Carrier T-Mobile One 2 lines for $100... what's the catch?

[wolfedude88]

Don't think so. A new account has to be created.

I want to start this out that I'm not trying to be shady. Lol.

Do you know if I have them pay off a device lease if that is the phone I have to trade in or can it be an iPhone 6 that I? Didn't know if it had to be the exact phone or not

 

[Applejuiced]

Nice, let us know how it went.
And yes its better to look into this "really good" plan and find out on what portion and what line gets the discount and if its worth it in the end.
Now with Tmobile including all the taxes and regulatory fees in their price its very hard to beat even if you get a discount from another carrier on a portion of the monthly charges😉

 

[eyoungren]

I want to start this out that I'm not trying to be shady. Lol.

Do you know if I have them pay off a device lease if that is the phone I have to trade in or can it be an iPhone 6 that I? Didn't know if it had to be the exact phone or not

They want to see the IMEI of the leased/ETF phone on your final bill. If the IMEI does not match up with what you return then no payout.

My understanding is that there used to be a way around this, but they closed the loophole before I joined.

Now, if you get JOD, you can dodge the lease fees. You just jump to the cheapest JOD device you can, then do not sign the lease. Return the device in store. You're out the re-stock fee but that's nothing compared to the lease charges. If you have a spare phone at that point you can put your SIM in it.

Oh. If you do return phones, try to get them to take it in store. I love T-Mobile but I learned right away not to trust their return service. They tend to lose the phones returned to them because they have a very crappy return system and you the customer are out a phone/credits or stuck with paying lease fees because they never scanned the phone in.

Somewhere in T-Mob's vast warehouse is an unlocked Sprint iPhone 6+ 128GB Space Gray that never got scanned in. Luckily I was able to get my credit for it out of them.

 

[lordofthereef]

Update: they said the billing address would need to be different. Idk how legit that is but oh well. It's not something I really wanted to fight and changing the billing address, while technically doable since we just moved, would probably be too much of a pita.
[doublepost=1490725107][/doublepost]

Somewhere in T-Mob's vast warehouse is an unlocked Sprint iPhone 6+ 128GB Space Gray that never got scanned in. Luckily I was able to get my credit for it out of them.

How is it possible that this happened with my ATT phones as well? Three months of phone calls to finally get them to fix it. I don't get it.

 

[Applejuiced]

Update: they said the billing address would need to be different. Idk how legit that is but oh well. It's not something I really wanted to fight and changing the billing address, while technically doable since we just moved, would probably be too much of a pita.
[doublepost=1490725107][/doublepost]
How is it possible that this happened with my ATT phones as well? Three months of phone calls to finally get them to fix it. I don't get it.

That doesnt make much sense, looks like they might have tried to get rid off you.
What if there's multiple people living in the same address that want different and separate accounts?
Oh well, its still lots of hoops to jump through 😀

 

[lordofthereef]

That doesnt make much sense, looks like they might have tried to get rid off you.
What if there's multiple people living in the same address that want different and separate accounts?
Oh well, its still lots of hoops to jump through 😀

I thought of that. But honestly I recalled the issues I had when we first ported and just told myself this is not a battle worth fighting lol.

 

[eyoungren]

How is it possible that this happened with my ATT phones as well? Three months of phone calls to finally get them to fix it. I don't get it.

Their returns go to some place in Texas. Between UPS or USPS showing delivery at the dock there and inside the warehouse is where the problem lies.

I got my credit because I made myself a weekly nag at my local T-Mob store. I returned once a week, always a couple of days after the in-store rep told me my device would credit to my account. Eventually they realized I was going to be visiting them every week until I got my credit. I was always polite, never angry and I sympathized with the store employees because it wasn't their fault. It made them want to help me, so they contacted someone there who had the authority to grant me the credit anyway even without the phone being checked in.

At that point it didn't matter any more to me if they actually checked the damn phone in or not.

Took me a month.

 

[Applejuiced]

I thought of that. But honestly I recalled the issues I had when we first ported and just told myself this is not a battle worth fighting lol.

I hear you, I also dont have to the time and patience to deal with the back and forth with companies. And such changes can take a while and with many steps involved.
They dont make it easy.
I had to fight AT&T to unlock my previous iPhone and the time, aggravation and energy spend over 2 weeks talking to countless of useless reps was not worth it.
For the other 2 UDP iphone lines on my account I paid Swiftunlocks to unlock them.
Even though they were both free to go ETF free and full final bill paid.
I knew I didn't want to go through the same again and wait forever.
[doublepost=1490726146][/doublepost]

Their returns go to some place in Texas. Between UPS or USPS showing delivery at the dock there and inside the warehouse is where the problem lies.

I got my credit because I made myself a weekly nag at my local T-Mob store. I returned once a week, always a couple of days after the in-store rep told me my device would credit to my account. Eventually they realized I was going to be visiting them every week until I got my credit. I was always polite, never angry and I sympathized with the store employees because it wasn't their fault. It made them want to help me, so they contacted someone there who had the authority to grant me the credit anyway even without the phone being checked in.

At that point it didn't matter any more to me if they actually checked the damn phone in or not.

Took me a month.

Its the dude that brings it from the dock to inside the warehouse.
Somehow they just disapear or fall from the back of the truck 😀

 

[eyoungren]

Its the dude that brings it from the dock to inside the warehouse.
Somehow they just disapear or fall from the back of the truck 😀

Exactly.

How it can be traced via their system to be 'in the warehouse' but not 'scanned in' though is not something I've managed to figure out.

 

[Applejuiced]

Exactly.

How it can be traced via their system to be 'in the warehouse' but not 'scanned in' though is not something I've managed to figure out.

Yep, they tend to just disapear and then the customer goes through hell, bad user experience and the company might end up eating the loss.
But with tracking numbers and everything it shouldn't be hard to pin point the culprit and fire the person responsible for such issues.

 

[eyoungren]

But with tracking numbers and everything it shouldn't be hard to pin point the culprit and fire the person responsible for such issues.

I wish it were so.

I tracked my package for the return. All you get is delivery confirmation and that 'X' person signed. 'X' person can change depending on who was there when and the signing is the same for every item in the return shipment. So, 'X' is signing not only for my package or yours, but every GD package being returned that day.

Hence making one or two 'disappear' isn't as detectable as both you and I would wish for.

 

[Applejuiced]

I wish it were so.

I tracked my package for the return. All you get is delivery confirmation and that 'X' person signed. 'X' person can change depending on who was there when and the signing is the same for every item in the return shipment. So, 'X' is signing not only for my package or yours, but every GD package being returned that day.

Hence making one or two 'disappear' isn't as detectable as both you and I would wish for.

I hear you, but it shouldn't be an issue for us to figure out.
All we can do is put the phone in the box and send it to the correct address. Once the tracking shows it arrived there then its out of our hands and their problem🙂

 

[eyoungren]

I hear you, but it shouldn't be an issue for us to figure out.
All we can do is put the phone in the box and send it to the correct address. Once the tracking shows it arrived there then its out of our hands and their problem🙂

Totally agree.

Unfortunately, some people have not experienced that. I was lucky they decided to give me the credit. Probaby because I was a brand new customer at the time. But T-Mob's Reddit page is full of people who had to continue paying their leases on their old phones while T-Mobile 'researched' their return - even with proof of delivery!

You and I would raise holy hell over it. Other people, not so much.

 

[Applejuiced]

Totally agree.

Unfortunately, some people have not experienced that. I was lucky they decided to give me the credit. Probaby because I was a brand new customer at the time. But T-Mob's Reddit page is full of people who had to continue paying their leases on their old phones while T-Mobile 'researched' their return - even with proof of delivery!

You and I would raise holy hell over it. Other people, not so much.

Well said.
You shouldn't have to keep going back to the same store every week for months to get it resolved or keep calling them.
They do have a major issue and hope they learn from it and improve the process or it can end up hurting them in the long run.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

They want to see the IMEI of the leased/ETF phone on your final bill. If the IMEI does not match up with what you return then no payout.

My understanding is that there used to be a way around this, but they closed the loophole before I joined.

Now, if you get JOD, you can dodge the lease fees. You just jump to the cheapest JOD device you can, then do not sign the lease. Return the device in store. You're out the re-stock fee but that's nothing compared to the lease charges. If you have a spare phone at that point you can put your SIM in it.

Oh. If you do return phones, try to get them to take it in store. I love T-Mobile but I learned right away not to trust their return service. They tend to lose the phones returned to them because they have a very crappy return system and you the customer are out a phone/credits or stuck with paying lease fees because they never scanned the phone in.

Somewhere in T-Mob's vast warehouse is an unlocked Sprint iPhone 6+ 128GB Space Gray that never got scanned in. Luckily I was able to get my credit for it out of them.

Another good reason I'm glad I didn't bother trading my Verizon 5 in! The other reason being that it's hardly worth anything. It's in my bedside drawer for now. I'm debating keeping it out as an iPod or putting it back in the original box for posterity.

 

[eyoungren]

Another good reason I'm glad I didn't bother trading my Verizon 5 in! The other reason being that it's hardly worth anything. It's in my bedside drawer for now. I'm debating keeping it out as an iPod or putting it back in the original box for posterity.

Well, not to be a downer, but they wouldn't have taken your 5 anyway. We tried to turn in our old Sprint iPhone 5's when porting to T-Mobile and the cutoff was the 5s. That was September 2015.

But I totally get your point. I use mine as an iPod and media device (since T-Mob wouldn't accept it).

My son uses my wife's old iPhone 5 as his primary phone. Had it replaced three weeks ago and because they let me choose the activation policy I chose Verizon, which fully unlocked it from Sprint. He made a giant leap from an 8GB 4s to a 64GB iPhone 5.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

Well, not to be a downer, but they wouldn't have taken your 5 anyway. We tried to turn in our old Sprint iPhone 5's when porting to T-Mobile and the cutoff was the 5s. That was September 2015.

But I totally get your point. I use mine as an iPod and media device (since T-Mob wouldn't accept it).

That explains why they didn't even offer 😉 Their focus was on my fiancé's 6s since his Jump On Demand would have come due next month. We opted to trade it in and switch to the current 24 month financing offer. He never traded his 6s in early, so there wasn't much point in keeping that device plan.

The question is, will we be eligible in a year to trade our 7's in if the 8 is worth it? That wasn't explained to us, though we didn't ask.

 

[eyoungren]

That explains why they didn't even offer 😉 Their focus was on my fiancé's 6s since his Jump On Demand would have come due next month. We opted to trade it in and switch to the current 24 month financing offer. He never traded his 6s in early, so there wasn't much point in keeping that device plan.

The question is, will we be eligible in a year to trade our 7's in if the 8 is worth it? That wasn't explained to us, though we didn't ask.

Are you on Jump!, JOD (Jump On Demand) or EIP? I would guess EIP as you said 24 months.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

Are you on Jump!, JOD (Jump On Demand) or EIP? I would guess EIP as you said 24 months.

Must be EIP though we were able to get device protection with the new AppleCare+ addition for $12 a month per line.

 

[eyoungren]

Must be EIP though we were able to get device protection with the new AppleCare+ addition for $12 a month per line.

Yeah, then you're locked in. You can updgrade any time you want but you're still bound for 24 months with these devices. Any early termination of the payments will result in the rest of the amount being immediately due.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

Yeah, then you're locked in. You can updgrade any time you want but you're still bound for 24 months with these devices. Any early termination of the payments will result in the rest of the amount being immediately due.

As I expected. The CSR's seem to think they're moving away from Jump/JOD financing and trade-ins.