Did you have a T-Mobile plan that got changed despite it being "permanent?"

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, once upon a time we signed up for a T-Mobile plan (One Plan Unlimited 55) that met our needs and had a reasonable cost for the amount we used it. One of the factors that made it appealing was that T-Mobile told us our pricing wouldn’t change.

Ha. Not all that long ago we were given a price increase and they pretty much said “We know we said we wouldn’t change it but costs, equipment, etc., yadda-yadda, here’s your new price.” We’re mostly happy with the service we get from them so we made several comments about “not changing the price” to each other but accepted the new price. After all, everything else is going up, right?

Then, last month, we got a notice that our plan was going away. Ha-ha, so much for “not changing.” Although I guess it’s not changing as it’s simply not there any more. Or is that an ultimate amount of changing? Nevertheless, if we did nothing, T-Mobile would happily switch us to a new plan. The problem is that the new plan is more expensive than we want to pay. We’ve been paying ~$70 for quite a while and that’s about right, IMHO, for the service we get from it. (Mostly calls, texts and data inquiries. Rarely do we watch anything on it–screen is too small when there’s a TV in the next room.)

TL;DR We got on the phone with T-Mobile and discovered a plan that pretty much mimicked our old one for about the same old price. I’m passing it along to anyone here who might be feeling squeezed by the changes that were made.

Original Plan: One Plan Unlimited 55 (about $70–“locked in,” fees and taxes built in too)

T-Mobile Projected Plan (automatic switch to this one): Experience Signature 55 (about $90)

New Plan: Essential Choice 55 (about $70–subject to fees and taxes)

Obviously from the name you can tell that you have to be over 55 to be eligible for this, but if you got caught in the changeover you can look into this plan to see if it’s more applicable to your needs.

Again, we’re pretty happy with everything else about our T-Mobile service. Customer support has been some of the best we’ve encountered and our coverage while we’re travelling has been great. (Except for that nationwide outage a few days ago that caught us in the middle of nowhere with no signal, no maps, etc. That was good for a few laughs too…)

2

I was forcibly migrated off my T-Mobile One plan as well. IMHO, the element they hated most was the taxes and fees included. T-Mobiles fees (not the taxes) are somewhat higher than the average for the carriers, around $4-5 per line plus another dollar or three of taxes depending on the plan.

So, it’s a very nice tool to pad out your costs without officially raising your rates. And it can be increased at any time. Since I’m not eligible for a 55 plan, I ended up with the “Essential Savings” plan, and my price will be close for the one year discount. I’ll have to reconsider at the end of the 12 months then.

I was planning on going to GoogleFi (that still uses T-Mobile towers, so no compatibility issues) but the family I keep on the plan (Mother and Father in Law, plus close family friend and his mother) would have been challenged on the app-based switch over, and while I can walk through the steps with the four of us locals, the two outliers would have had a lot more challenges.

3

Ah, I haven’t gotten my first new bill yet, but a review based on my zip code looks like it’ll be $7-8 per line in taxes and fees, of which is $4.49 is the T-Mobile internal surcharge for service (IE arbitrary fees they charge themselves for service upkeep/their own overhead).

I find it dishonest, but… almost everyone else does it as well, just that T-Mobile’s fees are higher than average. And IMHO that’s an extra $7-8 a month per line in additional revenue they earn (and can increase at will) above and beyond the new rates they quote.

4

Haven’t gotten our first new bill yet, either. If it gets too bad , there’s always Consumer Cellular.

5

This is for cellular phone service? Geez, I pay $20 per month for Simple Mobile. It’s an MVNO but it’s worked fine for me for years. They used to use the T-Mobile network but I think they’ve switched to Verizon.

6

This just makes me even more grateful for Google Fi. We pay $44.06 a person, all in including fees and taxes, while still being on the T-Mobile network.

If we added more family members it’d be even cheaper.

Google does a lot of sketchy shit elsewhere, but their cell service is the best I’d ever had out of the 7 or 8 major and minor carriers I’d tried.

7

I am familiar with, and considered a number of MVNOs. Most of them are, price-wise at least, the best option for single lines, especially if you’re comfortable pre-paying and don’t need phone upgrades.

If I was single, I’d 100% be with one.

More conventional options tend to be less expensive if you have 3-6 people on the plan, and can be very helpful if you have people living away from a local hub. Especially for people who aren’t tech savvy (not related to age!) having a local retailer for simple help can be a big issue.

As I said upthread, I came :pinching_hand: — :pinched_fingers: close to going with GoogleFi, with 6 lines for $150 a month (plus about $5-6 in taxes in fees per line, cheaper than TMO) but the two remote members on my plan didn’t think they could handle it (I thought I could walk them through it) and Google botched my order, the fix, the fixes fix, and the final fix.

I’m not actually saying they’re a bad company, far from it (looks to pile of Pixel phones), but by the nature of a the beast they’ve got a lot less investment in fixing complicated problems.

I’m still considering going with them if/when the year is up and prices potentially go up. I’ll just make sure to schedule the switchover when I’m visiting my two remote plan members.

I’m not even slamming T-Mobile, I worked for them during the Legere years, and when they were working on being a service leader, and an industry disrupter, we/they put our money/service where our mouth is. But that was over ten years ago, and once the merger with Sprint was over, and the consolidation was done, the profit maximization kicked in. They’re still better than AT&T IMHO, and I agree with their mid-band 5G choices, but the Uncarrier is dead and gone.

8

I have a tracfone plan and pay less than $200 per year.

9

I don’t know if my T Mobile rates are increasing - I’ve had a business plan for many years, going back to Sprint, before they acquired that. I pay about $25/line after taxes, plus $50 for an unlimited hotspot. My sister and stepfather are on the plan, the stepfather also having the hotspot.

StG