Exactly how much are you guaranteed to pay and get from Big Magenta?
If you are a current T-Mobile subscriber who may be seeing a change in service plans, be aware that your rights as a customer will be affected by a needle-in-the-stack change of some terms and conditions. Even if you just jump on board, you might want to see when you add new lines to your account.
The changes concern Price Lock, a cost guarantee that went into effect on April 28, and the program it replaced called the Un-contract, which the airline launched in 2015. Internal documents released by The T-Mo Report show that the two policies actually is almost identical: mainly that subscribers will never pay more – maybe they pay even less – than the original advertised price for their chosen plan as long as they are on it. Of course, the promise did not apply to external costs such as non-data add-ons, taxes, fees, equipment and other things. But one thing that fell under the umbrella of the promise was the price of additional lines.
Non-contract terms on the left, Price lock on the right. Provided by The T-Mo Report.
This is now not the case for either Un-contract or Price Lock. From last Thursday onwards, adding a new line will cost both new and old customers the currently announced price and not the invoiced price from when they originally started their account. This will be difficult if you’re on an outdated plan like T-Mobile ONE, Simply Unlimited or even one from Sprint before the merger – prices for new lines vary depending on the level of service and there seems to be similar guidance on how to reconciled between inheritance and current plans. That said, the guarantee ensures that customers do not pay more than this price for the extra line.
Price Lock also opens up a future where T-Mobile can drop its price guarantee, noting that if customers “migrate to a new plan not covered by Price Lock, they will lose the price lock.” That may be the case with the Base Essentials plan, which recently debuted. Furthermore, the policy not only locks the plan price, but also specifically the possibility of accessing “an AutoPay discount” – which sounds like the amount can change at any time – as well as the amount of data customers can use before being throttled or subject to traffic management policies, if any. On a related note, T-Mobile raised the priority threshold for its unlimited plan customers from 32 GB to 50 GB back in 2017.
Thanks: Moshe
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