[gariac]

Well the title says it all. Tmonews has a link to Howard forums indicating in August that some legacy plan owners got a postcard from T-mobile to drop their legacy plan for a no contract plan. Now I stayed on my grandfathered plan by using Costco Wireless, so I don't know if that is why I didn't get one or if I will get one later. I need to see when my contract is up.

The Howard Forum thread is 151 pages long! I'm sure it has some tips on how to handle this, but geez!

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[raino]

I haven't received the postcard either, and I'm on a grandfathered plan myself. I've been reading up on this as well, and unsurprisingly, the transition hasn't been without hiccups. But what's interesting is that the base data tier for prior data-less lines is now going to be 30MB.

The main takeaway from what I've read was do not call customer service. They're pretty clueless, and might even put you on a crappy new plan. Just wait for the transition to happen, and then complain if necessary.

@gariac, are you out of contract already?

[gariac]

Where does it say on the T-mobile website when your contract ends?

Needless to say, the T-mobile website has my plan all screwed up. It appears in two manners .

On the bill itself it had two line items : "get more 1500" and "RED BlackBerry BIS Add On". That is more or less what I always had, though somewhere along the line the voice plan for bumped up an extra $5 I think. I'd have to find an old bill. Note this plan does offer subsidized phones, though I would have to see if Costco Wireless still has the secret sauce to keep me on a legacy plan and get me subsided phones.

Now when I click on "plan", it has a line item for "select Choice Unlimited TT 40" and next to data service 5GB high speed data with data stash.

I never exceed more than 600 minutes a month, so I have no idea is the 1500 limit is real. I hadn't realized I had 5GB a month.

So what I need to do is see what this would cost me on the standard plans for reference. Note that I don't get hotspot or tethering, and I miss tethering. I had it on the old BlackBerry.

With data stash, I could easily use a 2gbyte plan.

Anyway, I see nothing on the website about my plan end date, and maybe that makes sense because the website is set up for the no contract plans.

The Howard article said there are over 200 different plans on the books. That has to be a pain.

Also there is nothing mentioned in the paperwork about a data roaming limit.


Posted via CB10

[raino]

Where does it say on the T-mobile website when your contract ends?

Good question. I don't know. I checked online where I thought it should be, but it wasn't there. I've been out of contract for over a year and a half, though.

About a year and nine months ago, I went to a TMO store to find something out, and the rep pulled up my account where I saw a contract end date of 2016...in 2013. Then, when I called to complain, it was instantly fixed to the date in 2013 that it was supposed to be. My point is, try going to a store, or calling. Even chat may work. You're just checking, not making changes.

If you're still in contract, I think you're less likely to be force migrated--especially without your permission.

Now when I click on "plan", it has a line item for "select Choice Unlimited TT 40"

Now this sounds like one of the forced migration plans TMO has come up with. I've seen SCU TT 50 and 60. Maybe 40 as well, but I don't remember. TT stands for talk and text.

[raino]

You might already be migrated. I just called TMobile and they moved me to a simple choice plan without my consent. My bill stays the same.

I just checked, and it still shows my old plan. I read somewhere that they may be doing this by last name, alphabetical order. Or maybe my plan's too low priced that they're still trying to figure out what to do. Honestly, it's not even that bad. No T-Zones, but I did have 5GB data for $5.

I have 5Gbytes with unlimited talk and text. The roaming is now capped at 100mbytes. I fired up the hotspot and didn't get the warning message. I haven't tried tethering.

Sounds like stuff you saw, and not what they told you over the phone. That's good, because reps are very confused about this.

As far as I am concerned, if they are not going to subsidize my phone, I am owed $10 a month.

I get where you're coming from. I read some comments on TMONews saying "well, they got rid of subsidies for everyone," and "subsidies were a biannual deal and TMO has lived up to its end if you're out of contract," but the plan price you got factored in a subsidy! IOW, TMO is still charging you the same rate they were when they were recouping the subsidy for your Z10...but now they're keeping that extra money, especially if you get a new phone. Uncarrier indeed.

T-mobile claims I was sent a postcard notifying me. Nope!

If you were in contract, I'm surprised that they switched you. But if they are the cheapest still, what can you do but eat that $10 increase? I guess if you really wanted to play hardball, you could request proof of mailing, but it's probably not worth it.

If you were getting an employer discount, you may want to keep an eye on that, see if it survived the migration as well. I read they may have gotten rid of that.

[gariac]

I just checked, and it still shows my old plan. I read somewhere that they may be doing this by last name, alphabetical order. Or maybe my plan's too low priced that they're still trying to figure out what to do. Honestly, it's not even that bad. No T-Zones, but I did have 5GB data for $5.



Sounds like stuff you saw, and not what they told you over the phone. That's good, because reps are very confused about this.



I get where you're coming from. I read some comments on TMONews saying "well, they got rid of subsidies for everyone," and "subsidies were a biannual deal and TMO has lived up to its end if you're out of contract," but the plan price you got factored in a subsidy! IOW, TMO is still charging you the same rate they were when they were recouping the subsidy for your Z10...but now they're keeping that extra money, especially if you get a new phone. Uncarrier indeed.



If you were in contract, I'm surprised that they switched you. But if they are the cheapest still, what can you do but eat that $10 increase? I guess if you really wanted to play hardball, you could request proof of mailing, but it's probably not worth it.

If you were getting an employer discount, you may want to keep an eye on that, see if it survived the migration as well. I read they may have gotten rid of that.

There is no way my contract would end at Dec 31st. I'm calling Costco Wireless to see when I bought the phone.

Essentially I have gained nothing. My old plan had 1500 minutes. I never used more than 700 minutes, so essentially I had unlimited talk because I would never reach the limit.

I blocked texting, so I don't care about unlimited texting.

I already had 5Gbytes of data. I use maybe 1.5Gbytes.

I used to have tethering, but they took that away.

I got a hotspot, but actually I would use tethering anyway.

Basically I got nothing from T-mobile in this deal.



Posted via CB10

[raino]

The real hold-up is data (everybody on postpaid has unlimited text by virtue of no overages.) Some TMO fans are arguing that those with T-Zones--which, apparently was an unlimited data plan predating smartphones--shouldn't be counted as unlimited unthrottled data now because it was never meant for smartphones (<-- their interpretation, not what the terms say,) or that customers with it should not get unlimited LTE because the plan wasn't meant for unlimited LTE usage (<--again, their interpretation, not what the terms say.) I'm guessing this is where TMO's having to spend the most time manually sifting through T-Zone plan configurations and re-assigning them, and this is the subset of 'migrants' most likely to get screwed.

What the current Kool-Aid drinking subset of Simple Choice customers forget is that tomorrow, they could be the ones force migrated off their plans. And they may not even get postcards promising them something in writing, and certainly don't have the luxury of contract protection (which may or may not have meant anything to TMO in the OP's case, but means even less when there is no contract.) TMO has already grandfathered Simple Choice plans and features, such as Jump 1 and the $70 unlimited tier.

[gariac]

I called Costco Wireless. They say they never handled T-mobile. I could have sworn I did my Z10 purchase online because they didn't have it at the kiosks.

Argh!

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[raino]

I called Costco Wireless. They say they never handled T-mobile. I could have sworn I did my Z10 purchase online because they didn't have it at the kiosks.

Argh!

Not all stores do/did TMO plans, that part's right. But to say that no Membership Wireless locations ever did TMO is absolutely false. They may not sell them now, but some locations absolutely sold TMO phones. Once Simple Choice started, I remember wondering what advantage there would be to buying from Costco over TMO, since you pay for your phone and plan rates are the same, but Costco/MW would throw in some accessories and I believe a Costco GC. So they are lying when they say they didn't handle TMO.

[gariac]

The claim is the Kiosks handled T-mobile, but not the online service. Costco Wireless and the kiosks are kind of related but are not the same. Neither outfit (online or kiosk) have explained the relationship to me.

I will swing by and talk to one of the kiosks. I mostly use two Costcos, so I will try those Kiosks.

When Simple Choice came out, the advantage to Costco Wireless was you could get a new phone on a subsidy. That is they could keep you on a classic plan even though the T-mobile stores said otherwise. Saved me $200.



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[danielcj]

I got a postcard and was pretty confused as it said that it was a correction from a previously send letter. I never got that. Also I'm curious to see if my plan actually changes.

[gariac]

I got a postcard and was pretty confused as it said that it was a correction from a previously send letter. I never got that. Also I'm curious to see if my plan actually changes.

You can log into your account and see he changes.

Hey at least you got one more letter than I did.

Posted via CB10

[danielcj]

I did and don't see any changes

[gariac]

I did and don't see any changes

If you had a classic plan and couldn't tether or hotspot, see if you can now.


Posted via CB10

[danielcj]

Well as of last week my plan changed when I got a text to my data ready phones saying that we got 10gb of data stash. Sure enough I checked my plan and now my two data lines went up from 2gb to 3gb with roll over. As far as I can tell the cost breakup ads up to be the same. We'll see. Plus now my hot spot capabilities are working.

Moto X 2014 / Q10

[gariac]

Well as of last week my plan changed when I got a text to my data ready phones saying that we got 10gb of data stash. Sure enough I checked my plan and now my two data lines went up from 2gb to 3gb with roll over. As far as I can tell the cost breakup ads up to be the same. We'll see. Plus now my hot spot capabilities are working.

Moto X 2014 / Q10

Well I'm glad somebody came out ahead. Or maybe break even since some of your classic plan went to subsidize your new phone purchase. I don't know how or works on a two line plan. On a single line, roughly $10 a month went towards your new phone, or your present phone depending on how you look at it.

Oh, ixnay on rollover. It is data stash. Like a drug stash, only different.



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[danielcj]

No. I haven't paid an equipment plan for 4 years now. I buy all of my phones outright so the price I was talking about just includes talk text and data.

Moto X 2014 / Q10