T-Mobile initiates per-message SMS rate hike
Here we go again. T-Mobile has just quietly announced that they will be raising their per-message SMS fees to 20 cents from the current 15 cent benchmark effective August 29th. Sure, they’re merely responding to the current industry average price, but when you’re hailed as one of the most value-oriented carriers in the country, a move like this could have some pretty negative implications. Of course, this raises the age old question for T-Mobile subscribers looking for a back door out of their contract: will I be able to leave without incurring an ETF? This all depends on who you talk to, but these rate hikes are generally seen as material breaches of contract on the carrier side which, assuming you push hard enough, will usually result in an ETF-free departure. As always, we don’t advocate this sort of buffoonery, but if you’ve been itching to try out another carrier’s airwaves, this might be the right time to step up to the plate. Oh, and nice timing T-Mobile. No one was hoping for an added incentive to shift over to the iPhone 3G’s network of choice.
it doesn’t work, they say it has to be three months that you had no texting plan. what can we do now?
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The reason why they are doing this is bc they recently introduced a feature to block sms and mms (which they could not do before) so if you don’t want to text you don’t have to worry about paying for unwanted incoming text. Also you cant just send an sms today and say it adversly affects you, it has to be within the last three bill cycles prior to the current one. And no if you have the unlimited plan they won’t waive it bc the change does not adversly affect you due to the fact that you would never have overage.
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I have had no success in dealing with Tmobile on this matter, so I filed a complaint with the F.C.C.
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Almost worked for me. If you have TXT plan already, be sure you go over your texts in the last 3 months before you call. The CR told me that if I had gone over before I called that I would have been allowed to cancel my plan, but since I didn’t, and because of the phone call I am no longer eligible for that excuse… EVER! Stupid T-Mobile.
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International text messaging rates are also changing thus, TMo is acknowledging these ETF waiver for this reason as well. Of course, they will try to talk to you about staying with them but if you have records to show that you have been sending txt msgs internationally, they will waive the ETF.
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Ok, I just got off the phone with them. I got an iPhone this morning, the move got taken care of, and I called them up because after reading this site and others like it, I realized that they were hiking the international SMS rates also….so I’m getting totally nuked. I gave them a call, they saw my SMS usage, and Presto! $200 fee waved! WHOOOOHOOOO!
Thanks guys!
-dan
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I got my bill in the mail Friday, so I called today to…um…have this taken care of. If you know what I mean. My T-Mobile plan is currently sleeping with the fishes.
I followed Comment #1 and all was done within a minute or two. My T-Mob rep gave me a quick spiel about messaging plans, etc., but after I said no thanks, he canceled the account and waived the ETF fee. He was very nice, asked me if I needed to transfer the number, said if not then the phone would be off within 2 hours or less. It was actually off within 30 seconds after hanging up with T-Mob.
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You will think I am crazy, but I don’t text. I asked them for years to turn of SMS and they told me there was no way to tun it off. (yeah right). So we were always in arguments about spam. Finally I called to argue about 3 spam texts (I don’t read them, so I am not payin for them) and they said, “why don’t you just turn off texting?” WHAT???? After 4 years of telling me you won’t turn it off, now I can? They’re still being a-holes about the spam. No surprise. But finally you have the option to shut it down.
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