The problem lies with CEO John Legere's comments. He stated everyone gets the 200mb free "No strings attached." That's the problem. There are plenty of strings attached to the deal. The EIP program for non T-Mobile subscribers is not interest free as the want you to believe. If you are forced to pay $20 a month for data just for the privilege of getting 0% financing then it is absolutely a bait and switch tactic, it's a play on words period. By financing on the EIP program that alone makes you a customer. They run your credit and establish an account which you agree to pay over a fixed amount of time. If they would have made it clear upfront by stating in order to get free data you must pay for the device in full, which they did not, then no one would be debating this issue. The $20 minimum fee for data is essence interest because they are forcing you to buy data for privilege of financing at 0%. The total amount you would have to pay for the so called free data ($20 for 500MB + 200MB free total 700MB) is $480 over 24 months. Once the device is paid off then the real free data would kick in and the $20 would be able to drop off. So in reality the $20 a month is a finance charge of 480.00 over 24 months. Do the math, $630 for a 16GB iPad air and $480 fee to get the free data, Total $1110 over two years. It equates to 76.2% interest charge over two years. THATS CRAZY. It would be better to charge the device on a credit card and add data as needed. I had a online chat with customer service yesterday and they are so confused that they actually told me the purpose of the fee is to prevent fraud. That doesn't make sense either as they wouldn't extend credit if you were a credit risk. T-Mobile needs to get their act together.....or at least be more transparent regarding this issue.
I see your point. They should have handled it better. And using the term 'no strings attached' and '0% financing' was deceptive.
Where I come from, any time you finance something, you're going to get screwed. The only good debt has the words "paid off" written on it. The fact that the $20 INCLUDES the subsidy for the iPad surprises me. In a good way. I expected you to have to pay the iPad off with a separate monthly payment.
You can't calculate the cost of the iPad that way. It's not $1110 for the iPad over two years. You're getting the value of the data service in there, too. However, it's still an absurd amount of money. For both the iPad, and the data on it.
They really are giving away 200MB of data, if you do it right. They're relying on the fact that you'll use more than that and have to pay. Using more than 200MB over LTE, in my area, can happen in around 57 seconds.
Smart people will buy a used iPad, or a refurb, and stick a T-Mobile SIM in it. Boom, 200MB free data, debt free. You're welcome.
Dumb people will finance it, feel betrayed, and wonder why they're broke at the end of the day. As they've always done. Death by a thousand cuts.
