T-Mobile ditches handset upgrade fees

By on Dec 18, 2008 at 11:35 AM
General December 18, 2008

Your phone is beaten down and the battery doesn’t last more than a few minutes – or there is a pretty new gadget and it has everything you could possibly want, even though your current phone is perfectly fine. In either of these situations, if you were eligible for an upgrade, it was sweet as icing to know you’d get your new device at a subsidized price. However, as if it didn’t hurt enough that you had to sign a new contract, there’s that annoying “upgrade fee” to deal with and it always stung just a little. What on earth compels a carrier to charge an upgrade fee?! We’re glad that T-Mobile is abandoning that silly practice because it’s a total insult when they say, “Hey, thanks for sticking with us for another two years and buying a brand new phone, but we’re gonna have to charge you extra for that.” Goodbye $18 slap-in-the-face fee!

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  • Jason

    T-Mobile reception in Chicago is excellent. Some of the news stations have done a few “tests” while driving all over the city and suburbs. They found T-Mobile to be the best in the city as I recall. There have been others as well and I don’t recall all of the rankings. I can say from personal experience that I found T-Mobile to be the best in Chicago. I left AT&T for reception issues and left Verizon for the same thing. The Verizon one surprised me. No service for part of my drive to class. None in my building. None in certain campus buildings. T-Mobile never caused me to drop or to be unable to place a call though…unless I was in the computer lab (which is two floors deep in the basement!!).

  • blackberry please

    Rimm is getting bashed for this smart phone release. But by what iv been reading its verizons best selling smart phone. I have people at work clammering for this phone (notifylink support expected late january early febuary) So by all accounts its a hit.. even if it was released early. Updates have been coming out quickley. I wouldnt want one..waiting for the 8900 myself.. but geez I cant understand the bashing.

  • nicole

    Thanks BG! I just got my son a new one 2 weeks ago but they credited it back for me. I did have to ask for a supervisor 1st bc the rep tried to tell me since I’d already agreed to it there was nothing they could do. Then after talking to the supervisor, she came back and told me that as a “one time curtesy” they’d do it. I didn’t bother pointing out that since they got rid of it, it wouldn’t happen again anyway.

  • Jdslim

    To Tony

    The only reason why removing upgrade fees on T-mobile was reported was due to Tmonews.com reporting it. Tmonews is a tmobile fan website that really made a name for itself by being first to report on everything or anything Tmobile. For the Verizion fans of the world they don’t have such a website so no one reported them dropping upgrade fees.

  • gregoron

    I just called TMO today and asked for a refund or credit of that fee for a phone I upgraded on Nov. 29. They wouldn’t return it since it went beyond the Dec. 4 retroactive date they had just set. But, they did give me an extra 100 minutes that expires 90 days from now. So call them and demand something if you just had your phone upgrade.

    I’m still waiting for the Blackberry 89000 Curve II or Javelin. No word yet on their release but the rep I talked to said they plan to release the new Shadow, Dash, and a new Samsung phone.

  • TM

    @ blackberryplease
    Its because verizon nickels and dimes their customers to death, charging for garbage applications such as vz navigator, not allowing you to put your own music on your phone. etc… Also crippling a phone like the storm with CDMA just blows.

  • http://myexperiencesblog.blogspot.com ss0luu

    haha, darn! well, good thing i got my zine for free… oh well, no use crying over spilled milk, right?

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