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So reading through pages and pages of comments here, other websites, I think I finally figured it out.

For new customers... It sounds like you can either do the interest-free EIP plan OR have the free 200mb per month. You can't have both.
The only way to get both is if:
You are already a T-mobile postpaid phone customer and are adding a tablet to your account.

If you are a new customer, you must pay for the tablet in full (alternatively, you can bring your own tablet to tmobile). Having the tablet paid in full allows for the 200mb plan.

Sources below: Taken from the tmobile website

Buy from us with interest-free financing.
We make it easy to get the tablet you want with our EIP interest free financing, with approved credit. EIP is exclusively available to T-Mobile customers on monthly Simple Choice plans (plans start at $0/month if you also have a voice plan with us, $20/month otherwise).

Also, they list 4 ways to get the 200mb per month free. Note that none of these ways would allow a new customer to t-mobile do the EIP plan and also the 200mb free per month.

Four ways to enjoy free data for life.
1. Bring your own tablet. Use a tablet you already own and love on T-Mobile’s nationwide 4G LTE network. Simply activate a Mobile Internet account with a SIM card.
2. Add a tablet to your T-Mobile account. If you already have a postpaid phone line with T-Mobile, add a tablet to your account and enjoy low monthly payments and 0% interest with our exclusive Equipment Installment Plan (EIP).
3. Switch over to T-Mobile. Let one of our award-winning retail stores introduce you to our selection of smartphones and tablets, and enjoy the benefits of EIP when you add a tablet to your phone purchase.
4. Just buying a tablet. No billing relationship required. Shop our selection of great tablets. They come with a T-Mobile SIM to un-leash our nationwide 4G network whenever you need it.

I think I finally figured it out, I am just disappointed. I am not a phone customer - yet. I am still on contract for another year.

tl;dr
Current tmobile customers adding a tablet to their account can get the EIP loan AND get 200mb free per month.
New customers can't have both.


NOTE: Who knows what tomorrow will bring though, since the message has been inconsistent.

Except that I'm a new customer on EIP w/$10 On-Demand plan (200MB only). Not to mention, it doesn't matter what level you're at, you get the 200MB added to whatever allowance you purchase otherwise.
 
Except that I'm a new customer on EIP w/$10 On-Demand plan (200MB only). Not to mention, it doesn't matter what level you're at, you get the 200MB added to whatever allowance you purchase otherwise.

Ok good to know, thanks.
By the way, some are reporting they get that $10 credited back to their account monthly for the on demand. Do you know if you qualify for that? (Or maybe that's what they mean by free for existing customers?)
 
I read on another site that they are going to honor the $10 credit for new customers who signed up for EIP with on demand. We shall see, but glad I returned mine. Not worth the hassle. Just too bad they did a hard pull on my credit for nothing.

Ok good to know, thanks.
By the way, some are reporting they get that $10 credited back to their account monthly for the on demand. Do you know if you qualify for that? (Or maybe that's what they mean by free for existing customers?)
 
I read on another site that they are going to honor the $10 credit for new customers who signed up for EIP with on demand. We shall see, but glad I returned mine. Not worth the hassle. Just too bad they did a hard pull on my credit for nothing.

May I ask what site you saw that on?? I'm really hoping they will do that.

Kev
 
AT&T iPad Air

Are the AT&T and T-Mobile versions of the iPad Air the same except for the SIM card ? If so, could you purchase an AT&T iPad Air, put in a T-Mobile data SIM card, and get the free 200MB/month T-Mobile plan for no money other than the T-Mobile SIM card ?
 
Are the AT&T and T-Mobile versions of the iPad Air the same except for the SIM card ? If so, could you purchase an AT&T iPad Air, put in a T-Mobile data SIM card, and get the free 200MB/month T-Mobile plan for no money other than the T-Mobile SIM card ?

Yes. As a matter of fact, I purchased a Verizon iPad Air so that I could use it on all 3 networks ( Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. If you want to use the device on either Verizon or Sprint, it must be pre-provisioned. So either purchase the Verizon or Sprint model and you are golden. I can personally confirm with the Verizon model, I tested all three nano-sims and can get mobile data for those listed. Btw, it will hold mouth more resale later of just a gsm model (AT&T/T-Mobile).

A word on the T-mobile sim. You don't need to have any plan but you should get a pre-paid "mobile broadband" sim. If you go on their website, you need to get the "mobile broadband" starter and not the "Pre-paid" starter kit. To get it to activate I had to load the sim with $10. Pop it into the iPad, go to cellular, view account. Select use new email and create a password; the pin you need from the SIM card also. Once doing so, it prompts you to wait a moment and once it alerts you, you go to go. With the pre-paid, once you go over the 200MB Starter, you can purchase data passes for an hour, day, week or month. I originally activated a $1 - 10MB - Hour pass to test it which worked. When I got home two hours later, it automatically added on the free 200MB Starter plan. You may or may not have to do the $1, but hey, it's $1 to ensure your connection and sim as working properly.

Hope his helps.
 
Called the (877) number and also was told that the $10 will be waived, or as she put it, it will be "rolled off" come bill time.

We'll see. I asked her to add the note to the account to be sure.

This tweet isn't calming my fears.

UGH Looks like I'll be cancelling and buying one outright.
 
Hey everyone i also ordered the iPad air through T-Mo and i was charged 10$ fee for the " on demand plan " however, i was credit this fee back yesterday as i got the final invoice. So, my montly payment is only the ipad air which is 26$ rather then 36$ as it showed in first invoice. Glad T-Mo is going extra steps for their customers. I am a new customer by the way.

Patiently waiting for my Ipad air to be delivered sometime this week.
 
May I ask what site you saw that on?? I'm really hoping they will do that.

Kev

I saw it on slickdeals, people reported they spoke to csr and had them make notations in their account so if bill comes with no credit they have some proof. That's far from definitive, same info people getting here.

I bought in-store and these people I think bought on the phone with t-mobile direct. I honestly just didn't want to call yesterday and deal it, so I returned it after my store called me.

this was the original t-mobile offering: "By offering free data for life with incredible upfront pricing" $0 down="incredible" $630=reg price
 
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Hey everyone i also ordered the iPad air through T-Mo and i was charged 10$ fee for the " on demand plan " however, i was credit this fee back yesterday as i got the final invoice. So, my montly payment is only the ipad air which is 26$ rather then 36$ as it showed in first invoice. Glad T-Mo is going extra steps for their customers. I am a new customer by the way.

Patiently waiting for my Ipad air to be delivered sometime this week.

Do you have a voice plan as well? Because then they credit $10.
 
Well this is very disappointing to hear. I was looking forward to signing up for tmobile for the first time with an Air. The monthly cost is coming out to $46.25 with the 500MB/mo. play. No free 200MB plan available.

I probably won't be getting an Air or Retina Mini anytime soon then. I guess it was too good to be true.
 
Do you have a voice plan as well? Because then they credit $10.

No i do not have a voice plan. I am a new customer and i only wanted to get the ipad air based on the 200MB free data they give. SO i signed up on launch day and ordered my iPad. They first charged me the 10$ on my bill but i was OK with it. two days later ( yesterday ) i got my final invoice and they credit the 10$ back to me and my monthly bill is now 26$ vs the 36 it would have been with the 10$ fee.
 
Maybe their website keeps changing, and I don't remember the exact route that you have to navigate to get it. I'll report back what happens after I receive the SIM card in the mail.

When I go there and pick a phone SIM, it's free. The Mobile Internet SIM is $0.99. (FWIW, I don't see anything OOS.)

Here's how I got there:
Front page (Learn more) > Bring your own table (Learn more) > Select your SIM card > Any SIM card / Mobile Internet (Add to cart)
 
No i do not have a voice plan. I am a new customer and i only wanted to get the ipad air based on the 200MB free data they give. SO i signed up on launch day and ordered my iPad. They first charged me the 10$ on my bill but i was OK with it. two days later ( yesterday ) i got my final invoice and they credit the 10$ back to me and my monthly bill is now 26$ vs the 36 it would have been with the 10$ fee.

Did you call them or contact them in any way? Or did they just give the credit to you?
 
Not quite understanding...

A word on the T-mobile sim. You don't need to have any plan but you should get a pre-paid "mobile broadband" sim. If you go on their website, you need to get the "mobile broadband" starter and not the "Pre-paid" starter kit. To get it to activate I had to load the sim with $10. Pop it into the iPad, go to cellular, view account. Select use new email and create a password; the pin you need from the SIM card also. Once doing so, it prompts you to wait a moment and once it alerts you, you go to go. With the pre-paid, once you go over the 200MB Starter, you can purchase data passes for an hour, day, week or month. I originally activated a $1 - 10MB - Hour pass to test it which worked. When I got home two hours later, it automatically added on the free 200MB Starter plan. You may or may not have to do the $1, but hey, it's $1 to ensure your connection and sim as working properly.

Hope his helps.

I ordered a SIM from T-mobile on Friday for my iPad 2 ATT version I bought two years ago. It should arrive in the next couple of days.

Are you saying my only option to possibly get MORE than 200MB is to actually sign up for a plan? In other words, I only did this because every once in a while it will come in handy to have data service if I'm not in a wifi zone. I RARELY plan on using it, so the 200mb "free" plan sounded great to me, since I don't want a monthly payment.

But what if I decide a specific month I'm going to be on the road more, and use up my free 200mb. Can I easily buy more for that week or two? Or am I stuck, and have to wait until the month is done to get another 200mb?

Thanks for your help!
 
No i do not have a voice plan. I am a new customer and i only wanted to get the ipad air based on the 200MB free data they give. SO i signed up on launch day and ordered my iPad. They first charged me the 10$ on my bill but i was OK with it. two days later ( yesterday ) i got my final invoice and they credit the 10$ back to me and my monthly bill is now 26$ vs the 36 it would have been with the 10$ fee.

Hmm... I hope I get the same. I haven't gotten an invoice yet for my monthly bill so I guess I'll see when I get it.
 
Did you call them or contact them in any way? Or did they just give the credit to you?

I did not contact them at all. Just got the final invoice and checked my bank to confirm it. They credited it back to me.

----------

Hmm... I hope I get the same. I haven't gotten an invoice yet for my monthly bill so I guess I'll see when I get it.

Well i purchased it about 12PM on friday EST time. Just yesterday i got the final your account is activated email along with the final invoice etc. Thats where the credit has been published and my credit card was also charged 10$ less than what it was shown on the original invoice.
 
This is really tempting me to get a cellular ipad mini retina when it comes out. I would buy on verizon though, but use t-mobile data when I have it available.
 
Success! After so many hurdles I finally have the 200 mb free data.
Here is my story:
I went to the T-Mobile store at 8 am on Friday morning. I asked for the iPad Air 16 GB Black model. They had 1. They immediately offered me the EIP financing even though I told them I was not a T-Mobile customer. This is completely contrary to what the T-Mobile CEO has been saying on Twitter. Where I first ran into problems was when I asked for the 200 mb of free data. They said no such plan existed. They said I had to sign up for the $30 plan. I showed them the press release. They called corporate and put them on speakerphone. The guy on the phone said that I had to sign up for a plan and that any plan would include the additional 200 mb free data. He said after signing up for the plan I could drop it at anytime and get the 200 mb free data. It was at this point they admitted there was a $20 500 mb plan so I said fine sign me up for that and I will just drop it when I get home. I was out the door iPad in hand. When I went home I set up data on my iPad with the 500 mb. Then I dropped it down to the $10 On Demand plan. This is when I got worried as this was my first taste of no data costing $10 instead of being free. Also there was no mention anywhere of the 200 mb. I called customer service. They too said there was no 200 mb plan that they could set me up with and that $10 On Demand was the lowest. They suggested I go back to the store. I had 2 or 3 more calls like this without getting anywhere. I also reached out to T-Mobile through email as well. The answer I was starting to get was that 200 mb was only for prepaid members. So on a whim I asked to be switched to prepaid. Surprisingly this was not a problem. Within minutes I had a new set up on my iPad as prepaid. The only problem was there was no plans to choose. The dropdown box was just empty. I reached out to T-Mobile through email again and they said they would open a ticket to have the 200 mb plan added to my account. Well doing this they did get the plan options listed again but there was still no 200 mb plan. As a last ditch effort I decided to use the delete account option. When I went back in to view account it had a free screen again and THIS TIME IT MENTIONED THE 200 MB FREE DATA! I set up a new account and boom I have the free data! Now there are still questions unanswered. What will happen with my EIP? That account doesn't even exist anymore and I can no longer log in to it using mytmobile and there is no record of that phone number anymore. I had paperless billing so I don't know how I would pay the monthly payments? I assume if they have their things in order I will receive a bill somehow for the full amount of the iPad which to me is fine at this point but who knows? This will be interesting for sure.
 
Are the AT&T and T-Mobile versions of the iPad Air the same except for the SIM card ? If so, could you purchase an AT&T iPad Air, put in a T-Mobile data SIM card, and get the free 200MB/month T-Mobile plan for no money other than the T-Mobile SIM card ?

I bought the Verizon model at Best Buy (18 months zero interest), then put in a T-Mobile SIM and signed up for the free 200MB/month plan. Gave them no payment information, just name/email/address/birth date.
 
Forced $20 data plan sign up IS A FINANCE CHARGE ...

If everyone with a Tmobile iPad except ones through the payment plan gets 200mb free data without needing to sign up for a plan, then the $20 forced sign up for a 500mb data plan for iPads on a Tmobile payment plan IS a finance charge plus a force buy on 300mb. SUPER DECEIVING.

Basically if you consider you're paying for 300mb, then about $8 of your forced sign up for a $20 data plan amounts to a 13% apr finance charge. Plus you have to pay for data you might not use whereas everyone else can pay on-demand when they go over 200mb.

13% isn't all that unreasonable considering credit cards hover in that area. BUT the problem is they should not force you to buy $20 of data. AND they should just charge you and call it what it is $27/mo plus $8 finance charge. AND you should get 200mb "Free. No strings attached." Like "everyone."
 
I did not contact them at all. Just got the final invoice and checked my bank to confirm it. They credited it back to me.

----------



Well i purchased it about 12PM on friday EST time. Just yesterday i got the final your account is activated email along with the final invoice etc. Thats where the credit has been published and my credit card was also charged 10$ less than what it was shown on the original invoice.

My credit card still shows a $1 pending charge. This is encouraging.
 
If everyone with a Tmobile iPad except ones through the payment plan gets 200mb free data without needing to sign up for a plan, then the $20 forced sign up for a 500mb data plan for iPads on a Tmobile payment plan IS a finance charge plus a force buy on 300mb. SUPER DECEIVING.

Basically if you consider you're paying for 300mb, then about $8 of your forced sign up for a $20 data plan amounts to a 13% apr finance charge. Plus you have to pay for data you might not use whereas everyone else can pay on-demand when they go over 200mb.

13% isn't all that unreasonable considering credit cards hover in that area. BUT the problem is they should not force you to buy $20 of data. AND they should just charge you and call it what it is $27/mo plus $8 finance charge. AND you should get 200mb "Free. No strings attached." Like "everyone."

If you sign up for the 500MB data plan, you get 500MB + 200MB, for 700MB total. The other thing is you are not cut off when you use up the 700MB, you are throtled.
 
That is exactly what I intend on doing. I don't mind fronting the $630, but I can tell you that as an investor, any time you have the opportunity to recieve 0% financing with no drawbacks - go for it. That is what was going to pull me into T-Mobile, then from there use their free 200MB network. I've been with AT&T for years, and am curious to see how other companies work.

Obviously T-Mobile is presenting shady business practices, so that to me is a complete drawback, and tells me to avoid them. Then again, if they man up tomorrow morning to all of their mishaps, even retracting certain CEO' statement, I'd be willing to test the waters since the company made the effort to apologize for their actions. We'll see....but I am feeling quite doubtful.

I used 18 mo. no interest from Best Buy... I don't think T-Mobile was being shady, per se. Maybe they were just a bit disjointed and didn't expect the roll out to be as popular as it was. It's seems like a slight mistake or even just a case of not thinking it through on Tmobile's case.

To me, it's not nearly as bad as Verizon stores refusing to give out/sell you a SIM card without making you have Post Paid service. I can walk into any At&t store and they'll give me a SIM card anytime I want for any reason for no charge. It's the only thing I like best about At&t. They have the best customer service... to bad their plans and rates are crap and get worse with every change they make.

Tmobile's deals are now the most fair I've ever seen. Here's hoping they keep it up and turn the US mobile industry upside down and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
 
I had a prepaid plan with $200mb free, no credit card data, but actually opted for the postpaid plan instead. (I did not do any financing, etc, paid for my iPad in full from the Apple Store.)

The postpaid plan is called on demand, technically $10/mo, but they give a $10 credit every month. I just pay fees every month. Works out to $1.70 unless I add more data.

The added benefits are my data gets throttled to 2G after I run out of 200mb instead of cut off, I get access to the international thing, and I get better rates on data packages.

Basically I can add-on data packages as needed, and it bills me later.

I was not a T-Mobile customer before, and I do not have voice service with them. I would recommend this postpaid plan, I think the $1.70 fees are worth the benefits. I have called to confirm my first month's bill is only that and I have a $10 on my account. I can also still cancel anytime and open back up my prepaid plan if I need to.
 
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