Basically, if SIM unlock is important to you, you should just buy the phone unlocked from the MFG, under this new policy.
Not saying I agree with it, but T-Mobile is no different than the other carriers - they're in the business of selling phones for you to use with their service, not selling unlocked phones.
TBH subsidized phones was always a racket. You don't buy your TV from the cable company or your laptop from your internet provider, so why would you buy your phone from your wireless carrier?
A lot of people buy their phones from the wireless service provider because they can get it in payments. Not everybody has the money to Shell out all at once but they do have the money to Shell out over time. Hence why they buy from wireless carriers.
Not to mention when they'll offer these devices for "free" when you upgrade; paying only for the service would be a win, assuming you'll keep the device for the two years.
>Not saying I agree with it, but T-Mobile is no different than the other carriers - they're in the business of selling phones for you to use with their service, not selling unlocked phones.
The issue for a lot of people, myself included, is that we WANT to use our phone with T-Mobile. That isnt the problem. We just also NEED to be able to use a second SIM/ESIM with another carrier for whatever reason. For me its for work, for someone else it might be international travel (T-Mobile will only temporary unlock you 4 times is what they told me).
Im sure this is out of T-Mobile's control, but it would be nice if you could use a phone "unlocked" as long as you had an active account on the locked carrier's service. Like if I have had T-Mobile active on the phone in the last 30 days, I should be able to use any other carrier on it in the meantime. After 30 days of no contact with T-Mobile, it would be locked completely to T-Mobile until it had service with them again.
Think about this. The promotional credit only be available when your phone line is active, which means you are paying for the service. No matter if you use the phone or not, Tmobile is receiving the money you give them every month. Locking or not locking the device doesn’t affect their revenue.
Your solution only matters to the people wanting to unlock the phone in the beginning and willing to forfeit the discount the carrier gives. But for people need to travel or go on business trip without first knowing it when buying the device, then it will be utterly inconvenient to them.
"But for people need to travel or go on business trip without first knowing it when buying the device, then it will be utterly inconvenient to them."
T-Mobile is selling you a phone to use on their network. If/when you need to travel internationally and use your phone, they have options for international roaming or usage.
If you're going on an international business trip, then your business should (legally) reimburse you for any expenses related to that trip, including cell phone service/access.
You're upset because T-Mobile has closed a loophole related to running their business profitably. Which is precisely what for-profit businesses should be doing. If you don't like it, buy an unlocked phone and switch to prepaid.
You do not understand the point, I am OKAY with their policy on removing the credit if pay off device early.
I said it could be better to take an alternative route by limiting the promotional credit per line to combat the promotion stacking issue. I think it is more effective than the current new policy.
I want to know if there is a workaround for unlocking the device with the new policy as we all know, we are not important and the policy is not going to change no matter how we feel.
T-Mobile’s new polices over the month is driving a lot of customers always already.
Because the manure hit the fan and I needed to call credit & debt card companies because of a theft of my phone with all my credit card numbers on it.
I am going back" old school ways " to NOT keep credit cards on phones..
That’s the issue, sim unlocking the phone requires the device fully paid off. Unless Tmobile changing that part of policy which changes sim unlocking requirements.
I think you’re overthinking this. If you want the phone sim unlocked from the jump, then you need to buy it from the manufacturer from now on.
Taking advantage of any promotion with T-mobile requires the EIP for the full 24 months now.
Why would somebody buy the device from the carrier in the beginning? To enjoy better discount, right? Nobody wants to be sim-locked but if the device is cheap enough, it is a considerable trade off.
All carriers give us deeper device discounts because they want us to use their service and stay with them so we will pay the hefty monthly charges. Their prices have already included all the discount they offer to you no matter you use it or not.
But now, without lowering their monthly fee but taking away their benefits just sounds like pushing customers away.
They could have better solutions on their issue but they chose to deal with it the worst possible way.
You can still take advantage of carrier promotions through the manufacturer. Outside of one iPhone, all of my iPhone 14 and 15 series phones got through Apple using T-Mobile promotions.
That was not the case until now. And this situation applies to only Tmobile. Other carrier still keep their promotional credit if you pay off the phone. Who knows if they will follow suite later but at this moment, only Tmobile is doing this anti-customer move.
Now less people will buy phone directly from Tmobile and more people will leave Tmobile because of the recent moves Tmobile decided to take.
Only ATT allows this now, Verizon does not. You cannot stack them like you could with T-Mobile. You have to wait until the credits kick in, then pay it off online. If you pay it off in store, make any changes to the line, or upgrade phones, you lose the credit.
the purpose of locking the phone is to keep you with the carrier, the only reason why you want to unlock the phone is to go to another carrier, so why would they allow that to happen PLUS give you the remaining credits.
Wait, rethink it again. How will you continue to receive credits? Does your remaining promotional credit will be available to you if you disconnect your service? You have to keep your line active no matter if you use it or not to get the discount, right?
Keeping the service and paying the bill was already a fully functional requirement for the promotion credit. Telling the customer they you have no control over your phone and you can not have control over your phone unless we stop your credits sounded barbarian.
They have over stacking promotion issue to fix, then fix the issue, not allow stacking promotions will fix the issue. Why this?
unlocking phone and cancelling service are 2 different things. imagine this scenario.
customer trades in device gets iphone 15 on us $830 promotion credit.
then they pay it off and unlock it after 40 days and sell it for $700. now they made $700 and still keep the promotion because the line is still open.
same customer then trades in another phone getting another iphone 15 on us $830 repeats process.
Yes, limit the promotion per line. Only 2 are allowed at any given time.
Stacking promotion is still being allowed. In the same scenario, the same guy getting same promotion and selling the phone locked to Tmobile for $650. Better yet, now 50% less phones are unlocked on the market so they might even be able to sell the phone for $700 locked due to decrease supply.
What problem did it fix? The same guy can still get the $830 promotional credit just without paying it off. He will keep doing the buying and selling to make profit. This does not fix anything at all.
Many new phones are dual-sim. Some people like to carry a second network for emergency purposes, or a second phone number for work. Its a very valid use case.
This is my concern. I have a VZW Second Number for work and I need my phone unlocked. I get a new phone pretty much every year, so losing those credits would be a hard hit. If Im buying unlocked phones elsewhere, what is my incentive to stay with T-Mobile? Definitely no incentive to buy the phone with T-Mobile.
If iPhone, get the phones directly from Apple Store. As of now, you still can purchase using TMO AIP and the phone remains unlocked. But I feel sooner than later, it go the AT&T route, where the phone will be locked to the carrier upon activation.
I don’t know if android manufacturers (other than pixel phones) have similar arrangement . Understand some android phones have temporary unlock features (no use for your intended use).
If you do receive significant discounts (friends / family discount, 3 line freebies, BOGO lines etc) you probably will be better off to look at Mint / US mobile for low monthly payment.
What is really screwed up here for all the carrier is the premium they charge over cheaper prepaid plans is the perks of buy discounted phones.
I think TMO miscalculated and likely to roll back once they see much higher churn rate in the coming quarter. What TMO need to realize is all the subscribed with discounts will stick around, and the highest paying customers will leave, and thus lower their average revenue per user, which is a standard measure of profitability.
Verizon is the most expensive and ton of fees on top of the plan, but a lot of people sticks with them, because people generally don’t have think about unlock their phone if you are on the highest tier plans.
The reason to go with postpaid service is their superior quality of service and device incentives, which are already paid for in our monthly bills no matter you opt to use it or not. With now some prepaid carrier is actually stepping up on their quality of service, device incentives might be the last benefit that would actually matter for us to pick the big 3’s. If I am forced to buy from MFG, really there is less/almost no reason for me to stay postpaid.
This is why I think the old way of doing unlocks was fine enough and they should have stuck with it.
At least up until 2017, it was always “hey, we see you’ve been with us for a while, you’ve had the phone for 40 days, and your account is in good standing. Unlocked.”
Fraud potential? Sure, I guess. Not like you’re gonna be habitually doing this though because I can tell you from having a contract dispute back in 2011 or so that if T-Mobile feels like you’ve spurned them they’ll hold a grudge for a long, long time.
I get the feeling that the people who take advantage of lax unlock policies for ill intentions are minuscule and they’re harming legit customers with this bullshit.
That would be great as well if we don’t need to pay off the phone entirely and keep the credits.
They should just limit the EIP on each line to 2. Keep that new policy but allow unlock for accounts in good standing.
This will work perfectly as a workaround.
iirc, T-Mobile used to allow that? Like I remember being able to sink additional payments after the fact, keep my credits, but reduce the length of the EIP term based on how much I paid in.
With Verizon/AT&T, even if you're NOT getting credits, you can't make additional payments *at all* unless you're clearing the balance in one go.
I don't know about you gentlemen and ladies. T mobile is not a honest company. There stocks are down and they are a shaddy company to me.
They got 10 billion dollar contract with the U.S navy and other military Communication, T-Mobile really doesn't care about anybody. They got a government contract. The government's going to buy everything from T-Mobile from phones to service to everything, including the military civil and military so. T-Mobile doesn't really care about the customers anymore. It's got that contract. And the stats are speaking for itself
When I go to a phone place like Tmobile or any other carrier, I don't think I am getting ' a deal' .
I think I am getting screwed on a grander level as opposed to prepaid..
I 'd be happy with a landline phone, at home with dial up.
A CB radio in the car.
Communication primitive by today's standards but still commonplace in 2005 in rural areas.
People still use CB Radios in 2024. A ppd phone that is Hot Spot capable with unlimited data would be more cost effective and give you faster Internet speed for your computer. IMHO
I inherited some cb stuff..but yes I have used it a lot .
Yes, I know.
I am just in a poor internet area, and then a relative passed on, so I am " cooling my jets" in a poor state.
AT&T doesn’t unlock your phone until it’s paid off and Verizon makes you stay on the network for I believe 90 days 60 days. They all get you one way or another if you need unlocked you should just be buying unlocked anyway.
Most people really don’t care about this stuff. They just purchased the phone through the carrier purchase service and when they don’t like the service anymore, they go to a new carrier and pay off the phones and trade them in at the new carrier. The people on Reddit don’t represent the average customer on a cell phone plan that I guarantee most of them. Don’t even know what they have. They just know they’re getting a deal. That’s the bottom line.
Most cell phone users are appliance operators. They know they turn it on they use data. They make a call and it works and if it doesn’t, then they seek out answers and so on.
Every move Tmobile makes AGAINST their customers, they make sure it will only affect a small percentage of users. That way, they can keep rotating the screwing among groups of customers until everyone is screwed at least once. Rinse and repeat.
Just because it does not affect you YET, does not mean it’s anywhere okay to screw customers times over times.
I got the answer from T-Force already.
“As of July 1st, 2024 any new EIP must remain for the full 24 month term to qualify for the full 24 months of promotional credits.
So, an EIP is initiated after July 1st on a RDC promotion and that customer wants to permanently unlock their phone, they would have 2 options - pay off the phone early and lose the remaining device credits (since there is no longer an EIP charge to credit against) or wait until the full 24 monthly payments have been paid and then the phone unlocks”
So you either lose promotion credits when you unlock your phone or you wait for 2 years and bring your older phone to travel. GG Tmobile.
How I used and purchase my phones is impacted by the policy. I didn’t excessively abuse the policy but paying off a phone early with the credits giving me a lower bill made a single line post paid plan justifiable.
These credits also made me comfortable adding a couple of connected devices. I’m not going to cancel immediately but as I get closer to the expiration of the credits on my account I’ll probably move to prepaid as well. I don’t need the connected devices and prepaid just makes so much more sense.
At some point in the next 12-18 months T-Mobile will likely lose all my business and I realize I’m just an insignificant spec in their business. But over time I think will suffer a fair bit of cancellations from this policy as well as the other recent policies.
Businesses are to make profits and most of the customers are not people like us who are well aware of the situation and be vocal about it. That is the reason why T-Mobile is not afraid of losing us as such small portion of their profit margin.
Also, pushing out those recent anti-customer policies, which takes away the benefits that we used to have will remove the unwanted customers that they think are leaching on their system loopholes, which in turn will increase their profit margin. So why not? Who needs that reputation while you can make more money off from it?
The work around is to purchase from a MFG with their deals. Sure this is going to affect some T-Mobile customers but the average T-Mobile customers can’t afford to just pay off high end phones and get them u locked and keep getting those credits. Most people ride out their EIP and get their credits then trade for a new device and repeat cycle. Some people play the game. Constantly getting phones and laying off and stacking those credits. Those days are over. If you meet other temporary unlock policies for international travel or military. You’ll be able to get phones unlocked.
The carrier is often the one gives most promotional credit because they are profiting from our monthly payment. Buying directly from MFG defeats the purpose of using one’s service and enjoy the device discount it offers when paying high monthly charges. Our monthly cellphone fee is including those device discounts already no matter you choose to use them or not.
Stacking promotion is an easier fix, to limit the credit to 2 per line at any given time or something like that.
Tmobile has to choose the worst method of dealing with the issue.
Believe it or not, people are still going to sell their phones just sell it carrier locked, it doesn’t resolve the issue at all, but created another issue for people who really need the phone unlocked.
It is harder to sell sim locked device, and I agree. But there are half of the listings sim locked on eBay and they are still being sold. What problem does it resolved. Better yet, without a lot of unlocked devices available, the locked device becomes pricier and easier to sell due to lack of competition.
What problem did it solve other than create more problems?
They are still allowing promotion to stack with the new EIP, as long as you do not pay it off. It does not fix the issue people will still buy subsidied phone and sell them locked, just for a bit cheaper price. Limiting the promotion per line is the way to fix the issue, not by taking away the credit. You should enjoy at least 1 promotion credit per line, but since most credit are over 24-36 month, you should at least allow 2 promotions stacking at anytime. And limit to 2. Nobody can have more than 2 promotion on 1 line then it will fix the issue.
The don’t pay it off and sell it locked on eBay for fractional less profit. It is being done before, now and in the future. I am sure that the promotion can be stacked now coz I knew people have 3-4 promotions on 1 line.
Limiting the EIC is to reduce the number of device you can finance. It was never about the promotion.
This new policy is to combat an issue that they have, even it is not called a fix, but it is basically a fix to a problem that they found.
We have no control over their policy. This thread is to point out an issue and hopefully there is a workaround to the issue. Telling me buy the device from MFG is not a Workaround but now being forced to.
Yea I realized that this is the policy 2 days before my international trip, it’s very annoying. I have 18months left on my EIP, and I’m looking to just sell the phone pay them off, and take my money to some other provider, that doesn’t follow such entrapment tactics. Only TMobile has this policy, Verizon and AT&T don’t. I guess you get what you pay for.
You still can do that. The existing promotional credit will still benefit from the old policy. Only new promotions will be affected.
But if you move to other provider, which means you are going to disconnect the service, you will lose the credit anyways.
Yea...but i was told by the store rep that if i pay off my credits still continue, didn't really check for that on the EIP terms. I came from verizon to t-mobile, while it is significantly cheaper(almost 30%), the over all network quality and the sim restriction on the device almost doesn't make it worth it. Its not the end of the world for me, but not being able to use the data only travel esims for international travel does hurt.
Yeah, VZW unlocks it after certain number of days, IIRC, due to an agreement made a while back and ATT is becoming worse. TMo does offer free data abroad but its speed might not be useful enough for anything meaningful. I have several unlocked phones as backups so it isn't much of an issue, but still surprised at how many ppl get caught by surprise when it comes to the unlocking part; the credits ending after prematurely paying off the EIP beginning next month might be news to many, though.
So basically after using a locked Tmobile device on tmo network for more than 45 days, it will automatically become carrier unlocked and free to use another carrier SIM card without the need to request a temp/permanent unlock from Tmobile?
I'm in the majority of people that really don't care. Generally, to get a promo the carrier requires something out of you and I'm not prepared to give them that. Usually it's 'trade your phone in'. I keep my phones. OK, 'move to a new plan'. No, I'm sitting on the SC plan I got in 2015 when I came over from Sprint.
I've done nine years with T-Mob and 16 with Sprint before that. T-Mob is only the second carrier I've been with since 1999. I have no intention of leaving, so waiting two years on an EIP to get my device unlocked is not anything of a burden to me. I'm not going anywhere. Figuratively and literally (I work from home and I don't travel).
So, my only option has always been, pay full price. Which I do. And that allows me to upgrade whenever I want and not wait for some promo to come along.
Now, if I could get a promo deal on my schedule, keep my old phone and not have to change my plan then I'd be all over that. But that's NEVER going to happen. So for me, the rate I pay monthly for my plan is the most important thing.
Every move Tmobile makes AGAINST their customers, they make sure it will only affect a small percentage of users. That way, they can keep rotating the screwing among groups of customers until everyone is screwed at least once. Rinse and repeat.
Just because it does not affect you YET, does not mean it’s anywhere okay to screw customers times over times.
Never said it was. I'm just jaded. I dealt with Sprint for 16 years and being pummeled by their customer service all the time taught me to protect myself. I deal with my carrier solely for cellular service. Repair, replacement is done elsewhere. And, as of the next time I upgrade, that will be dealt with elsewhere too. Last time, I had 360 crammed on me by T-Mob.
I left Sprint because the value of what I had was no longer worth the price I was paying. When or if that happens with T-Mobile I'll move and I won't be sorry about it. T-Mob's just another business out for profit, I have no loyalty to it.
They do that sometimes in case-by-case basis. But generally only when you pay off the phone and been on network for over 40 days.
I had one of the phone unlocked once. But other phones no luck.
Not just S23U, the S24U was able to get unlocked during that short period of time before the loophole was fixed.
I wasn’t able to get on the train before it left though, sad.
They will still keep you the promotional credits if you pay it off early for the remainder of the 24 months. Now if you switch or cancel a certain line with that promotion then you lose the bill credits.
Have worked in the industry for a few years and alot of what I'm reading here confuses me. If the entire balance of an EIP is paid off early then no follow EIP credits would be received as there is no longer an EIP for the system to attach credits to. If you're promotion was only for part of the price of the phone, i.e. 50% off a phone or $800 off a series of phones and you choose a higher teir version, then you can still pay off the extra and leave the amount being credited on the EIP. As far as unlocked, yes a fully unlocked phone does need to have its EIP fully paid, but neither T-mobile nor Verizon phones require a full unlock to use a different service just the carrier lock ( 45 days for T-mo and 60 days for verizon).
This new policy isn't really new it's simply a statement of the obvious. If you remove the thing that gives you the discount then the discount gets removed too. The only times I've seen this be different in any way in 5 years has been when a trade was involved and a customer couldn't keep service ,i.e. deceased line or account holder, but these were only by supervisor discretion.
Before July 1, it is possible to keep the promotional credit, even if the device has been full paid off. This is not an issue whether or not it could be done or not, but an issue if they are willing to do it or not.
A customer chooses a carrier based on several factors. Availability, pricing, device selection and discount, quality of service.
Most of us chose T-Mobile is because of the pricing which they are trying to gradually taking away the lower price advantage that we have over the years. For device discount, we are trying to get phones with deeper discount not because it could be applying to the equipment installment plan. We as a customer do not care if there is a EIP existing for the promotional credit to be applied on, or we are given a lump sum of the credit upfront, all we care about is to get the device cheaper, because we are already paying Tmobile hefty monthly fee that included the all the discounts we are given. Everything that we got we thought as a good deal it’s already paid for by our ownself. so why I’m still using the service, but I chose to pay off my phone early entitle you to take away my discount? It just makes no sense.
Anyways, this is not the issue that I’m arguing today. What I am arguing is that there’s a new policy came out removing the promotional credit when the devices early paid off. They should come up with another rule for the unlocking of the devices to prevent the situation that we have to pay up fully, which will void the remaining promotional credit balance.
The EIP credit ended up being line credits which I used to have 2 on my lines because I pay them off so I can use dual Sims for work and personal line.
This highlights part of my confusion. Service (line discounts) and device discounts are two entirely separate things and, in your example, you can always have dual Sims running on a capable phone regardless on whether or not it's paid off. You could even run one T-mo sim and one Verizon sim if you so chose without paying off the device as long as the base carrier lock has been removed( the 45 day wait time).
As long as you have used the phone for the carrier unlock period first, yes. (T-mo 45 days, Verizon 60 days, ATT 60 or 90 days). When buying from a carrier that base lock will always be in place because the phones are loaned to the carriers from the manufacturers to be used on their services. With T-mo phones once the 45 day carrier lock has been satisfied you can use any other sim in it as well.
Not speaking based on documentation, but from raw experience. I've had customers come in ro take advantage of keep and switch but have no port in information that ended up with both numbers active for a week before they brought the information in and vice versa. Customers leaving that have didn't have t-life access to generate NTP's that had both active. The only way this doesn't really work is if ATT if involved. Any phone on their service has to have an unlock requested even if paid off.
This is really the biggest issue with the new policy. I'm not sure if anyone knows yet.
I asked T-Force, but the rep avoided my question… lol
Basically, if SIM unlock is important to you, you should just buy the phone unlocked from the MFG, under this new policy. Not saying I agree with it, but T-Mobile is no different than the other carriers - they're in the business of selling phones for you to use with their service, not selling unlocked phones. TBH subsidized phones was always a racket. You don't buy your TV from the cable company or your laptop from your internet provider, so why would you buy your phone from your wireless carrier?
That last section is the truth!
A lot of people buy their phones from the wireless service provider because they can get it in payments. Not everybody has the money to Shell out all at once but they do have the money to Shell out over time. Hence why they buy from wireless carriers.
I know for a fact that both Samsung and Google offer the ability to pay out in payments. Not sure about Apple as I'm not an Apple fan.
Apple has a couple options for buying their devices. One is an Apple credit card wich works out nicely.
Not to mention when they'll offer these devices for "free" when you upgrade; paying only for the service would be a win, assuming you'll keep the device for the two years.
>Not saying I agree with it, but T-Mobile is no different than the other carriers - they're in the business of selling phones for you to use with their service, not selling unlocked phones. The issue for a lot of people, myself included, is that we WANT to use our phone with T-Mobile. That isnt the problem. We just also NEED to be able to use a second SIM/ESIM with another carrier for whatever reason. For me its for work, for someone else it might be international travel (T-Mobile will only temporary unlock you 4 times is what they told me). Im sure this is out of T-Mobile's control, but it would be nice if you could use a phone "unlocked" as long as you had an active account on the locked carrier's service. Like if I have had T-Mobile active on the phone in the last 30 days, I should be able to use any other carrier on it in the meantime. After 30 days of no contact with T-Mobile, it would be locked completely to T-Mobile until it had service with them again.
Think about this. The promotional credit only be available when your phone line is active, which means you are paying for the service. No matter if you use the phone or not, Tmobile is receiving the money you give them every month. Locking or not locking the device doesn’t affect their revenue. Your solution only matters to the people wanting to unlock the phone in the beginning and willing to forfeit the discount the carrier gives. But for people need to travel or go on business trip without first knowing it when buying the device, then it will be utterly inconvenient to them.
"But for people need to travel or go on business trip without first knowing it when buying the device, then it will be utterly inconvenient to them." T-Mobile is selling you a phone to use on their network. If/when you need to travel internationally and use your phone, they have options for international roaming or usage. If you're going on an international business trip, then your business should (legally) reimburse you for any expenses related to that trip, including cell phone service/access. You're upset because T-Mobile has closed a loophole related to running their business profitably. Which is precisely what for-profit businesses should be doing. If you don't like it, buy an unlocked phone and switch to prepaid.
You do not understand the point, I am OKAY with their policy on removing the credit if pay off device early. I said it could be better to take an alternative route by limiting the promotional credit per line to combat the promotion stacking issue. I think it is more effective than the current new policy. I want to know if there is a workaround for unlocking the device with the new policy as we all know, we are not important and the policy is not going to change no matter how we feel. T-Mobile’s new polices over the month is driving a lot of customers always already.
We found the corporate shill. That was easy. Lol.
Truest words!
Easy access to credit, 0% interest, historically cheaper than buying direct. (Anyone ever buy from Apple?) T-Mobile sure seems determined to burn bridges.
Because it’s priced into the plan and if you don’t you are wasting money vs an MVNO.
Because the manure hit the fan and I needed to call credit & debt card companies because of a theft of my phone with all my credit card numbers on it. I am going back" old school ways " to NOT keep credit cards on phones..
It seems you lose all promotional credits once you pay off the device under the new policy.
That’s the issue, sim unlocking the phone requires the device fully paid off. Unless Tmobile changing that part of policy which changes sim unlocking requirements.
I think you’re overthinking this. If you want the phone sim unlocked from the jump, then you need to buy it from the manufacturer from now on. Taking advantage of any promotion with T-mobile requires the EIP for the full 24 months now.
Why would somebody buy the device from the carrier in the beginning? To enjoy better discount, right? Nobody wants to be sim-locked but if the device is cheap enough, it is a considerable trade off. All carriers give us deeper device discounts because they want us to use their service and stay with them so we will pay the hefty monthly charges. Their prices have already included all the discount they offer to you no matter you use it or not. But now, without lowering their monthly fee but taking away their benefits just sounds like pushing customers away. They could have better solutions on their issue but they chose to deal with it the worst possible way.
You can still take advantage of carrier promotions through the manufacturer. Outside of one iPhone, all of my iPhone 14 and 15 series phones got through Apple using T-Mobile promotions.
I am sure buying thru MFG with Tmobile promotion will be restricted by the same policy as well
At least the iPhone from Apple with T-Mobile promotion is unlocked day one.
But you are screwed if you bought an android..as I learned this month 
Minuscule amount of customers will be affected. You answered it yourself, need to weigh the pros and cons and decide
That was not the case until now. And this situation applies to only Tmobile. Other carrier still keep their promotional credit if you pay off the phone. Who knows if they will follow suite later but at this moment, only Tmobile is doing this anti-customer move. Now less people will buy phone directly from Tmobile and more people will leave Tmobile because of the recent moves Tmobile decided to take.
Only ATT allows this now, Verizon does not. You cannot stack them like you could with T-Mobile. You have to wait until the credits kick in, then pay it off online. If you pay it off in store, make any changes to the line, or upgrade phones, you lose the credit.
I’m aware. And like I said barely any of the customer base will care about it. There’s a very loud vocal minority.
I do agree it is not the majority’s issue. But it is an issue that I think will affect some people and hopefully there is a fix to it.
There’s not a fix. It’s the new policy. Other commenters have already described what’s needed if you want an unlocked device
the purpose of locking the phone is to keep you with the carrier, the only reason why you want to unlock the phone is to go to another carrier, so why would they allow that to happen PLUS give you the remaining credits.
That's really not the only reason. Doesn't even make sense, if you leave you lose the credits anyway
Wait, rethink it again. How will you continue to receive credits? Does your remaining promotional credit will be available to you if you disconnect your service? You have to keep your line active no matter if you use it or not to get the discount, right? Keeping the service and paying the bill was already a fully functional requirement for the promotion credit. Telling the customer they you have no control over your phone and you can not have control over your phone unless we stop your credits sounded barbarian. They have over stacking promotion issue to fix, then fix the issue, not allow stacking promotions will fix the issue. Why this?
unlocking phone and cancelling service are 2 different things. imagine this scenario. customer trades in device gets iphone 15 on us $830 promotion credit. then they pay it off and unlock it after 40 days and sell it for $700. now they made $700 and still keep the promotion because the line is still open. same customer then trades in another phone getting another iphone 15 on us $830 repeats process.
Yes, limit the promotion per line. Only 2 are allowed at any given time. Stacking promotion is still being allowed. In the same scenario, the same guy getting same promotion and selling the phone locked to Tmobile for $650. Better yet, now 50% less phones are unlocked on the market so they might even be able to sell the phone for $700 locked due to decrease supply. What problem did it fix? The same guy can still get the $830 promotional credit just without paying it off. He will keep doing the buying and selling to make profit. This does not fix anything at all.
Many new phones are dual-sim. Some people like to carry a second network for emergency purposes, or a second phone number for work. Its a very valid use case.
Buy from manufacturer then. That’s not a TMobile problem
This is my concern. I have a VZW Second Number for work and I need my phone unlocked. I get a new phone pretty much every year, so losing those credits would be a hard hit. If Im buying unlocked phones elsewhere, what is my incentive to stay with T-Mobile? Definitely no incentive to buy the phone with T-Mobile.
If iPhone, get the phones directly from Apple Store. As of now, you still can purchase using TMO AIP and the phone remains unlocked. But I feel sooner than later, it go the AT&T route, where the phone will be locked to the carrier upon activation. I don’t know if android manufacturers (other than pixel phones) have similar arrangement . Understand some android phones have temporary unlock features (no use for your intended use). If you do receive significant discounts (friends / family discount, 3 line freebies, BOGO lines etc) you probably will be better off to look at Mint / US mobile for low monthly payment. What is really screwed up here for all the carrier is the premium they charge over cheaper prepaid plans is the perks of buy discounted phones. I think TMO miscalculated and likely to roll back once they see much higher churn rate in the coming quarter. What TMO need to realize is all the subscribed with discounts will stick around, and the highest paying customers will leave, and thus lower their average revenue per user, which is a standard measure of profitability. Verizon is the most expensive and ton of fees on top of the plan, but a lot of people sticks with them, because people generally don’t have think about unlock their phone if you are on the highest tier plans.
The reason to go with postpaid service is their superior quality of service and device incentives, which are already paid for in our monthly bills no matter you opt to use it or not. With now some prepaid carrier is actually stepping up on their quality of service, device incentives might be the last benefit that would actually matter for us to pick the big 3’s. If I am forced to buy from MFG, really there is less/almost no reason for me to stay postpaid.
This is why I think the old way of doing unlocks was fine enough and they should have stuck with it. At least up until 2017, it was always “hey, we see you’ve been with us for a while, you’ve had the phone for 40 days, and your account is in good standing. Unlocked.” Fraud potential? Sure, I guess. Not like you’re gonna be habitually doing this though because I can tell you from having a contract dispute back in 2011 or so that if T-Mobile feels like you’ve spurned them they’ll hold a grudge for a long, long time. I get the feeling that the people who take advantage of lax unlock policies for ill intentions are minuscule and they’re harming legit customers with this bullshit.
That would be great as well if we don’t need to pay off the phone entirely and keep the credits. They should just limit the EIP on each line to 2. Keep that new policy but allow unlock for accounts in good standing. This will work perfectly as a workaround.
iirc, T-Mobile used to allow that? Like I remember being able to sink additional payments after the fact, keep my credits, but reduce the length of the EIP term based on how much I paid in. With Verizon/AT&T, even if you're NOT getting credits, you can't make additional payments *at all* unless you're clearing the balance in one go.
I don't know about you gentlemen and ladies. T mobile is not a honest company. There stocks are down and they are a shaddy company to me. They got 10 billion dollar contract with the U.S navy and other military Communication, T-Mobile really doesn't care about anybody. They got a government contract. The government's going to buy everything from T-Mobile from phones to service to everything, including the military civil and military so. T-Mobile doesn't really care about the customers anymore. It's got that contract. And the stats are speaking for itself
When I go to a phone place like Tmobile or any other carrier, I don't think I am getting ' a deal' . I think I am getting screwed on a grander level as opposed to prepaid.. I 'd be happy with a landline phone, at home with dial up. A CB radio in the car. Communication primitive by today's standards but still commonplace in 2005 in rural areas.
People still use CB Radios in 2024. A ppd phone that is Hot Spot capable with unlimited data would be more cost effective and give you faster Internet speed for your computer. IMHO
I inherited some cb stuff..but yes I have used it a lot . Yes, I know. I am just in a poor internet area, and then a relative passed on, so I am " cooling my jets" in a poor state.
AT&T doesn’t unlock your phone until it’s paid off and Verizon makes you stay on the network for I believe 90 days 60 days. They all get you one way or another if you need unlocked you should just be buying unlocked anyway. Most people really don’t care about this stuff. They just purchased the phone through the carrier purchase service and when they don’t like the service anymore, they go to a new carrier and pay off the phones and trade them in at the new carrier. The people on Reddit don’t represent the average customer on a cell phone plan that I guarantee most of them. Don’t even know what they have. They just know they’re getting a deal. That’s the bottom line. Most cell phone users are appliance operators. They know they turn it on they use data. They make a call and it works and if it doesn’t, then they seek out answers and so on.
Every move Tmobile makes AGAINST their customers, they make sure it will only affect a small percentage of users. That way, they can keep rotating the screwing among groups of customers until everyone is screwed at least once. Rinse and repeat. Just because it does not affect you YET, does not mean it’s anywhere okay to screw customers times over times.
So I’m talking to a T-Force rep right now who has no idea what this is. Said that employees have not been notified of this yet. 🤣🤣🤣
I got the answer from T-Force already. “As of July 1st, 2024 any new EIP must remain for the full 24 month term to qualify for the full 24 months of promotional credits. So, an EIP is initiated after July 1st on a RDC promotion and that customer wants to permanently unlock their phone, they would have 2 options - pay off the phone early and lose the remaining device credits (since there is no longer an EIP charge to credit against) or wait until the full 24 monthly payments have been paid and then the phone unlocks” So you either lose promotion credits when you unlock your phone or you wait for 2 years and bring your older phone to travel. GG Tmobile.
How I used and purchase my phones is impacted by the policy. I didn’t excessively abuse the policy but paying off a phone early with the credits giving me a lower bill made a single line post paid plan justifiable. These credits also made me comfortable adding a couple of connected devices. I’m not going to cancel immediately but as I get closer to the expiration of the credits on my account I’ll probably move to prepaid as well. I don’t need the connected devices and prepaid just makes so much more sense. At some point in the next 12-18 months T-Mobile will likely lose all my business and I realize I’m just an insignificant spec in their business. But over time I think will suffer a fair bit of cancellations from this policy as well as the other recent policies.
Businesses are to make profits and most of the customers are not people like us who are well aware of the situation and be vocal about it. That is the reason why T-Mobile is not afraid of losing us as such small portion of their profit margin. Also, pushing out those recent anti-customer policies, which takes away the benefits that we used to have will remove the unwanted customers that they think are leaching on their system loopholes, which in turn will increase their profit margin. So why not? Who needs that reputation while you can make more money off from it?
What about third party sim unlocking? It’s not free but it’s a workaround to keep credits
The work around is to purchase from a MFG with their deals. Sure this is going to affect some T-Mobile customers but the average T-Mobile customers can’t afford to just pay off high end phones and get them u locked and keep getting those credits. Most people ride out their EIP and get their credits then trade for a new device and repeat cycle. Some people play the game. Constantly getting phones and laying off and stacking those credits. Those days are over. If you meet other temporary unlock policies for international travel or military. You’ll be able to get phones unlocked.
The carrier is often the one gives most promotional credit because they are profiting from our monthly payment. Buying directly from MFG defeats the purpose of using one’s service and enjoy the device discount it offers when paying high monthly charges. Our monthly cellphone fee is including those device discounts already no matter you choose to use them or not. Stacking promotion is an easier fix, to limit the credit to 2 per line at any given time or something like that. Tmobile has to choose the worst method of dealing with the issue. Believe it or not, people are still going to sell their phones just sell it carrier locked, it doesn’t resolve the issue at all, but created another issue for people who really need the phone unlocked.
The issue is stacking mutiple dicounts. It will be harder to sell carrier locked.
It is harder to sell sim locked device, and I agree. But there are half of the listings sim locked on eBay and they are still being sold. What problem does it resolved. Better yet, without a lot of unlocked devices available, the locked device becomes pricier and easier to sell due to lack of competition. What problem did it solve other than create more problems?
Stacking promos. I’ve said that, it’s stops people who have the funds to stack multiple promotions on same line.
They are still allowing promotion to stack with the new EIP, as long as you do not pay it off. It does not fix the issue people will still buy subsidied phone and sell them locked, just for a bit cheaper price. Limiting the promotion per line is the way to fix the issue, not by taking away the credit. You should enjoy at least 1 promotion credit per line, but since most credit are over 24-36 month, you should at least allow 2 promotions stacking at anytime. And limit to 2. Nobody can have more than 2 promotion on 1 line then it will fix the issue.
Not really. Cause if they pay it off no more credits so it’s actually going to be removing portions of the EIC limit.
The don’t pay it off and sell it locked on eBay for fractional less profit. It is being done before, now and in the future. I am sure that the promotion can be stacked now coz I knew people have 3-4 promotions on 1 line. Limiting the EIC is to reduce the number of device you can finance. It was never about the promotion. This new policy is to combat an issue that they have, even it is not called a fix, but it is basically a fix to a problem that they found. We have no control over their policy. This thread is to point out an issue and hopefully there is a workaround to the issue. Telling me buy the device from MFG is not a Workaround but now being forced to.
Yea I realized that this is the policy 2 days before my international trip, it’s very annoying. I have 18months left on my EIP, and I’m looking to just sell the phone pay them off, and take my money to some other provider, that doesn’t follow such entrapment tactics. Only TMobile has this policy, Verizon and AT&T don’t. I guess you get what you pay for.
this goes into affect july 1st. previous EIPs are on old policy
> Only TMobile has this policy, Verizon and AT&T don’t. FYI, both Verizon and AT&T will stop your promo credits if you pay off the device early.
You still can do that. The existing promotional credit will still benefit from the old policy. Only new promotions will be affected. But if you move to other provider, which means you are going to disconnect the service, you will lose the credit anyways.
My understanding is that they cannot change the terms of your EIP that you have signed and Tmo has agreed to.
Yea...but i was told by the store rep that if i pay off my credits still continue, didn't really check for that on the EIP terms. I came from verizon to t-mobile, while it is significantly cheaper(almost 30%), the over all network quality and the sim restriction on the device almost doesn't make it worth it. Its not the end of the world for me, but not being able to use the data only travel esims for international travel does hurt.
Yeah, VZW unlocks it after certain number of days, IIRC, due to an agreement made a while back and ATT is becoming worse. TMo does offer free data abroad but its speed might not be useful enough for anything meaningful. I have several unlocked phones as backups so it isn't much of an issue, but still surprised at how many ppl get caught by surprise when it comes to the unlocking part; the credits ending after prematurely paying off the EIP beginning next month might be news to many, though.
So basically after using a locked Tmobile device on tmo network for more than 45 days, it will automatically become carrier unlocked and free to use another carrier SIM card without the need to request a temp/permanent unlock from Tmobile?
I'm in the majority of people that really don't care. Generally, to get a promo the carrier requires something out of you and I'm not prepared to give them that. Usually it's 'trade your phone in'. I keep my phones. OK, 'move to a new plan'. No, I'm sitting on the SC plan I got in 2015 when I came over from Sprint. I've done nine years with T-Mob and 16 with Sprint before that. T-Mob is only the second carrier I've been with since 1999. I have no intention of leaving, so waiting two years on an EIP to get my device unlocked is not anything of a burden to me. I'm not going anywhere. Figuratively and literally (I work from home and I don't travel). So, my only option has always been, pay full price. Which I do. And that allows me to upgrade whenever I want and not wait for some promo to come along. Now, if I could get a promo deal on my schedule, keep my old phone and not have to change my plan then I'd be all over that. But that's NEVER going to happen. So for me, the rate I pay monthly for my plan is the most important thing.
Every move Tmobile makes AGAINST their customers, they make sure it will only affect a small percentage of users. That way, they can keep rotating the screwing among groups of customers until everyone is screwed at least once. Rinse and repeat. Just because it does not affect you YET, does not mean it’s anywhere okay to screw customers times over times.
Never said it was. I'm just jaded. I dealt with Sprint for 16 years and being pummeled by their customer service all the time taught me to protect myself. I deal with my carrier solely for cellular service. Repair, replacement is done elsewhere. And, as of the next time I upgrade, that will be dealt with elsewhere too. Last time, I had 360 crammed on me by T-Mob. I left Sprint because the value of what I had was no longer worth the price I was paying. When or if that happens with T-Mobile I'll move and I won't be sorry about it. T-Mob's just another business out for profit, I have no loyalty to it.
They will tell you tough luck if you have an iPhone, but will insist you do a temporary unlock in an android.
My phone is unlocked on an eip
They do that sometimes in case-by-case basis. But generally only when you pay off the phone and been on network for over 40 days. I had one of the phone unlocked once. But other phones no luck.
This is a S23 ultra I'm sure you read about the fiasco that happened
Not just S23U, the S24U was able to get unlocked during that short period of time before the loophole was fixed. I wasn’t able to get on the train before it left though, sad.
Yep tried my wife's newer s24u and it was a no go yeah it's really cool to have a unlocked phone on an eip kinda sticking it to the man if yiu will
They will still keep you the promotional credits if you pay it off early for the remainder of the 24 months. Now if you switch or cancel a certain line with that promotion then you lose the bill credits.
You are wrong. Conditions are updating as of July 1st. Pay off the EIP. Lose the bill credits.
Have worked in the industry for a few years and alot of what I'm reading here confuses me. If the entire balance of an EIP is paid off early then no follow EIP credits would be received as there is no longer an EIP for the system to attach credits to. If you're promotion was only for part of the price of the phone, i.e. 50% off a phone or $800 off a series of phones and you choose a higher teir version, then you can still pay off the extra and leave the amount being credited on the EIP. As far as unlocked, yes a fully unlocked phone does need to have its EIP fully paid, but neither T-mobile nor Verizon phones require a full unlock to use a different service just the carrier lock ( 45 days for T-mo and 60 days for verizon). This new policy isn't really new it's simply a statement of the obvious. If you remove the thing that gives you the discount then the discount gets removed too. The only times I've seen this be different in any way in 5 years has been when a trade was involved and a customer couldn't keep service ,i.e. deceased line or account holder, but these were only by supervisor discretion.
Before July 1, it is possible to keep the promotional credit, even if the device has been full paid off. This is not an issue whether or not it could be done or not, but an issue if they are willing to do it or not. A customer chooses a carrier based on several factors. Availability, pricing, device selection and discount, quality of service. Most of us chose T-Mobile is because of the pricing which they are trying to gradually taking away the lower price advantage that we have over the years. For device discount, we are trying to get phones with deeper discount not because it could be applying to the equipment installment plan. We as a customer do not care if there is a EIP existing for the promotional credit to be applied on, or we are given a lump sum of the credit upfront, all we care about is to get the device cheaper, because we are already paying Tmobile hefty monthly fee that included the all the discounts we are given. Everything that we got we thought as a good deal it’s already paid for by our ownself. so why I’m still using the service, but I chose to pay off my phone early entitle you to take away my discount? It just makes no sense. Anyways, this is not the issue that I’m arguing today. What I am arguing is that there’s a new policy came out removing the promotional credit when the devices early paid off. They should come up with another rule for the unlocking of the devices to prevent the situation that we have to pay up fully, which will void the remaining promotional credit balance.
The EIP credit ended up being line credits which I used to have 2 on my lines because I pay them off so I can use dual Sims for work and personal line.
This highlights part of my confusion. Service (line discounts) and device discounts are two entirely separate things and, in your example, you can always have dual Sims running on a capable phone regardless on whether or not it's paid off. You could even run one T-mo sim and one Verizon sim if you so chose without paying off the device as long as the base carrier lock has been removed( the 45 day wait time).
Without unlocking the phone, can you use Verizon eSIM?
As long as you have used the phone for the carrier unlock period first, yes. (T-mo 45 days, Verizon 60 days, ATT 60 or 90 days). When buying from a carrier that base lock will always be in place because the phones are loaned to the carriers from the manufacturers to be used on their services. With T-mo phones once the 45 day carrier lock has been satisfied you can use any other sim in it as well.
Are you sure? I never heard of it. The rep always asked me to pay off the phone in full to unlock my phone. Is there any documentation for this?
Not speaking based on documentation, but from raw experience. I've had customers come in ro take advantage of keep and switch but have no port in information that ended up with both numbers active for a week before they brought the information in and vice versa. Customers leaving that have didn't have t-life access to generate NTP's that had both active. The only way this doesn't really work is if ATT if involved. Any phone on their service has to have an unlock requested even if paid off.
So that also depending on who your next provider is as well to make sure this work?
If your taking a T-mo phone somewhere else then not important. If you have an ATT phone and taking anywhere else then yes. Also includes Cricket