The Days of Walking Into a T-Mobile Store May Be Numbered (androidauthority.com) 93
A leaked roadmap suggests T-Mobile plans to make its T-Life app the primary way customers manage their accounts by the end of 2026, "gradually moving one feature at a time into the app" and away from physical stores, reports Android Authority. That includes upgrades, new-line activations, and eventually new-account sign-ups. From the report: According to an image shared by a Reddit user, the carrier has mapped out the next phase of its app-first strategy. This clearly shows that the T-Life app is set to become the primary way customers manage nearly every aspect of their account by the end of 2026. The roadmap suggests T-Mobile isn't flipping the switch overnight. Instead, it's gradually moving one feature at a time into the app. The concierge experience has already made that transition, while phone upgrade transactions are currently being shifted over. Next on the list is support for adding new lines, followed by what appears to be the biggest change yet.
By the fourth quarter of 2026, the roadmap indicates that all new customer accounts will be handled entirely through T-Life. So, many of the tasks that traditionally required a trip to a T-Mobile store could soon be completed from your phone instead. [...] The roadmap also reinforces a direction T-Mobile has been moving toward for quite some time: making T-Life the center of the customer experience. If the timeline holds, the app may soon become a requirement for managing your account.
By the fourth quarter of 2026, the roadmap indicates that all new customer accounts will be handled entirely through T-Life. So, many of the tasks that traditionally required a trip to a T-Mobile store could soon be completed from your phone instead. [...] The roadmap also reinforces a direction T-Mobile has been moving toward for quite some time: making T-Life the center of the customer experience. If the timeline holds, the app may soon become a requirement for managing your account.
Enshitifcation marches on (Score:4, Interesting)
T-Mobile is on one hell of a downward spiral. It's actually impressive.
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T-Mobile is on one hell of a downward spiral. It's actually impressive.
Exactly. If the alternatives weren't worse in terms of costs and features I used, I'd have dumped them years ago. I had been on an ultra cheap grandfathered plan so no other carrier comes close, even with their price increase.
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Same.
I'm almost hopeful that in a few years, Starlink Mobile will be the push I need to change. I'm waiting until then, or it gets even worse with T-Maybe
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I pay less than 25 bucks a month after buying a phone outright of course.
Data is pro-rated, meaning if you use
a href="https://fi.google.com/">https://fi.google.com/
How much is TMobile compared to that?
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It uses the same network as TMobile/ATT/etc, not Verizon.
Re: Enshitifcation marches on (Score:1)
As a reminder, EVERY CELLPHONE uses the same network as ATT, etc. no carrier has their own private nationwide cellular network.
That said, what does their existing infrastructure have to do with in-person store closures?
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Re:Enshitifcation marches on (Score:5, Informative)
If the alternatives weren't worse in terms of costs and features I used, I'd have dumped them years ago.
Mint Mobile. Same phone, same cell towers, no contract, way cheaper. Probably cheaper even than your grandfathered plan.
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If the alternatives weren't worse in terms of costs and features I used, I'd have dumped them years ago.
Mint Mobile. Same phone, same cell towers, no contract, way cheaper. Probably cheaper even than your grandfathered plan.
Except it doesn't offer the international data and texting, something I use.
Re: Enshitifcation marches on (Score:2)
It's what I use too. Super cheap if you can stand sending money to Ryan Reynolds.
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Ryan Reynolds sold his stake in the company in 2024.
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I had been on an ultra cheap grandfathered plan so no other carrier comes close, even with their price increase.
I was on an ultra cheap grandfathered plan, but the most recent price increase pushed the bill beyond what Visible costs, so I finally jumped ship.
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I ditched TMO for Mint a year or two ago. Prepay a year at $15/month over the holidays and get 50% off the bill around the holidays for your first year- Phonebill paid for a year for $90 cannot be beat. It's 4gb of data, but I'm almost always on wifi.
Not a shill, I just dig it.
Re: Enshitifcation marches on (Score:2)
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Take a look at US Mobile. That is where I'm Moving to from T-Mobile already. T-Mobile has FUCKED its customers and all former Sprint customers repeatedly.
Unfortunately no overseas free text ad data. That tie sme to Tmob fo rnow.
Re: Enshitifcation marches on (Score:2)
Last time I was there inhad a phone with a blank screen.
They made me do the transaction through the app guessing where to click on the screen.
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Direct result of letting AT&T buy them.
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Direct result of letting AT&T buy them.
... you do know AT&T never actually bought T-Mobile right?
Also T-Mobile is on a downward spiral globally (hell they completely rebranded in attempt to distance themselves from ... themselves in some countries. AT&T was only ever interested in T-Mobile America.
Re:Enshitifcation marches on (Score:5, Interesting)
But, new leadership --> new direction, no more US call centers, the "forever plan" was bullshit... Now, I fucking hate them.
Although, I do have to admit, while I was spending time in the High Uintah mountains this past week, it was awesome getting 15 Mbps from my free Starlink access. But, that's more thanks to Starlink than T-Mobile -- at least, as far as I'm willing to attribute.
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I wouldn't even consider them until I feel like they've made progress on their history of getting burgled and losing customer data.
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lmao a premium carrier removing services you still get with an MVNO
Re: I heard about this... (Score:3)
How will the app up-sell? (Score:2)
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One of the advantages for actual stores is that the reps can attempt to up-sell a customer with a higher cost phone, or a higher cost plan, or additional services ("Would you like fries with that burger?"). Will the app be able to convince the customer they need to send T-Mobile more money?
It's completely imaginable that they'll throw enough nag screens at you during sign-up, upgrades, or any other interaction that someone without an iron will against dopamine rush reward systems will succumb to the "Be a bro, not a dud" messaging and such. In fact, some study within the company probably already predicted they could drive unenforced upgrades through popups better than sales people on the floor could, or this wouldn't be happening at all.
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I just learned recently that some call those nag screens "dickovers"
It's almost worth watching the entire world turn to shit just for the great wordplay we get to have. Well, not really, but we gotta entertain ourselves somehow as we watch society burn.
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One of the advantages for actual stores is that the reps can attempt to up-sell a customer with a higher cost phone, or a higher cost plan, or additional services ("Would you like fries with that burger?"). Will the app be able to convince the customer they need to send T-Mobile more money?
Ten million nag screens. An app doesn't care if you close a popup over and over.
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It's the T-Mobile O&O stores that are getting phased out. There are many 3rd-party locations that will happily take your money on overpriced accessories and "insurance" in exchange for the in-person experience. The basic cellular service market in the US is price-compressed now so there are not a lot of services to up-sell.
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Well how about premium service plan? I know we're not the market for them but a lot of rich idiots would pay a 3x bill for a "concierge" using the same call center as my preimum visa card where the lady sounded like a tired DMV worker.
As long as they get to talk to people and get their problems solved and are aware that the poors aren't they can sell that shit at very high prices.
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On paper and the KPIs won't start to look bad toward the latter half of whatever enshittification 5-year plan the current CEO has staked his reign on.
He's not a greedy man, he'll make more than enough and retire to some island somewhere or even move on to a new company and trash another brand. You know how a lot of people get bored if they're not working, maybe just a part time enshittifier consultant.
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One of the advantages for actual stores is that the reps can attempt to up-sell a customer with a higher cost phone, or a higher cost plan, or additional services ("Would you like fries with that burger?").
If I were a T-mobile investor I would be getting out now. The pointy-hair types completely misunderstand their market and their target audience.
T-mobile's bread and butter is a rich older person who doesn't want to talk to a "foreigner" on a phone or mess around in an app, they want to talk to a real, live, in-person person who will make their phone work and ensure they can play Candy Crush and Wordle and Facecally their grandchildren. They don't mind paying a little more or going to a store because when
No new customers (Score:2)
That's what this means.
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Why would it mean that? Their business decision here clearly reflects the fact that their data shows most sales don't happen in stores.
The internet has been a thing for a while now, it's what most people use to buy handsets and sign up with phone companies.
How will that work... (Score:5, Insightful)
...when your brand new phone refuses to be activated on their network, even though you bought it from them> No activation = no connection = app is useless. Can't call them either because, you know, at that point the phone doesn't work.
And yes, it has happened to me.
Re:How will that work... (Score:5, Interesting)
So fine, we went to spectrum, purchased a new phone and plan there. The phone number was supposed to port to the new phone, but no.
It got lost in the shufffle between United Celluar and T Mobile. It took countless service calls, 3 in person visits to T Mobile and 2 to Spectrum and 16 days of being without a phone for them to get the new phone working with the correct number. We lost 16 days ofincome (gig work) because the phone did not work. I dont think having to do it on an app would help any.
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LOL I didn't end up with T-mobile because I wanted to... I was with Sprint, they bought it and obsoleted all Sprint devices within a couple of months... Thus I had to buy from them that phone that refused activation. I had really liked my LG V20, and I still have it and it works, but T-mobile refused to let me use it.
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In some states, the Public Utilities Commission will nail them to a cross for that. Not because they care about consumers, but because they get off on screwing over telecoms.
Had a cell phone waaay back with AT&T Wireless (which was a completely different company than the one that uses the name now). They moved their payment processing center from Los Angeles to Arizona, and didn't update the computer than printed the statements to have the new mailing address on the payment stub (yeah, that long ago). S
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You've obviously never dealt with the blind, irrational hatred the California state government has of business.
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For T-Mobile, that works great. You have a customer who's paying you and you don't have to provide service for.
Of course, I guess the other assumption is you have access to another phone or something - either your spouse or your kid, or a work
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And there are very, very few people who cannot get access to another phone.
Of course, then you're calling from a different number than the one registered to the account, which, at the least, will make it more cumbersome to prove who you are.
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In what way? Only a lefty would compare borrowing someone else's phone to borrowing someone else's voter ID.
Re: How will that work... (Score:2)
That assumes you have a phone. Most of the time I'm in the store is because my phone is lost or broken.
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Sounds like something to bring up at the end of the current 5 year roadmap after my successor takes over.
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I've been on google fi for... I dunno, probably at least a decade now? Maybe more. They just mail me a phone, I turn it on, and it figures everything out. I get a new phone ever 2 years or so. I couldn't tell you what the inside of a phone store looks like because I've never needed to go into one.
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And yes, it has happened to me.
Man is your mind going to be blown when you discover wifi.
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That's why system admins love VoIP. People don't call in to complain that their Internet doesn't work.
Why would you? (Score:2)
They have the worst coverage of any major network by far AND are a PITA to deal with these days like they used to not be. Why would you even consider them for anything other than maybe fixed wireless in a location where they actually have signal?
Re:Why would you? (Score:4, Interesting)
They have the worst coverage of any major network by far AND are a PITA to deal with these days like they used to not be.
If you go into your phone settings and toggle the "5G only" switch, T-Mobile has the best network coverage in the USoA.
Granted, no sane person would use their phone like that. The correct usage is 4G + 5G. But it points at a fundamental truth: Each networks comes with their own set of strengts and weaknesses
Why would you even consider them for anything other than maybe fixed wireless in a location where they actually have signal?
And here, you just answered yourself. If they have good (or the best) coverage in the areas where you dwell for a significant ammount of time (Home, Office, nearby shops, Gym, etc) , then it makes sense to use them, no matter what the national/State average is. You care about your use-case, not some nationwide average.
In my country, is similar for me, my carrier used to have CRAP coverage nationwide, but they arrived with 4G to my parents house (another state, 120Km from me, I live on the nation's capital, so new tech arrives here first) in 2013. The closest competitor? 2018. Doesn't it make sense to go to the weaker carrier nationwide because I serves my use case better?
Besides, there are plenty of phones with multi-(e)SIM support. That same competitor that arrived with 4G in 2018? When electricity fails (a normal occurrence in all our country except the capital), the only carrier that keeps on ticking is that carrier, so, I have their SIM as well.
So, to reiterate:
Each carrier has strenghts and weaknesses
The Nationwide or state-wide averages are almost always non relevant to you.
Choose based on your own use case in he locations that are relvant to you.
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To be fair, cellular data is really poor in quite a few places in America, when using ANY of the "second tier" reseller carriers. (Won't speak for other countries.)
EG. We have Spectrum Mobile right now (mostly due to a bundle deal with our broadband at home), and while voice calls work pretty much as expected, anywhere I go? The data is terrible! They say they're using Verizon's towers but it's obvious Verizon is throttling the heck out of them and/or only allowing them on SOME of the towers in a given area
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They say they're using Verizon's towers but it's obvious Verizon is throttling the heck out of them
MVNOs almost always have lower priority than the owners of the network if the location is currently overloaded. However, Spectrum also works really hard to minimize their MVNO costs by offloading to WiFi hotspots, which, themselves, may be overloaded. The old adage of getting what you are paying for still applies.
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Dude i got wifi hotspot unloading and it's garbage. I saw it work a few times but usually it just means I have no service.
How does one become a new customer? (Score:2)
How do they expect people to become new customers in the first place? The #1 reason I go to a cell provider's physical stores is to pick out a new phone, have it activated, and my current phone (if still functional) cloned to it. Are they seriously expecting 100% of new customers to be BYOD Verizon defectors?
I have to suspect this is the "anchoring" opening bid in trying to
congenital cell service (Score:3)
T-Mobile: The phone service you inherit from your parents!
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I did NONE of those things four years ago. I ordered a phone directly from Tim Apple, then activated it and "cloned" the old one myself. Never once had to interact with an upselling TMO drone.
One wonders if you have the need for someone else to wipe your ass, given the amount of hand holding you seem to require.
When it all works easily, it all works easily (I have also upgraded to a new phone without needing assistance, and so have a number of friends, some of which are not exactly tech savvy). But there are always the edge cases. If you find yourself in one of those edge cases you often need to escalate to someone qualified to assist. And while not all stores have competent people in them, they at least tend to have access to some people that are.
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Let's ignore for now the obvious issue of how you solve a problem with an app that requires the very device you have a problem with. How do they expect people to become new customers in the first place? The #1 reason I go to a cell provider's physical stores is to pick out a new phone, have it activated, and my current phone (if still functional) cloned to it. Are they seriously expecting 100% of new customers to be BYOD Verizon defectors? I have to suspect this is the "anchoring" opening bid in trying to sneak through a far less obnoxious change, hoping we'll all thank them rather than reaching for the tar and feathers when they announce whatever real change they're aiming for.
This is the change. They are treating the physical stores as cost centers—something to be eliminated. By moving everything to an app or online, they can reduce human involvement further by having AI take care of customer service and customer care. This is how AI is killing low-value jobs.
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I ordered my last phone, moving the number to a new carrier, on my . . . desktop computer. If your phone is your only internet access, you have problems that aren't T-Mobile's fault.
As for cloning, I literally could not boot up the phone without being offered a fully automated process to bring everything over from the old phone. It just worked.
Brick & mortar store fronts aren't really needed for 99% of their business. The other 1%, of course, you need some poor drone standing in front of you to glare at
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If your phone is your only internet access, you have problems that aren't T-Mobile's fault.
I don't disagree in spirit, but not everyone is a middle-class geek. Per the 2024 US ACS, one in seven US households lacked access to a PC at home. And the "have-nots" here are disproportionately members of various under-served demographics (young, old, poor, uneducated, minority).
Here's where it gets crazy, though - Only one in three Gen-Z'ers have (not lack) home access to a PC - And they largely don't want one.
Assuming everyone can just do it from another device is chasing a trend that's already pea
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But I have had to go into their physical store when upgrading to an unlocked phone several times because each time I upgrade the sim card format appears to shrink. I guess
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Let's ignore for now the obvious issue of how you solve a problem with an app that requires the very device you have a problem with.
Except that's not an obvious issue. Multiple connection methods exist for mobile devices, including this rare never before heard of thing called "WiFi" (I know, silly name right? Won't ever catch on).
I've literally provisioned devices from scratch without network connection to getting network connections from devices themselves (it's how e-SIMs work). I've used apps (mainly Vodaphone, T-mobile is late to the party here) to activate and provision phones on new networks with new SIMs as well. Heck last time I
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That said, yes, we're all geeks here on Slashdot. Most of us could figure out how to find a version of phone-X compatible with carrier-Y.
Now have Grandma do it without any hand-holding - Oh, sorry, the cheapest option was carrier locked to the wrong carrier, try again. Oops, this time she grabbed the GSM version when she needed CDMA. Third time's the charm, right? Oh damn, she managed to find
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You're reading too much into my post. No telecom shop isn't an improtant choice of words, it was just my heavily jetlagged way of saying T-Mobile shop / Sprint shop / what we are discussing right now - the carrier's own shops.
Most of us could figure out how to find a version of phone-X compatible with carrier-Y.
That is not a thing anyone needs to do. Everything available in the carrier's shop is available on the carrier's website. Anything on T-mobile's website will be compatible with t-mobile which is precisely what you get if you walk into t-mobile's shop
Now have Grandma do it without any hand-holding
That's a strange move of a goalpost
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That's a strange move of a goalpost when we are discussing a shop that is literally there to hold grandma's hand.
This post is titled "The Days of Walking Into a T-Mobile Store May Be Numbered". I'm not moving the goalposts to ask what the technologically illiterate are going to without "a shop that is literally there to hold grandma's hand" - You're effectively reiterating my premise, if not my conclusion, and calling that out?
As for "telecom shop", I notice you didn't deny not being in the US. Unless you're intentionally speaking with an affectation, Americans wouldn't use either of those words in this context. An
To discount status they march... hurrah ... (Score:2)
I don't care how much "cost savings" they claim it brings to eliminate retail stores. As one of only a few "major carriers", it's pathetic to offer only online interaction with customers. And honestly? I'm not even sure I would have a big issue with the FCC pulling some of the dedicated frequency spectrum they were allowed to purchase. I'm pretty sure there was an assumption made that as one of the "big 3" cellular providers in the USA, T-Mobile would ensure any potential customer had the ability to buy a p
Not just T-Mobile (Score:2)
I went into an AT&T store a few weeks ago to make some changes to my kids' phone service since I wanted to do something that the self-service account web app didn't support. The agent in the store said he did not have any permissions to make changes to my account. He said I should just use the chat agent on the website or call. He showed me the app he had on his iPad when bringing up my account and it was basically just a read-only view of the website.
I walked into a T-Mobile store 30 days ago (Score:2)
It was to pay my final bill of $0.01 (not kidding)
They used to have decent phone support, but for the last couple years at least it's been actively horrible. As in "getting a root canal without anesthetic" horrible. We stuck with them for a while, but seriously - you do occasionally need to contact support, and it's hard to imagine how ANY company could have worse phone support people than T-Mobile does right now.
We're trying out US Mobile, an MVNO, right now. I gotta say their support people are a clear st
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It was to pay my final bill of $0.01 (not kidding)
This happened to me, too. None of the online bill pay methods worked, so I took my e-scooter to the nearest T-Mobile store and paid it. It's absolutely astonishing that they don't have their billing system check if the bill is less than their payment processing costs and to just void the last bill if that's the case.
T-Mobile App (Score:2)
T-Life is Spyware (Score:2)
It requires always on location data on Android to work properly.
Nope!
Starbucks tried this more or less. (Score:1)
Starbucks more or less wanted to be an online order fulfillment hub. People order online, pick up, leave immediately. Ultimately, they realized this was a mistake and rolled the changes back. I have a feeling T-Mobile may end up doing the same.
Granted, I use Google Fi, so I actually *prefer* not dealing with a cell phone carrier's store. So maybe it'll work out for them.
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People order online, pick up, leave immediately.
This is my preferred way of dealing with quick service food/beverage establishments. I don't want the human experience of waiting in a queue behind other customers, or having to explain my order to someone who is just going to enter it into a computer anyway.
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Starbucks more or less wanted to be an online order fulfillment hub. People order online, pick up, leave immediately. Ultimately, they realized this was a mistake and rolled the changes back.
Well, the thing is that having a frictionless ordering process that allows more sales-per-hour is good if the goal is to sell coffee, but the point of a Starbucks, originally, was to be a 'third place' that wasn't the home or the office, so paying $4 for a cup of coffee or $8 for a thousand-calorie caffeinated milkshake was entirely justifiable when the value proposition was "paying for a place to sit down with a cup of coffee for an hour". Shifting to a coffee pickup location means that the value propositi
Just moved to Mint (Score:2)
Duh (Score:2)
I'm surprised there are physical cell phone stores anyways. I have had a cell phone for 23-24 years and I've never set foot in one.
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I got my first cellphone from a Sprint PCS store, which dates me. After that, I would just but whatever phone I felt like at Fry's or Best Buy or online. Main advantage of doing the store was I was able to pick my phone number from a list she had on the screen. And after all that I didn't keep the number because years later someone was convinced it was their number and would harass me once or twice a month about "stealing" their number. I don't need a telephone number that badly, and if some crazy person lo
So what (Score:3)
Why would I even want to go in a T-Mobile store? Maybe before iPhones were a thing I would want to browse the phones that were there. Now you just get the newest iPhone or Samsung and you're good.
Like, is it expected I go there to pay my bills? Is this something people do?
T-Mobile is killing burner phones (Score:1)
Why would I even want to go in a T-Mobile store? Maybe before iPhones were a thing I would want to browse the phones that were there. Now you just get the newest iPhone or Samsung and you're good.
Like, is it expected I go there to pay my bills? Is this something people do?
Because when you operate a burner phone, everything is done with cash, not a card of any kind. The T-Live app won't take cash.
Mine certainly are. (Score:2)
After 26 years a loyal customer they finally managed to be such an obnoxious nuisance that I quit them and moved to a (way) cheaper and better provider roughly 6 months ago. And I'll never return.
Eliminates a major benefit (Score:2)