2-Year New Activations Launched!

[FallN]

I can easily see them forcing a 5 year or even a 10 year contract in a few years. Lock our children in lifelong contracts too while you're at it! Greedy shady carriers! When will this stop?

[Spac3d]

It should improve profitability .....

[Dviper01]

I feel bad for those of you who are experiencing poor network quality, especially FallN and cpr86. Seriously, not being sarcastic or anything And in a reversal from what you said, cpr86, about San Diego spotty coverage... it all really depends on where you are I guess. Been here since July 2004 and have not had many problems at all [exception: new place I moved to with no indoor reception. But it's the naval base on Coronado so I don't expect much. At least reception is good outside the building ]. There apparently is even new coverage that extends out to a spot on the Coronado bridge that used to always drop my calls. I'm usually around Mission Valley, Downtown, National City, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, Coronado, and occasionally San Ysidro. I'm very happy with my service here, so I was a bit taken back when you mentioned spotty San Diego coverage.

I think what some of you are saying about your coverage, is what Cingular's users could be saying about their coverage in Seattle, WA. I hear T-Mobile and Verizon own the city there Every carrier has its advantages in different parts of the country.

[JuanGuapo]

Wow, I don't get what the big deal is--you can still do a 1yr contract (as you can w/ Cingular or Verizon). You just don't get that much of a phone subsidy is all.

Like it or not, that free or $50 phone is not free--you're paying on it for the next year or two.

I decided to try SPCS a few weeks ago--their customer service is really sub-par in comparison to T-Mobile. Retentions, however, were really cool and didn't turn into car salesmen to keep me. They understood that I thought it was a little expensive for what I was gettin in regards to coverage, and want to stay w/ what I have. When I originally signed up, I asked about 1yr contracts and the sales guy said, "You can do a 1yr contract but you have to pay full price for the phone". I'd rather have done that than stay locked-in for 2yrs and if I need service on the phone, SPCS charges $50 to look at it unless you send it to the manufacturer.

I'm no fanboy of any one carrier, but I've had t-mobile (4yrs in august) for a long time and even on their worst day, they're still the best "deal" in cell service. Lucky for me they bought the old PacBell CA/NV network from Cingular (after all the upgrades) and I have excellent service in LA and Orange County (my downstairs kitchen is another story though).

[ynian]

I've been wondering for a while to choose between TMO or VZW, because my cingular contract is due next month..

Now? -- byebye, t-mobile!

[jeffro01]

while i agree that the move and push on 2yr contracts sucks, and making 1yr contract pricing the new 2yr contract pricing sucks even more. What i don't agree on is the other opinions about coverage/network quality, handset selection, customer service.

One should never switch carriers because of a "cool" phone, furthermore tmobiles current offering has something for everyone. Is it as extensive as it could be? No, but there are quality devices there. I am like most of you and wish that tmobile had better handset exclusitivity, but i am not going to go as far as to say that their selection sucks. But for myself, phone selection doesn't matter to me because i don't buy my phones from my carrier, therefore i may just be missing the point.

Coverage/Network quality: i don't know where everyone else lives but where i live tmobile is top notch, there is no "swiss cheese" coverage where i am at. And there is more than ample rual coverage due to roaming agreements. I get so sick and tired of people claming how bad tmobiles coverage is and how great (input any other carrier here) is. I have not been to a place where i have had coverage problems PERIOD. Not to mention that i VERY and i mean VERY rarely drop a call. My verizon company phone could not live up to either of those 2 examples from tmobile. Although i do understand that there are markets that tmobile is weaker in but you can say the same for any other carrier.

Customer service, i have nothign but positive thigns to say about tmobiles CS and nothing but negative thigns to say about verizon, sprint, and cingulars. The last 6 times i have called cs i have been impressed, i have to call cingulars CS every day i'm at work and have yet to be impressed....

Putting all of that together, 2YR CONTRACTS SUCK!!!! I agree, and i think tmobile is taking away a underestimated competative advantage for potentially lower churn. However, i still belive that tmobile is very competative and will continue to stay that way. Some of you probably see this as a fanboy post, but i can honestly say that i have tried them all and kept coming back to tmobile because they just worked better, treated me better, and had better features

Jeff

[somachino1]

It's gettin scary. I'm a t-mobile direct dealer and it's getting harder and harder to convince customers to join t-mobile. The only thing I feel we can proudly brag about is our customer service and the jd power and associate awards.

Coverage I agree depends on city to city, t-mo has strong markets and wak makets just like any other carrier. Has anyone done a PCC check for San Francisco ? Half of the city isnt covered yet, and that only resembles outdoor coverage.

We dont offer nights at 7, our single line plans dont include mobile to mobile, we dont offer free incoming calls, we dont offer fair and flexible style billing and our phones are pretty much obselete when compared to the competetition.

I know part of the reason why t-mo has gone to two year contracts is because we want to be able to profit more from the customer so that we can then invest in nicer phone, or at least thats what it seems like.

As an amployee I have to welcome these changes with a positive attitude and remain to push the company I work for as If I had no doubts. But naturally, I do.

We're not making any ground on the competition when it comes to net activations and I feel like our coverage is a huge reason why.

I have had att/cingular for 4 years now and I would never think twice about cancelling it. In san francisco, I would never be able to survive on my t-mo phone alone.

One year contracts was by far the biggest selling point, and now its pretty much gone.

Two things that dissapoint me are the activation fee policy, $ 35 per line ? on a 2 year ? That has to change, verizon and cingular each charge $ 18 i think and sprint used to charge $ 36 for the first and then free acts for all additional lines, if memory sevres me correct.

Secondly, i was told by higher ups that phones prices would be slashed upon starting 2 year contracts so that we could compete with other carriers, mos all phone prices remained the same, we have only 2 free phones, neither of which even feature a camera.

How the V188 is not a free phone, and maybe even the t309, I have no idea why.

Whats worse is our compensation has completely switched to phone based pay. If we discount a phone we prety much make chump change. What am i supposed to tell a cusomer who asks me why we dont even offer basic camera phone free on a 2 year contract ?

Again, i will keep my head up high and keep doing my best, but i feel like we've lost our initial values. We're no longer the value leader, i'm tired of hearing complaints about our coverage and our lack of voice features such as earlier nights, free mobile to mobile, incoming calls, etc. is killin me.

[cpr86]

I feel bad for those of you who are experiencing poor network quality, especially FallN and cpr86. Seriously, not being sarcastic or anything And in a reversal from what you said, cpr86, about San Diego spotty coverage... it all really depends on where you are I guess. Been here since July 2004 and have not had many problems at all [exception: new place I moved to with no indoor reception. But it's the naval base on Coronado so I don't expect much. At least reception is good outside the building ]. There apparently is even new coverage that extends out to a spot on the Coronado bridge that used to always drop my calls. I'm usually around Mission Valley, Downtown, National City, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, Coronado, and occasionally San Ysidro. I'm very happy with my service here, so I was a bit taken back when you mentioned spotty San Diego coverage.

I think what some of you are saying about your coverage, is what Cingular's users could be saying about their coverage in Seattle, WA. I hear T-Mobile and Verizon own the city there Every carrier has its advantages in different parts of the country.

i mainly use service in east county (santee, el cajon) and north county (poway, rancho penasquitos, and escondido) and i get a ton of dead zones. where i work in particular is awful. My coworker's verizon and cingular phones have at least a couple bars and i consistently have zero. on my drive home from santee to north county, i lose service 3 times. i can't hold a conversation on the drive home because it keeps cutting out. its not the phone either as i have used several. i'm not trying to claim that there is no service in san diego, but the areas i frequent are pretty bad.

and to the poster who said you shouldn't base which cell carrier you are with on the phones, i think you're partly correct. Most people get a phone and use that phone for 2+ years. If I were them, i would want that phone to be stylish and have enough features to not make it completely outdated in that time. t-mobile doesn't have phones that fit that requirement. I personally know people who did not sign a contract with t-mobile because they didn't like their phone options there. They went straight over to cingular and ended up with phones that they were happy to use.

[cpr86]

How the V188 is not a free phone, and maybe even the t309, I have no idea why.

This is exactly the problem! thats pathetic!! why would i lock myself in for two years if all i can get free is an x495 or a 6010?

[quik94]

I'm guessing the pricing will get better in the next couple of weeks. Remember when the 2 year contracts came out on upgrades? There wasn't much difference between 1 or 2 year agreement pricing. If sales are not at the level that the company would like them to be, I'm sure the pricing will change.

However, we need to remember that most of the people on this forum are more intune with what's going on in the industry. The fact is, for the average consumer isn't deterred by a 2 year contract - most people expect it.

As far as phone selection - my guess is that we're not seeing as many new phones because of the upcoming UMA launch.

[dswallow]

The only thing that really bothers me with T-Mobile is their fixed-fee early termination fee. If it were prorated, I'd consider it reasonable.

I've been with T-Mobile since they were Omnipoint in the NY area, then VoiceStream, then T-Mobile. I just came back after 5 months trying Sprint (technically Virgin Mobile) and it was the MDA which made me care.

There's basically only 3 complaints I have these days: the excessively high international roaming charges (under Omnipoint they were priced based on the cost from wherever you were calling from/to... now they're $0.99/min and up in $0.50 increments... basically more than tripling costs for most countries); $0.40/minute overages are excessive; and the non-prorated early termination fee.

[patmtnbkr02]

Though I hope this isn't the case, because I'd much prefer 1 year over 2 years it states at the bottom of the page "For a 1 year contract, call 1-877-387-4324 or visit one of our T-mobile stores." And if you read on the See important information about service link, it stills says 1 year agreement required so by the looks of things it seems like you can still sign for 1 year. From here on out I'd always ask to double check though.

-PT

[Darla]

If you look at the bottom of the page here http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/?direct=true it seems that the 1 year is still or will be available.

[kdenninger]

I will never - and I do mean never - upgrade or change a plan if it requires a 2 year extension.

Ever.

This means that if I want to do that, I port to someone else. Good job T - you just created churn where it would otherwise not have existed.

Not smart. At all. And thinking this will reduce churn is false. It will only do that for a very short period of time. A pissed-off customer who is locked in just gets more pissed as days go on, and the longer you keep him, the madder he is - and the more dedicated he is to taking other people with him when he/she goes.

Some people never learn, and it appears T is one of them.

May the lawsuits over cell contracts relating to number portability force the END to contract terms entirely. This is what you get when you push too hard - backlash.

[osa500]

i didnt know there would be so much of a fuss. Alot of people sign 2yr contracts to make the price of your phone cheaper, thats the only incentive i see. I thought everyone here on the t-mo boards buys the unbranded/unlocked phones, so its not like ur losing anything.

or may be its just me :-)