Want to get out of your wireless contract? The T-Mobile edition
If there’s one thing we get asked most, it’s probably the “I want to get out of my contract because _____ sucks!” email. We decided to put together a nice little guide for all you T-Mobilers wanting to jump ship. Bits and pieces have actually been pulled from some of our commenters, so thanks David and everyone else! There are a couple downsides, though. For one, this particular method does not allow you to port your number over to another provider. You’ll have to do some more work to get that accomplished. Check out the full rundown after the break, and check for other carrier editions coming soon!
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David points out that this method only works for people that do not currently have a messaging plan. If you do, the recent text messaging rate increase won’t work as there is no contractual change that applies to you.
- If you haven’t sent or received a SMS message within the last three months, send a text to your T-Mobile phone. If this isn’t done, T-Mo will most likely deny your request stating that the change doesn’t affect you since you don’t get your text on.
- Log in to your T-Mobile account online at www.t-mobile.com. Hit the billing tab, then current usage, and verify you see the text message you sent yourself. Or any other received text. As long as you see a recent text message, you are good to go.
- Call T-Mobile at 800-937-8997. When prompted by the automate system say scream iPhone as loud as humanly possible “cancel my account.”
- When you are transferred over to a live person, they’ll ask you why you wish to cancel your service. Tell them that you were notified that the text messaging rate will be increasing from $.10 to $.20 on 8/29. If the rep doesn’t know about this yet, they will likely go ask someone and come back to you.
- Most likely, they’ll try and bait you to stay by offering you secret golden deals. Deny all of them!
- If you have not used text messaging in the past 3 months the CR will tell you that the change doesn’t affect you and you’ll need to pay the ETF. Tell them about the text you sent yourself (or any other text message you received in the past 3 months) and have them check your recent activity.
- If the rep tells you that the change doesn’t take effect until 8/29, quote T-Mobile’s Terms of Service. Tell them that according to the Terms of Service, you must cancel within 14 days of receiving the notification. If they really try and push your buttons, banhammer them with the following Terms of Service excerpt: Section 3:
IF WE 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. - If you had to read that whole damn thing to the Krispy Kreme junky on the phone, they’ll briefly put you on hold while they cancel the account.
- Once the account is cancelled, check back on www.t-mobile.com to ensure that you can’t access anything. If you can’t access anything, your account has been successfully cancelled.
- If you still haven’t got anywhere by the end of this long ass post, hang up, and talk to someone else. They’ll most likely help you.
- If all else fails, tell the CR on the phone that you’re going to file a report with the FCC. Fill out this form here http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm. That should ensure a swift action taken by your wireless carrier.
Let us know how this works for you and what provider you end up switching to!
Tags: cancel service, cr, ETF, port number, T-Mobile
Change in contract by provider is one of the ways to get out without ETF. But really, who needs 3G iPhone without 3G? I used iphone with Tmobile, and html e-mail is suck on EDGE. On the other hand, blackberry non-html email with EDGE for $20, and cheaper rates in general is a plus to t-mobile. I don’t feel like pay $200 to cut my service, and sign for another 2 years with the company just to get iphone, even it is a very good device. What a waist….
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Hi there,
SO if I have a year left on my TMO contract, and I want to cancel and avoid the fee… can I use the “materially adverse” text messaging change to get out of it, if I have a text messaging add onto my plan (I think I pay 5 bucks of something for unlimited texting)???
Please help! I have the iphone fever!
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Also, can I go into my account, remove the Tmobile text messaging add on (400 texts/mo) and then call and cancel citing the text cost change as a problem for me?
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I find it a little unsettling to see so many people “accepting” that an unlimited text package prevents you from cancelling.
I did some sleuthing, because I’m trying to get my family out of our T-Mobile contract so we can all light up Sprint SERO lines before July 10th, when the $30/month SERO package expires.
Pay close attention. The $19.95/month Messaging For Families bundle includes unlimited [i]domestic[/i] text messaging, not texting to Canada or anywhere else around the world. T-Mobile’s increase is specifically raising the rates of text messages sent to the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada to $0.20 apiece. Therefore, your unlimited plan does not cover Canada texting and the price increase is a materially adverse one — even if you already have an unlimited domestic texting package on your bill.
I’m having a hard time wrasslin’ with these chumps to get them to let me out. They’re pulling that ridiculous line of crap about how I don’t have any Canadian texts sent in the last 3 months so “hurrr the change doesn’t affect you.” If I was wise, I would have fired a few texts to Canada before calling in the first time — unfortunately, I didn’t think to do it.
It’s annoying to have to use “lol Canada texting” as your loophole, but honestly, they’re pretty severely in the wrong anyway. There’s no contract on a $20/mo text package, I can add it to and remove it from my plan as I please. When I signed a contract, it was explained to me that I could drop the $20/month texting package at any time and do PPU texting at $0.10 apiece. The rate was already jacked up to $0.15 and I didn’t bother to cancel over it, but now that SERO’s ending and T-Mobile’s breaking their contract, I’m gunning for a way out and conveniently enough am legally in the right.
Nowhere in the contract is “materially adverse” defined as “within the last 3 months,” and I’ll be more than happy to roll T-Mobile to small claims court over this if it comes to it. I was thrilled to be a T-Mobile customer when I first signed my family up: we’re all carrying whiz-bang-froo-froo unlocked Europhones. But their customer service has been really, really terrible, and I’m talking every single time I’ve called in.
In any case, don’t take no for an answer. I’ll go toe-to-toe all week with these turds until they give in and let me out.
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holy moly, i did it and it worked! thanks so much!
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when i had whoreizon i had my girlfriend call them and say my boyfriend was overseas in the army or marines which ever you prefer and she told them i was deceased, and i have never had a problem since and this was last july lol.
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@john j: Hotspot@Home — well, it sounds okay for around the house, but it probably wouldn’t help when we’re out on our longer bike rides (30-50+ miles). Thanks for the suggestion though.
So, after reading this thread several times, I’m still a bit confused as to if we can cancel, but still port our old phone numbers over to another carrier. The original post said “For one, this particular method does not allow you to port your number over to another provider. You’ll have to do some more work to get that accomplished.”
So, what is this “more work” end up looking like? That makes it sound like it’s possible.
C.
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for the record, my family has been at&t customers for almost 18 years now. (way back when it was a bell company)
I decided to be a black sheep and go to T-Mobile (when it was voicestream) and get a slick phone from europe, the name escapes me. had the service for a month and i COULDN’T stand it. it was so bad dropped calls all the time. now granted that was some time ago…so to be fair I went back around 04 (I had to get that Sammy E715) and the phone was spectacular but the service was GOD AWFUL!
Everytime I had to get my older lawyer sister to bail me out of paying ETFs, I’ll have to ask her how she did it, but she always did.
I’ve always been happy with ATT just wanted to try something different and it failed miserably. I’m currently a tilt user and have been for almost a year now and I’m gonna get that iphone thingamajig on friday.
now here’s something interesting, a personal observation… cell companies like three kinds of customers
1) New Lines and why not?
2) Business Lines, they get alot of phones
3) Long Time Customers
seems silly and people who’ve been with a provider for only 2 years or so won’t see this but it actually makes u feel good that they care about you. for the past 5 years now, whenever someone in my family saw a new phone he or she liked, they’d call the sales rep (same lady for almost 10 years) and they’d get the subsidized price, I think my current contract ends in 2010, but it doesn’t matter i’m not going anywhere. and I already called the rep to tell her i’m coming to get the iphone, all the paperwork is ready.
so it pays to stay with a company 5+ years, and don’t buy from somewhere you won’t come back to, corporate/sales reps remember people and they help you out if you are good to them.
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What about family plans? i have 2 phone lines and one with no text on it? can i get the extra line turn off and still keep the other?
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re: Cancel Now
“You can switch to another carrier (like Sprint’s SERO plan) or just transfer to a prepaid. Once transferred, go back to T-Mobile and sign a new contract and take advantage of subsidized phone prices. Sell either your new or old phone on eBay and make easy cash.”
If you cancel and then go back within 90 days, it’s considered a “reactivation” and the new customer phone prices wouldn’t be in effect for you anyway.
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I was told I cannot cancel my account since it hasn’t affected me “yet” and that I can add the message blocking service.
TIme to try another CS rep
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Text messages currently cost 15 cents and not 10. Durr.
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Yaaa okay imma stick with TMOBILE, there the best, cheapest for roaming, and i want android!!!!
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I can sense no bias whatsoever in T-MOBILE being the first posted “Get out free” article. ::rollseyes:: Yes, I do understand it is a “timely” article b/c of the rate change, but why not do this for other companies in the past. Surely T-Mobile is the lesser(est) of all the evil cell companies? Been happy with them in NY & NC for 8yrs and counting, never thought of leaving. I’m even considering working for them once they are “officially” in NC. (post SunCom re-brand)
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WOW!! i just called and it took me no more than 25 minutes! they gave me absolutely no hard sell and didn’t question it at all! i have 30 days from today to port out my 2 lines and i am so happy to be free!
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You guys need to post a Sprint edition!
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Clymmer, Verizon coverage in Aurora is so bad. Can’t even get a signal in the mall. Stick with T-Mobile
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Heres the bottom line, if I had your contract before June 28th this is what their contract states. They can claim they only check up to 3 months back to see if it affects you but thats bullshit because if you have EVER gone over during the current contract that YOU agreed to. Then it is a breach… Contract quoted below.
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
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“Cell phone companies like long-term customers”
HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW.
MY ASS!
That’s why long-term customers get discounts on shitty 2 year old phones as ‘upgrades’ while new customers can get better phones for nearly free.
And do so many of us want to leave T-mo?
One word:
Phones.
Everything about T-mo is great except for their selection of phones. Their selection is so bad, it’s EXCEPTIONALLY bad. I am so sick and tired of reading about HTC Touch’s and iPhones and LG Instincts and Blackberry Bolds and what do we get? What do T-mo customers get? The Sidekick ‘08! Woo! Realeased shortly after the Tony Hawk Edtion Sidekick LX… which was shortly released after the Sidekick Slim or Chub or whatever they call the other one.
Yes, I know… we get the Bold soon as well… AFTER At&t gets it first. But I don’t want a Blackberry… so where does that leave me?
Oh… I know… I can wait… and wait… and wait… and wait and see if the Sony X1 comes to T-mo, right? The specs do show that oh-so-rare 1700mhz, does it not? Yeah right, by the time T-mo gets the X1, At&t users will be on X2 and iPhone 4G.
SPEAKING of which… T-mo 3G is coming! Oooh! It’s coming… 2 years or so after everyone else offered high-speed already!! By the time every T-mo customer has access to 3G DATA (key word there and you know it), some companies will be installing 4G already.
And, to top it off… 3G on a 1700mhz band. Google ‘1700mhz phone’ and see how many are out there.
There is only ONE thing preventing me from jumping from T-mo… that’s everyone else I know is on T-mo. With Mobile-to-mobile, I rarely use ANY minutes at all. At&t stupid money-grubbing company doesn’t offer any form or ‘My Faves’ to ‘top 5 calling’ or else I’d jump to the darkside. If it wasn’t for that one little important bit… I’d leave T-mo in a heartbeat. I am so sick of walking into a T-mo and seeing nothing but phones for teenagers and soccer moms.
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T-mobile says that because I have not gone over my text messages in the past 3 months I am not eligible. PLEASE HELP!!!!
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Thanks for the tip BG. I called TMO this morning and canceled without a problem. The process took less than 10 minutes.
When the rep asked why I wanted to cancel, I told him it was because of the increased txt rate and because of crappy coverage in my area (which is true). He checked the coverage on his little map and confirmed it was spotty in my area.
He then spoke with his supervisor to confirm the txt rate would be sufficient to waive the ETF. When he came back on the line, he said they could waive the ETF. But he did note that I had an unlimited text plan in place so I wouldn’t really be impacted by the change. I said that didn’t matter to me and he dropped the issue.
I am on a family plan and intend to cancel both lines so I can get iPhones for me and my wife. I didn’t mention the iPhone thing to the TMO guy of course, I figure that the must have a sheet of talking points ready for customers planning to make the jump.
My biggest concern was the ability to port the numbers over. The TMO guy made a note in my file saying the ETF fee would be waived. When I get the iPhones tomorrow, AT&T will port over the numbers which effectively will end my TMO contracts on both phones. I then need to call TMO again so they can manually waive the ETF in their system based on the notes in my file. The CSR said that the system will automatically charge me the ETF because my account is still active, but keeping my account active until I open the new AT&T account was the only way to ensure my numbers could be moved.
In all, the process was simple. I got the CSR’s name and info as a backup in case there is a problem with the notes in my file, but I am sure it will go along without a hitch.
Thanks again for this great thread. It saved me a few hundred $$.
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Well! I just called and I was told that I don’t qualify for this “procedure” because I had a txt messaging plan back in May without overages. They said I’d have to have 3 full pay periods without a txt plan to qualify! This sucks!!!! I tried guys…. Any suggestions now?
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Agree with JC. I DID have a text messaging bundle and this still worked. I pointed out that I had gone over my 400 texts per month a few times, so the text cost increase was going to affect me. I was offered $10 off my monthly fees, which I refused.
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::HOW TO WIN::
————–
Here’s my story. I called a total of 3 times and got the runaround, but in the end, I won!
Cancelled both my lines without the ETF. Here’s how it went down (shortened of course):
Call 1: Me and Susan (aggressive)
ME: I’d like to cancel because of the txt message increase.
SUSAN: Sorry to hear that. Let me check. Ok. You can cancel for $200 etf.
ME: Ummm… In your Terms and Conditions it says if there’s a chance that increases
your monthly charges, like the txt increase, I can cancel without an ETF.
SUSAN: Ok. Let me talk to my supervisor.
(3 Minutes and one bad song later)
SUSAN: Ok, we’ve checked your account and since you had a txt plan in May and didn’t
go over, you don’t quailfy for the “waiver” because you haven’t gone 3 months without an
overage or without a txt plan.
ME: So… I would qualify next month?
SUSAN: No. Because we’ve “made a note of this”
(HANG-UP)
Call 2: Me and Jeff (polite)
(Requested cancel b/c of txt increase)
Jeff: Sorry about that. I understand what with the gas prices these days. Ok, we can
cancel your account with a $200 ETF.
ME: According to your Terms & Conditions this change would be, “Materially Adverse”
to me and I qualify for the ETF to be waived.
JEFF: Ok, let me look into this.
(SEVERAL songs later)
JEFF: Thanks for waiting. When did you recieve notification?
ME: I recieved notification on http://www.tmobile.com, it’s on the main page.
JEFF: You didn’t get the notification in the mail?
ME: No. I recieved notification on your website and the Terms & Conditions don’t say
it has to be a physical notification.
JEFF: I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be difficult, it’s just our policy.
(HANG-UP)
Call 3: Me, Eric, and Antwon (both apathetic)
ME: (Request cancellation b/c of txt msg increase)
ERIC: I’ll forward you to our “cancellation department”
ANTWON: I heard you want to cancel.
ME: Yes b/c of the txt msg increase.
ANTWON: Ok we’ll cancel the two numbers today and the numbers will be available for
60 days.
ME: So… I qualify for the ETF to be waived according the the Terms & Conditions
since it’s “Materially Adverse” to me.
ANTWON: I know, I applied the waiver.
ME: Thanks!
(HANG-UP)
In the end I called 3 times (4 different people) and although I was a nervous wreck, I eventually got someone that wasn’t trying to yank my chain, and cancelled my account without the ETF!
THE BEST ADVICE: Just keep calling, quote the Terms & Conditions, and tell them the change is “Materially Adverse” to you.
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i just got off the phone with costumer service and it worked, i used to have 3 lines with a family plan and now i only have 1 line and i dont have to pay a eft, sweet stuff man, thanx for the help
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