I’ve been a T-Mobile customer since 2006. We have a family plan. I’ve generally been happy with the coverage and customer service form T-Mobile. But like many Americans, I’ve begun to get frustrated with the cell phone companies’ contract practices. Specifically, I object to the following practices:

1. Selling network-locked phones
2. Requiring 2-year contract extensions to get a reasonable price on new phones.

I also object to restrictions on changing contract terms without extending the contract term, but that position is perhaps less defensible, or needs a little more thought. Defensible or not, I object. And objecting, I begin shopping elsewhere.

Selling Network-locked Phones

It is not reasonable to sell network-locked, or SIM locked, phones.  SIM locking is used by the networks to keep the phone “loyal” to the network. The impacts are these:

• The customer buys a phone that can only be used with the network. Change networks, and your purchase is worthless.
• Customers who want the supposed latest and greatest technology sometimes have to choose the network along with the phone, as in the particularly offensive case of the iPhone.
• Customers who want to unlock the phone generally have to pay for the codes and sometimes have to work quite some time before unlocking works well. (I’ve had good and bad experiences unlocking phones.)

To be fair, there are some sources of new unlocked phones. I bought a CECT phone at Christmas as a gift. It has been a solid disappointment.

I argue that the phone should be independent of the network.

This is especially true if I buy a phone outright from the network instead of falling for the “free upgrade” or “full discount” upgrades that force me to extend my contract. If I buy it outright, it should not be locked to a network. And it should still be a reasonable price.

Requiring 2-year contract extensions to get reasonable prices on phones

I get the whole subsidization thing. The network gives you a phone for free or at a supposed large discount — the subsidy — and in return wants your 2-year loyalty to earn back the value of the phone.

Really? 2 years to earn back the value of the phones? I bought a new phone for my wife outright today. It cost $70. It would be $20 if I extend the contract. So, T-Mobile is saying that it will take them 2 years to recoup that $50. Incidentally, it would take the same 2 years to recoup the subsidized cost of, say a $300 phone that was given free or for $50. But the rate plans don’t change.

And that means someone’s lying.

It should not be a difficult thing to get a simple, regular, reliable phone for a reasonable price.

But it gets better. I needed to replace 2 teenager phones today, too. They messed up their nice phones, and I wanted to replace them with cheap-cheap phones.

T-Mobile’s prepaid phones will work with a regular SIM card, but they won’t tell you that. The cheapest phone they offered me was $70. There was a $20 prepaid kit that included a simple phone also on the wall. And it would work with my account and SIM card, though the rep claimed that “he [wasn't] supposed to know about it, but it does work.” But even knowing that, T-Mobile won’t sell you that prepaid kit without also selling you at least $10 of air time with it. The rep said, “Otherwise, it would be fraudulent.”

“Fraudulent?” Are you really saying that with a straight face? It’s a phone!

Even without a contractual obligation to recoup costs, they still want to claim a subsidy and a need to recoup.

I expressed my displeasure to the rep and told him for $30, I’d head to Craig’s List or the local online classifies to find something cheaper. At that, he suggested I try Wal*Mart, where I could buy the same kit for about the same price without the air time requirement.

Now there’s a good marketing plan. Tell the customer who is standing in your store to leave your store and go to another store to buy the same thing for less, and while he’s at it, he can review all the competing plans and offerings, too. Brilliant.

I went to Wal*Mart and bought the same kit for $15 instead of $30. Apparently, T-Mobile only considers that fraudulent if you do it in their own store, but non-fraudulent if you go to Wal*Mart. On their recommendation, even.

The T-Mobile “Loyalty” Department

I called T-Mobile to complain about the inability to change my rate plan without an extension, and about what I call the 2-year traps that are required to get a decent phone price. The front-line tech was sympathetic but powerless. I mentioned to her, sincerely, that I was done fighting the 2-year traps and once my contracts were up, I’d be switching to some no-name, contract-less network. Expressing concern about losing a customer, she transferred me to the “Loyalty” department.

Now, remember, I’ve been a really happy T-Mobile customer for 4 years. Last year, I moved my folks from AT&T pre-paid plan to a T-Mobile pre-paid plan.

These guys in the “Loyalty” department are supposed to talk you back into staying with them.  But, “Jonathan,” bless his heart — he copped an attitude with me from the get-go! With a tone leaning toward condescending, he answered my every objection with the database-provided pat answers, and having so ably solved my concerns, expressed that he couldn’t understand how I could call these things “2-year traps.” I told him it sounded like we were done for today, and hung up.

I called back later to find out which of my 5 lines had the most distant end date to the 2-year contract.  It took the new front line rep a minute, but she found it. Apparently, that info is not readily listed on screen because she had to read through each of the 5 lines, list off the dates one by one, then perform a little basic calendar math to announce which was the most distant date. No, she answered, that doesn’t show up on my monthly bill. No, she said, there was no way for her to email that to me. But she helpfully added, with a straight face, that it should appear on the papers I signed when I originally activate each of the 5 lines.

Conclusions

So, today, 15 months before the most distant contract end date on my account, I announce that I am done with T-Mobile. 4 years of loyalty undone in 1 afternoon for the sake of 2-year contract scams. I am also done with any contract-based carriers who won’t treat me fairly or reasonably in the absence of perpetual 2-year extensions. Hopefully, in the next 15 months, the trend toward more prepaid plans will continue, and we’ll see a new trend of non-locked phone sales.

I tweeted my discontent separately from this blog entry. No, I don’t really expect them to be paying attention to either.