[HN Gopher] T-Mobile switches users to pricier plans
___________________________________________________________________
T-Mobile switches users to pricier plans
Author : mfiguiere
Score : 130 points
Date : 2023-10-12 18:06 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
| Iulioh wrote:
| Well, at least they give thw opportunity to keep the old one ,
| even with a minor hassle.
|
| As an Italian the big carriers are infamous for unilaterally
| adding to the bill without any recourse
| laweijfmvo wrote:
| > "We are not raising the price of any of our plans; we are
| moving you to a newer plan with more benefits at a different
| cost."
|
| This shouldn't be legal?
| tyingq wrote:
| I'm not sure they can even show "more benefits".
| josh_carterPDX wrote:
| It is amazing to me that the government continues to allow these
| mergers when time and time again it shows that the consumer end
| up paying more, not less.
| yukkuri wrote:
| It's because government is run by people from/with close ties
| to the businesses and take massive bribes that we quaintly call
| "campaign contributions" from them.
|
| Any excuse to allow the mergers will be found because of that.
|
| In a word, it's plutocracy.
| r053bud wrote:
| Exactly this. Our leaders are directly compensated for
| supporting monopolies.
| josh_carterPDX wrote:
| Absolutely. Didn't mean for my reply to make it seem like I
| was too naive to understand WHY it happens. Just amazed that
| it keeps happening and has happened for decades.
| HumblyTossed wrote:
| Because when the company is talking to regulators, the
| conversation isn't about the benefits to the consumer, the
| conversation is how to word it so the consumer doesn't realize
| they're being fucked.
| swatcoder wrote:
| Almost 25 years ago, Fucked Company did such a beautiful job of
| aggregating countless parallel stories as the dot-com bubble
| started to burst. It made it so easy to see what was going on in
| aggregate.
|
| There's an opportunity for the same sort of thing now, but
| tracking all the desperate scrambling for revenue as the "we'll
| make money after the next 10x users, promise" loses its ground as
| a business model.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| And when they started getting filtered out, they created a
| "luckedcompany" clone with a slightly different logo and string
| replaced any "fuck" into" luck" before presenting to the user.
| toast0 wrote:
| I had thought lucked company was for positive announcements?
| jbm wrote:
| Even the memes from then still apply.
|
| ---
|
| LOL @ priced out renters!
|
| It's a new paradigm, and everybody who doesn't buy, now, will
| be priced out forever. Anybody who does buy will be rewarded
| with a lifetime of riches, as their property will continue its
| 20-30% yearly price appreciation.
|
| Renters, and anybody born in a future generation, will not be
| able to afford a $10,000,000 starter home in 15 years. They
| will live in tent cities, and Hondas.
|
| This asset bubble is different than all of the previous and
| other asset bubbles - it will never slow down, or pop. The
| gains are permanent.
| rootsudo wrote:
| Yep, and they have spin off boards from FC but they are all a
| shell of itself. It's interesting how it goes around again.
| crazygringo wrote:
| How is this even remotely legal?
|
| I'm genuinely asking. They must have consulted with lawyers and
| believe it _is_ legal.
|
| But even if their TOS say they reserve the right to change
| anyone's plan at any time... that seems like one of those clauses
| that judges always strike down.
|
| This is just flat-out providing a different service than you
| contracted for. This is like if I order a $200 SSD from Amazon
| and instead they ship me a $300 SSD and charge me $300, and there
| are no returns if I don't cancel the order before it's fulfilled.
|
| I don't understand how this is legal. So I genuinely want to
| know:
|
| 1) Is this actually legal? If so, why haven't laws been passed
| against this kind of corporate bait-and-switch behavior?
|
| 2) Is it illegal but just doesn't get enforced? If so, why not?
|
| 3) It is illegal, and there will probably be a class action suit,
| but T-Mobile has calculated they'll still make more profit
| including a settlement? In which case, why aren't settlements
| more punitive?
| runako wrote:
| > I don't understand how this is legal.
|
| It's presumably laid out in the contract that their users sign.
| IANAL but I understand contract law gives wide latitude for
| parties to make agreements to do things which are generally
| legal.
|
| One could imagine a legal regime that prohibited price or
| service changes in otherwise-legal contracts. Of course, that
| also might not be ideal. For example: a vendor used by the
| provider suddenly changes the capabilities of a piece of
| equipment such that the original service sold by the provider
| can no longer be provided at any price. What everybody wants in
| that scenario is for you to be seamlessly moved to the closest
| reasonable alternative, not for your service to automatically
| terminate. Similarly, most people will gripe about a $10/mo
| change in price, but against the likely alternative of
| automatic cancellation, the increased fee is what _most_ people
| will prefer.
|
| And again, 100% of them will have agreed to this exception-
| handling clause when they signed up.
|
| > This is like if I order a $200 SSD from Amazon and instead
| they ship me a $300 SSD and charge me $300, and there are no
| returns if I don't cancel the order before it's fulfilled.
|
| There is a material difference in changing prices (say) 5 years
| after a contract was signed and ordering a specific item at a
| specific price a week or two earlier. IANAL but I believe the
| ordering of goods via the Internet is in fact covered by
| different laws in a way that services are not. Which again,
| makes some sense given that service contracts frequently have a
| term of "forever," during which time everything about the world
| can change. (Pretty sure my current phone contract was signed
| over 10 years ago. I'm glad they changed my plan to let me use
| LTE, for example.)
| crazygringo wrote:
| But contact law also strikes down contact provisions _all the
| time_.
|
| Generally speaking, contracts between two parties who know
| what they're doing, with lawyers, are pretty iron-clad.
|
| But TOS with consumers are not. Unreasonable/abusive TOS
| clauses are struck down quite frequently. Things like
| consumer protection laws supersede anything in a TOS.
|
| And consumer protection laws are precisely the kind of thing
| meant to stop companies from playing bait-and-switch with
| consumers like this.
| runako wrote:
| Absolutely agree re: abusive TOS clauses. My question is
| this: if you were on a panel evaluating whether it's more
| abusive to a) migrate customers to a plan that's $10 more
| or b) end their service because the vendor no longer offers
| that service, which would you vote for?
|
| Note that consumer panels will have less ability to force a
| vendor to set prices or provide specific services, so there
| will not be the third option of c) force the vendor to
| continue providing the service at the contracted price.
| hef19898 wrote:
| That's why in Europe abusive and surprising (to an
| informed party) terms and condiations are invalid. Quite
| aome legal disputes around those so.
| runako wrote:
| Curious -- how do services raise prices? Is the
| presumption that a carrier has to give notice, then the
| user has to opt in or their service automatically
| terminates?
|
| > in Europe abusive and surprising (to an informed party)
| terms and condiations
|
| It can't be surprising to any informed party that prices
| change. Especially right now, it cannot be argued in good
| faith that a price increase was surprising to anyone.
|
| Does the user have to opt in each time the service
| changes (for ex if 2G service gets dropped)? Who decides
| what requires a user approval?
| dawnerd wrote:
| A lot of these older plans were marketed as no contract
| plans. That was tmobiles whole thing for a while. No more
| contracts. Obviously there still is via terms and such but
| it's a pretty gray area I'm sure lawyers would be willing
| to argue in court. They also claimed prices would never go
| up (on your plan).
| cmeacham98 wrote:
| "No contract" in the telco world means no minimum length
| clauses (as opposed to something like a "12 month
| contract" plan, where you legally agree to stay on the
| plan for at least one year), it doesn't literally mean
| there isn't a contract.
| arcticbull wrote:
| Right but in the same way I can end the contract and walk
| away at any time, I would imagine it's totally kosher for
| T-Mobile to do the same. It's not like either party is
| locked in.
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| Can you share cases where TOS with consumers was struck
| down? Thanks very much.
| paulpan wrote:
| Older plans (pre-2022) should be under the "Un-Contract":
| https://www.t-mobile.com/news/press/uncontract-carrier-freed...
|
| Notably "By contrast, the Un-contract is all give, no take. You
| can keep your existing Simple Choice plan and we won't raise
| your rates. As part of this commitment, customers on existing
| Simple Choice promotional plans - like the Un-carrier's ultra-
| popular 4 lines for $100 with up to 10 GB of 4G LTE data - can
| keep them for as long as they're T-Mobile customers."
|
| Seems like a shut-and-close case for a class action lawsuit.
| Whoever made the decision to push ahead with this seems to have
| missed some internal due diligence - or there's some tiny legal
| footnotes I'm missing.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| T-Mobile forces customers into arbitration unless you've
| opted out. Probably straightforward to arbitrate based on
| terms, but I recommend filing an FCC complaint. Regulators
| light a fire.
|
| https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us
|
| Go to Phone > Billing (or go directly from here)
| https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-
| us/articles/3600012...
|
| Phone Issues: Advertised Rate
|
| Text box content: T-Mobile is forcing me to
| upgrade my mobile plan even though I signed up with
| their advertised Price-Lock
| https://www.t-mobile.com/support/account/price- lock
| There is no option to opt-out as of $today's_date. This is a
| violation of my contract, and they are relying on
| the fact that most consumers do not have enough
| knowledge/time to call in and argue with customer
| representatives for hours.
| https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/t-mobile-will-
| migrate- customers-higher-cost-plans
| T-Mobile is also forcing customers who want to opt out and
| keep to their current contracted plan to listen to
| an unsolicited sales pitch -- this may violate
| telephone advertisement and spamming laws. While
| the company claims that customers can opt out, multiple
| customers have. reported that phone reps refuse
| to allow opt-out when they call, which is in general
| disingenuous behaviors. I believe that the FCC should force
| T-Mobile to provide this option through email or an
| online menu.
|
| FTC complaint can be made here: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _T-Mobile forces customers into arbitration unless you
| 've opted out. Probably straightforward to arbitrate based
| on terms, but I recommend filing an FCC complaint.
| Regulators light a fire_
|
| File an arbitration claim [1]. Complain to the FCC, and
| copy the FTC [2] as well as your state consumer affairs
| regulator [3]. (Ideally, send letters via mail.)
|
| [1] https://apps.adr.org/SimpleFile/faces/SimpleFile.jsf
|
| [2] https://www.ftc.gov/media/71268
|
| [3] https://www.usa.gov/state-consumer
| bxparks wrote:
| I will guess that a class action is off the table because they
| imposed a mandatory binding arbitration clause (yup,
| https://www.t-mobile.com/responsibility/legal/terms-and-
| cond...). And forced binding arbitration is legal because the
| Supreme Court seems to be owned by corporations and
| billionaires.
|
| I suppose we could file complaints with the FTC and the FCC,
| but I suspect it will not help. After all, they probably got
| thousands of complaints about Comcast, but that didn't prevent
| Comcast from taking over the media world.
|
| T-Mobile used to be one of the better ones. But it was probably
| inevitable that they would succumb to the enshittification
| process that is devouring the corporate world.
| kotaKat wrote:
| Aren't the contracts now technically month-for-month, with the
| "contract" being the device payment agreement?
|
| As they themselves weasel out of it: they're not "raising
| prices", they're "moving you to a newer plan with more benefits
| at a different cost".
| 8note wrote:
| T-Mobile also just changes plan details on the fly.
|
| Eg, one day my account stopped being able to log in to Canada
| to use the Canadian data on my account.
|
| Only changing plans fixed it
| theogravity wrote:
| They promise not to increase the rate on your _current_ plan
| and get around this by just changing the plan you 're on vs
| increasing the rate of your current plan.
|
| https://www.t-mobile.com/support/account/price-lock
|
| > Price Lock is our guarantee that we won't raise the price of
| your qualifying rate plan for new accounts. You can rest
| assured that T-Mobile won't raise the price of your regular
| monthly rate plan price for current unlimited talk, text, and
| data on our network on Go5G Plus, Go5G Next, Go5G, Base
| Essentials, Essential Savings, Essentials, Magenta, MAX, 55+,
| Military, First Responder, Unlimited and Lite Home Internet,
| and Business Unlimited plans as long as you're a T-Mobile
| customer and keep your plan. And customers don't have to do
| anything to get in on this - everyone who activates after April
| 28, 2022, with an eligible plan gets Price Lock.
| meepmorp wrote:
| What a great way to convince me to never consider T-Mobile!
| heroprotagonist wrote:
| I hope you like the only competitor network.
|
| This partial monopoly is why they can do this. All of those
| 'virtual operators' are given deprioritized service but somehow
| still count as competition when their business is evaluated.
| Yet another instance of regulatory capture at work.
| jabroni_salad wrote:
| AT&T is ruthless but Verizon lets a bunch of mvno operators
| on qci 8.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/oaophe/data_pri.
| ..
| sn_master wrote:
| RoboForm auto-upgraded my "perpetual" license that I bought over
| 10 years ago and now it's in "read-only" mode (doesn't allow
| auto-fill or adding new passwords) unless I pay them a MONTHLY
| subscription AND it synced all my passwords to their server
| without my consent.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37852456
| slaw wrote:
| Before T-Mobile merge with Sprint, there were $25/month postpaid
| plans from both T-Mobile and Sprint.
| rescbr wrote:
| In my country, as you can't just switch customer's plans at will,
| the telcos structured them as limited-time offers that have no
| commitment or penalties on top of a regulated base pricing which
| is like 2-4x the going rate.
|
| After a year the offer ends and you can keep your current plan at
| the expensive base rate or you can move to a new plan/offer to
| get the discounted market rate.
|
| That way they can justify increasing rates over inflation and
| changing contracts at will.
| altairprime wrote:
| T-Mobile won't be prepared to process opt-outs until October
| 17th, so calling before then is unlikely to be an effective use
| of time. Consider waiting five days. Otherwise, the unprepared
| call center support representative will not know the magic code
| to bind your account with.
| theogravity wrote:
| Opt-out instructions:
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/174uelk/megathread...
|
| Edit:
|
| I called T-Mobile and they said they can't use the code until the
| 17th, and they'd send out a text message informing of the
| upcoming changes with the ability to opt out. Sounds really
| shady.
| post_break wrote:
| They lied to you. I opted out yesterday.
| theogravity wrote:
| How did you ask them to do it?
| post_break wrote:
| I called and asked them to apply SOC code: grnoptout
|
| They may play dumb so you may have to escalate.
| theogravity wrote:
| Glad you managed to get it added on. I think I'll just
| switch to Google Fi if I have to start playing mind
| games.
| justin66 wrote:
| Of course, the person you talked to may have lied to _you_
| and humored you to get you off the phone.
| post_break wrote:
| No I see it on my account. https://i.imgur.com/wWzlMfP.jpg
| MandieD wrote:
| I continue to be amazed at how much abuse my fellow Americans
| take from their telcos.
|
| I pay 13 EUR/4 wks (yes, German mobile operators are a bit
| slippery, too) for 3 GB + unlimited domestic talk and text. If I
| wanted to waste more time on my mobile, 20 GB would run around
| 30/4 wks.
|
| Of course, this is with a paid-for handset. I've never had a
| contract over here.
|
| What is the most economical, yet reliable way to receive (and
| occasionally send) SMSes on a US number while abroad, preferably
| with a way to transfer an existing US cell number in?
| tiltowait wrote:
| It's especially surprising when you consider that cheaper plans
| exist, probably using the same network you're on, and that
| changing carriers can be extremely simple.
|
| I switched from T-Mobile 3 months ago (when they announced
| changes to the autopay discount) to Mint. My bill went from
| $60/mo to $180/yr (breaks down to $15/mo, and I think claiming
| something is $15/mo when it's actually $180/yr should be
| illegal, but that's an argument for another day). It's "only" a
| 5GB plan in comparison to whatever I had before, but my highest
| month so far has been 1.06GB.
|
| Transferring took 15 minutes. It's the same network.
|
| Sure, many people don't switch out of ignorance, but I know
| people for whom the reason is simply laziness (because I told
| them about the cheaper plans).
| arjvik wrote:
| I switched to Mint for a year and had serious issues with
| deprioritization. I would get "E" service in the middle of a
| busy city, forcing me to repeatedly reboot my phone. Perhaps
| it was just a Pixel 7 issue?
| dkjaudyeqooe wrote:
| Google Voice, which is free.
| tmobileiscrack wrote:
| Maybe every T-Mobile customer should switch to Mint Mobile or
| other low cost carriers en masse. They will lower their prices
| right after the mass exodus.
|
| However they are counting on the misleading practice that most
| people are busy and won't ask questions.
|
| Lot's of nonsense gets pushed like this.
| commoner wrote:
| T-Mobile acquired Mint Mobile in March 2023.
|
| https://www.npr.org/2023/03/15/1163743380/t-mobile-buys-mint...
|
| Even before the acquisition, Mint Mobile was just a T-Mobile
| MVNO. While Mint Mobile has less expensive plans than T-Mobile,
| and switching would reduce T-Mobile's profit margin, the
| quality of Mint Mobile's service is also lower:
|
| > Mint runs on T-Mobile networks so will get the same coverage
| except it does not get domestic roaming (on AT&T, Verizon, US
| Cellular, and other small regional carriers such as ACS/GCI in
| Alaska) that T-Mobile post-paid or pre-paid does. Mint is
| "deprioritized" (on QCI 7) meaning it will get slower speeds
| than most T-Mobile plans (that are on QCI 6). How much slower
| depends on the exact second how many people are on the same
| tower & band compared to the capacity of the tower/band, but
| with speeds usually between 20-90% of T-Mobile Magenta/Pre-Paid
| customers at the same time & location.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/mintmobile/comments/wm1ynh/mint_mob...
|
| The U.S. wireless carrier industry is in desperate need of more
| competition. Price increases (such as this one and T-Mobile's
| earlier removal of the autopay discount for credit card
| purchases) are exactly what happen when corporate consolidation
| (T-Mobile merging with Sprint) reduces the number of high-end
| carriers from 4 to 3.
| nikolay wrote:
| I am tired of T-Mobile! Constantly getting breached and
| increasing prices while offering less! And being arrogant to call
| themselves "uncarrier." Yeah, you're not a carrier, but a scam!
| thumbsup-_- wrote:
| They also send their previous customer's accounts in debt
| collection even if they have paid in full when closing the
| account. Happened with me. Got a debt collector's letter a few
| years later. I had the proof of payment but still ended up paying
| again to prevent damage to my credit. Later on found on reddit
| that they have done this with many people, some of whom didn't
| have means to pay again, so ended up taking a credit hit.
| elashri wrote:
| I have a genuine question in that case. I am no longer a
| customer so will I be able to take them to small claim court
| and provide a proof of payment and collect my money again?
|
| Or will the mandatory arbitration will still hold?
| schemescape wrote:
| Given the history of data breaches, my first thought is that
| this could have been a scam. For anyone else in this position
| (esp. if you're fairly certain it's _not_ a scam), here is some
| info on what you can do:
| https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/fake-abusive-debt-collecto...
|
| Edit: namely, this part:
|
| > your debt collection rights, including your right to get
| information about the original creditor if you ask for it
| within 30 days of getting validation information from the
| collector
| adwi wrote:
| Final straw for me.
|
| Just called and canceled after 15+ years--shockingly, they were
| loath to actually provide the unlock code to port my number out.
| Switched to an MVNO on the same network that's >50% cheaper.
| post_break wrote:
| 13 years here, what MVNO did you pick? I'm looking at visible
| and US cellular.
| LeifCarrotson wrote:
| 9 years (and 2-3 lines) here, moving to Mint. Should have
| done this a long time ago...
| ajcoll5 wrote:
| I've got bad news for you.
|
| https://www.t-mobile.com/news/business/t-mobile-to-
| acquire-m...
| oluwie wrote:
| I've been using Mint mobile for over a year and never had
| a problem with them, even during "peak" times. I expect
| the $30 a month I pay for unlimited everything is about
| to drastically change.
| theogravity wrote:
| Be aware of data prioritization with MVNOs.
|
| Mint uses the T-Mobile network but is one tier below
| T-mobile subscribers:
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/oaophe/data_pr
| i...
|
| Lower QCI values are better.
|
| > QCI 6 is applied to all of T-Mobile's postpaid and
| prepaid plans (except for Essentials) and Google Fi which
| also has QCI 6 as well. This means if you want the absolute
| best from T-Mobile, you want to get a plan directly from
| them. Even their cheap $10 prepaid 1GB Connect plan has
| priority data.
|
| QCI 7 is applied to T-Mobile's Essentials plan as well as
| all MVNOs (besides Google Fi) such as Mint, Metro By
| T-Mobile, US Mobile GSM LTE, and Tello.
| 1-6 wrote:
| I went to Verizon (but they're not an MVNO), T-Mobile is
| cheap but Verizon is one of those legacy carriers that won't
| pull quick tricks on you. From time to time, Verizon will try
| to compete with T-Mobile and offer low priced tiers. Once you
| get into those, you can grandfather in and wait while the
| dust settles so you can decide who to move to for the next-
| generation network.
|
| AT&T and Verizon had really sweet deals at the beggining of
| the year to pull alway some of TMO's customers but now that
| TMO raised their prices, ATT and VZW also unsweetened their
| plans.
|
| TL;DR - T-Mobile grandfathers but you'll have to call T-Force
| every time to fight for it. AT&T & Verizon don't hassle their
| customers.
| post_break wrote:
| Verizon literally started charging a fee for people on
| grandfathered unlimited data plans. They pull tricks all
| the time.
| 1-6 wrote:
| Some of these price increases sound reasonable ($2-$3):
| https://tmo.report/2023/07/exclusive-verizon-is-once-
| again-i....
|
| It's better than promising free for life and then pulling
| the plug altogether on the service.
| DavidPeiffer wrote:
| No idea where you're located, but my family has been on US
| Cellular for about 30 years. In Iowa, they've consistently
| had the best service available in rural areas.
| post_break wrote:
| How to opt out, call customer service, ask them to apply SOC
| code: grnoptout to your account. If they don't know what that
| means ask for a manager to apply the SOC code.
| jihadjihad wrote:
| Slightly OT: Has anybody had any luck with an MVNO, like Visible
| or Mint Mobile? I want to ditch Verizon because $98/mo for spouse
| and me to use 2GB between us both is just the height of insanity
| in 2023.
| ZekeSulastin wrote:
| I've used Visible for a couple of years now and they're fine -
| I'm currently on their lower tier plan and it works well
| enough. I do route my phone's traffic through a Wireguard
| endpoint on my home network, though, which stops the usual
| video throttling.
|
| Try it for a month before porting if you can - in the end it is
| still an inexpensive mvno and customer service is one of the
| places they cut costs.
| delecti wrote:
| I've been happily using Ting Mobile for about 8 years, and my
| bill is always under $45 for two lines, 2GB, 1000 SMS, and 100
| minutes (it's lower when we use less). It seems that the plan
| I'm on isn't available for new customers, but it looks like the
| new plans might actually be even cheaper.
| xmddmx wrote:
| Was happy with Ting mobile for years, spending about $30/month
| total for 2 lines. Had to leave Ting as they don't support
| eSIMs and recently moved to Consumer Cellular, which I'm quite
| happy with - about 4GB of data for 2 phones for $35/month
| total.
| pwg wrote:
| Happy with Tello: https://tello.com/
| oluwie wrote:
| Been using Mint Mobile for a year and love it. Have had
| absolutely 0 issues with them even during peak times. Switched
| from a T-Mobile paying $70 a month for unlimited everything to
| $30 a month with Mint for pretty much the same service.
|
| Damn you Ryan Reynolds for selling out.
| hammock wrote:
| Verizon just did this to us
| HumblyTossed wrote:
| I'm on a grandfathered ATT plan. I'll bet you ATT is going to try
| this soon if TMo gets away with it.
|
| Does anyone use the prepaid plans from Mint or Visible, etc? What
| are the downsides?
| wlesieutre wrote:
| Mint users will be deprioritized if the network is congested,
| hasn't been a problem for me but in some areas or during large
| events it could be
| theogravity wrote:
| If you're on T-Mobile, you might want to consider Google Fi.
| According to this data prioritization guide, Google Fi gets the
| same quality of service as standard-tier T-Mobile plans (lower
| QCI values are better, and both are on QCI 6):
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/oaophe/data_pri...
|
| > QCI 6 is applied to all of T-Mobile's postpaid and prepaid
| plans (except for Essentials) and Google Fi which also has QCI 6
| as well. This means if you want the absolute best from T-Mobile,
| you want to get a plan directly from them. Even their cheap $10
| prepaid 1GB Connect plan has priority data.
|
| Google Fi also gives you unlimited 5G / LTE data when roaming
| outside the US as well. For their unlimited plus plan, it looks
| to be on par with the T-Mobile magenta plan in terms of price.
|
| https://fi.google.com/about/plans
| bobbylarrybobby wrote:
| Trusting something as important as my phone number to an
| organization as fickle as Google seems insane.
| otachack wrote:
| Agreed. Ten bucks says they'll sell off Fi within the next 10
| years. See Google Domains sell off to Squarespace as a recent
| example.
| hipsterstal1n wrote:
| And there is no telling who'll buy it... probably a company
| like Comcast / Xfinity which is already universally hated.
| theogravity wrote:
| Good point. Customer service is non-existent with Google as
| well.
| genpfault wrote:
| Whew, nothing about the Connect[1] plans!
|
| [1]: https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans/connect
| kornhole wrote:
| One of the best things I did to make myself somewhat immune to
| this stuff: 1. Decouple my phone number from my carrier by
| transferring my number to a low cost VOIP provider such as
| voip.ms, jmp.chat.. 2. Switch to a prepaid plan and pay for a
| whole year for a good deal. Pay as you go plans are also a good
| option.
|
| I pay less than $20 a month for a few phone numbers and 5GB data
| per month. It is also a more private solution since the carrier
| does not know who I am. I can switch providers with relatively
| low friction.
| aceazzameen wrote:
| If I have to go through the trouble to opt-out of this, then I
| might as well go through the trouble of contacting and joining
| another carrier (Mint, Google Fi, Pulse, whatever). This nonsense
| helped me realize I'm already paying too much with T-Mobile.
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