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T-Mobile JOD iPhone X Scam

rob.james.arias

rob.james.arias

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 20, 2015
247
296
When placing my order last night, I was surprised to hear I needed to pay a $279 down deposit on the iPhone X.

I asked what the reason was and they indicated it was as an automated system that pulls credit. I explained that I have a 834 credit score, and that they had not run my credit in over two years (thank you credit monitoring). I also explained that I had never had a down payment in the past, not even a month ago when I ordered my 8+ from them.

Long story longer I polled a few people I know that upgraded and the results are interesting. I am hoping to see if anyone here matches the criteria.

I believe that if you upgraded with JOD last month to the 8 or 8+ and wanted to do an JOD for the X you have been “randomly” selected to pay the $279 down deposit. If you did not upgrade to the 8 or 8+ there was no down deposit.

I really hope the 5 people I surveyed that I know were the exception to the rule however this seems to be the case. The two, who had not upgraded, did not have to pay a deposit. They each have credit scores in the mid 600’s. The three that had to pay a deposit had upgraded to the 8 or 8+ already and had credit scores from mid 500’s to 800.

This at the very early stages feels like they are fleecing anyone who wants to “Jump anytime they want to any device they want”.
 
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Same here. Never had a down payment until this time. Apparently they changed the down payment rules on the 23rd according to a link posted in the pre-order thread
 
According to tmobile you have to have 3+ years of service to qualify for the 0 down. I didn't upgrade to the 8, went straight from 7 plus to X and I didn't have to pay any down payments for my phones.
 
mikeabbz said:
Same here. Never had a down payment until this time. Apparently they changed the down payment rules on the 23rd according to a link posted in the pre-order thread
Click to expand...

Had you previously JOD to an 8 or 8+?
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Scarphac3 said:
According to tmobile you have to have 3+ years of service to qualify for the 0 down. I didn't upgrade to the 8, went straight from 7 plus to X and I didn't have to pay any down payments for my phones.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I am finding. Those that jumped from 7/7+ no down deposit. Those that jumped from an 8/8+ had a down deposit. Thanks for the info!
 
It only applies to phones over $900 or $950, and is a combination of having been a customer for at least 3 years as well as credit. Apparently there are 2 or 3 "credit classes" that will give you a 0 down payment without the 3 years.
 
Zorn said:
It only applies to phones over $900 or $950, and is a combination of having been a customer for at least 3 years as well as credit. Apparently there are 2 or 3 "credit classes" that will give you a 0 down payment without the 3 years.
Click to expand...

834 credit here, not sure it gets a whole bunch better than that. Furthermore, they never ran my credit. That is what made me suspicious. It felt disingenuous to be told it was due to credit when I have shining credit.
 
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And this is exactly why Jump on Demand is no longer as attractive to me as it once was. Too many stipulations and red tape, IMO. The process has become a hassle.

Glad I went back to EIP.
 
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Sprint requires down payments now too. companies change and adapt to customer tendencies.

in OP's case, he likely has 3 decades of stellar credit history. however, the companies are looking at it like, hey we have all these customers who are on device payments, who never pay their bill on time, or are always on payment arrangements, wanting to always get a new phone. now we will require Deposits on these more expensive phones so that customers decide whether they REALLY want these phones.

There are lots of people who have device payments on phones with carriers that they simply can't afford and should really be on prepaid carriers, but those phones are not as attractive. still more who owe all 4 of the big companies money...that's why you now have device payments, and now very recently mandatory deposits regardless of credit.

maybe some ppl complained about $35+ monthly payments on phones so they decided to institute the deposits to lower the device payment costs. ppl forget that these companies are charging 0% interest and they know if they stop that no one will upgrade. this is their way of getting money from you even though they don't profit off of that deposit....they profit on us paying our bills on time, and remaining long time customers.
 
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peteyyt said:
I jumped from an 8+ with no deposit. T-Mobile customer for 4+ years here though.
Click to expand...

I tweeted T-Force last week asking whether they run a hard credit check for existing customers who want to upgrade to a new phone. I got this reply:

“T-Mobile only hard check you when you open your T-Mobile account, then every couple of months they soft check you to check your credit class so that when you order any new devices there are no hard checks against your credit as they already know your class and make offers of devices based on your most recent credit class update. *

Based on a hard credit check at the time you first opened a T-Mobile account, you are put into a Credit Class, which is proprietary information used by T-mobile. They will not re-run a hard credit check just so you can change to a different credit class (because you believe your most recent credit score is now better than it was when you started with T-Mobile). Your credit class determines the line limits and deposit.

To qualify for zero down on JOD, you must be in credit class A, B, W, or 4, have tenure of 3+ years, and at least 12 consecutive months of timely payments.
 
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rob.james.arias said:
When placing my order last night, I was surprised to hear I needed to pay a $279 down deposit on the iPhone X.

I asked what the reason was and they indicated it was as an automated system that pulls credit. I explained that I have a 834 credit score, and that they had not run my credit in over two years (thank you credit monitoring). I also explained that I had never had a down payment in the past, not even a month ago when I ordered my 8+ from them.

Long story longer I polled a few people I know that upgraded and the results are interesting. I am hoping to see if anyone here matches the criteria.

I believe that if you upgraded with JOD last month to the 8 or 8+ and wanted to do an JOD for the X you have been “randomly” selected to pay the $279 down deposit. If you did not upgrade to the 8 or 8+ there was no down deposit.

I really hope the 5 people I surveyed that I know were the exception to the rule however this seems to be the case. The two, who had not upgraded, did not have to pay a deposit. They each have credit scores in the mid 600’s. The three that had to pay a deposit had upgraded to the 8 or 8+ already and had credit scores from mid 500’s to 800.

This at the very early stages feels like they are fleecing anyone who wants to “Jump anytime they want to any device they want”.
Click to expand...

Wait, did you ask your friends their credit scores?
 
rob.james.arias said:
When placing my order last night, I was surprised to hear I needed to pay a $279 down deposit on the iPhone X.

I asked what the reason was and they indicated it was as an automated system that pulls credit. I explained that I have a 834 credit score, and that they had not run my credit in over two years (thank you credit monitoring). I also explained that I had never had a down payment in the past, not even a month ago when I ordered my 8+ from them.

Long story longer I polled a few people I know that upgraded and the results are interesting. I am hoping to see if anyone here matches the criteria.

I believe that if you upgraded with JOD last month to the 8 or 8+ and wanted to do an JOD for the X you have been “randomly” selected to pay the $279 down deposit. If you did not upgrade to the 8 or 8+ there was no down deposit.

I really hope the 5 people I surveyed that I know were the exception to the rule however this seems to be the case. The two, who had not upgraded, did not have to pay a deposit. They each have credit scores in the mid 600’s. The three that had to pay a deposit had upgraded to the 8 or 8+ already and had credit scores from mid 500’s to 800.

This at the very early stages feels like they are fleecing anyone who wants to “Jump anytime they want to any device they want”.
Click to expand...

I also have a credit score in the 830s and was told for the iPhone X 256Gb there was a down payment required so that customers will have a lower monthly payment. I said why not give customers the option to pay zero down and higher monthly as the Apple IPhone Upgrade Program. The agent went on to talk about the high cost they incur from JOD as people trade up from 8 Plus to X after a few weeks etc...

Overall the down payment is a ripoff if you’re only keeping your phone for 1 year and just trade it in because when you do the math over 12 months you paid more than half of the cost of the phone. Best option would be pay off the phone and sell it or just pay full price.
 
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jamesrick80 said:
Nothing is a scam if you can simply ask the customer service representative about the details and get the facts....you got the facts and was disappointed. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


Incorrect. I didn’t get any facts, I got the run around and incorrect information.

Advertising “get the device you want, when you want” and pairing that with a track record of $0 down payments for the last several years is one thing. Waiting till launch day knowing people with JOD will want a certain device and not advertising the “down payment” anywhere, that is scamming. It feels like old fashioned bait and switch. $0 down iPhones was how I was sold on JOD and also why I pay a premium on my account. Now paying a premium makes no sense, especially if I want to jump to another device, that down payment is forfeited. In actuality I can’t get the device I want when I want unless I want to lose out financially to the tune of several hundred dollars.
[doublepost=1509444569][/doublepost]
Banich2 said:
Wait, did you ask your friends their credit scores?
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
You are just speculating. Theres a reason they charged you the down payment and you just haven't figured it out. I have 8 lines on my account. 4 of them on JOD which all had iphone 8 pluses. All 4 of us jumped to the X on launch day and not one of the lines required any down payment. $0 down. We have been with tmobile for over 3+ years, have great credit and don't miss payments. You unfortunately fall under one of those categories in which you either have not been with tmobile over 3 years, have maybe missed a payment at one point or another, or have mediocre credit which you seem to have ruled out.
 
dannyar said:
You are just speculating. Theres a reason they charged you the down payment and you just haven't figured it out. I have 8 lines on my account. 4 of them on JOD which all had iphone 8 pluses. All 4 of us jumped to the X on launch day and not one of the lines required any down payment. $0 down. We have been with tmobile for over 3+ years, have great credit and don't miss payments. You unfortunately fall under one of those categories in which you either have not been with tmobile over 3 years, have maybe missed a payment at one point or another, or have mediocre credit which you seem to have ruled out.
Click to expand...


No missed payments.

All I can surmise is the three year stipulation is what was at play. If I had been told that on the phone during order, it would have still made me upset but I do understand policy.
 
rob.james.arias said:
No missed payments.

All I can surmise is the three year stipulation is what was at play. If I had been told that on the phone during order, it would have still made me upset but I do understand policy.
Click to expand...

It seems like the 64GB iPhone X is $0.00 down and the higher 256GB requires the 429.99.

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