Watch Out: T-Mobile Charging $18 "Upgrade Fee"?
Consumerist is running a story from an inside source that T-Mobile will start charging an $18 "upgrade fee" to customers who get a new phone, purportedly to help offset the costs of carrier-subsidized phones. This is, of course, bullshit: the whole rationale behind carrier subsidies is to make an excuse for locking you into a multi-year contract. They pay the money up front for the phone; you pay them back over the course of several months of service.
If this rumor ends up being true, fight them tooth and nail on this one. You shouldn't have to pay twice for the privilege of using a phone on their network.
Tmobile Introduces $18 Phone Upgrade Fee [Consumerist]
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I've been an AT&T Wireless/Cingular/AT&T Mobility customer since '02, due to my usage of GSM phones. I recently upgraded my trusty eBay-acquired Nokia 6822 with an 8525. As if I needed any additional help deciding it wasn't worth it, I received it upon delivery of my first bill since the upgrade.
The bill included an $18 "upgrade charge" - which I can only assume was for the phone as my basic rate plan did not change. Oddly enough, I was also charged for the future month's usage (paying for something I haven't used yet? What happens I use extra minutes?). In over 5 years of usage with the same company, I'd only ever paid for past usage.
Then I found out that ATT released the upgrade to the 8525 - the 8925, aka The Tilt - two days after I purchased the phone, and for the same price I paid for the 8525, which left me feeling a little screwed. I'm now back to using the Nokia and have no plans of purchasing another subsized phone.
A year or so ago I tried to change my phone on my Sprint phone plan. My girlfriend got a free phone from somewhere else and didn't need it so I took it.
Sprint tried to charge me something like $25 and make me sign a new 2-year agreement. Of course when I had called to activate the phone and put it on the plan, they didn't tell me either of this. I didn't find out until I got a letter thanking me for signing a new 2-year agreement. I then called and yelled until I got to a supervisor who finally took off the charges.
T-Mobile in the UK charge $10,000 per gig (£7.50 per mb) if you download data whilst in continental Europe. I rang to ask where, in the information I had been given on signing up for a service, I had been told this and was told that "oh no, you wouldn't have been informed - after all, how can we know where you will go on holiday?" Marvelous logic.
Buh? Cingular (now apart of the AT&T collective) charged the same upgrade fee, and they were pretty decent. Thing is, I despise AT&T, so there's nothing I can do about it other than burn my cellphone in a funeral pyre in the phone company's lobby.
Yes, T-Mobile has started charging the $18 "upgrade fee". They claim it is a FCC charge and every cell phone service provider charges that since last year.
My friend, a Verizon customer was laughing out loudly having that heard. I just talked to Verizon and they confirmed they would charge nothing for a phone upgrade after 2 year contract was expired. I have been trying to find out if FCC really relates to the fee. Anyway, it has given me an idea to take a break from T-Mobile for 1 year next time I get my phone broken and need to upgrade it.
There is now a class action suit pending in California suing T-Mobile over the "up-grade fee". Call (619) 685-6800 or (619) 238-1333 if you are interested in joining the suit.