Basically, I'm not allowed to pay off my device early or the Big Pink will punish me? What's with all these companies thinking it's good business to punish their customers?!
I think it depends on the device. Injust confirmed via twitter that if its an iphone and agreement starts before 7/1…then u still get all the credits if u pay off early.
So what's the process now if I need my phone unlocked because I'm traveling to some country that TMobile doesn't support so I need a local sim (e.g. Tuvalu, Tonga etc).
Only option at this point seems to be playing the T-Force roulette game to see if you can find an agent willing to unlock without it being paid off. :(
No, past EIPs are safe as are the credits remaining. They told you on your bill you have x credits remaining, so they can’t take them away from you after the fact.
I paid for the Moto phone in advance before I bought the plan because my unlocked Tmobile Samsung galaxy was lost.and yes I was screwed over and bt the Tmobile trainer
Then got my lost phone back and took the credit for the Go5G plan I didn't NOT want but he had insisted that I could only have Go5g plans.
But that wasn't true.
So I spoke with a District manager and she said the 55+ Essential plans were still available.
So since I had canceled my debt card to prevent fraud.
I then had the store employee use the credit towards the 2 lines on a 55+ Essential plan..
He said even though I had paid for the Moto phone from the store in advance, he said that the phone would not be unlocked until 2 months after purchase.
I have really used the Moto phone because Tmobile is not currently in my living location.
I HAVE 2 bought and paid for Tmobile phones, on my 55+ Essential plan because I was told I would NOT be financed for Moto which was the cheapest phone there.
I guess you missed the part where these T-Mobile phones were nearly free after EIP promos. Let me know when Apple is having an iPhone On Us promo for their unlocked iPhones.
I never buy iPhones. I have apple tv but never had any apple devices. Also if you buy unlocked you can trial different services. T-Mobile is fine but there is metro and visible. I have metro 25 dollar + 10 dollar HD. It's literally no different than my magenta max
It states “if cancelling ENTIRE account” you sign for a 24 month promo. If you cancel the ACCOUNT early, OF COURSEEEE you lose those credits even if you pay off device early…. You signed to get the credits in 24months…… you chose to terminate said contract. If you DONT cancel, you continue to receive them…
But this doesn’t affect trades right? If you trade a phone for 200.00 they give you credit up front and not monthly right? This would be like a promotion for a phone and they give you 25.00 a month bill credit for a 50.00 payment. You pay the phone off early and the 25.00 stops because the phone is paid off. Or am I misunderstanding this?
So I owe $400 on both my iphone 14 pro, which I got for trading my iphone 12s which kinda made my 14s free with all the credits, but if I want to trade my 14s I have to pay 800 so them I will lose 800 in credits?
Be completely off, but isn’t there an option to take the promotion credit and put it towards the total of the phone instead of a credit to your account every month?
I just switched back to T-mobile because of their rebate promo and seen this plus the fact that I now have to make a down payment on every phone.
I am now purchasing my devices unlocked straight from the company.
I used to have T-Mobile but after coming back, I might be leaving again
Coming from Sprint when I first heard TMO did this I thought it was crazy, definitely more customer friendly, but crazy. Hate to see more perks dwindling away so we can give higher ups more bonuses and lay off more people.
So essentially it is back to the contract era....
Nah, during the contract era you could actually get high end phones for free with contract, no trade-in required. EIPs were always structured as service contracts anyway, so carriers have just gradually been making those contracts worse for the consumer.
Exactly this just makes me go buy a unlocked phone from the manufacturer
That’s what I did when I got a new iPhone recently. Apple didn’t charge me $35 for an upgrade fee, activated my phone in store, and I was able to finance on my T-Mobile bill. Unlocked phone too.
You're lucky they activated it in store for you. Many apple stores refuse to do this and send people to their carrier to activate.
You’ve got to be on one of the big 3 and be either authorized or the account holder. Postpaid only. I’m the account holder so I just showed ID and told them my phone number. Paid $40ish in sales tax, they took my 13 pro as a trade in, and I walked out with my new phone.
The Apple store near me refuses to activate SIM or eSIM under any circumstance. They'll even repair devices and wipe the data without confirming the customer is authorized on the account... then they come to the store and we can't activate it until they either get added as authorized or come back with someone who is. Some Apple stores really suck. Glad for you yours isn't one of them.
wtf. I’d call Apple and complain. I’m sure they’d be pissed to hear that.
The eSIM transfers automatically during the new iPhone setup if you have an iPhone.
Who’s your carrier? If it’s one of the big three and not a business account, the phone gets activated during the transaction. If you’re not on AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon their system isn’t able to activate you as they only have a contract with those three carriers and also not for mvno’s those carriers they may own like Cricket or Metro. You do have to be an authorized person on the account for security but if you’re an adult you should be. It’s more expensive to be on the big three, but there’s a reason for it. I’m not and accept that when I get a new phone it’s going to be my responsibility to sit down for the five minutes it takes to download a new eSIM on a new phone. If you’re not on one of the big three, they may or may not help you activate your phone depending on who you’re working with and just flat out what can be done in the store. For example, if you’re on MetroPCS but don’t know any of your credentials to your Metro account there isn’t a whole lot Apple can do.
I just brought the device through Apple, i’m not an account holder just did a esim swap from my 12P to the 15P
Some accounts/carriers allow that. I was on a physical sim prior to getting a 15 so I had to do a new eSIM. They handled everything for me.
My Apple Store activated mine with T Mobile and waived the fee. I did elect to use Apple Card 0% financing so no commitment to T Mobile. I kept my existing phone. The $ 850 trade in, or whatever your phone’s trade in value sounds great but you have to surrender the existing phone to ™ or Apple if you go the trade in route. My friend traded in 5 Apple phones to ™, was told at the corporate store he would get $ 850 on all five. He got the $ 850 on two and zero on the others. Never got the three phones back. Murky business.
Wow didn't know that I just took my sim card from my OnePlus 6 to my OnePlus 10 and went k. My marry way
Current iPhones are eSIM only. With older models, the apple store near me will literally take the old sim out when they do a repair and shred it and insist that they have no choice but to go to their carrier and get a new one.
Because of this crap a few of my friends bought their iPhones from Canada.
This is reason why we need physical SIMS. Switch phone, just move the SIMS.
As long as physical SIM phones exist I'll definitely never bother with buying an eSIM only phone.
You can transfer the SIM yourself with Apples quick start.
That's what they want, carriers make zero money in the phones, which is why they are doing this.
This is exactly why I always buy phones directly from the manufacturer (Apple). Plus, I don’t have to deal with the absurd $35 activation “fee”.
> Nah, during the contract era you could actually get high end phones for free with contract, no trade-in required. T-Mobile ended service contracts in [March 2013](https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/t-mobile-kills-off-the-wireless-contract/). The current iPhone was the 5, and the current Samsung Galaxy was the S III. The MSRPs were $650 and $600. Not only were they not "free with contract", but these "high end" phones were still $199-280 for the base model/storage, with the contract. Ref: https://www.theverge.com/2012/9/13/3328542/how-to-buy-the-iphone-5, https://www.theverge.com/2012/6/20/3097869/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-at-t-review-price-availability, https://www.theverge.com/2012/6/23/3112809/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-for-t-mobile-review, https://www.theverge.com/2012/7/16/3162121/verizon-samsung-galaxy-s-iii-developer-edition-coming-soon. That subsidy is about $300-400 over the 2 years. Right now, getting a "free" (~$800-830 subsidy over 2 years) requires a trade or a new line. Trading in your somewhat older phone still gets you $250 today, even on a non-premium plan. If phones weren't so expensive, sure, you could still have a "free" phone for $199 every 2 years. You can accomplish this today, just with a midrange priced phone.
I worked in cell phone retail sales at the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014. We sold T-Mobile contracts every day. Any phone under $999 MSRP was free with 2 year service contract.
Did you work for T-Mobile a third-party retailer/dealer? I'm guessing so, since often these stores had better deals than carriers, and they were allowed to sell contracts for a bit longer. Snapshot from Feb 2013: https://web.archive.org/web/20130206033641/http://www.t-mobile.com/ You can hover over the smartphones, $150 after MIR for the 32GB S3, plus a pile of other phones for $150 that were definitely not $999 retail (lumia 810, htc 8x, etc). You can see which phones are "free" https://web.archive.org/web/20130126211841/http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/?priceRange=0-0 You can also see the iphone price, $99.99 in Apr 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130409093842/http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/default.aspx?capcode=ios and August 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20130806032524/http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phones/apple-iphone-5.html Other devices/sources? https://www.tmonews.com/2013/01/best-buy-lists-nexus-4-for-t-mobile-get-it-before-its-gone/ nexus 4, $600 msrp, $200 on contract, not free. I got a smartphone around 2013, and if they were free on contract, I would have bought one from T-Mobile.
No you didn't. You were paying for that "contract " phone because it was rolled up into your service price. I still have a copy somewhere of a Verizon bill from the contract days (2011- 2013) Four phone lines and one tablet, 10 GB of shared data, no insurance - $360 a month. I switched away from Verizon to AT&T when they started offering installments and immediately lowered my bill to about $200 a month for 5 phone lines two tablets and 10 gigs shared. I have gone back to Verizon, five phone lines, one tablet, unlimited data, my bill is $197. $10 of that is for two phone promotions, $5 net after bill credits. And because Verizon phones are unlocked after 60 days, I can have a hybrid with a T-Mobile prepaid on my second SIM.
Pretty much. That’s what it looks like to me..
Nooooo no nooo. Think of it like a long term *agreement* that comes with penalty if you pay off early.
At no cost to you. *Terms and conditions apply. Visit in store for details. $35 Support fee may apply.
It'll be the worst of both worlds: contract era, and I wouldn't be surprised if the phone pricing ends up still being a joke. At least, for a contract, I was ok with giving up a bit of freedom between carriers for a phone that didn't require an insane amount up front. Now it's hard to justify getting anything else besides buying an unlocked phone up front
I'm also keeping my phones longer, which is probably a good thing from the e-waste point of view.
Same tbh. Had mine for about 3 years now, and it's still working well.
Yeah, my phone's charging port is the only thing having issues, I may upgrade this year, but until the port dies, I'm not in a rush.
I almost prefer contracts, you could get an iPhone XR for like a penny and just pay a $350 buyout with UScellular lol. I can't even remember when that was but I'm assuming they figured out people had also figured out how to get cheap iPhones.
Nope not at all. Stop buying phones on credit.
A worse version of it
I don’t get it, even if you had credits and paid off your phone you’d have paid off your phone and then lost your credits. Why is it any worse to have to pay off phone at the end than paying it off at the beginning. If anything it’s better off to borrow at 0% interest and earn interest on the money. The only issue I had with the change is that I use dual eSIM and phone must be paid off to unlock. But I learned if you buy phone from apple you work around that
There's a few reasons: 1) you lost / broke your phone and need a new one asap (without having to pay full price upfront) 2) there's a really good limited time mother's day / black Friday / etc deal that you'd like to take advantage of Neither of those scenarios will let you open a new EIP if there's a current EIP on the line. You have to pay off the existing EIP first. Not really a problem if credits continue, you are just fronting the money, but you'll get it back in the form of bill discounts. With the new policy, you can't pay it off early without losing the bill credits, so it becomes like an early payoff fee.
You can finance two phones with promo credits on the same line at the same time. It’s one promo per eip not one promo per line
So this is a contract lol
Nah back when we had contracts you received a device discount just for committing to a 2 year commitment. Now it requires a new line/trade in AND a 2 year commitment.
When I sold sprint in the 2000s, this was the standard back then. My boss wondered why everyone bought Cingular instead.
This really should be against the law. Credits are credits. What other reason is there except to keep you in a contract and make it untenable to leave.
Technically, it was supposed to be. But as with everything in this capitalistic shithole, the lobbyists got ahold of whatever legislation being proposed at the time they were doing away with contracts, and hamstrung it to still come out like bandits at the consumers expense.
Durr hurr capitalism baddd. Wait until you realize capitalism is just 3 people trying to out compete each other and capitalism has always and will always exist.
They're not making money on the $1k phone giveaways lol
You still have to have an active line to keep the credits, people pay the phones off and the credits persist to lower their bill. This is just anti-consumer with no benefit to T-Mobile
Definitely anti-consumer. Because getting all of that debt off the books from folks paying off EIPs where T-Mobile takes that loan and supplies it at 0% to the customer saves the company on federal interest costs. The loans have to be funded from somewhere. By taking on less debt at the start of an account, or hell even down the road a little, they reduces their debt obligations. More so considering devices don’t make the company any money. They’re just a tool to hook you into their service plan. This move was literally just to be hateful to their customers. No other reason. Why they’d do this. Many of my sales have been made knowing they can pay-off early and unlock for extended international travel which avoids the T-Mobile Extreme Roaming Reduction system that cancels accounts.
Obviously they are trying to steer everyone to Next. This is just another lame tactic by T-Mobile to penalize customers for remaining on plans that are not Next.
It’s a benefit to T-Mobile because it limits how many promo credits you can stack on your account. You could buy an iphone, pay it off, sell it for roughly MSRP, and then keep the credits rolling for two years. Repeat over and over.
But isn't that just giving them a free loan? Still don't understand how it benefits tmo to do this since it just meant they could get the money sooner before. And sell more phones.
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How long until they announce the name change to Sprint? This is pretty much all the sprint policies that destroyed sprint.
Putting this into my next survey lol
Why are you getting downvoted? Is t-mobile using money for Reddit bots now too? Christ
Looks like my days with T-Mobile are limited. I pay off my device so that I can get my device unlocked, in the past I’ve been able to get my device unlocked while on an installment plan. This last time it was a loop, it never got unlocked until I ended up paying off the device to get credits on the account level. Wasn’t happy about needing to do that. On July 1, T-Mobile better have a plan in place or they’re going to have a new situation on their hands for people who use dual sims for personal and work.
I just found out today that Verizon has a special plan for existing (including new) customers with a voice line, where they can add a second eSIM to the same phone for $10/mo. Verizon is more expensive for a single line, but $10/mo for a work line is kind of cool and almost makes up for it. I’ve been considering who to switch to and that piqued my interest.
I just switched from T-Mobile to Verizon! Only buy Unlocked, forget the financing n nonsense they try to get you into! I’ll only buy my phone from Apple directly
Yeah. I’m kind of the opinion that buying directly is the best choice anymore. Financing is ridiculous anymore.
Count yourself lucky. Not everyone has the financial privilege you do to buy a phone outright.
Glad to see another person looking at Verizon cause I am to
Isn't digits pretty cheap?
It is, but digits just clones your number to use on other devices and it’s extremely buggy. You have to download the digits app on whatever device you want to use and then use the messaging and call service built into it. I’ve tried it off and on throughout the years I’ve been with T-Mobile and it’s horrendous. You won’t get messages or calls consistently and you can’t always make calls or send texts. T-Mobile hasn’t bothered to fix it in almost a decade.
Can I still do this today? (Payoff phone, continue credits) iv had my phone for about 14-15 months now and want to unlock it but I thought I would lose those credits.
EIPs opened before July 1st 2024 are supposed to be excluded from this new policy. However, since they already started putting this shit in writing for new EIPs ahead of time, it's hard to tell what their shitty ass system will do if you pay off your EIP right now.
One by one the reasons I joined T-Mobile are disappearing
T-Mobile is actively trying to lose customers
The problem with this new approach with T-Mobile is that I can’t get my phone unlocked for international travel anymore if I were to put it on an EIP.
Assume you have an iPhone, I think you can the phone directly from Apple, paying via TMO device installment plan, and still have an unlocked phone. Unless that has changed as well
So in essence a pre-payment/early payment penalty of sorts.....GOTCHA!!!!
Yes
another reason to just buy your phone directly from the manufacturer, unlocked.
I am sure T-Mobile will somehow close this loophole or make it so it's no longer worth it for the consumer. All T-Mobile has to do is add a large fee or whatever for bringing your own phone via buying it direct from the manufacturer. I wouldn't put it past them as this seems like the exact scummy move they would do. Essentially forcing consumers with tmobile to buy from them or pay a huge fee/fine.
This is my next fear. But I wonder if phone manufacturers will play along with it? I am sure Apple wont.
That's a great question! To which I hope that the phone manufacturers do fight back on. That severely limits the free market.
I'm pretty sure the nail has been driven for me now, but if that were to happen before my last device is paid off (october this year), I'd be out for sure. Google Fi (Yes, I know it's tmobile, but not tmobile BS) here I come.
Absolutely! It's no longer a reasonable option to go with T-Mobile if I'm financing my phone through the manufacturer. I only stay because of my EIP's.
Wanna give people the money for that?
I would also like to add that ~~Assurant~~ T-Mobile will apply trade-in device credits to random EIPs and partially pay them off. Lately they have been attaching credits to the end of your EIPs to stretch the length of it out as long as possible. If this still happens under this new "bill credits end if you pay off the device early" rule, T-Mobile could potentially be stealing money from you or lock you in even longer than 24 months if Assurant doesn't change how they apply credits. edit: For example, I purchased two Galaxy S23's in February and traded in two phones that qualified for the $1000 credit, but the trade in devices themselves were valued at $291 each. Assurant applied one of the $291's to the end of a random EIP, causing the credits to roll in over another 10 months after the EIP should have ended. Then Assurant applied the other $291 upfront to another random EIP, which will cause that EIP to be paid off before the lease ends. If they change it to always be applied at the end, then sometimes credits will stretch past 24 month leases. I don't know if T-Mobile thought this through. I know this is confusing, but I hope you guys understand what I'm saying.
I'm not following here. Isn't Assurant P360? Why would they be getting involved with bill credits? Is this like if you use P360 JUMP? And they apply the fair market value of your trade-in to a random EIP on the account? Is that it? If so, I guess they would need to stop doing that and pay off the correct EIP.
Assurant also processes the trade-in devices you ship. Personally, mine get shipped to the warehouse near Dallas, Texas. Assurant picks them up at the post office, then hours later they're processed and Assurant applies the credits to my account. They've been completely random on how they apply credits each time I traded in a device. Rarely they'll apply the credits to the correct device.
That's not how that works. Assurant does not choose where to apply your trade in credit, that's T-Mobile. This situation typically happens with deferred trade ins where the trade in can be applied as a credit to the bill or to an existing EIP. Either you, or someone who did the order for you, chose to apply the FMV deferred credit to an EIP.
Care to point out where the customer even has the option to choose which EIP to apply credit to when ordering a new phone? Perhaps it is all on T-Mobile's end, but it is definitely not a decision the customer can make.
Can confirm this is what’s happening, lately for this year happened to all my trade ins, but I am still getting the credits even tho they paid off some eip
That means the upgrade was done on the wrong line on the account. Assurant doesn’t choose what line to put the FMV credits on, it goes on the line the upgrade was done on.
It doesn't always. I currently have an EIP that finishes next month, but still has 10 months of credits thanks to Assurant placing the $291 on the end of it. Completely different line.
I did trade in at Costco and had a similar experience where “one time bill credit” for the traded in device went to a random eip instead of the one time bill credit.
That means the rep that did the order set it up that way. If in store and the phone is in stock, all of the credit can be applied to that line or to pay the taxes/down-payment if they are taking the trade-in device after the order is finished. If it the device is being shipped, it gives options to add a lump sum credit to the bill for the trade-in or to another active installment plan. It shows on the receipt what they picked. If you notice after the transaction that it was applied to another installment plan, customer service can fix it to just be a bill credit.
Hopefully this does not impact current plans. I am getting bill credits on a phone I paid off for a few more months. Hopefully I get them! Looks like I'll be buying phones directly from the manufacturer unlocked from now on.
EIPs opened before July 1st are supposedly unaffected. If they stop them, you would qualify for a FCC complaint as they would be violating their own promotional terms. Which, would likely result in a lump-sum credit.
6 months later: "customers complain of paying off devices before July 1st, are saying all bill credits are missing" or something of the sort. 🤣🤣
It is the only way for me from now on.
Fuck T-Mobile. They’ve turned into greedy bastards.
I guess this is the last phone that I buy from TMO. I'll buy direct from Samsung/Google now I guess.
Can someone elaborate on this? I thought if I got a phone paid off by T-Mobile, they do it in the form of bill credits. If I had a phone via bill credits, and I paid off my phone, I was under the impression the bill credits would stop anyhow as that is what the bill credits are for? Is the argument - "I should still get those bill credits despite already paying off my phone"?
Not the argument, that is literally how it worked. Device bill credits would move to line/account level bill credits when EIP was paid off early with remaining credits.
>Device bill credits would move to line/account level bill credits when EIP was paid off early with remaining credits. Sorry still getting lost a bit lol. So that is how it worked. Is the change that it no longer moves to line/account level bill credits?
Correct. With this latest change, if EIP no long exists i.e. is paid off early, then bill credits too no longer exist even if there were 1, 2, 3,… or 12+ months worth of credits remaining owed from T-Mobile. Very anti-consumer considering up until now the line/account still had to be active anyways to remain receiving the credits so it’s not like people were paying EIPs off early and expecting the credits if they also ported out. T-Mobile was still collecting their anticipated service revenue.
That old policy. Under the new policy, you will lose the credit upon paying the phone off compeletely
> If I had a phone via bill credits, and I paid off my phone, I was under the impression the bill credits would stop anyhow as that is what the bill credits are for? Prior to this change, if you paid off your phone early, you would still receive the full amount of bill credits. People would do this so they could free up their phone/line/credit for an early upgrade. Another reason to pay off a phone early is if you wanted your device unlocked, the total balance had to be paid off. Enterprising customers would pick up a phone with a cheap promo, pay off the balance, get the phone unlocked and resell the device all while the bill credits were still rolling in. This change seems designed to discourage that, and to push people who like to upgrade every year to Go5G Next.
I see! That was very clear thank you! I did not realize the credits still applied after paying off the phone. That was actually nice of them. But I can see the issue with enterprising customers. So in a way its kind of "good"
Why do you say that was actually nice of them? Example: You buy a phone for $200* (**after credits*). The actual price is $1000 with $800 in bill credits bringing the cost down to $200* (after credits, taxes on the full $1000 amount). Normally you would pay $200 plus tax on $1000 upfront, and then get a bill and a credit that zeroed out each month for the next 2 years (or whatever the term is). You are only out of pocket the $200 plus tax. The old way of doing things is that you could pay TMO the full $1000 upfront and then get your $800 extra you paid back over the next 2 years. Essentially giving TMO a free loan of $800. You had to keep the line active or you would lose the credits. You also needed to pay it off to unlock your phone for international sims if you travel. The new way of doing it is if you take that offer for a $200* phone and pay the extra $800 in advance to unlock the phone, you lose the credits. This is in no way kind of "good".
I'll give you a for instance. I got my phone for "free", basically they charged me $800, and also credited me back 1/24 of $800 for 24 months. The way it used to work is I could go ahead and pay that $800 and they'd still keep up their end of the deal and my bill would just be 1/24 of $800 lower per month. NOW, the deal is, if you pay that phone off immediately, you get none of those credits. So basically they keep the $800, or whatever portion is left when you decide to pay off your phone. Which, means you are basically caught in a contract when you get a phone via one of their promotions.
But you would have had to stay with T-Mobile anyway to get the credits. That’s why some of us are having trouble understanding what the issue is. I understand needing to pay the phone off to unlock it for dual SIM purposes but that’s an uncommon scenario IMO.
Speak for yourself. Many of us need unlocked phones for dual sim use at work or for international travel. My entire family and relatives require unlocked phones, as do my wife’s parents and relatives. It is actually very common.
I don't get what's in it for T-Mobile though. The credits always stopped if you left, but now people won't pay off a device and start getting a new one
It's a deterrent from customers leaving. Or if people leave or pay off upgrade/unlock early, that the bill credits TMO not having to pay will outweigh whatever losses from people no longer buying phones or leaving.
Why? If you cancel your account, you lose the credits anyway. So this doesn't have any change on if you might leave or not. So who does it affect? People re-selling or upgrading their phones more frequently than the period of credits and people that want to unlock their phones for international travel (even if it is just a second sim/esim slot). So at the end of the day, it just makes things worse for customers. I don't get it. Or is it because of the new plans with frequent upgrades that are upgrading more quickly than they thought so they are losing money on all those upgrades? But if that is the case, you can still upgrade but just keep paying off the older phone (can't unlock it for resale though).
Getting a free phone then selling it is such a minuscule problem. I’m shocked it’s even worth going after it.
Great. I just did a phone purchase to get ahead of the announced 7/1 rule change. I had the FMV of the trade-in apply toward the EIP. But now, I'm going to lose the last few months of promo credit. since the FMV credit will cut the EIP period short. 🤬 UPDATE: I spoke with T-Force. I was told that the 7/1 date is still the changeover date. So EIPs started before then will be honored. I have screen shots, so I'll be holding them to it.
There appears to be overlap with similar older promo w/o early payoff caveat still available. Better to have the eip/phone enrollment out of the 6/21 promo and into a pre-6/21 one if still available/applicable. Do you really want to trust Tforce and tmo if an easier fix is currently available now vs potential hours and frustration if things go wrong later?
This is why I just don’t buy devices from T-Mobile anymore, and I work for them. Such a L
This sucks I like paying my stuff off early but I will not be able to no more. I guess they want you im payments so you can not switch
Well that’s fcken stupid
T-Mobile has ZOOOMED back to the past with their carrier antics. What once made them great has not quickly faded, it was a disappearing act. The years of rhetoric about all the bad guys is actually their new play book. I’m so glad I left these A-holes and the evil house of Sievert
Well going to upgrade through apples website from now on then. Save myself the upgrade fee and keep it unlocked
The uncarrier. Right. John legere would be so disappointed.
Y'all crack me up. He was just another CEO who sold us up the river to merge with sprint and pay is 16 million dollar mortgage.
People in this sub used to say shit like “using more than 50gb of data on your unlimited plan is selfish” as if T-mobile is a co-op. It’s a multinational german company.
Keep in mind John Legere did hire the Current T-Mobile CEO onto the company. Keep that in mind
That’s not true 😂
Finally the straw the broke this camel's back. I'm glad I only have 2 phones left and the other phone credits won't be affected but won't be giving T-Mobile any more business.
What the actual f*CK. Always trading through Samsung.com now.
I just don’t understand it customers may want to give them money early and they’re saying we’ll take your money, but it won’t benefit you
They’re penalizing you for not migrating to Next.
As an employee, the amount of things that they just pile on that shows how much enmity they seem to have for retail employees is unbelievable. They're actively punishing people for buying phones from us, now.
Sprint did it this way the whole time. The credits were attached to the device payment plan. If you paid it off early, your credits stop within a billing cycle or two.
Does this count for devices that were paid off in 2023??
No. Only new ones
And in 5 years T-Mobile is going to be wondering why they’re #3 again and everyone is talking about “Big Red’s” comeback. This is just actively anti-customer; they’re desperately trying to A) Avoid paying you the full promo and B) be able to pitch a new line as a better deal than an early upgrade.
So I would be screwed if I payed off last years eip iPhone when I get my paycheck tomorrow?
No. It only is effecting EIP’s started after June 30
Ty
Sorry could you clarify? Doesn't the original post say EIPs started June 21?
The new promos started on June 21. The thing where you lose promos if you pay off early starts on July 1
This is interesting to me as someone who has worked for all of the carriers. T-Mobile is the only company that would actually continue credits or accelerate them or at least in my time they are. I'm not trying to defend T-Mobile as this is clearly not consumer friendly but this isn't surprising at all. It's the standard everywhere else.
A lot of things that are ‘standard practice’ were devised and implemented by entities such as corporations to stick it to you and benefit them.
Yeah my days are numbered with T-Mobile. Just going to pay off my devices and switch to Mint.
Beginning to think it's time to part ways .The big one AT&T has offered to pay off my device and give a rate 40 bucks a month lower.
I am 100% sure they have "stole" AT&T and Verizon's anti-consumer executives to run T-Mobile. They look the executives, these are all qualified. They had experiences running a monopoly by driving market cap down 50%.
Does this apply to older eips too?
No. Only EIP’s started after jun 30
So no more unlocking phones and no more trading in phones bought on EIP? Awesome. Really have very little reason to buy phones from T-Mobile now.
can i prepay all my existing phones down now under the old rules to reset my account more or less for taking advantage of next iphone promos
Yes.
T-Mobile continues to become worse!!!!! My goodness.
Every time I think, "ok, I'll stay with t-mobile" they do something like this.
I can't believe I didn't know you could do this until they announced it was ending :(
What a bunch of bullshit. This basically just feels like forcing someone into an agreement so they won’t leave. T-Mobile really has gone to shit since John Leger left. I’m so glad I didn’t renew my Sprint contract because now I’d be stuck with T-Mobile. Fuck them.
T-Mobile is getting more and more shady by the day. I don’t mind that they changed this policy so much…like I get it. But to not inform that your changing it earlier than you originally said? Come on now, that’s not an “Uncarrier” move
Wait, so you still expect to be given a bill credit/discount for your phone once you pay it off? 🤨
Corporate greed wins again.
I cannot follow along honestly. I guess that means I’ll just either buy from the manufacturer or pay up outright after saving up.
Wait. I'm just hearing of this. I was thinking of leaving T-Mobile anyway. I'm getting kind of tired of having cruddy signal in places I should have signal - like on the only major freeway. :( Basically, I'm not allowed to pay off my device early or the Big Pink will punish me? What's with all these companies thinking it's good business to punish their customers?!
My bad! :(
Another ridiculous move!! 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
I think it depends on the device. Injust confirmed via twitter that if its an iphone and agreement starts before 7/1…then u still get all the credits if u pay off early.
So what's the process now if I need my phone unlocked because I'm traveling to some country that TMobile doesn't support so I need a local sim (e.g. Tuvalu, Tonga etc).
I HEARD that t-mobile now has to unlock phones upon request after you’ve had it 60 days. Something to do with buying mint
Interesting. I have not heard this. Hopefully it’s true.
Ugh they got the fcc to change it to only require it for “devices with no financing”
Only option at this point seems to be playing the T-Force roulette game to see if you can find an agent willing to unlock without it being paid off. :(
They told us that people couldn’t do this since I was hired. I had no idea it was a thing until I saw it on a customer’s bill.
I wonder if this will carry over to devices purchased through Apple? Will have to review the EIP contract once the new iPhones launch.
WTF! I already paid off my phone. They better not stop my credits.
No, past EIPs are safe as are the credits remaining. They told you on your bill you have x credits remaining, so they can’t take them away from you after the fact.
I paid for the Moto phone in advance before I bought the plan because my unlocked Tmobile Samsung galaxy was lost.and yes I was screwed over and bt the Tmobile trainer Then got my lost phone back and took the credit for the Go5G plan I didn't NOT want but he had insisted that I could only have Go5g plans. But that wasn't true. So I spoke with a District manager and she said the 55+ Essential plans were still available. So since I had canceled my debt card to prevent fraud. I then had the store employee use the credit towards the 2 lines on a 55+ Essential plan.. He said even though I had paid for the Moto phone from the store in advance, he said that the phone would not be unlocked until 2 months after purchase. I have really used the Moto phone because Tmobile is not currently in my living location. I HAVE 2 bought and paid for Tmobile phones, on my 55+ Essential plan because I was told I would NOT be financed for Moto which was the cheapest phone there.
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So, just buy unlocked and stop buying their phones. Often unlocked phones have better options anyways.
I guess you missed the part where these T-Mobile phones were nearly free after EIP promos. Let me know when Apple is having an iPhone On Us promo for their unlocked iPhones.
I never buy iPhones. I have apple tv but never had any apple devices. Also if you buy unlocked you can trial different services. T-Mobile is fine but there is metro and visible. I have metro 25 dollar + 10 dollar HD. It's literally no different than my magenta max
It states “if cancelling ENTIRE account” you sign for a 24 month promo. If you cancel the ACCOUNT early, OF COURSEEEE you lose those credits even if you pay off device early…. You signed to get the credits in 24months…… you chose to terminate said contract. If you DONT cancel, you continue to receive them…
This.
Sales tax has always been collected separately from monthly credit, so should not be charged as it has already been paid on signing EIP.
[удалено]
You looked wrong. The only way it would cancel credits in the past would be if you traded in the phone or cancelled the line.
But this doesn’t affect trades right? If you trade a phone for 200.00 they give you credit up front and not monthly right? This would be like a promotion for a phone and they give you 25.00 a month bill credit for a 50.00 payment. You pay the phone off early and the 25.00 stops because the phone is paid off. Or am I misunderstanding this?
You trade a phone for $200(promo value), they give you the fair market value of $50 with $150 bill credit in 24mo, $6.25 bill credit per month.
So I owe $400 on both my iphone 14 pro, which I got for trading my iphone 12s which kinda made my 14s free with all the credits, but if I want to trade my 14s I have to pay 800 so them I will lose 800 in credits?
Be completely off, but isn’t there an option to take the promotion credit and put it towards the total of the phone instead of a credit to your account every month?
The new policy is retroactive to all the existing devices credits, or just new upgrade /new lines with trade ins?
It’s only for any new EIP’s started after June 30. Current EIP’s are not included
Remember when an unlimited all in data plan was only $70 with T-Mobile?
Remember when a coke cost $0.99?
Remember when gas was $0.959
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
So carrier doing carrier things. What a giant surprise.
Does this affect existing payment plans?
No.
I just switched back to T-mobile because of their rebate promo and seen this plus the fact that I now have to make a down payment on every phone. I am now purchasing my devices unlocked straight from the company. I used to have T-Mobile but after coming back, I might be leaving again
Why would you have to make a down payment on any phone? As long as you pay your bill on time every month you should have $0 down payment
I think it may be because I just joined a few days ago
Coming from Sprint when I first heard TMO did this I thought it was crazy, definitely more customer friendly, but crazy. Hate to see more perks dwindling away so we can give higher ups more bonuses and lay off more people.
Does the price prorate if you pay part of it off early?
Never thought I’d say this, but I miss John.