“T-Mobile will never change the price you pay,” the carrier told users in 2017.
When T-Mobile announced price hikes of up to $5 per line on older smartphone plans last month, many customers were shocked because of T-Mobile’s years-old promise that their price would never rise as long as they stuck with the same plan.
“New rule: Only YOU should have the power to change what you pay,” T-Mobile said in a January 2017 announcement of its “Un-contract” promise for T-Mobile One plans. “Now, T-Mobile One customers keep their price until THEY decide to change it. T-Mobile will never change the price you pay for your T-Mobile One plan.”
Unfortunately, the promise wasn’t as simple as T-Mobile claimed it to be in that press release. T-Mobile also published an FAQ that answered the question, “What happens if you do raise the price of my T-Mobile One service?” It explained that the only guarantee is T-Mobile will pay your final month’s bill if the price goes up and you decide to cancel.
The FAQ stated, “The Un-contract is our commitment that only you can change what you pay and we mean it! To show just how serious we are we have committed to pay your final month’s recurring service charges if we were to raise prices and you choose to leave. Just let us know within 60 days.”
The FAQ link now just redirects to the T-Mobile home page, but the Internet Archive has a capture of the FAQ from January 2018. While we couldn’t find an earlier capture of the page, a discussion on an Android Central forum shows that the text mentioned above was noticed by some customers in January 2017.
The Un-contract was also previously applied to T-Mobile Simple Choice plans starting in March 2015. The 2015 announcement said the Un-contract would be enabled automatically with “no crazy strings, no hoops to jump through, no hidden fees, no BS.”Advertisement
The recent price increases reportedly affect Simple Choice plans as well as other packages, but we haven’t been able to find any language from 2015 that acknowledges an exception that lets T-Mobile raise prices on Simple Choice. We asked T-Mobile several questions today and will update this article if it provides more information.
T-Mobile disputes complaint to FCC
T-Mobile is pointing to the above caveat to defend itself against at least one complaint filed to the Federal Communications Commission after the recent price hike. Yesterday, a Reddit user and T-Mobile subscriber posted a letter in which T-Mobile asked the FCC to close the complaint filed by the user.
T-Mobile’s response to the FCC and the user who complained said:
Regarding these changes, we are aware some customers have inquired about T-Mobile’s Un-contract and Price Lock. With Un-contract, T-Mobile committed to its customers that if we were to increase prices and customers chose to leave as a result, T-Mobile would pay the customers’ final month’s recurring service charge, as long as we are notified within 60 days. Consistent with this commitment, customers who activated on an eligible rate plan between January 5, 2017 and April 27, 2022, can request to have their final month’s qualifying service charge reimbursed if their rate plan increases and they choose to cancel service. Customers simply need to request reimbursement within 60 days of the price increase.
The T-Mobile response goes on to describe the more recent “Price Lock” guarantee that was offered starting in April 2022 and discontinued in January 2024. The T-Mobile response said that customer lines covered by Price Lock are exempt from the recent price increases:
As for customers with concerns about T-Mobile’s Price Lock guarantee, it is important to note that customers with Price Lock are not impacted by the change. On April 28, 2022, T-Mobile began offering Price Lock on new account activations on qualifying rate plans. For customers who activated on a qualifying plan between April 28, 2022 and January 17, 2024, Price Lock guarantees that accounts activated with a qualifying rate plan, within the enrollment period, would not be subject to a price increase, so long as the account remained in good standing and the customer remained on the qualifying rate plan.
T-Mobile’s response to the complaint also said that customers who switch plans lose their Price Lock guarantee.
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Users thought they had a guarantee
The Reddit user who posted the letter sent by T-Mobile wasn’t satisfied by the company’s explanation. T-Mobile’s response “did not address my original concern that T-Mobile stated that the price will never increase, not that if the price increases they will pay the final month,” the user wrote.
One T-Mobile customer who lives in South Carolina contacted Ars last month after learning that the price he’s paid since 2017 would be going up. The customer, who subscribed to a T-Mobile plan for people who are at least 55 years old, told us he was “weighing whether my unhappiness over this bait-and-switch is significant enough to change carriers.”
While there’s evidence that T-Mobile explained the terms in 2017, it’s hard to blame customers for believing they had a more iron-clad guarantee. Besides the press release that hyped the guarantee, even the current T-Mobile terms and conditions don’t mention the significant caveat that lets T-Mobile raise rates on Un-contract plans.
“If you are on a price-lock guaranteed Rate Plan, we will not increase your monthly recurring Service charge for the period that applies to your Rate Plan, or if no specific period applies, for as long as you continuously remain a customer in good standing on a qualifying Rate Plan,” the terms and conditions say. Notably, the terms and conditions define the “price-lock guarantee” as including the “Un-contract promise” that was offered between 2015 and 2022.
As one customer wrote in a T-Mobile forum two weeks ago, “There’s no language [in the terms and conditions] about just waiving the last month’s charges if they decide to break the promise.”Advertisement
Two versions of Price Lock
You can still view older versions of the terms and conditions that were in place during the time the Un-contract was offered. These older terms also don’t explain the big exception that lets T-Mobile raise rates, but they did at least have a link to the now-deleted FAQ that included the relevant information.
While the older FAQ is now only available in web captures, T-Mobile currently publishes a newer FAQ that provides details on both Price Lock and the Un-contract. “Customers who qualified during the above respective time periods won’t see any changes to their Price Lock Guarantee as long as they maintain their qualifying plan,” the FAQ says.
Price Lock technically is still offered, but it’s not much of a price lock for any customer who signed up on or after January 18, 2024. T-Mobile explains elsewhere that with the currently offered version of Price Lock, T-Mobile can raise your price but will pay your last month’s bill if you decide to cancel.
User backlash can sometimes cause carriers to ditch an unpopular price-raising move. In October 2023, T-Mobile planned to move some customers to newer, more expensive plans unless the users called the company to opt out. T-Mobile dropped that plan after hearing extensive criticism.
Whenever customers are harmed by seemingly unfair or misleading behavior, there’s a chance that lawsuits filed by users or government officials could force changes or result in financial settlements after years of litigation. But barring a sudden change of course by T-Mobile or government intervention, it looks like customers who are angry about the latest price hike will not be able to keep their old rate plans.
