Did T-Mobile just scam me?

[cujoe_da_man]

So, two weeks ago I signed up for T-Mobile's home internet plan, providing their new gateway router that is 5G compatible.

The first week, with no cell booster and being a good ways away from the tower, we were getting a solid 2-3 bars of service and download speeds were as high as 16 megabits / 2 Megabytes, averaging 8 megabits / 1 megabyte and some occasional slowdowns to about 4.8 megabits / 600 kilobytes (mostly at peak times and it would spike up to much higher speeds all the time). Needless to say I was decently happy and accepting of these speeds since they were nearly triple what our old Verizon service was WITH a booster. Pings were roughly 20-30ms.

However, within the past week, the service has dropped to near nothing. Most of the time get just below 1 megabit / 100 kilobytes, with some spikes around 2.4 megabits / 300 kilobytes. It doesn't matter if it's peak times or 2 am, the speeds are all the same. My pings have shot up to 60-100ms at random tests.

My dad has the same gateway as me and he's getting the same speeds. We also have three phones through T-mobile and testing when connected to the gateways or just cell signal by itself also nets exactly the same results. There are at least three others in my very immediate area that have also signed up for the home internet and I'll be talking with them too.

Did we just get hosed by T-mobile? I haven't been able to call them because of my work schedule, but I'm hoping in the next day or two when I get out earlier.

I have to say I am extremely disappointed in this because we were promised point blank that they do no throttle and that is exactly what is happening, exactly how Verizon was throttling us, but the speeds are even worse than Verizon.

Starlink just dropped an email saying their beta tests are available in our area and there are a good number of us in our area that are watching that very closely. Maybe it's time to switch already.

[DRNewcomb]

If you follow the T-Mobile support forum, you know that there are a lot of disappointed subscribers to T-Mobile's Home Internet service. I don't think T-Mobile is intending to run a "scam". I think they probably oversold the service, as usual. I've been advising folks with less than band 41 5G service, to consider other options, including StarLink, particularly rural customers.

[Androided]

So, two weeks ago I signed up for T-Mobile's home internet plan, providing their new gateway router that is 5G compatible.

The first week, with no cell booster and being a good ways away from the tower, we were getting a solid 2-3 bars of service and download speeds were as high as 16 megabits / 2 Megabytes, averaging 8 megabits / 1 megabyte and some occasional slowdowns to about 4.8 megabits / 600 kilobytes (mostly at peak times and it would spike up to much higher speeds all the time). Needless to say I was decently happy and accepting of these speeds since they were nearly triple what our old Verizon service was WITH a booster. Pings were roughly 20-30ms.

However, within the past week, the service has dropped to near nothing. Most of the time get just below 1 megabit / 100 kilobytes, with some spikes around 2.4 megabits / 300 kilobytes. It doesn't matter if it's peak times or 2 am, the speeds are all the same. My pings have shot up to 60-100ms at random tests.

My dad has the same gateway as me and he's getting the same speeds. We also have three phones through T-mobile and testing when connected to the gateways or just cell signal by itself also nets exactly the same results. There are at least three others in my very immediate area that have also signed up for the home internet and I'll be talking with them too.

Did we just get hosed by T-mobile? I haven't been able to call them because of my work schedule, but I'm hoping in the next day or two when I get out earlier.

I have to say I am extremely disappointed in this because we were promised point blank that they do no throttle and that is exactly what is happening, exactly how Verizon was throttling us, but the speeds are even worse than Verizon.

Starlink just dropped an email saying their beta tests are available in our area and there are a good number of us in our area that are watching that very closely. Maybe it's time to switch already.

T-Mobile 14 days return policy. You can return it without paying anything. Scam them back.

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

[jameny5]

This story sounds very familiar to other T-Mobile horror stories. How they get almost a million new customers leave me scratching my head. What is their secret? Ads? Gimmicks?

[Jack Hagar]

This story sounds very familiar to other T-Mobile horror stories. How they get almost a million new customers leave me scratching my head. What is their secret? Ads? Gimmicks?

low prices with taxes included.

[formercanuck]

low prices with taxes included.

Bingo. In general, I'd probably still be with AT&T, as in general I didn't have any 'real' issues locally or in travel with them, outside of the cost. Almost everything was a fee or tax. Wanted to use service in Canada... had to purchase a bucket of minutes (~2014/2015). Of course, AT&T and VZW had 'corporate FAN' account discounts that T-Mobile typically doesn't have, and a better corporate response. All of that comes at a cost.

T-Mobile undercut AT&T/VZW due a better marketing strategy.
- Low costs (average person likes),
- No hidden fees (can add up to ~10% of your bill, possibly more)
- No overages (this was a BIG sell IMHO) - as people were hesitant to get on plans if they could forsee a huge spike due to overages
- Overseas text - in many urban markets this was huge.
- included 'basic' data in many countries - this was good for an occasional person, to not have to deal with purchasing ppd sims and unlocking.

What T-Mobile missed... is typically 'true' support and consistency in its network in many places. Same reason why I have a work phone as AT&T.

[cujoe_da_man]

Sooooo... I hate when I'm right... and I hate when I'm wrong. How do you be right and wrong at the same time?

Anywho, I traveled out to the tower this afternoon and found this

I may have jumped the gun and to conclusions too soon, but what else can you expect when you've dealt with the exact same issues as Verizon, right? So, I give T-Mobile a pass because this is literally the first time I've seen that tower worked on since I first started learning about how this works (it's been a few moons).

Honestly, this makes me happy to see something actually being done.

[jameny5]

low prices with taxes included.

How clever of you Jack Hagar to leave off - and non working service! Put two and two together - low price plus lousy, janky or non existent service = cheap service. That will reel in unsuspecting customers. No wonder folks are complaining left and right about T-Mobiles service. I get it now! I thought it was their ads and gimmicks. It was that plus cheap prices and so so service.

[Theghostlad82]

This story sounds very familiar to other T-Mobile horror stories. How they get almost a million new customers leave me scratching my head. What is their secret? Ads? Gimmicks?

They didn't technically get a million new customers, they added a million new lines, they only added around 200,000 new accounts. This is one of the benefits of offering free or reduced line promos during the last few weeks of a quarter. Not saying this is a bad thing, it's actually a smart business move, it's 2 fold, 1. It makes their adds larger and 2. It helps reduce churn in the long run, a person with multiple lines, especially at a great price per line, is less likely to leave anytime soon.

[formercanuck]

How clever of you Jack Hagar to leave off - and non working service! Put two and two together - low price plus lousy, janky or non existent service = cheap service. That will reel in unsuspecting customers. No wonder folks are complaining left and right about T-Mobiles service. I get it now! I thought it was their ads and gimmicks. It was that plus cheap prices and so so service.

Non existent service is different than. Non working service. Many rural areas have the first, while some urban have the latter. Not all carriers have the same service in all areas. TMobiles price is lower, and service reflects that. As a note, I've personally had poor /non existent service from every carrier somewhere.

Sent from my IN2017 using HoFo mobile app

[jmac32here]

Non existent service is different than. Non working service. Many rural areas have the first, while some urban have the latter. Not all carriers have the same service in all areas. TMobiles price is lower, and service reflects that. As a note, I've personally had poor /non existent service from every carrier somewhere.

Sent from my IN2017 using HoFo mobile app

Thank you, i was about to say the same thing.

Bring your Verizon phone to my apartment and see what non-existant service looks like - in the MIDDLE of SEATTLE.

Only T-Mobile works well in my hill.

But I've had similar issues with every carrier, and I've sold service for all of them and might have done some tower work for one of them.

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