Comments on: T-Mobile Support Session

By: Brad Hogenmiller

Brad Hogenmiller — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:00:34 +0000

Here’s what I want to know. Remember like 8-10 years ago when we only had to sign 1 year contracts to get the phone discounts? I remember moving between the first Windows Mobile handsets available stateside without ever having to deal with this nonsense. The MPX200, MPX220, SMT5600… I don’t remember paying full price for any of these. I’d love if they were honest enough to say whether their costs went up comparatively or if they just got tired of people like us upgrading all the time. I’m betting it’s as much column B as it is column A.

By: Michael Bailey

Michael Bailey — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:06:27 +0000

T-mobile prorates the ETF:

http://www.t-mobile.com/company/website/termsconditions.aspx?WT.z_unav=ftr__TC

“AFTER 06/28/08, THE EARLY TERMINATION FEE IS: $200 IF YOU TERMINATE WITH MORE THAN 180 DAYS REMAINING ON YOUR TERM; $100 IF YOU TERMINATE WITH 91 TO 180 DAYS REMAINING ON YOUR TERM; $50 IF YOU TERMINATE WITH 31 TO 91 DAYS REMAINING ON YOUR TERM; AND THE LESSER OF $50 OR YOUR MONTHLY RECURRING CHARGES (including any applicable taxes and fees) IF YOU TERMINATE IN THE LAST 30 DAYS OF YOUR TERM. “

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:18:53 +0000

I had a similar convo over the phone, where the customer loyalty woman told me that the g1, mytouch, cliq are all just as good as the nexus one lol

By: Tristan

Tristan — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:31:47 +0000

Ugh, these 2-year contracts are the Fruits of The Devil. They’re more complicated than the average support tech can explain.

I don’t know of a single carrier worldwide that caters to the geek crowd. You know, us “OMG this device is so cool I WANT WANT WANT it” crowd.

You’d think that they could snag some nice reputation – without massive loss – by allowing people to pay to upgrade within the first couple of months of a sweet new device; maybe via trade-in? Then turn around and resell the “not yet obsolete” phone (or give the used one away free with the contract), because since they’re still selling it, it’s got to have value.

But nah, this sort of thing requires creativity, foresight, and belief that you might actually want brand loyalty.

By: ec

ec — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:27:56 +0000

If you paid a discount price for the G1 based on a contract that ends November of 2010 then it seems reasonable to have to wait until November of 2010.

If you want a particular handset and the vendor of that handset (google) won’t let you get a discount price due to your account type; that is unfortunate.

At least if you change carriers you can take your phone number with you!

By: yd

yd — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:39:50 +0000

So it sounds like you can’t get the subsidized plan at all if you’re on a family plan, even if there’s no contract?

It sounds like the deal Google struck with T-Mobile is just as inflexible as the AT&T/Apple one.

By: wcoenen

wcoenen — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:26:21 +0000

This conversation reminds me of a Turing test. It looks as if the operator is simply selecting pre-composed sentences rather than typing in answers.