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Carrier T-Mobile: What You Should Know

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Sorry, but I see T-mobile's side to this as well. And if you think T-mobile is at fault here, see if any of the other carriers will let you do the same thing.

You sold a $749 for $800. They charge tax because they don't get to keep it. You got to keep the entire $800. Heck, as far as they know you might've gotten it for less than $749 on some special promotion. And you did it five times too. At least as far as they know of.

Why do you need that many different phones anyhow? :confused:

PS I'm actually impressed that T-mobile did that much research on you.
PPS FYI, you blanked out your last name in the header of the letter but forgot to blank it out on the salutation line.
 
Based on what I've read, if I were T-Mobile, I'd have done the same thing. I can't imagine any business, unless they're so large where they aren't aware, will sit idly by to allow this to happen.

You've done nothing illegal, but no business will tolerate a loss leader to this degree.
 
Troneas said:




to the question as of how they found out about his sale a few things comes to mind:

the OP uses his real name in CL, maybe he listed the IMEI or serial number in the description... maybe they've got friends at the FBI :D


who knows.
Click to expand...

Or T-Mobile called the account holders that is on their network with the IMEI in question and asked them for the seller's info.
 
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If you go to Best Buy and get/ apply for credit and buy a TV with your new card.... then sell the TV on Craigslist and never pay off Best Buy.... BestBuy will send you to collections and ruin your credit. That's what a normal business does.

If this guy stopped paying his bill with T-Mobile..... then T-Mobile would stop selling him phones....

Not cut him off when he was paying his bills.

T-Mobile now thinks they are the NSA...

All carriers are the devil.... T-Mobile is the worst because they blatantly brand themselves as being different.

I can't wait until next month when the threads pop up about people not getting their cards from switching from other carriers.
 
rockitdog said:
As someone who enjoys trying different phones and operating systems I would often find someone on CL who either wanted to trade devices or buy mine which would enable to me to pay off my current plan with T-Mobile and then would allow me to start a new EIP plan (electronic installment plan) on a new phone.
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That is the problem you're facing. The phones you bought from T-Mobile under an EIP were sold to you under the contractual obligation to be used only by you for that line you opened. I'm assuming you sold the phone to pay off your ETF, right? Doing so various times probably set off an alarm in their system for your account to flag you.

rockitdog said:
Many times I would make this deal at a T-Mobile store in front of T-Mobile employees who would often help to verify that my device or one that I was trading for was clean and had no issues associated with it. Never seemed to be any issues with this until in November when I did what I had done quite a few times before.
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Understandably, you had positive intentions when you went into a T-Mobile store to have the phones checked out. But just because a rep says its "okay" does not exactly make it "okay". The "law of the land" when it comes to carriers is ultimately the TOS.

Sorry all this happened to you. But that's why we should all read the TOS regardless of carrier. This will happen with ANY CARRIER. Not just T-Mobile. That's why I switched to a pre-paid MVNO that doesn't promise me a whole lot so my expectations aren't high and I don't get into "trouble". Just my 2 cents.
 
My guess is that tmobile thought he was one of the scammers who open a line, get a phone on credit, resell the phone then cancel the device and bail on the phone payments and ETF.

Tmobile has gotten really strict about this recently because it costs them a ton of money and was the primary source of used phones on ebay and craigslist. Take a look at ebay listings for tmobile phones and you'll see about half of them list a "bad imei". Those that don't have most likely not cancelled their service yet, but they will and then your phone is dead in the USA (but still usable in some other countries).

None of this mattered when tmobile (like all other carriers still do) built in the phone financing into your monthly bill. Now that they don't, they are obviously getting aggressive at trying to halt the practice of selling and bailing.

My guess is that if the OP had not financed any of the phones and simply paid up front for each one, then tmobile wouldn't care. The resell for profit clause seems unenforcible to me, if you pay for the phone in full and don't finance it in any way.

Me personally, I plan on buying all my new phones without any financing, it's not worth the trouble. Same with used phones, I'm done with them. And I'm speaking as a five line tmobile customer with four of those lines using phones bought off Craigslist (the fifth was a craigslist phone too, until my daughter lost it and I got her a cheap pre-paid phone as punishment).
 
I side with T-Mobile on this one. This guy sounds like a scam artist to begin with. Why would you abuse their 0% financing like that? Buy the phones at full price at Apple and do whatever you want with them. But don't use up T-Mobile's resources to your advantage (or anyone else for that matter) for your advantage. I'm glad they cut you off, I would too and so would any other carrier.
 
MarvelouzV said:
I side with T-Mobile on this one. This guy sounds like a scam artist to begin with. Why would you abuse their 0% financing like that? Buy the phones at full price at Apple and do whatever you want with them. But don't use up T-Mobile's resources to your advantage (or anyone else for that matter) for your advantage. I'm glad they cut you off, I would too and so would any other carrier.
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He does not sound like a scam artist as there is no scams involved. I however don't understand what he is doing. It makes no sense to buy and sell like that. Who is buying a brand new phone off CL at full price?
 
617aircav said:
He does not sound like a scam artist as there is no scams involved. I however don't understand what he is doing. It makes no sense to buy and sell like that. Who is buying a brand new phone off CL at full price?
Click to expand...


You're correct. I'm a tech junkie and love trying out new things. I try any phone I can. Nobody was buying them from me at full price or same as the new price at the store. Almost in every case I took a loss and paid the difference with my own money. Anyway, lesson learned. Just wanted to share my experience with everyone.
 
Why cut loose a paying customer that you're making money from? A customer that's PAYING OFF THEIR PHONES and only switching and selling to cover their costs, not to make a profit.

If i were t-mobile I wouldn't have an issue long as it's being paid off
 
I have paid off tmobile phones and then sold them. They have never "flagged" me or done anything strange.

I totally understand why they would flag your account if you were a)selling a phone before it was paid off or b) buying and selling phones that often.

In their eyes you were probably opening more lines to flip phones.

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thehustleman said:
Why cut loose a paying customer that you're making money from? A customer that's PAYING OFF THEIR PHONES and only switching and selling to cover their costs, not to make a profit.

If i were t-mobile I wouldn't have an issue long as it's being paid off
Click to expand...

I totally agree with this though. They are getting paid, so I would think they have bigger fish to fry.
 
mattopotamus said:
I have paid off tmobile phones and then sold them. They have never "flagged" me or done anything strange.

I totally understand why they would flag your account if you were a)selling a phone before it was paid off or b) buying and selling phones that often.

In their eyes you were probably opening more lines to flip phones.

But a simple look at my account would show that I only ever had one line open. I never had more than one line on my account.
Click to expand...
 
rockitdog said:
mattopotamus said:
I have paid off tmobile phones and then sold them. They have never "flagged" me or done anything strange.

I totally understand why they would flag your account if you were a)selling a phone before it was paid off or b) buying and selling phones that often.

In their eyes you were probably opening more lines to flip phones.

But a simple look at my account would show that I only ever had one line open. I never had more than one line on my account.
Click to expand...


I just think you are a very unique situation. The one user said it best, you were using their 0% finance to flip phones. A person could seriously set up a business buying and selling phones for fast cash.
Click to expand...
 
Email john legere and he will redirect you to an executive at his office. They are extremely helpful and have a lot of power.
 
ross1998 said:
Email john legere and he will redirect you to an executive at his office. They are extremely helpful and have a lot of power.
Click to expand...

That is who I was working with unfortunately their legal team forbids anyone from talking to me from T-Mobile.
 
This is quite surprising. They seem to be doing everything to get as many customers as possible. If you paying these devices off, I don't understand why they would be upset. You have the right to sell your property. They can't do anything about that. My guess is that you made a little more by selling your phones and it got T-Mobile upset. But for them to ban you from all T-Mobile stores is ridiculous.

You can still go to any T-Mobile store you like, buy a handset at full price and sell it. They can never deny you that.

Be glad your done with them anyway. The network is still not up to par. Lots of 2G GSM (EDGE).
 
MattMJB0188 said:
This is quite surprising. They seem to be doing everything to get as many customers as possible. If you paying these devices off, I don't understand why they would be upset. You have the right to sell your property. They can't do anything about that. My guess is that you made a little more by selling your phones and it got T-Mobile upset. But for them to ban you from all T-Mobile stores is ridiculous.

You can still go to any T-Mobile store you like, buy a handset at full price and sell it. They can never deny you that.

Be glad your done with them anyway. The network is still not up to par. Lots of 2G GSM (EDGE).
Click to expand...

t-mobile is upset because t-mobile is actually allowing the op to finance the phone at 0% down. Basically this is a loss leader for t-mobile in exchange for the service. t-mobile was the bank for the sale of these phones and OP did this one too many times.
 
??? Any business can choose not to sell you anything.
No business is under any obligation to sell you something.
 
thehustleman said:
Why cut loose a paying customer that you're making money from? A customer that's PAYING OFF THEIR PHONES and only switching and selling to cover their costs, not to make a profit.

If i were t-mobile I wouldn't have an issue long as it's being paid off
Click to expand...

If t-mobile is acting as the bank, and op is churning phones, they are losing money. I think it would be a different situation if op, for example, had purchased phone at the apple store, then sold said phone, and purchased another phone at the apple store.

However, t-mobile does not want you to use them as your piggy bank. The carrying costs for these phones are expensive.
 
just be truthful with what you really did. you aren't telling the full story. a few months back when tmobile was advertising and trying to rub it in AT&T's face etc. they had promotions where a 16gb iphone was basically just $500. They offered the $0 upfront that they were normally running at $99 or more at the time. after all said and done it would equal to just $500 instead of the $600+ it is now.

So i'm willing to bet you took advantage of that offer then turned around and paid the remaining balance of $500 and rinse and repeat until you got caught.

T-Mobile was trying to get people to switch over so they were offering the iPhones at a discounted rate than normal retail by about $150 or so. I remember this bc I was actually thinking of switching over myself. It wasn't just for new customers either, it was for existing.

You set off the flag of whatever number phones that must have been and it was obviously not for personal use as you probably did this with 10 or more phones.

Good for T-Mobile!

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thehustleman said:
Why cut loose a paying customer that you're making money from? A customer that's PAYING OFF THEIR PHONES and only switching and selling to cover their costs, not to make a profit.

If i were t-mobile I wouldn't have an issue long as it's being paid off
Click to expand...

the problem comes in when T-Mobile makes a promotion where the phone is basically $150 off of regular retail price. So the phone ends up being just $500, he pays off his balance and turns around and sells the phone for profit.

Buys another one and continues until he got busted.....

He wasn't doing it for personal use....he was making money off of T-Mobile's promotion
 
rmhop81 said:
just be truthful with what you really did. you aren't telling the full story. a few months back when tmobile was advertising and trying to rub it in AT&T's face etc. they had promotions where a 16gb iphone was basically just $500. They offered the $0 upfront that they were normally running at $99 or more at the time. after all said and done it would equal to just $500 instead of the $600+ it is now.

So i'm willing to bet you took advantage of that offer then turned around and paid the remaining balance of $500 and rinse and repeat until you got caught.

T-Mobile was trying to get people to switch over so they were offering the iPhones at a discounted rate than normal retail by about $150 or so. I remember this bc I was actually thinking of switching over myself. It wasn't just for new customers either, it was for existing.

You set off the flag of whatever number phones that must have been and it was obviously not for personal use as you probably did this with 10 or more phones.

Good for T-Mobile!
Click to expand...

Haha, great guess but you're wrong. The only time T-Mobile ever offered a discounted price on an iPhone was when they started to sell the iPhone 5. It was $570 or $579, and it was for only a 2 or 3 weeks. Ever since they've been the standard price.

What's your next guess? FYI, I only had an iPhone 5 once, so no that wasn't it at all. Again, there was no scam here. If I was trying to scam them I wouldn't be on here boasting about getting caught. Come on, be smarter than that and stop trying to look cool and act like you caught me in the act!

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I7guy said:
If t-mobile is acting as the bank, and op is churning phones, they are losing money. I think it would be a different situation if op, for example, had purchased phone at the apple store, then sold said phone, and purchased another phone at the apple store.

However, t-mobile does not want you to use them as your piggy bank. The carrying costs for these phones are expensive.
Click to expand...

FYI, according to them even if I had bought them outright this still isn't allowed by them. My whole point is that according to T-Mobile, NOBODY is allowed to re-sell their device regardless of if you put it on an installment plan or if you pay in cash outright.

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MattMJB0188 said:
This is quite surprising. They seem to be doing everything to get as many customers as possible. If you paying these devices off, I don't understand why they would be upset. You have the right to sell your property. They can't do anything about that. My guess is that you made a little more by selling your phones and it got T-Mobile upset. But for them to ban you from all T-Mobile stores is ridiculous.

You can still go to any T-Mobile store you like, buy a handset at full price and sell it. They can never deny you that.

Be glad your done with them anyway. The network is still not up to par. Lots of 2G GSM (EDGE).
Click to expand...

Yeah. I chalk it up as a lesson learned and have moved onto greener pastures!
 
rockitdog said:
Haha, great guess but you're wrong. The only time T-Mobile ever offered a discounted price on an iPhone was when they started to sell the iPhone 5. It was $570 or $579, and it was for only a 2 or 3 weeks. Ever since they've been the standard price.

What's your next guess? FYI, I only had an iPhone 5 once, so no that wasn't it at all. Again, there was no scam here. If I was trying to scam them I wouldn't be on here boasting about getting caught. Come on, be smarter than that and stop trying to look cool and act like you caught me in the act!

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FYI, according to them even if I had bought them outright this still isn't allowed by them. My whole point is that according to T-Mobile, NOBODY is allowed to re-sell their device regardless of if you put it on an installment plan or if you pay in cash outright.

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Yeah. I chalk it up as a lesson learned and have moved onto greener pastures!
Click to expand...
The only people that caught you in the act were T-Mobile and now you're whining about it.

Now you're trying to justify what you did and "warn" others.

I have nothing to prove, i just know you're not being truthful.

Is virgin mobile you're next victim? http://www.technologytell.com/gadge...e-5c-now-360-via-virgin-mobile-iphone-5s-440/
 
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