Outrageous rip off from T-Mobile. New 2 year contract require to change plans??

[K_style]

I called T-Mobile to change my plan since I only had little minuets left.
My contract with T-mobile has ended almost 2 years ago and I am just waiting for an i-Phone 5 to come out to change wireless company.

After requesting change of plan with customer representative over the phone, she had me to listen the automated messages to verify my request.
FIrst it wanted me to press my phone #, Second it was asking me if I am agree with early termination fee of $200 "If" I cancel the plan before the contract ends.
Of course I did not agree to that because my contract has ended back in ice age.

After that T-mobile customer representative told me that any change of plan requires NEW 2 YEAR Contract started 7/24/2011.

What? wait... WAHT? I told them cancel whatever request I made.
I am canceling service ASAP. What kind of Wireless company or other service company requires NEW contract just to change plan ???

I just wanted you all know how outrageous T-Mobile has become. Only reason I was with T-Mobile even though how horrible reception, service, etc is "Cheap".

Now T-mobile is no longer my favorite CHEAP wireless company.

*Pardon my bad grammar.*

[future]

Expensive ass verizon ftw

[towlie]

T mobile sucks, big surprise

[K_style]

So when does i-Phone 5 coming out !!! darn it !

[Daniel.]

This has been standard industry practice for a few years now. Good luck getting better treatment somewhere else.

[EsChassisLove]

When Jobs returns as the CEO....llllool

[K_style]

This has been standard industry practice for a few years now. Good luck getting better treatment somewhere else.

It may be in case of changing plan during contract but not after..
I had Verizon wireless before and changed plan without extending or any contracts back in 2009.

[Chaluska]

rumor has it the iphone 5 comes out on sprint.

[Daniel.]

It may be in case of changing plan during contract but not after..
I had Verizon wireless before and changed plan without extending or any contracts back in 2009.

Like I said, times have changed. The wireless industry adopts new practices/policies and alters existing ones routinely.

Just look at the rate plans available today, compared with just last year.

Also note that once one carrier does something, the other 3 major ones inevitably follow suit, with the exception being that Sprint is the only one left with an "Unlimited" data plan.

[K_style]

rumor has it the iphone 5 comes out on sprint.

I don't think it is no longer a Rumor. It supposed to come out in October which it's forever from now !!

[TheWolf]

Also note that once one carrier does something, the other 3 major ones inevitably follow suit, with the exception being that Sprint is the only one left with an "Unlimited" data plan.

Sprint doesn't "throttle" they just throttle quietly. My friend who's on the road 24-7 as a sales rep swears his connection is twice as fast at the beginning of the billing cycle than near the end. It's not that they restrict him, it just takes twice as long to get something done. He moves about 5-6gb of data a month on the road.

[K_style]

Like I said, times have changed. The wireless industry adopts new practices/policies and alters existing ones routinely.

Just look at the rate plans available today, compared with just last year.

Also note that once one carrier does something, the other 3 major ones inevitably follow suit, with the exception being that Sprint is the only one left with an "Unlimited" data plan.

I totally miss Cell phone plans in Korea.
Starts as low as $5~10/mo and pay for what you use. and free receiving calls.

Maybe I should look into Cricket wireless... only thing is they have pretty bad phone options

[simmode1]

I've had T-mobile for over 10 years now. This has ALWAYS been their policy. I don't plan on going anywhere else since I have preferred customer rates ($85 for unlimited talk/text/data), so I don't care. Their service has always been fine to me.

[WanganRunner]

This has been standard industry practice for a few years now. Good luck getting better treatment somewhere else.

^^
This.


Basically everything triggers a new contract, on any provider.

I transferred a number from work (their account, my phone) to a new personal account (i.e. my account, still my phone). This triggered a 2y contract and I didn't even get a phone with it! So no upgrade credit, no new phone, same old phone but 2Y contract.

[Speed Junky]

Yep I was planning on switching to Verizon for the iphone5 but gonna stay with Sprint since they will be carrying now. I'm just tired of these Android phones, the HTC 4G phone was a joke, got rid of that in 2 days and opted for a affordable LG Optimus which has been OK.

[Mister.E]

Android phones are good, but HTC fucking sucks.

I will be leaving T-Mobile for Verizon next year. Their service out here in Vegas blows.

[K_style]

I've had T-mobile for over 10 years now. This has ALWAYS been their policy. I don't plan on going anywhere else since I have preferred customer rates ($85 for unlimited talk/text/data), so I don't care. Their service has always been fine to me.

No this has not been their policy until 7/24/2011. I have changed phone # last year, changed plans often. Never, Never required new contract nor extend.

Good for you if you like them so much. I had no problem with service just bad reception.

BTW $85 for unlimited plan sounds rip off for over 10 YEAR OLD customer.
Sprint offers $79.99 for unlimited data,txt,wireless calling with new phone. sound much better than your "Preferred Customer Rate" with old phone you are stuck with unless you pay full retail for upgrade

[Danb]

I work for at&t as a sales rep in the south, i dont know how the service is wherever you are but at&t is a good company. The only time a contract is extended is when you resign and get a new phone. You could change your price plan twice a day for 5 years and the only thing to come out of it would be some prorated charges and the same with verizon, i am customer to verizon and had to make several changes to my account in the past and never touched my contract.

Ive heard all the horror stories of t-mobile and their price plan contract extensions which is total BS! and then again ive heard good things from the company based on the JD power associates cell phone company customer service reviews.

Throttling data: First off, if you use more then 2-3gb's a month on your cell phone you need to find a new hobby excluding pandora or other pandora type of apps. Verizon and at&t throttle the speeds on the customers who have been grandfathered in with the unlimited data plans for a smartphone after 2gb's have been reached. I dont know about the other companys. I can see why the data is throttled on a customer if 4-5gb's of data is reached in a normal 30 day billing cycle.

I think at&t verizon and sprint are the top 3 carriers, in my area atleast.

[Redstar]

Cancels cell phone contract that ended a long time ago.

Doesn't pay cancellation fee.

[K_style]

I've had T-mobile for over 10 years now. This has ALWAYS been their policy. I don't plan on going anywhere else since I have preferred customer rates ($85 for unlimited talk/text/data), so I don't care. Their service has always been fine to me.

Oh by the way.. my father in law has been Sprint with just over 10 years.

he pays $40~45 for unlimited everything... he just kept extending contract every 2 years, but with some deals such as more discount on his plan and adding txt etc.
How come you don't get that kind of deal? shouldn't they treat you better? unless you don't mind paying $85.00/mo

[K_style]

I work for at&t as a sales rep in the south, i dont know how the service is wherever you are but at&t is a good company. The only time a contract is extended is when you resign and get a new phone. You could change your price plan twice a day for 5 years and the only thing to come out of it would be some prorated charges and the same with verizon, i am customer to verizon and had to make several changes to my account in the past and never touched my contract.

Ive heard all the horror stories of t-mobile and their price plan contract extensions which is total BS! and then again ive heard good things from the company based on the JD power associates cell phone company customer service reviews.

Throttling data: First off, if you use more then 2-3gb's a month on your cell phone you need to find a new hobby excluding pandora or other pandora type of apps. Verizon and at&t throttle the speeds on the customers who have been grandfathered in with the unlimited data plans for a smartphone after 2gb's have been reached. I dont know about the other companys. I can see why the data is throttled on a customer if 4-5gb's of data is reached in a normal 30 day billing cycle.

I think at&t verizon and sprint are the top 3 carriers, in my area atleast.

I heard good thing about AT&T. Especially awesome data speed and reception but calling.

I'd still go for CDMA service carriers. Most likely Sprint. $49.99 /line unlimited family plan sounds best in the market

[K_style]

Cancels cell phone contract that ended a long time ago.

Doesn't pay cancellation fee.

Don't we all know that already? :duh:

[BustedS13]

virgin mobile homie

slum it a little, feels good

[SochBAT]

I think this trick still works for cellphone companies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYUAnnCFscw

This SHOULD still work. And remember to record them/ask to record them from the start of the conversation.

Also, if any rate changes/policy changes go through, they are legally required to inform you/send you notice, IIRC.

[K_style]

I think this trick still works for cellphone companies.

Tutorial: Get Out of Your Verizon Contract Without a Fee - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYUAnnCFscw)

This SHOULD still work. And remember to record them/ask to record them from the start of the conversation.

Also, if any rate changes/policy changes go through, they are legally required to inform you/send you notice, IIRC.

Thanks... but I do not have contract with T-mobile. I can leave anytime. and surely they did not send me notice about the changes though

[drift freaq]

I work for at&t as a sales rep in the south, i dont know how the service is wherever you are but at&t is a good company. The only time a contract is extended is when you resign and get a new phone. You could change your price plan twice a day for 5 years and the only thing to come out of it would be some prorated charges and the same with verizon, i am customer to verizon and had to make several changes to my account in the past and never touched my contract.

Ive heard all the horror stories of t-mobile and their price plan contract extensions which is total BS! and then again ive heard good things from the company based on the JD power associates cell phone company customer service reviews.

Throttling data: First off, if you use more then 2-3gb's a month on your cell phone you need to find a new hobby excluding pandora or other pandora type of apps. Verizon and at&t throttle the speeds on the customers who have been grandfathered in with the unlimited data plans for a smartphone after 2gb's have been reached. I dont know about the other companys. I can see why the data is throttled on a customer if 4-5gb's of data is reached in a normal 30 day billing cycle.

I think at&t verizon and sprint are the top 3 carriers, in my area atleast.

What is written above by a sales rep for AT&T is most likely biased and not exactly correct. I had Cingular aka SBC aka the New AT&T. They pull the same shit with contracts as everyone else does.

Want a new plan sign a new contract. I worked for Cingular. Yes you could lower your plan without extending your contract but try going to a higher one. LOL
Oh and like others have said any most all providers make a a change in plan a possible new contract situation.

OH and AT&T customer service is the absolute worst. LOL Plus they are god aweful expensive for the quality of service. They suck here in Los Angeles. LOL

I have had T Mobile for the last 8 years. I have Unlimited loyalty $50 a month unlimited minutes, unlimited data (5GB and then throttles down) $25 a month.

The only contract I have is for the phone. If I get a new phone I sign a new contract for the phone not the plan.

If you go to one of their new minute plans of course you are going to sign a new contract its a new plan.

Oh and the Iphone 5 will be on all carriers as Apple is putting a Penta bend chip in it.

Oh and for all who care. If you want to surf the net and use the phone at the same time the only two carriers in the U.S. that can do that is AT&T cough cough SBC. and T Mobile.

Both Verizon and Sprint are CDMA and regardless of Android or Iphone you cannot surf and talk at the same time. CDMA technology does not allow that . GSM does.

Supposedly LTE will correct that but I have not seen it proven yet.

[Nicelyphe]

Iphone 5, on Sprint in October.

[BustedS13]

Iphone 5, on Sprint in October.

50 better android phones, on Sprint (and every other carrier) now

[Danb]

What is written above by a sales rep for AT&T is most likely biased and not exactly correct. I had Cingular aka SBC aka the New AT&T. They pull the same shit with contracts as everyone else does.

Want a new plan sign a new contract. I worked for Cingular. Yes you could lower your plan without extending your contract but try going to a higher one. LOL
Oh and like others have said any most all providers make a a change in plan a possible new contract situation.

OH and AT&T customer service is the absolute worst. LOL Plus they are god aweful expensive for the quality of service. They suck here in Los Angeles. LOL

I have had T Mobile for the last 8 years. I have Unlimited loyalty $50 a month unlimited minutes, unlimited data (5GB and then throttles down) $25 a month.

The only contract I have is for the phone. If I get a new phone I sign a new contract for the phone not the plan.

If you go to one of their new minute plans of course you are going to sign a new contract its a new plan.

Oh and the Iphone 5 will be on all carriers as Apple is putting a Penta bend chip in it.

Oh and for all who care. If you want to surf the net and use the phone at the same time the only two carriers in the U.S. that can do that is AT&T cough cough SBC. and T Mobile.

Both Verizon and Sprint are CDMA and regardless of Android or Iphone you cannot surf and talk at the same time. CDMA technology does not allow that . GSM does.

Supposedly LTE will correct that but I have not seen it proven yet.


Im sorry you feel that way but I have been with the company for 2 years now and changed different parts of customers price plans more than i can count in one lifetime and i have never added a contract of any kind, In fact its not an option anywhere in our system to add contracts unless i am upgrading someones phone and it never has been aslong as i have been employed by them.

Oh cool you worked for cingular, yea well this is at&t and the system and functions are totally different than before. There might have been some things like that going on back then in "those days" but its not anymore.

LTE does allow data trafficing while talking on the phone, I use it daily with my verizon thunderbolt. its awesome

[Daniel.]

Im sorry you feel that way but I have been with the company for 2 years now and changed different parts of customers price plans more than i can count in one lifetime and i have never added a contract of any kind, In fact its not an option anywhere in our system to add contracts unless i am upgrading someones phone and it never has been aslong as i have been employed by them.

Oh cool you worked for cingular, yea well this is at&t and the system and functions are totally different than before. There might have been some things like that going on back then in "those days" but its not anymore.

LTE does allow data trafficing while talking on the phone, I use it daily with my verizon thunderbolt. its awesome

I worked for AT&T at a direct retail store as a sales rep when Cingular rebranded and I can't imagine them relaxing the contract renewal policy in the last 4 years.

[Danb]

Well its been done away with, im here to tell you. If anybody gets a contract extension with at&t for anything other than getting new equipment, you can PM me and i will have it looked into and no doubt in my mind, reversed.

[upsdude]

truly a love/hate relationship with these companies. where else can you be charged for deciding that you don't want to do business with a company anymore? feels like outright extortion

[niscur29]

Sorry guys at&t dude is correct. I recently changed my plan (have been with ATT since the old cingular days) and my contract was NOT extended and has been expired for at least 4 years as I'm still rocking an iphone 3g and bought it when it first came out and that was my last 2 year contract.

[FunnyVictor86]

Contact the Better Business Bureau "BBB". Complain about your situation and your service and tell them that you want your contract canceled and you want the cancellation fee waived. My brother did that and it worked. I'm actually contacting the BBB myself. They raised my bill by $2.00 and they said it was from my phone insurance. Um I don't have phone insurance lol. I won't bore you will the full details, lets just say they are big time scam artists.

[roboticnissan]

I CHANGE MY. Plan all the time at Verizon. And thy never have me extend my contract.

[Sarom_ps13]

I had T-Moblile for like 4 1/2 years and just recently switched to Verizon. I paid 150.00$ /mo. ! for the unlimited minutes/text/data. They told me it would be like 99$ a month and i never paid that low, it would range around 150$ so i said F it and found someone to take over my account and went to Verizon. which i pay 70$ LESS. But t-mobile does have some awesome customer service.. just my .02$

But yeah i always thought to change plans you had to sign a new 2 yr. contract.

[Danb]

The only way you will find yourself in a contract in price plan is when you upgrade or start a new plan with some online venders as in wirefly, new egg etc etc. Places like that require you to stay on the price plan and features you add at the time for an x amount of time. I believe its 6 months and the reason for this is because if something is changed about the plan as in the things i listed above, whoever the carrier is looks at it as a disconnect in some form and charges the company for the full cost of the phone and then that charge is past on to you. Its in all their terms and conditions on the smalliest print available lol.

[D.Adams]

I left t-moblie a little over a year ago and never looked back. I now have at&t and love it and my bill is cheaper now then it was with t-mobile. I'm a die hard Android phone owner when I went to at&t i got the iphone 3gs loved it for a little while then it took a shit and Apple dicked me around on the warranty so i bought a HTC inspire and love the shit out of it after i rooted it. One thing I will give t-mobile is there customer service is way better then at&t and I had tmobile for over 5 years and never once had a issue with getting a new phone or changing up my contract. I will never own another iPhone ..

I went from paying over $130 a month to paying $88 so im happy ..

On another note everone I know that has Sprint hates it only thing they have going for them is the HTC evo3d ..


Let me know if I'm wrong but didn't at&t buy or buying tmobile ..


Posted from my HTC inspire

[Sarom_ps13]

Thats what i heard also about at&t and tmobile. ^^

[K_style]

Contact the Better Business Bureau "BBB". Complain about your situation and your service and tell them that you want your contract canceled and you want the cancellation fee waived. My brother did that and it worked. I'm actually contacting the BBB myself. They raised my bill by $2.00 and they said it was from my phone insurance. Um I don't have phone insurance lol. I won't bore you will the full details, lets just say they are big time scam artists.


I guess you need to read my original post first..

No I am not stuck with contract , Yes I can cancel anytime I want

[Leetheslacker]

Tmobile has a sweet plan where if you already have a handset, you can get a plan with no contract that's $20 a month less than the contract plans. It might not be advertised but i switched from a family plan, which the contract had expired, to my own no contract plan keeping my G2 and didn't get charged a cent just a few months ago. It's even more plus or something like that.

[g00se]

T mobile is fine with me, just waiting for the Samsung Hercules ( Galaxy S II ) or Iphone 5 to come out for it. They have an unlimited data/talk/text family promotion going on for 50/month per line which i plan to jump on with the new phones.
The reason Im staying with the "cheap" company is exactly that, its cheap, half of what it would cost me at Verizon for the same plan and has great customer service, unlike ATT which is consistently rated as the WORST customer service experience.

[K_style]

Tmobile has a sweet plan where if you already have a handset, you can get a plan with no contract that's $20 a month less than the contract plans. It might not be advertised but i switched from a family plan, which the contract had expired, to my own no contract plan keeping my G2 and didn't get charged a cent just a few months ago. It's even more plus or something like that.



Did you get that from Retail store ? how did you keep the #?

[simmode1]

Oh by the way.. my father in law has been Sprint with just over 10 years.

he pays $40~45 for unlimited everything... he just kept extending contract every 2 years, but with some deals such as more discount on his plan and adding txt etc.
How come you don't get that kind of deal? shouldn't they treat you better? unless you don't mind paying $85.00/mo
I have multiple lines, but I'll certainly look into it. And I swear, whenever I made changes over the years, It has always extended my contract.

But there's nothing wrong with examining options.

[Kaizen.]

I've had T-mobile for over 10 years now. This has ALWAYS been their policy. I don't plan on going anywhere else since I have preferred customer rates ($85 for unlimited talk/text/data), so I don't care. Their service has always been fine to me.

You do know Tmobile now offers 2 liner at 50 each unlimited everything right?

[SimpleS14]

This has been standard industry practice for a few years now. Good luck getting better treatment somewhere else.


Hmm...I'm a bit lost on your statement.

With VZW if I'm about to go over my minutes, they let me change my plan without requiring a new contract. I can do it on the fly on my phone too. Also, I will be grandfathered into an unlimited plan once I get a new contract, even if I bump up to 4G. Of course that last bit is probably a one time deal. :bite:

[simmode1]

You do know Tmobile now offers 2 liner at 50 each unlimited everything right?
Just heard about it a day or so ago. Will be switching soon.

[K_style]

Just canceled plan with T-mobile. and I am going to have pre-paid (T-mobile) plan until i-Phone comes out. It was $30 for 1500 mins, txt +10MB data. which is perfectly fine with me since I was paying $29.99+ tax + fees for 500mins no txt, no data.

and I get to keep my phone # and did not have to purchase SIM card since I already had one.

[K_style]

Just heard about it a day or so ago. Will be switching soon.

You shouldn't be paying same retail price if you are willing to extend contract.
and also you have been with T-mobile since stone age, ask for some kind of discounts or deals..