Tmobile Emp. Discount

[lupi]

If you haven't heard, the discount are going away. There is not a concrete list other than military and most government plans are safe, most corporate ones are bye-bye. Just went through the process of swapping mine over from corp to government to stick it to the man!

 

[khha4113]

I just hope Verizon or AT&T wouldn't follow suit!

 

[SunnyD]

Still waiting for official clarification on the latest revision - they may be changing it regarding grandfathering status (not holding my breath). If they don't, I will be looking into (unfortunately) AT&T.

 

[sweenish]

I'm not thrilled by this news, but it's still cheaper than Verizon was and ATT is.

If I end up not liking it enough, at least I have the ability to cancel when I want and switch over to a pre-paid plan from whoever services my city decently on the cheap.

/shrug

 

[Bateluer]

Man, my employer just started offering this too. :/

 

[nickbits]

Nuts I was going to switch from prepaid to post paid at the end of the year using my wife's employee discount. I'll probably stick to prepaid now.

 

[basslover1]

That sucks, that's one of the reasons I switched to T-Mobile because it was so damn cheap. I mean, it still is but losing 15% isn't something to shrug off.

 

[jpeyton]

T-Mobile is cheaper than AT&T and Verizon for me by a long-shot. There's no way I'm switching.

T-Mobile's CEO says they are doing this to provide lower prices for everyone, not just corporations. I think that's a great idea. One, simple, upfront, same-for-everyone pricing structure would be nice, so I know the guy next door isn't getting some special deal that I'm not.

They just bumped their basic Simple Choice smartphone plan from 500MB to 1GB of data at no extra charge. If moves like getting rid of company discounts are enabling that, great.

 

[SunnyD]

T-Mobile is cheaper than AT&T and Verizon for me by a long-shot. There's no way I'm switching.

T-Mobile's CEO says they are doing this to provide lower prices for everyone, not just corporations. I think that's a great idea. One, simple, upfront, same-for-everyone pricing structure would be nice, so I know the guy next door isn't getting some special deal that I'm not.

They just bumped their basic Simple Choice smartphone plan from 500MB to 1GB of data at no extra charge. If moves like getting rid of company discounts are enabling that, great.

Thing is they're not.

They're replacing the current discount program with a new "incentive" program. What's the new program? You get a $25 gift card every time you upgrade a device on your account, up to twice per year per line. Sweet, right? You're still potentially getting that % discount...

Except that you'll be tied into paying full carrier subsidized price for a phone. Twice a year. And last I checked 6.9% != 15% ($50 over the course of a $720/year single line account, for example, and that doesn't take into account generally paying the $500 or so for the phone each time you "upgrade").

This is a price hike in disguise for everyone. They're trying to incentivize getting everybody to buy fully unsubsidized phones at a more rapid rate.

My guess is they're trying to stem the blood coming from the BYOD crowd because their offering was just too good. This is a slap in the face for the likes of us.

 

[lupi]

Yeah there is no way into making the numbers turn this into a savings for everyone let alone anyone.

 

[bearxor]

Yeah, this is a pretty big bummer. Was hoping that, at some point, some kind of discount would get me to switch to TMo, but now not so sure. MRC before taxes and phones for me on TMo would be $110 and AT&T with my discount is $109. I'm definitely going with the option for more coverage.

 

[Roland00Address]

It seems they reversed course, grandfathered customers will be able to keep their old plan

Good news. Tomorrow we will announce that current corp customer employees can keep their discounts. New plan will apply to new customers.

https://twitter.com/SievertMike/status/451229637008314368

 

[phillyman36]

I don't talk on my phone a lot. I am waiting for the Walmart activation code i ordered and switching my post paid phone to the pre paid plan. With tax it come to $34.00 100 talk minutes/Unlimited text/Unlimited web (First 5gb at 4g)

Using my iphone 5s I was trying to go cheaper on the monthly bill to begin with but with the Emp discount going i jump shipped faster.

 

[SunnyD]

Updated blog from Legere

Now my only question is whether or not I will be able to add lines to my existing family plan with the discount or not at this point. I was planning on getting two more lines for my kids down the road, but with the state of these changes I held off because it would have been pointless. Now I'm in limbo on whether adding the lines would cancel my "grandfathered" status or not, since we're after April 1st.

Either way, this is the right thing to do for T-Mo. If you're not going to bring the price for ALL customers DOWN to the discounted corporate rates, then you're going to leave well enough alone.

 

[Dulanic]

Updated blog from Legere

Now my only question is whether or not I will be able to add lines to my existing family plan with the discount or not at this point. I was planning on getting two more lines for my kids down the road, but with the state of these changes I held off because it would have been pointless. Now I'm in limbo on whether adding the lines would cancel my "grandfathered" status or not, since we're after April 1st.

Either way, this is the right thing to do for T-Mo. If you're not going to bring the price for ALL customers DOWN to the discounted corporate rates, then you're going to leave well enough alone.

That's a good question and will make me consider it once I do change phones. Thankfully I have 3 S4's and a LG Optimus F3 for the smartphone newb in my family who doesn't even use data. The S4's will probably last me until at least the S6, but we shall see.

After that... I will probably still stay /w T-Mobile unless someone else becomes competitive. Verizon, Sprint & ATT only apply the corp discount to the "base" plan and nothing else... so their discounts aren't all that great anymore either. I'll never go back to Sprint and ATT & Verizon are so much more.. I just can't see myself going with them. But either way, prob have almost1 1/2 years before I swap phones again.

 

[paperwastage]

After that... I will probably still stay /w T-Mobile unless someone else becomes competitive. Verizon, Sprint & ATT only apply the corp discount to the "base" plan and nothing else... so their discounts aren't all that great anymore either. I'll never go back to Sprint and ATT & Verizon are so much more.. .

well, i believe t-mobile does something similar too... I get discount on my $80 rate ($50 first person, $30 second person), but nothing on my $20 unlimited plan for my line... i guess verizon/sprint/att only applies discount to the mobile data bucket and first line only

If my discount went, i was debating on jumping my two lines to the $30/month prepaid plan.... $60 vs $91, so I can pay out of pocket another 300 minutes and still be cheaper

 

[lupi]

Doesn't surprise me. Many were talking about ditching to either a tmo brand subcarrier or another one of the major brands as this would remove a large portion of the cost difference.

In other news, got a letter from blackberry saying they weren't renewing their license with tmo to sell BB handsets.

 

[jpeyton]

Thing is they're not.

They're replacing the current discount program with a new "incentive" program. What's the new program?

There's no new program. They realized that they can't offer everyone 4 lines for $100/month and maintain a profit without killing corporate discounts.

I'm fine with that.

But they compromised. They're going to let the whiners keep their grandfathered corporate discount, and kill it for new customers.

 

[gotsmack]

There's no new program. They realized that they can't offer everyone 4 lines for $100/month and maintain a profit without killing corporate discounts.

I'm fine with that.

But they compromised. They're going to let the whiners keep their grandfathered corporate discount, and kill it for new customers.

This is actually a win for them. The people on the corp discounts are locked into their plans for life. They'll be afraid to switch because then they'll lose their discount if they come back. Just like how I can't switch away from ATT because I have unlimited data.

 

[kaerflog]

Ok so has anyone try to get out of their contract with this announcement ??
I have 4 lines on a Classic plan that I could migrate to the Simple by April 21st since my 18 months are up but by doing that they won't transfer the discount from the Classic to the Simple.
I can simply try to get out of the last 6 months of the contract by saying they broke their agreement.

 

[basslover1]

Hmmm, I wonder what this means for me now since I have the older 1000 Min Value plan from right before they started their simple choice plans.

 

[SunnyD]

There's no new program. They realized that they can't offer everyone 4 lines for $100/month and maintain a profit without killing corporate discounts.

I'm fine with that.

But they compromised. They're going to let the whiners keep their grandfathered corporate discount, and kill it for new customers.

You conveniently selectively quoted. I detailed their new advantage program "highlights". I'll point it out again for you - It amounts to a price hike and a marketing ploy to get more money out of customers by getting them to buy full retail priced unsubsidized phones at a much more rapid pace than customers traditionally would have.

$25 off a full retail priced unsubsidized phone? T-Mobile would be raking in money selling those to you twice a year. More than enough to offset those razor thin plan margins.

 

[lupi]

Seems like tmo trying to still kill as many as they can, after letting "grandfathered" members keep the discount, they have sent out postcards to all those members to revalidate or lose the discount.

 

[Trombe]

I haven't gotten any postcard like others have but I am on a government discount that they probably were never going to drop.