Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[PythonFanPA]

This gives more detail - doesn't look like this involves prior Sprint plans (...yet).  It lists the specific 'Move From' plans in play:

 

https://tmo.report/2023/10/breaking-t-mobile-will-force-customers-onto-newer-plans-unless-you-opt-out/

[S4GRU]

Yeah, I have a OnePlan with a Canada unlimited full speed add on (which they don't even offer anymore).  I definitely want to keep it.  I go to Canada (or within roaming of Canada) several times a year.  Imlike being able to stream and do everything just like at home.

Robert

[floorguy]

On 9/13/2023 at 2:16 PM, RedSpark said:

What really gets me is how these credit limits were applied with absolutely no disclosure to the customer(s) at all. That should be blatantly illegal. Their motives seem to be that they want instant revenue from full price purchases instead of from installment plans over time and any associated risk of failure to pay. I'm not a damn credit risk as a 20 year customer with excellent credit. So given their current terms, the Account Credit Limit will be "re-evaluated" 6 months from imposition, which means this December. I hope T-Mobile makes this right for all of us. I made the best case I could to the Office of the CEO on this being a bad policy and a customer pain point. I guess we'll see what happens.

I am a little late to the party reading a bunch of this. But here is my $.02

Get ready for this thing across the board with MANY of the places you do business with.  The way the economy is heading. Not many places are giving out "free/cheap" money or credit.  they don't want to be upside down with 1000s of customers owing money on phones.  I can see phones as being 1 of the first things people walk away from, or change quickly/frequently.

The days of handing out crazy credit limits are gone.

Everyone check your Ins rates to. They have been climbing, commercial policies have more than doubled in some industries. 

[floorguy]

On 9/21/2023 at 8:05 AM, schmidtj said:

Yep. Even after numerous breaches they have the nerve to ask for our banking information and give up protections credit cards offer or be charged $10/line. Uncarrier? Maybe more like Unbelievable.

This is actually a REALLY good point.  I don't think enough people have thought about it this way.

I got 10 days to decide....I need to call (I wish the store knew better for biz lines how things work)  And play with the numbers for which way to go.

[Trip]

51 minutes ago, floorguy said:

This is actually a REALLY good point.  I don't think enough people have thought about it this way.

I got 10 days to decide....I need to call (I wish the store knew better for biz lines how things work)  And play with the numbers for which way to go.

I have. 

I have a $160/mo bill, due on the 10th of the month.  What I did was I opened a T-Mobile Money account, stuck $180 in it to have a $20 cushion.  Set up auto-pay from that account.  After the first payment was taken from it, I set up a recurring transfer with my credit union for each month on the 5th for $160.  So in theory, the T-Mobile Money account just receives the money--my actual checking account info is not set up within the T-Mobile Money account--and then almost immediately has the money taken back out to pay the T-Mobile bill.

Not the most elegant system, but it works for me thus far, and should theoretically keep my actual account information safe.  I shouldn't be able to lose more than $180 if a T-Mobile breach causes me a loss, and for most of any given month, it shouldn't be more than $20.

- Trip

[floorguy]

27 minutes ago, Trip said:

I have. 

I have a $160/mo bill, due on the 10th of the month.  What I did was I opened a T-Mobile Money account, stuck $180 in it to have a $20 cushion.  Set up auto-pay from that account.  After the first payment was taken from it, I set up a recurring transfer with my credit union for each month on the 5th for $160.  So in theory, the T-Mobile Money account just receives the money--my actual checking account info is not set up within the T-Mobile Money account--and then almost immediately has the money taken back out to pay the T-Mobile bill.

Not the most elegant system, but it works for me thus far, and should theoretically keep my actual account information safe.  I shouldn't be able to lose more than $180 if a T-Mobile breach causes me a loss, and for most of any given month, it shouldn't be more than $20.

- Trip

Very smart... Might have to do something like this... Our $$ don't vary much, but 11 lines on a biz (almost everyone is family) it can vary.

Also, now (not that I really ever used it) lose the ins the CC provided for phones

 

[schmidtj]

T-Mobile’s 5G Network Now Covers 97% of Virginia

[Trip]

5 hours ago, schmidtj said:

T-Mobile’s 5G Network Now Covers 97% of Virginia

Interesting.  While they talk about all of Virginia (which their coverage of which still has pretty significant holes), I'm betting the talk of "new towers" is largely talking about conversions in the Shentel region.  In Buckingham County (my favorite example case) they went from 2 sites to 17 sites by converting the existing Shentel sites.  I can easily see how they got to 900 new sites if you start counting all of those.

Still plenty of work left to do.  No sites in Lunenburg County, for example.  No service in Chase City.  The Shentel site at Gordonsville had to be turned off and the replacement isn't scheduled to go live until next year.  Plenty of gaps along highways in places where Shentel stopped building new sites mid-stream pending the merger.

- Trip

[RedSpark]

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/10/17/everything-t-mobile-sprint-merger-critics-predicted-has-come-true/

Well, here we are...

 

[twospirits]

Let's be honest, we knew this would eventually happen. History repeating itself. Luckily I'm on Magenta Advantage, so these price hikes won't affect me, but (there is always a but), I wouldn't doubt they go after it and Magenta Military in the near future too.

[schmidtj]

Maybe not as bad as originally thought?

Only about 1% of users should be potentially affected. 
 

For now. 

[twospirits]

3 hours ago, schmidtj said:

Maybe not as bad as originally thought?

Only about 1% of users should be potentially affected. 
 

For now. 

In the grand scheme of things that 1% doesn’t look bad. But concidering that T-(uncarrier acting more like carrier) Mobile had 116.7 million customers, that still leaves 1,167,000 million pissed off customers.

[S4GRU]

 

2 hours ago, twospirits said:

...uncarrier acting more like carrier...

Yes, this is not very Uncarrier at all.  Quite the opposite, I'd say too.  We bet on the white horse, turns out the white paint is washing off the zebra, stripes are starting to show through.  One day it will be a full zebra like all the others.

Robert

 

[floorguy]

Their website to logon is beginning to bug me. It appears if I don't go through their hoops, I can't log in. it kicks me out.  Them screwing up security and allowing hacks, does not mean I should walk across Legos to access my account.

Also Trying to decide what's better. that go5g with the every 2, or next every 1.  For 11 lines its 495, or 605. no auto payment discounts, nothing really. A majority on the account don't even use 1/2 the "perks"

While on the flipside my wife and son just bought a pixel8 and pro for roughly &16 month (at 36 mths, why can't they offer a 24 option?) with 1 getting a new watch, and the other getting ear buds.   AND the s20 got $60 more in trade in with G, instead of Sammy.  

It really is getting stupid out there, CS sucks and $$ is going up.  If it wasn't for the actual service being close to perfect... I might be gone

[RedSpark]

4 hours ago, S4GRU said:

 

Yes, this is not very Uncarrier at all.  Quite the opposite, I'd say too.  We bet on the white horse, turns out the white paint is washing off the zebra, stripes are starting to show through.  One day it will be a full zebra like all the others.

Robert

 

 

Pour one out for Sprint. For all its faults, we still had it pretty good:

 

[schmidtj]

T-Mobile CEO Sends Company-Wide Email Clarifying Those Forced Plan Migrations

Damage control?

[mikejeep]

5 hours ago, schmidtj said:

T-Mobile CEO Sends Company-Wide Email Clarifying Those Forced Plan Migrations

Damage control?

They were getting crushed over it.. I struggled to reach T-Mobile customer service on Monday to activate a new phone. Dialing 611 did not work, calling the 800 number went to a recording saying they were currently experiencing technical difficulties and could not take calls, app chat went unanswered, and it took 2 hours and a public tweet to get a Twitter DM to go through; usually you at least get an automated response with a link to verify your account immediately, that wasn't even happening. The representative acknowledged it and basically said they were overwhelmed.

[chamb]

33 minutes ago, mikejeep said:

They were getting crushed over it..

Good.  I hope they got a good education with this. 

[RedSpark]

BTW I finally got my answer back from T-Mobile Corporate:

Thank you for your email. We have submitted your feedback to the department that oversees the policy regarding the amount available to finance. Regrettably, the Equipment Credit Limit cannot be increased outside the approved specific scenarios from any department. I regret any confusion I may have caused on how we send up feedback.

So it looks Iike I'm stuck with a $1,500 Credit Limit as a 20+ Year Customer with 7 phone lines/2 watch lines until their 6 months re-review sometime in December. We have three iPhone 14 Pro lines we want to upgrade to 15 Pro via trade-in.

Uncarrier my @$$.

[floorguy]

5 hours ago, RedSpark said:

BTW I finally got my answer back from T-Mobile Corporate:

Thank you for your email. We have submitted your feedback to the department that oversees the policy regarding the amount available to finance. Regrettably, the Equipment Credit Limit cannot be increased outside the approved specific scenarios from any department. I regret any confusion I may have caused on how we send up feedback.

So it looks Iike I'm stuck with a $1,500 Credit Limit as a 20+ Year Customer with 7 phone lines/2 watch lines until their 6 months re-review sometime in December. We have three iPhone 14 Pro lines we want to upgrade to 15 Pro via trade-in.

Uncarrier my @$$.

As I am starting my journey through which is better in regards to phones... I am going to compare 2 things 

The go5g plus/next 

Or maintain my current plan, and just buy phones straight through vendors etc (if you have good trade ins) 

So far yes the go5g is kind of pricey, BUT if you want to upgrade your phone every 1 or 2 years (which means a good trade in value)  its about what you would spend on service and getting phones anyway.  The days of getting phones for nothing, are about over I think.  The problem is, yes when you have lots of lines like you. That $44 or $54 per line starts to get spendy.

Where as my wife got a pixel 8, with her s-20 trade in (google gave more than sammy go figure) and a free set of ear buds, for $14 a month, yes its their dumb 36 month thing (they need to let you select options, not all or 36 months)   My son traded in his pixe 7 pro, for the 8 pro for like $500 plus he got a free watch ( which is the 14) 

Long story short. No good answers yet. unless you play the bounce back and forth game. But maybe carriers have got that figured out to.

[schmidtj]

16 hours ago, RedSpark said:

BTW I finally got my answer back from T-Mobile Corporate:

Thank you for your email. We have submitted your feedback to the department that oversees the policy regarding the amount available to finance. Regrettably, the Equipment Credit Limit cannot be increased outside the approved specific scenarios from any department. I regret any confusion I may have caused on how we send up feedback.

So it looks Iike I'm stuck with a $1,500 Credit Limit as a 20+ Year Customer with 7 phone lines/2 watch lines until their 6 months re-review sometime in December. We have three iPhone 14 Pro lines we want to upgrade to 15 Pro via trade-in.

Uncarrier my @$$.

Get an Apple Credit Card and buy your phones from Apple. 24 mos no interest. Unlocked phones. Reasonable trade-ins. 
PS. 3% off using the Apple Credit Card with ApplePay or Card Number.

[tybo31316]

7 hours ago, schmidtj said:

Get an Apple Credit card and buy your phones from Apple. 24 mos no interest. Unlocked phones. Reasonable trade-ins. 

This is the way 

[RedSpark]

14 hours ago, schmidtj said:

Get an Apple Credit Card and buy your phones from Apple. 24 mos no interest. Unlocked phones. Reasonable trade-ins. 
PS. 3% off using the Apple Credit Card with ApplePay or Card Number.

Thanks. Looks like this is how it's going to have to be. Hard to believe.

6 hours ago, tybo31316 said:

This is the way 

T-Mobile has really turned into a clown show. They just don't care.

[schmidtj]

T-Mobile’s Ultra Capacity 5G Covers 300 Million People Months Ahead of Schedule

[schmidtj]

T-Mobile Continues Their “Opt-Out” Nonsense With Forced Paperless Billing