Carrier Trapped by T-Mobile's "JUMP! On Demand Lease"... Should I sell my iPhone 6s Plus?

[h4lp m3]

SUMMARY:

I Purchased new iPhone 6s Plus from T-Mobile store in Hawaii, but instead of running my credit card like normal, they told me they would just "add it to my bill". Today I get a bill and discover that I am leasing the phone. NOT COOL.

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The whole thing happened so fast, but I left under the presumption that I completely purchased the phone, so either I'm an idiot or someone didn't explain things to me. I've never leased a phone and I don't have any intention of doing so now.

The good news, is that they sent me a brand new iPhone (because of dropped calls) and I haven't even used it yet. So I'm thinking I could pay it all off, then sell it (eBay???) and only lose a few dollars, but at least I won't be stuck in this contract. T-Mobile said that I could buy the phone for $700 and they would unlock it for me. How much can I get for a brand new unlocked 16GB iPhone 6s Plus?

Or is there another way out of this trap? I don't remember signing anything, they just sent me out of the store with an iPhone and said "We'll add it to your next bill". It's pretty crazy, and the foreigners at tech support can't even provide me with a copy of any such documentation.

 

[eyoungren]

If you pay it off, you should be good.

I'm new to T-Mobile, but it sounds as if you may have been dealing with a third party store, instead of a corporate store? We had to electronically sign for our iPhones (leases).

I might ask your question again here: https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/new/

T-Mobile employees are pretty responsive on reddit.

 

[poematik13]

you probably went to a fake non-corporate tmobile store and got played.

 

[Applejuiced]

The usual I have no idea what I signed and what I got myself into
And now that you want to leave you're finding out the details of your agreement.
Blame yourself and next time understand and pay attention what you sign.
There is no free lunch. You cannot keep the phone and not pay for it.
You can still use your card to pay it off in full.
You pay no more or less either way. The jump program just lets you make interest free monthly payments towards paying off the phone instead of paying it full price at once.

 

[Truefan31]

You're probably not getting 700 for a 16 gb 6s plus

 

[lchlch]

It's clearly stated in the fine print on T-Mobile's website that this is a lease.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Buyout the lease. This is something I am doing as well.

 

[lordofthereef]

You qualified for interest free financing. You may as well use it unless you want to buy another phone. Unsure why you are against this lease. Thought it IS termed as a lease, it is also the same as an interest free loan. Every month you pay a certain amount and that is subtracted from the MSRP of the device. At an time you can pay the remainder and teh phone is yours to keep. Just about the only benefit of that that I can think of is being able to unlock the device though.

It's also inclesr to me why you want to all of the sudden lay it off and get rid of it. Why did you get the phone? If you must pay it off for whatever reason you have against a monthly payment, why not keep it? Wasn't laying in full your original intention?

 

[iDuel]

I don't understand why you are all up in arms. You should have made sure to understand the terms under which you were acquiring the iPhone.

You can, however, pay off the phone in full and no longer be constrained to a monthly lease payment. Selling the phone on eBay will likely accomplish nothing as the price of the phone is the same as what you will be paying to get out of the JOD lease.

 

[eyoungren]

…Just about the only benefit of that that I can think of is being able to unlock the device though.

And even then it's not really much of one.

Due to a bug in T-Mobile's systems, one that T-Mobile knows about and has not fixed, active lines on T-Mobile for about 40 days qualify for unlocking. My wife and I have leases for our phones. We got them unlocked in mid-December.

Our iPad Air 2s though are not on lease however (some sort of equipment payment thing we pay each month) and are still locked. However, my understand there is that as soon as 50% of the EIP is paid off they will qualify for unlock.

 

[lordofthereef]

And even then it's not really much of one.

Due to a bug in T-Mobile's systems, one that T-Mobile knows about and has not fixed, active lines on T-Mobile for about 40 days qualify for unlocking. My wife and I have leases for our phones. We got them unlocked in mid-December.

Our iPad Air 2s though are not on lease however (some sort of equipment payment thing we pay each month) and are still locked. However, my understand there is that as soon as 50% of the EIP is paid off they will qualify for unlock.

WHAT?! How do I do this? lol

 

[eyoungren]

WHAT?! How do I do this? lol

Log in to your account and go to the Phone tab. On the right hand side is a menu item "Check device unlock status". Select the device(s) you are looking to unlock and then click on that menu item. If it's says you're eligible, contact customer support and ask for an unlock.

Get the IMEIs from your devices though! I had to try twice before I realized that the T-Mobile website was substituting the last digit of my IMEI with a zero. Once I gave the rep the correct IMEIs I was unlocked in about two or three hours.

I used their online chat to do it.

Good luck!

PS, I think the bug probably has something to do with their satisfaction guarantee. That is, if you use their service and it doesn't work for you, T-Mobile will unlock the phone and forgive the remaining portion of the lease. So, I speculate that the system just automatically makes you eligible.

But I really have no idea where or why there is this bug. But, T-Mobile is aware of it and has not bothered to fix it. Been there for some time I hear.

 

[lordofthereef]

Log in to your account and go to the Phone tab. On the right hand side is a menu item "Check device unlock status". Select the device(s) you are looking to unlock and then click on that menu item. If it's says you're eligible, contact customer support and ask for an unlock.

Get the IMEIs from your devices though! I had to try twice before I realized that the T-Mobile website was substituting the last digit of my IMEI with a zero. Once I gave the rep the correct IMEIs I was unlocked in about two or three hours.

I used their online chat to do it.

Good luck!

PS, I think the bug probably has something to do with their satisfaction guarantee. That is, if you use their service and it doesn't work for you, T-Mobile will unlock the phone and forgive the remaining portion of the lease. So, I speculate that the system just automatically makes you eligible.

But I really have no idea where or why there is this bug. But, T-Mobile is aware of it and has not bothered to fix it. Been there for some time I hear.

So good news and bad news...

The good news, all devices are unlockable. Bad news, literally NONE of them are the devices we are using lol...

My line is a 128 GB Space gray iPhone 6s Plus
TMO claims my liune is a 16GB Rose Gold 6S plus

Wife's Line is a 128GB 6S Rose gold
TMO claims her line is a 16GB gold

Mom's line is a 6s 128GB rose gold
TMO claims her line is a 16GB gold

I have never looked at this page before (and we have also never owned phones in these configurations). Uhhh... confused.

EDIT: The IMEIs match perfect though sooooo.... wtf?

 

[eyoungren]

So good news and bad news...

The good news, all devices are unlockable. Bad news, literally NONE of them are the devices we are using lol...

My line is a 128 GB Space gray iPhone 6s Plus
TMO claims my liune is a 16GB Rose Gold 6S plus

Wife's Line is a 128GB 6S Rose gold
TMO claims her line is a 16GB gold

Mom's line is a 6s 128GB rose gold
TMO claims her line is a 16GB gold

I have never looked at this page before (and we have also never owned phones in these configurations). Uhhh... confused.

LOL! No worries!!!!

The claims on that page are DEFAULTS! Change it yourself. There's a link under the picture to the effect of "Not your phone?" or something like that. Click on it and set your phone to the correct one.

This has nothing to do with your actual devices. It's all a cookie based thing for your web browser. If you set it on one computer you'll see what I mean when you log in to your account on a second computer or a different browser on the same computer.

So, you're eligble. Go unlock some phones man!!!

 

[lordofthereef]

LOL! No worries!!!!

The claims on that page are DEFAULTS! Change it yourself. There's a link under the picture to the effect of "Not your phone?" or something like that. Click on it and set your phone to the correct one.

This has nothing to do with your actual devices. It's all a cookie based thing for your web browser. If you set it on one computer you'll see what I mean when you log in to your account on a second computer or a different browser on the same computer.

So, you're eligble. Go unlock some phones man!!!

Awesome. Starting a chat now. Thank you for the tip!

 

[eyoungren]

Awesome. Starting a chat now. Thank you for the tip!

No problem! Glad I could help.

Just be sure to give them the correct IMEIs, NOT the ones from the website!

Good luck!

 

[lordofthereef]

No problem! Glad I could help.

Just be sure to give them the correct IMEIs, NOT the ones from the website!

Good luck!

Success! (well at least according to the rep, waiting for the emails to confirm). Thank you, again!

 

[eyoungren]

Success! (well at least according to the rep, waiting for the emails to confirm). Thank you, again!

Awesome! Good news!!! Congratulations!

 

[Applejuiced]

So good news and bad news...

The good news, all devices are unlockable. Bad news, literally NONE of them are the devices we are using lol...

My line is a 128 GB Space gray iPhone 6s Plus
TMO claims my liune is a 16GB Rose Gold 6S plus

Wife's Line is a 128GB 6S Rose gold
TMO claims her line is a 16GB gold

Mom's line is a 6s 128GB rose gold
TMO claims her line is a 16GB gold

I have never looked at this page before (and we have also never owned phones in these configurations). Uhhh... confused.

EDIT: The IMEIs match perfect though sooooo.... wtf?

Yes, mine too when I look online Tmobile displays various colors and configurations that dont match with our AT&T unlocked iphones

Success! (well at least according to the rep, waiting for the emails to confirm). Thank you, again!

Congrats Man!

 

[lordofthereef]

Yes, mine too when I look online Tmobile displays various colors and configurations that dont match with our AT&T unlocked iphones

My concern was that since I got them through TMO, IF I decided to trade them back they would give me **** for it lol. I had a really stupid time ordereing phones on the launch preorder night, they messed up my trade-in... itwas the worst. They fixed everything over the next three (yes THREE) months but I was paying for six devices rather than three (they credited everything I paid double on and then some) but it was still just a headache. For a second I panicked and felt the headache coming back....

 

[Applejuiced]

My concern was that since I got them through TMO, IF I decided to trade them back they would give me **** for it lol. I had a really stupid time ordereing phones on the launch preorder night, they messed up my trade-in... itwas the worst. They fixed everything over the next three (yes THREE) months but I was paying for six devices rather than three (they credited everything I paid double on and then some) but it was still just a headache. For a second I panicked and felt the headache coming back....

Lol
Sucks when that happens.
I went thru this back and forth with AT&T for a week while porting my lines to Tmobile.
Getting the etf waived on all lines and getting the phones unlocked was a pain but glad its over.

 

[eyoungren]

Lol
Sucks when that happens.
I went thru this back and forth with AT&T for a week while porting my lines to Tmobile.
Getting the etf waived on all lines and getting the phones unlocked was a pain but glad its over.

T-Mobile was great, but I'm not so sure of their mail backs and reimbursements.

Had to submit my final bill three times before we finally got reimbursed for all devices. That took three and a half months. And T-Mobile never checked in my Sprint iPhone 6+. They said it was in the warehouse and that they could see it, but it never made it into their system. Bizzare.

 

[Applejuiced]

T-Mobile was great, but I'm not so sure of their mail backs and reimbursements.

Had to submit my final bill three times before we finally got reimbursed for all devices. That took three and a half months. And T-Mobile never checked in my Sprint iPhone 6+. They said it was in the warehouse and that they could see it, but it never made it into their system. Bizzare.

Yes, I heard a few others also say that it takes a few months or so to get them to reimburse you for your etf fee's paid to the old carrier.
I guess its still pretty good for them to take care of that portion for switching over to them.

 

[lordofthereef]

T-Mobile never checked in my Sprint iPhone 6+. They said it was in the warehouse and that they could see it, but it never made it into their system. Bizzare.

Exactly what happened to me... I called probably two dozen times (really) and then I just said F it I will deal with this after the holidays. I decided to log in at the end of January and saw a giant credit on the account. I was supposed to get a call back, but never did, but I won't continue complaining. The issue was fixed, although it took more effort than I think it should have on my part.

 

[eyoungren]

Yes, I heard a few others also say that it takes a few months or so to get them to reimburse you for your etf fee's paid to the old carrier.
I guess its still pretty good for them to take care of that portion for switching over to them.

Well, it would have happened in November, but the first submission only took care of two devices. The second took care of one and the third took care of the final device.

That said, each payout took care of a few bills that I otherwise would have had to pay.
[doublepost=1455836186][/doublepost]

Exactly what happened to me... I called probably two dozen times (really) and then I just said F it I will deal with this after the holidays. I decided to log in at the end of January and saw a giant credit on the account. I was supposed to get a call back, but never did, but I won't continue complaining. The issue was fixed, although it took more effort than I think it should have on my part.

I kept bugging the sales rep that signed me up.

By the third visit he asked the CSR rep on the phone to just credit my account, which they did. The rest was trying to get T-Mobile to pay out on all four of my devices (ETF and lease reimbursement).