T-Mobile "abandons overage charges"

[Alyosha]

Got this e-mail from T-Mobile last night and had to do a little research into the technicalities. It looks like cheap punks like me who didn't pay for "unlimited" plans are essentially being rolled onto an unlimited plan of some sort without any change to price/contract/whatever. I'm cool with that I guess. I never had any overages anyway and I'm happy to see T-mobile trying to push customer friendly options, even if it is out of desperation for market share.

 

[CHANG3D]

No... T-Mobile is now hard capping everyone who doesn't have unlimited data. So if you're paying for 500MB of data, once you hit it, you won't have any more data and T-Mobile won't charge you overages either. T-Mobile supposedly will give you an option to buy more data. Basically, the way things are done almost everywhere else in the world.

 

[Deleted whining member 223597]

No... T-Mobile is now hard capping everyone who doesn't have unlimited data. So if you're paying for 500MB of data, once you hit it, you won't have any more data and T-Mobile won't charge you overages either. T-Mobile supposedly will give you an option to buy more data. Basically, the way things are done almost everywhere else in the world.

High speed data*. You still get unlimited 2G/Edge last I checked.

 

[paperwastage]

No... T-Mobile is now hard capping everyone who doesn't have unlimited data. So if you're paying for 500MB of data, once you hit it, you won't have any more data and T-Mobile won't charge you overages either. T-Mobile supposedly will give you an option to buy more data. Basically, the way things are done almost everywhere else in the world.

from what I understand, Simple Choice plans are unlimited (data = 2G after you go over), except for the $40 one where data is cut off after 500MB

for grandfathered plans, you get unlimited voice/text, but I guess you get throttled for 2G on the data side?

 

[Trimlock]

Yes.

And this is marketing 101, it was theorized for a while that tmo was going to unlimited everything trying to compete with AT&T. Note they are talking big, which is fine, I like the competition. It got me $50 off my AT&T bill.

 

[Domini]

No... T-Mobile is now hard capping everyone who doesn't have unlimited data. So if you're paying for 500MB of data, once you hit it, you won't have any more data and T-Mobile won't charge you overages either. T-Mobile supposedly will give you an option to buy more data. Basically, the way things are done almost everywhere else in the world.

Only the Simple choice plan is hard capped. Everything else either has a high speed data limit or is unlimited high speed.

 

[VulcaN]

What will happen if we drop the $5, $10, $15, $20, $25 a month texting plan from our accounts? Will we still have unlimited messages?

And if not, then why wouldn't I just switch my $20 1000 messages plan to the $10 one with 200 messages or whatever and then save $10/mo?

 

[Domini]

What will happen if we drop the $5, $10, $15, $20, $25 a month texting plan from our accounts? Will we still have unlimited messages?

And if not, then why wouldn't I just switch my $20 1000 messages plan to the $10 one with 200 messages or whatever and then save $10/mo?

I think they would just convert your account to the simple choice plan. Since your a loyal customer you would be getting a great deal!

 

[YeuEmMaiMai]

Only the Simple choice plan is hard capped. Everything else either has a high speed data limit or is unlimited high speed.

no,

simple choice gives you X amount of high speed data then it is slowed. Straight from their website under my plan details page


PLAN
Simple Choice Plan: Unlimited Talk + Text Shared
Data Service (my wife's line since she does not use internet, no need to pay more for it)

1 GB High-Speed Data Free
Includes up to 1 GB of high-speed data on T-Mobile's network for no extra charge. Smartphone Mobile HotSpot service included. Speeds slowed after 1 GB.

as you can see she can use it with or without tethering.

 

[oblib__]

This is primarily for the older, not-unlimited plans like mine. Before this announcement I had 200MB of data and if I went over, they charged $0.xx per MB. Now they're going to just cut it off unless I buy a pass. Good deal, I say.

 

[JPF_]

No... T-Mobile is now hard capping everyone who doesn't have unlimited data. So if you're paying for 500MB of data, once you hit it, you won't have any more data and T-Mobile won't charge you overages either. T-Mobile supposedly will give you an option to buy more data. Basically, the way things are done almost everywhere else in the world.

They don't cap chit.


They reduce your speeds.

My plan is 2gb of 4g, then once over 2gb, it reverts to 3g until my months cycle is complete.

You sound butthurt brah.....

 

[JPF_]

What will happen if we drop the $5, $10, $15, $20, $25 a month texting plan from our accounts? Will we still have unlimited messages?

And if not, then why wouldn't I just switch my $20 1000 messages plan to the $10 one with 200 messages or whatever and then save $10/mo?

lol You pay 20$ for 1k text messages?

haha.avi


50$ here from tmobile, unlimited talk/text and 2gb of 4g.....and I get pretty dam good coverage compared to my friends with the other major carriers.

 

[blgdinger]

High speed data*. You still get unlimited 2G/Edge last I checked.

This.

It's the biggest misconception for everybody because they think "lol I got the unlimited datazz!" Which, in essence, is true. What they don't know is after the limit set by your plan you get reduced to 2G speeds. I have a 5GB plan on tmo and I used over 10 gigs this last billing cycle. It was absolute torture.

 

[Paradoxex]

They don't cap chit.


They reduce your speeds.

My plan is 2gb of 4g, then once over 2gb, it reverts to 3g until my months cycle is complete.

You sound butthurt brah.....

What you are saying does not comport with anything being reported elsewhere.

http://bgr.com/2014/04/09/t-mobile-vs-att-vs-verizon-data-overage-fees/

You get limited to 2G speeds, not 3G. And the new $40 plans T-Mobile is trumpeting will cap you as opposed to just limiting your speeds.

Don't be so petulant unless you're accurate. Makes you look silly.

 

[Domini]

This.

It's the biggest misconception for everybody because they think "lol I got the unlimited datazz!" Which, in essence, is true. What they don't know is after the limit set by your plan you get reduced to 2G speeds. I have a 5GB plan on tmo and I used over 10 gigs this last billing cycle. It was absolute torture.

Yea the 2G speeds suck if you don't have the high speed unlimited. Its still way better than being charged out the ass because you went over your limit though. I would hate to stress myself out and watch my data limit like a hawk every month.

no,

simple choice gives you X amount of high speed data then it is slowed. Straight from their website under my plan details page


PLAN
Simple Choice Plan: Unlimited Talk + Text Shared
Data Service (my wife's line since she does not use internet, no need to pay more for it)

1 GB High-Speed Data Free
Includes up to 1 GB of high-speed data on T-Mobile's network for no extra charge. Smartphone Mobile HotSpot service included. Speeds slowed after 1 GB.

as you can see she can use it with or without tethering.

Yes, I know that...

Sorry I meant the Simple Starter plan, not Simple Choice

 

[VulcaN]

lol You pay 20$ for 1k text messages?
haha.avi
50$ here from tmobile, unlimited talk/text and 2gb of 4g.....and I get pretty dam good coverage compared to my friends with the other major carriers.

Looked it up, its $10 for 1000 messages but I have it on two lines so $20 for 2000 messages total. They offer $25 for unlimited messages across all lines, but with there no longer being overages it would be $5 wasted.

I looked into switching to the smaller messaging bundle, which was $5 for something like 100-250 messages, but they removed it of course.

Still, paying per feature on my old plan ends up being cheaper than switching to one of their newer unlimited plans which apparently cut your data off after you reach a certain amount instead of just lowering your speeds as a previous poster mentioned.

 

[Warrior]

Then explain this to me.....

These are screen caps from my actual account.

My plan says 3GB each phone shared.... then my usage says unlimited.... Explain this shit.

Plan

Usage

 

[VulcaN]

Mine says that too and I don't trust anything that online system says, but you can use it in your defense if you ever got charged for something and needed to contact billing about it.

The online system does not match what my paper bill says, and the CS rep says what the paper bill says.

 

[JPF_]

What you are saying does not comport with anything being reported elsewhere.

http://bgr.com/2014/04/09/t-mobile-vs-att-vs-verizon-data-overage-fees/

You get limited to 2G speeds, not 3G. And the new $40 plans T-Mobile is trumpeting will cap you as opposed to just limiting your speeds.

Don't be so petulant unless you're accurate. Makes you look silly.

PLAN

500 Minute Value—Talk
$34.99
Other
Visual Voicemail
Free
Extra Minutes
Free Wi-Fi Calling
Free
Data Service
Unlimited - Plus
$10.00
Messaging
Unlimited Domestic Messages
$5.00




Sorry, 500 minutes of talk time. That was my only mistake.

 

[Warrior]

Mine says that too and I don't trust anything that online system says, but you can use it in your defense if you ever got charged for something and needed to contact billing about it.

The online system does not match what my paper bill says, and the CS rep says what the paper bill says.

Well I figured it might have been wrong, so just to test, when I saw it I changed my data to 1GB each shared. Because me and my Gf are always on WiFi.

I'll have to check my bill and see what it says.

 

[ND40oz]

What's interesting is they can hard cap you if your current plan doesn't specifically state that you get throttled. It doesn't affect me, but if you had a plan that didn't throttle and just started charging you for more then the allotment, you could just get cut off.

http://how-to.t-mobile.com/no-overages-faq/

What happens when I meet my plan’s allotment of domestic talk, text or data?

We started moving away from overage fees with the introduction of our popular Simple Choice plans last year. For anyone on an older plan with a domestic bucket of minutes or texts that has overages, you will experience effectively unlimited service as we will no longer charge the overage fees. For data on plans that currently have data overages, after your allotted bucket, you may continue to receive unlimited data at slower (2G) speeds, or you may not have additional data service until you change plans. This is consistent with how we handle usage on the Simple Choice plans. You also have the option to move to plans with more 4G LTE data, as well.

 

[jdraughn]

One thing I noticed, which is not very clear, is that yes, once you reach your "limit" in data, you still have data, just slower, EXCEPT for tethering. Once you hit your limit, you can't tether anymore until the next billing cycle starts.

 

[paperwastage]

One thing I noticed, which is not very clear, is that yes, once you reach your "limit" in data, you still have data, just slower, EXCEPT for tethering. Once you hit your limit, you can't tether anymore until the next billing cycle starts.

well, for the Simple Choice plan (with the data caps and throttling after), i was still able to tether after the cap, at the throttled speed of ~50kbytes/s

for the Simple Choice unlimited plan (unlimited smartphone, 3-5GB tether), i was pushed to the upsell page when I try to tether