T-Mobile increasing SMS rates, get out while you still can
Joining the ranks of just about every other wireless carrier in America, T-Mobile has decided to increase their text messaging rates (while simultaneously decreasing the cost of each MMS). As has been the case when other carriers have made similar moves, this constitutes a material breach of contract on T-Mobile’s part, allowing customers to jump ship without paying the hefty $200-per line ETF. I can confirm that this works, as I just canceled two lines hours ago, but as always, your mileage may vary depending on the CSR you get.
Novel idea. Read your contract.
This does NOT actually cause a material breach of contract. Your contract is for your plan, not your additional services. It’s all there in black and white. I’d copy/paste but *meh* I’ve read the thing enough times.
SO, you can’t call to cancel for this reason. If a CSR cancels your account because of this, congrats to you. Most likely they will not, and no amount of complaining will make them more inclined to help you.
New customers are going to be required to sign a waiver or something similar when they sign up.
As for the way you treat your CSR…be nice to them, and they will treat you well. You’re not a a@@hole to your waiter, don’t be the person you get connected to. Surprisingly enough, they aren’t just trained to say no.
word.
@ PurpleCow:
I must disagree with you on your point that “your contract is for your plan, not for your additional services.” This is straight from the T-Mobile Terms and Conditions (I have highlighted the relevant text with **asterisks**):
“Changes to the Agreement or Charges. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY LAW, IF WE: (A) INCREASE THE CHARGES INCLUDED IN YOUR MONTHLY RECURRING ACCESS RATE PLAN, ***OR (B) MODIFY A MATERIAL TERM OF OUR AGREEMENT WITH YOU AND THE MODIFICATION WOULD BE MATERIALLY ADVERSE TO YOU,*** WE WILL NOTIFY YOU OF THE INCREASE OR MODIFICATION AND YOU CAN CANCEL THAT SERVICE WITHOUT PAYING A CANCELLATION FEE (WHICH IS YOUR ONLY REMEDY) BY FOLLOWING THE CANCELLATION INSTRUCTIONS IN THE NOTICE. IF YOU DO NOT CANCEL YOUR SERVICE BY FOLLOWING THOSE INSTRUCTIONS, OR YOU OTHERWISE ACCEPT THE CHANGE, THEN YOU AGREE TO THE INCREASE OR MODIFICATION, EVEN IF YOU PAID FOR SERVICE IN ADVANCE. IF THE NOTICE DOES NOT SAY HOW LONG YOU HAVE TO CANCEL, THEN IT IS WITHIN 14 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF THE NOTICE, UNLESS A LONGER PERIOD IS REQUIRED BY LAW.”
This is from the 3rd paragraph of the T-Mobile T&Cs, avalable on their website.
Call me naive, but it seems to me that PPU SMS rates are indeed a “material term” of T-Mobile’s agreement with me.
For anyone interested, there’s a rather interesting thread about this matter over at HowardForums in the T-Mobile section.
I see that people still did not get the point of my post (except for purplecow). For example if you buy a car and suddenly decide you don’t like the gas milage because something better came along you would not go to the dealer,yell and scream and act like an @ss till you got your way (although from the postings most it seems would) or use the reason that I moved further from my job and now its costing me more in gas (or ther is a better looking care with more gadgets that just went on sale from another car lot). you are still obligated to pay for the car. If you didn’t like the service you should have never signed up…And just a hint the more you scream and act like an @ss the less a csr will help. It is not the csr’s fault you didn’t read the contract or keep track of your own usage (or your kids). YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN ACTIONS PLEASE ACT LIKE IT.
As far as the rate change if it affects you then that is a material change (costing more) if it does not affect you then you are bound by the term andS conditions (remember what was said about buddy time )Items do get grandfathered in therefore make no changes in the terms and conditions……..nice try but if you are not affected you will be charged the ETF.So many people trying to use poor excuses and loopholes to get out of what they agreed to (JUST GOES TO SHOW HOW GREEDY INDIVIDUALS HAVE BECOME)
Please, just stop.
I mean, I was tolerant at first, but get off your soapbox. I agree with you on the shouting at CSRs thing — people should be treated like humans; it’s not their fault you’re trying to cheat the system, etc., etc.
But when T-Mobile changes the terms of a contract you signed and offers an “out” as a result, it’s simply foolish not to capitalize on that due to some misplaced notion of loyalty or decency. This isn’t a contract with your daddy’s best friend’s car dealership; it’s with an international corporation that loses and gains tens of thousands of customers each week. THEY’RE changing the contract; I didn’t ask for them to do so, and THEY are the ones who are in breach. I alone will determine what is a materially adverse effect upon my subscribership.
Honestly, just … stop.
@Mystified, your analogy isn’t exactly accurate. A closer analogy (to this situation at least) is if you bought a car with a written guaranteed that it got 30MPG in any situation, and then it turns out to only get 20MPG when you move. If that happened, you better believe that I’d take it back and talk to them about it.
If the change doesn’t happen on an existing account, then you are correct, people have no right to b!tch to T-Mobile. However, if on said account, the SMS charges jump to 15 cents when the agreed upon contract stated 10 cents per message, then why in the world should the account holder have to honor their side? Some people don’t use SMS enough to justify an add-on SMS plan, but they still use it. I never said that it was OK to scream and yell, but if the CSR tries to give you a hard time about leaving (which they probably will) when they change the terms of the contract (which remains to be seen), the I can understand getting a little testy.
I have never said once that if t-mobile changes the terms of your contract you do not have the right to cancel(just the oppisite). What I was saying that if they are not in breach don’t try to use the excust to weasle out for other reasons, and use mean spirited attitude to do it demanding that you not be held accountable if no change occurs…….(the true spirit of the post is starting to filter through)…if you have a problem with any business you talk with them (not yell or threaten them..ie I’m gonna go somewhere else) to resolve the issue. contrary to what seems to be popular belief the csr’s are not out to cheat you or keep a customer that costs the company money (they are there to help the screaming whining masses).But I digress ,the bottom line is if it changes you have an out if it does not don’t be sleazy and mean to try and bully the csr. parting comment ,Andy what do you define as a litte testy?
So im looking above and just want to clarify…..
I have a sidekick 3 with just the unlimited data plan. I also have a cingular bb8800. ii love the 8800. So having a much more reliable device that will do all that of the sk3 and more has given me reason that after 10mos with tmobile, i would like to cancel. i mean this is certainly a good reason on my part. i just cant see why i would be a “loyal” and “just” customer and pay the 200 ETF! if i have an out, i want to take it. so my question is if anybody has a sk3 and already cancelled their service with t-mobile?
here is what the tmobile contract says about them changing their rates:
Changes to the Agreement or Charges. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY LAW, IF WE: (A) INCREASE THE CHARGES INCLUDED IN YOUR MONTHLY RECURRING ACCESS RATE PLAN, OR (B) MODIFY A MATERIAL TERM OF OUR AGREEMENT WITH YOU AND THE MODIFICATION WOULD BE MATERIALLY ADVERSE TO YOU, WE WILL NOTIFY YOU OF THE INCREASE OR MODIFICATION AND YOU CAN CANCEL THAT SERVICE WITHOUT PAYING A CANCELLATION FEE (WHICH IS YOUR ONLY REMEDY) BY FOLLOWING THE CANCELLATION INSTRUCTIONS IN THE NOTICE. IF YOU DO NOT CANCEL YOUR SERVICE BY FOLLOWING THOSE INSTRUCTIONS, OR YOU OTHERWISE ACCEPT THE CHANGE, THEN YOU AGREE TO THE INCREASE OR MODIFICATION, EVEN IF YOU PAID FOR SERVICE IN ADVANCE. IF THE NOTICE DOES NOT SAY HOW LONG YOU HAVE TO CANCEL, THEN IT IS WITHIN 14 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF THE NOTICE, UNLESS A LONGER PERIOD IS REQUIRED BY LAW.
Here is what their page says about the SMS changes:
On June 1, 2007, the charge to send a picture, video, or multimedia message (MMS) to a US wireless number from the US or Canada, and the charge to receive an MMS message from a US wireless number while you are in the US or Canada, will decrease from 25¢ to 15¢ per message.* The same day, the charge (a) to send a text or instant message (SMS) to a US wireless number from the US or Canada, and (b) to receive an SMS message (including a scheduled alert) from within or outside the US while you are in the US or Canada, will increase from 10¢ to 15¢ per message.* If you subscribe to a monthly messaging bundle, then each of these rate changes will apply to MMS and SMS messages in excess of your monthly allotment.**
I talked to a lawyer who is a friend of mine about this. she looked over the tmobile contract and the message increase announcement and said that “MODIFICATION WOULD BE MATERIALLY ADVERSE TO YOU” would apply to the SMS fee increase, even if you have a bundle messaging package. it would not apply to an unlimited messaging package, but if you have the 400 or the 1000 message plan it would apply because it can affect you if you do use more than the alloted messages. You would technically have 14 days from June 1 to get out of your contract if you wanted. i’m going to wait until the 8320 comes out, and then dump my 2 year agreement and switch to a 1 year and get the phone.
@Mystified
OK, let’s try going back to your car analogy. Say you buy a car (with a guarantee that everything works), and say, the AC stops working and they can’t fix it. BUT, say you live in a state where you never use your AC, should you have to drive around with a broken AC unit even tho you don’t use it? You can if you want, but if it were me, and I had a written guarantee that everything is supposed to work (and it doesn’t and can’t be fixed) then I’m getting a new car. You know why? Because it’s in the guarantee and it becomes my right, if I choose, to do so. If companies don’t want this to happen, then don’t put it into contract with the buyer. Period.
Business 101: it is cheaper for a company to keep existing customers rather than recruit new ones. Knowing that, what makes you think the company wouldn’t tell their CSR’s to do as much as possible to keep people from bailing? None of the carrier’s would offer plans at cost, so they pretty much would never lose money on you unless you were asking for completely free or next to free service (which no one here is asking for, if you are, you’re an idiot). Just yesterday, I had to deal with my carrier about a discrepancy on my plan. Even tho it was clearly stated on the site what my plan should be, they tried to tell me no (free 7PM N/W, kinda hard to miss on the site).
There’s a lot of grey between being nice and being a prick. Nice being “Hi, great day we’re having aren’t we?” to prick being “YOU SORRY SACK OF ****!!!” My definition of testy is the grey area (no yelling tho). I will threaten to leave a carrier, but only as a last resort. When I dealt with my carrier, I wasn’t a prick, never yelled, I was kind of polite, but very very firm, until they gave me what I was supposed to have.
But none of this was originally my point to you. Your comments seemed to basically lambaste all of the posters here about trying to get out of their contract, when you have absolutely zero idea of their methods or situations. Who are you to decide what is or is not a good reason? How do you know how any of us will conduct ourselves with the CSR?
To be honest, your previous posts are something I would put at the more extreme end of “testy”, bordering on rude. There’s no need here to shout that people “ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN ACTIONS PLEASE ACT LIKE IT” and “JUST GOES TO SHOW HOW GREEDY INDIVIDUALS HAVE BECOME”. Please, we’re all adults here.
This is from yesterday on engadget regarding the whole issue:
“The good news: like with the other carriers’ changes, you might just be able to dump T-Mobile come June with no contract breach early-term fees since this is a material change to the contract of probably every current T-Mobile USA subscriber.”
Before I comment, I’d like to preface:
I want to leave t-mobile. I have no problem with their customer service (they’re always been nice to me, and me to them in return), and no problems with reception. I do not like their available in the handset market, and as an avid mac fan-girl I want the iphone. Period. I have been with T-Mobile since 2001, and after 6 years of loyalty, no iphone is a deal breaker for me, even if it is not t-mobile’s fault. Perhaps stupid on thier part is materially changing all of our contracts just before the release of the iphone in the first place when many people are looking for an excuse to go to cingular without the ETF. So don’t gripe at me for weasling out of agreements and yada yada yada. They made a committment to me as well, and they broke their end of it, allowing me to do the same. I’d be a fool to eat ETFs instead of trying to leave charge free.
So here is my quandry: I have 5 total lines with T-mobile. I’m not trying to dodge 200 bucks, but rather $1000. Three of those lines have unlimited data plans, one with the sidekick plan, and two with the unlimited internet data plans with dashes. My other two lines use the family time unlimited messaging plans. All of the lines I currently have are not charged on a per message basis, and never will be charged on a per message basis because with the unlimited messaging plan, all messages are covered, no matter what. So where does that leave me in terms of being able to terminate? They aren’t going to be materially affecting my plan the way I have the add ons arranged now, but if I were to rearrange the addons then the rate increase would affect me. Is it to late to go back and put some sort of 500msg plan for my lower two lines in order to get out of all lines of service? Does it even matter if it directly affects me currently because I pay more out of pocket each month to ensure it won’t?
My real trouble comes from not completely understanding the way the law would apply to the contract change. Yes it did “MODIFY A MATERIAL TERM OF OUR AGREEMENT WITH YOU” but who gets to decide if that “MODIFICATION WOULD BE MATERIALLY ADVERSE TO ME”??
Can anyone offer any advise or guidance on that matter? Perhaps a T-mobile CSR willing to be an underground informant?
lol wow what a mess. Staying with the same company for 6 years has gotten me free phones that would normally cost me money or a renewal of my contract and free replacements even after my handset warranty had expired.
Everyone has their reasons for wanting to leave their respective carries. I’d love to have an iPhone too but I definitely wont be ditching a company that’s been good to me for a gadget that’ll be imitated and borderline obsolete in a few months… then again I don’t even use any sort of Apple iDevices so maybe I’m not one to talk.
Anyway, carry on.
this will be one of my last posts and completely comming clean. I am one of those t-mobile csr’s. First I do not begrudge anyone for leaving t-mobile if you are not happy with service and you have fulfilled your commitment the by all means leave.I use to have AT&T and left them (this was before my current job),but did so after fulfilling my contract. the 200.00 etf is so customers do not leave without fulfilling the promise they make when getting that new spiffy phone for next to or nothing (t-mobile still has to pay for the phones)I may have seemed a bit angry (seeing everyone trying to figure an angle to get out of a contract they signed fully understanding the time limit it was for)but I get calls from people every day that read these posts and are literally hostile ,beligerant, rude,condenscending,and never take responsability for thier actions. I will set the facts strait……….my job is to help all the people who call in get the best plan and service they can.(that is comming from the heart not propaganda) I will not help someone through cheating(or trying to cheat the system)that costs the company money(nor whould any of you try to cost your company money).One of the first comments was it depended on which csr you get and to an extent it is true ,if you get an inexperienced csr that has not learned to deal with people yelling you might get your way (you might want to know that your gain (through intimidation) may have costs a nice person thier job)although none of you seem to care anymore. In closing the point of the posts is that the csr is there to help you get the most for your money but not to cheat the company they work for the same as any of you. the etf is there to make you keep your agreement not to steal money from you as has been suggested by many of the posts. I will probably be talking to many of you soon. remember if it affects you we have no problem letting you walk that is why we inform you of the change in your bill. if it doesn’t affect you please just abide by the contract you signed.being nasty, rude,deciteful,condenscending,spiteful just to get what you want is wrong no matter how you look at it . I thank you for the opinions they do not fall on deaf ears. I am not the enemy
Here is the thing. It is a feature not a plan. Plans are contracted and features are not. If you don’t want to pay the extra per message then get a package deal with the text and MMS included. It’s just as easy as that. You won’t get out of a contract for a feature price change. Sorry to disappoint but it just won’t happen.
Material Change – T-Mobile is also discontinuing their platinum membership – or whatever it is they call it. If you stuck around with T-Mo for a year without buying a new phone you get $50 off on a new phone.
This plan is ending at the end of April and the new blackberry is rumored here on BG to be coming out in early May. Coincidence? Another out of the contract?
Voice of Bullshite:
You should be sorry, in that you’ve insulted the collective intelligence of all people of reason, your willful ignorance notwithstanding.
What’s the lawfirm that advised you prior to your post? I’m willing to file an action against them immediately for professional stupidity.
My 2 Cents,
T-Mobile no longer works in my office. It did before. Either way, I contacted T-Mo and they told me because I am over 14 days and there is no service guarantee in there contract, I have to pay to cancel. And of course, there not going to fix it. All other service providers have 4 bars. They are holding me hostage and thats not right, If you can not provide me the service advertized then let me go.
T-Mo is a business and they aren’t intrested in my problems…just my money.
And the CSR gets paid to hear about it.
I have to look out for me and I praise sites such as these that empower the little guy.
Don’t like it…..then you can continue to bend over…not me.
I can confirm this is for real since i just canceled my account stating the contract above to the tmobile rep. Since i had to put a deposit down i will get money back from a phone company for once. I would go ahead and call now!! The first rep i talked to gave me a hard time and said no way then i spoke to CS and then to the cancel department and she had no problems doing it what so ever. this is a good way to get out if your not happy and since I now have the cingular 8525 with 3G that blows EDGE out of the water I’m going to bed happy tonight!!
Austin Powers seems to think the higher cost of Cingular/ATT is worth 3G.
That 8525 is a nice phone.
Decisions decisions
I was BB for years and never thought i would change but when i had the idea to try 3G i had to try it and i will never go back to such a limited device as a BB. Windows mobile 6 on my 8525 is amazing the 3G speed is sick most speed tests are 900kbs havnt broke 1Mb yet
but this is about getting out of t-mobile and all i can say is I just did it and thank you BG for the report and the knowledge to get this done. I have never been as happy as I am now with my HTC Hermes/Cingular 8525 !!!
Cingular 3G is well worth the extra money and hell emoze push email is free and works just as well as My BB ever did! HTC makes an amazing phone hands down.
Thanks for the report AP.
I like the 8525 very much. I like my money too. I am not sure which one i will decide to keep. But, BG has at least given us the option.
I have a family plan with t-mobile they told 4 lines they told me that each person would be responsible for paying 25 dollars a month that is 100 dollars a month. But for some reason my bills have been 175 a month they are a very dishonest company. I just cancell a line and i got charged 200 hundred dollars how can i stop them from stealing any nore of my money. what do i have to do to cancell with no cancellation fee.
how to get out of your contract has been discussed above in the last 30 posts just read and you will find all you need to know!