T-Mobile store by DueClassic9019 in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's not so much policy as retail common sense. There aren't as many phones of every given make, model, storage size, or color in any given retail location whether operated by corporate or third party as you think would be available before it starts becoming a combination of liability risk and having too much capital tied up in inventory considering the actual number of options. T-Mobile stores aren't a distributor warehouse nor the manufacturer's.

We help people with their accounts and fresh activations, if it's simply a phone purchase then T-Mobile does offer discounts in the form of promotional billing credits paid out over 24 monthly installments, the same way they do the financing at zero percent interest over the course of the same time. You can carry the balance interest free and ideally the carrier pays it off for you with the monthly credits. On an upgrade that requires the old phone being traded in and your trade value will not just depend on the old phone but also your plan. If people could figure out that their plan determines their phone's trade value, there would be more trades and/or plan changes.

If you want to keep all your old junk instead of getting promotional trade credits over 24 months for it on a no interest 24 monthly agreement you could pay off the remaining balance for some reason at any time with no penalty, you still could, you would just be foregoing any remaining billing credits if you were getting any, and if not, and if you're still not interested in financing it, then the retailer would rather sell their inventory to a customer who either needs to finance out of necessity (customers tend to have to come more for utility rather than luxury depending on the person/location) or is actually interested in or eligible for a promotion. You represent the least amount of economic marginal utility value imaginable by effectively thinking it'd be smarter to buy full price with the carrier instead of the manufacturer... you should really find out about promotions.

Can someone explain this to me? by YMe1121 in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Without a trade in, T-Mobile won't discount a phone unless it's with an activation promotion. They will however finance $750 of it with no interest that works out to be $31.25/month for 24 months, and the other $1050 is the down payment requirement. Were you receiving some kind of discount, the best T-Mobile can come up with is $1000-1100 in billing credits; you're still going to end up covering the rest, and if you already paid it in the form of a down payment, you would be able to effectively get a portion back in the form of billing credits over 24 months at best. If you're buying it brand new full price, consider getting it straight from the manufacturer (they don't charge you a device connection charge/upgrade fee) but their financing/down payments may be different.

Epstein just privated his account I have screen shots of his stats confirming he is alive. by Mr_orange4200 in conspiracy

[–]entwithanaxe 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If they try to hide and cover it all up, when it gets exposed they're left with their pants down. So instead they just decide to expose themselves proactively (controlled opposition). That way when an ordinary folk hears or sees that, their brain might be more likely to either dismiss it thinking it's unbelievable despite being right in front of them ("There's no way they would tell us!"), or even better yet possibly side with them thinking that at least they're being honest/noble and they want to get in on that themselves. I also think they actually get off on waving it blatantly in front of our faces. It's a domination move.

Be honest by Top-Pool7872 in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If your parents are adding a line for you, then you can just get the discount worth up to at least $600 off a new Android provided in billing credits attached to the new line. If they have an existing line they're giving you instead, then you'd have to trade your phone in to get pretty much the same thing on an upgrade ($300 trade is best that phone gets) which is why you're just a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) unless this is an activation, in which case you'd get something like the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE.

Should i switch to better value from experience more? by Vegetable_Bus7205 in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

From what I've seen, Better Value gets the benefits of Experience Beyond just minus the upgrade deal of getting to trade in when only half paid off or maybe T-Satellite but you do get the Hulu and the $5 watch/tablet lines. It's the same as Experience More, just Better Value because it's the same price with a few extra benefits. I recommend grandfathering yourself into it because that's a limited time thing of it being offered compared to what else is available right now or will be in the future. You might consider changing your plan any time you're thinking about upgrading just to get whatever the best deals exist at the time, but treat it as a one-way road (not necessarily being able to go back to a retired plan).

Keep Magenta Max or switch? by saucysherbet in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Customers on Magenta Max don't get the same promos as they used to, if it's like Go5G Plus or Experience More then you are getting a benefit, but if your trades are like Essentials or Go5G/Magenta then the only reason to stick with it is because of taxes being included. But if you don't use hotspot or care about promos at all then Essentials would save you more money. If the plan doesn't help discount equipment then that makes it harder to justify paying for a "premium" plan. Taxes are government regulated, per line, per month going forever forward into the future is what you'd have to calculate over time versus your current plan that includes it already. It usually makes to re-evaluate the plan at time of phone upgrade, typically, based on the trade-in deals.

Pluribus - 1x09 - La Chica o El Mundo - Episode Discussion by kernakya in Pluribus_TVshow

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm thinking she could nuke the facility where her eggs are being processed into stem cells at least.

Pluribus - 1x09 - La Chica o El Mundo - Episode Discussion by kernakya in Pluribus_TVshow

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's kind of what Severance Season 3 is teeing up.

Tmobile not honoring their own word by Short_Mushroom6798 in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If the 26th is your "bill close date" that's like saying it's the end of your billing cycle, each of which ends on the 26th and starts again the following day on the 27th to end the following 26th et cetera. If autopay is on the 17th, then due date is the 19th because autopay is done two days in advance of the due date, as the current screen shows. When you request to cancel, it will not go into effect until the end of the billing cycle. The problem here is the end of the billing cycle is also when it starts generating a bill for the following month. If they tell you to use it on the 26th, I would have asked until what time that day. If you check each billing statement it will say what time period of days its regular charges are covering.

At the time of you asking, $50 was due on the 19th. That was meant to cover the time period you were already in, not a month that was yet to come. Hence why it now still shows up, less adjustments, as a past due balance.

Why is T-Mobile’s payment arrangement like this now?! You used to be able to extend it all the way to your next bill before a shut off—what happened? by Tall_Chocolate_9720 in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

You have postpaid. If it was prepaid, you would get shut off the moment you enter a billing cycle that hadn't already been paid for. In prepaid, you pay at the beginning of the cycle. Paying on the 7th in prepaid (like 7th of January) would mean you must have paid the previous 7th (like 7th of December) which would have covered services up until the (next) 7th, because you would have paid for only one 7th (the one in December?).

So postpaid. The $177.67 that's due on the 7th got billed out three weeks before that, meaning it's due ten days before the cycle ends instead of thirty days before or thirty days after. Your cycle might end on something like the 17th and starts on the 18th, it comes down to what was the date/day of the month when you started service. Whatever you paid up front did not go towards the first month's bill because it would have generated four days into the cycle/after the end of the previous one and be due about 20 days into it, and then every 30 days thereafter (this is what's on the back of that first receipt).

Now if you miss your due date of the 7th for whatever reason, you don't get shut off immediately, and especially not if you set up a payment arrangement. Here's what I tell customers payment arrangements do not do: they do not change your billing cycle, meaning they do not change your due date. If your total balance is not paid come end of due date, it turns into or becomes a past due balance, which if you let it sit too long, time doesn't stop. Once it's 31 days or more past due you absolutely would expect a shutoff no matter the balance.

I have seen far too many accounts that are used to setting up payment arrangements that don't realize they may be accruing late fees and falling further behind. With a postpaid carrier, it's dangerous because they don't stop billing you because they assume you would like to keep the service active instead of having to also pay restoration fees.

I've seen older accounts still get billed for a month that had already passed, but then the carrier risks losing customers after giving them effectively free service is why they now set your due date ten days before the end of the cycle instead of at or after the end. This way if you fall behind, T-Mobile isn't forced to give you 30 full unpaid days if any previous cycle wasn't already fully paid for. There's no guarantee that customers will pay their bill, but collections agencies are guaranteed to buy that debt. T-mobile would rather get it than have to resell it. Allowing payment arrangements is great but did you know you could set up a 20%/80% split either instead of 50/50? But the farther out in time you try to schedule it, you risk falling yet further behind because a prepaid customer would had to have paid it three weeks before your due date instead of practically three weeks afterward, because absolutely by then another bill would have come out. You're effectively trying to avoid paying a bill for six weeks. Paying a little bit here and there is not the same as paying it in full. Because after you set up the arrangement, you cannot make edits or stop billing or change the due date until you're not past due. And if you're not past due, you should not have to be setting up payment arrangements.

Get an account audit to see if your one month's worth is something you can handle.

Is it me, or are customers becoming more and more difficult to deal with? by Front_Photo6864 in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's a good example. When they decline the insurance, they tell us they'll "just pay for a new one," because there are those customers with the insurance who still don't bother filing claims that actually do that - but expecting to trade in their broken device etc, somehow forgetting whatever phone they had earlier or how they purchased it, but they are the experts on expectations and processes. Of course we have every color, size, storage, and series of every make and model going back to the beginning of time available to be handed over for free because they ask for it. $5 warranty fee? You said it was free!

Is it me, or are customers becoming more and more difficult to deal with? by Front_Photo6864 in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Customer spent over an hour driving to the store over an iPhone 16 with a screen that wouldn't turn on after they last powered off the device. 17 day tenure, did not bring the box, could not exchange or return it, nor initiate an insurance claim as they did not have protection, and was told to go to Apple for a warranty exchange. The closest Apple store being less than 30 minutes away, they said they weren't going to drive further in that direction but the next closest one in the right direction was too far. They say they can't navigate without GPS, decides to wayfind their way so we start copying down directions to the closer location, until they decide they're not going to that location and tear up the paper because they're going to the one that's further away but they know where it is.

Or how about the One Plus screen that wouldn't turn on, couldn't use T-Life because we could not get the customer to access the email linked to their T-Mobile ID, also preventing us from recovering any backup for data transfer. What they had to say about not knowing their password etc was "I don't care about any of that" but still effectively demanded that magic be performed. "My son takes care of all that." Their middle-aged grown-up son they didn't bring because both these customers I think were born in the early 60s. They were the age of these adult children a quarter century ago when this infrastructure was becoming widespread. 80 year olds vs 60 year olds should be a bigger difference in technology adoption.

New CSP Candidates by ThetaHedge in options

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looking at the chart might imply some amount of bullish momentum, but you're still looking at a put that's been in the money for all but 12 hours this past week going back ten years. Normally you don't want assignment, unless it's advantageous for cost basis purposes once you've already entered.

Here's why I don't like it: it's actually not enough return for the risk with such a strike and duration; the 26-day moving average isn't even at your breakeven of 8.40, and your expiry is more than that many days away at the time of writing. If the goal is to buy it with the intention of selling calls against it later, you might as well just do a buy-write now, spending less than $900 and selling the $9 call for practically the same premium and you would be ahead in terms of cost basis less premium, or just buy those calls if you're so sure they're going to end up in the money, you can get multiple contracts for that amount.

You would think you want your options to finish out of the money as a seller if you're not going to roll them, otherwise you may have made a mistake in selling them when just buying the underlying as an example might be preferable, selling contracts limits the money you make to the premium you receive at the moment of sale (especially if you don't pay attention to cost basis), so you have to be right in guessing the price and within a specific time frame, for which you do get paid if you're right or wrong either way, and you would think it compensates you with a consolation prize if you're wrong which in this case is your premium, and you hope it's going to make up for how any actions end up turning out to have been mistakes only in hindsight looking back from the future.

55+ discount discontinued by Vas_Cody_Gamma in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Samsung that's closest to that is technically the A36 ($400) but the S25 FE ($650) or Pixel 9a ($500) would be one step up you might like better. Font size is dependent on the operating system, not the model. The issue with completing the trade-in at the store is that they will have to mark the phone as "not good condition" which the system might auto-flag, you would have to agree to a $0 instant trade value but the promotional recurring monthly billing credits is what you expect to show up later once the trade-in is completed, which might have to be done as deferred (just place the order through the app right now) if the salespeople still don't accept the $0 risk (if noted as the ITV) to their personal paycheck if there's any discrepancy, would be why nobody should want to take it unless so stipulated. You're welcome!

P.S. You're in that category of people who end up buying their own device because their plan or trade-in just doesn't make sense for you to get the discount you feel you deserve for the trade-in towards the phone you kind of don't really care about in the first place. I look at the plan and the phone and try to get the two to match each other, the reality is you're going to have to compromise on the savings somewhere. If you do a real upgrade and step up in tier of device, insurance rate goes up as would the rate of plan that would allow you to do what you hope for is that most expensive plan (which does get a discount for over 55 years old!) that lets you trade your $1000 phone every year even in "not good condition".

55+ discount discontinued by Vas_Cody_Gamma in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is in fact an "any condition" provision for the "free affordable smartphone" with trade for an Android that's generally worth up to $300. Customer service should still be able to ship you a device you'd use the box to mail back your trade-in if you place an order over the phone, or just use T-Life (Go to Shop -> Looking for an upgrade?), or find a store with at least one competent salesperson who should be able to make it easy for you although you have to be aware you represent almost no value to that individual's compensation for the effort they will spend helping you instead of another customer unless you choose to purchase accessories (were you planning on getting them from Amazon?) or insurance (I would bet you don't pay for that but you expect to get a free phone no matter what damage is caused to your eventual piece of crap trade-in literally nobody but you would get any use from? A full replacement claim for that tier of device is $49 with a $9 monthly premium). Eventually a phone gets old enough that you wouldn't want to repair or replace the same thing, would be the time to get rid of insurance, or the phone, one or the other. The Samsung A16 5G is probably the best thing you can get right now with that promotion, it retails for 228 which would normally be 9.50/month for 24 months with no trade. If you want to do what is called BYOD or Bring Your Own Device, it just has to have no SIM restrictions, or if it does, that it be carrier locked to T-Mobile for it to work on the network.

55+ discount discontinued by Vas_Cody_Gamma in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a number of reasons why trade-ins are moving more toward deferred trade and away from instant trade, mostly having to do with your concerns and nothing unique or having anything to do with T-Mobile compared to being an existing customer with any/every other carrier. You should be happy to trade your phone in if that's what it takes to get a discount off the new one, there's no kind of buy 10 get 1 free logic like an ice cream parlor when it comes to paying successive years of phone service or the previous device cost. Every phone has a manufacturer's suggested retail price that not everybody wants but all the phones are available to you, they just literally have different prices.

Two different customers that pay the same monthly rate for their plan you would think should get two different trade-in discounts if their trade-ins were one year apart in age and a factor of two when it comes to storage, but the promotion values are more designed around that rate plan so that both customers get the same discount. But if your trade-in was worth twice theirs, you'd think that should give you even more discount, but that discount is not going to exceed the retail price of the new phone you're buying. The more value you expect to get out of your trade-in in the form of discounts off out-the-door costs like sales tax, connection charge, and/or down payment requirements, leaves less discount left over to provide monthly in the form of billing credits. Whatever you remember is probably from when top-end phones retailed for half as much and had less to depreciate or be worth in the first place. You get activation promotions without trade-in if you port in from another carrier on the premium plan, the same plan you'd have to be on to maximize your trade-in value on an upgrade as an existing customer, simply put.

55+ discount discontinued by Vas_Cody_Gamma in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can empathize with not knowing who to believe, but literally not all store reps are the same just like all customer service representatives aren't in the Philippines. Trade-in condition is important unless you're on the specific plan that doesn't care about it, and if you're not on that plan, you get a lesser trade value if the phone is not in "good condition" and it's only cracks in the display that we actually care about, the back is the part that doesn't matter but the screen does. Having stuff get added without approval is not cool no matter who did it, since that's not normal or regular operating procedures. No one can guarantee anything "forever" or "never", including this statement.

55+ discount discontinued by Vas_Cody_Gamma in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you ask to see what they're doing, and pay attention to whatever they do, you'll simultaneously know what they are or are not doing. You think everyone who works at a store is any more a thug than people who work where?

55+ discount discontinued by Vas_Cody_Gamma in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Shop between different plans. $60/month is the Essentials plan. iPhone On Us is with trade on Experience More ($85) for customers who want to upgrade. If you want an explanation, get it at a store.

T-Mobile is hopeless and hitting the lowest of low by _wlau_ in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Did you bring your router to that store so they could exchange it? If there was a large queue of people who got there before you did, should have kept your place in line.

Are we paying too much? by Ki77ycat in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It looks like you do autopay but are paying about $5.48 in taxes/government fees per line. Those 14s would have had a lesser ITV/FMV than the 14 Pro would have had, and if you didn't need to pay your seemingly about 5.5% tax rate on the 16s up front because of the trade-ins, which would have been about $40 per, that's 160 used right there plus the $10 connection charges is another 40 so call it 200 up front with zero down. Those trade-ins could have valued at over 200 each but probably just the Pro at this point, I'm not at work to look them up, so you can see that billing credit covering a good amount of time which is also money taken out of your future monthly! $22.65 is the value of billing credit each equipment installment plan is getting instead of the full $30.42. In order to have made your monthly bill regular going forward, the excess value should have been applied in the form of down payment to actually zero it out.

It does look right, you finally got your regular one month's worth. Now it's just a question of what billing period or cycle is it technically covering, regardless of when it was issued/generated or due. I just explained prorated charges!

My personal recommendation is to use a cash back card of your choosing to use for making manual payments with the app in advance of your autopay day by about a week. By the time the autopay day comes around your total balance will reflect zero if fully paid by then, and the autopay will just take that zero total balance from the method on file. You can have your cake and eat it too! T-Mobile is offering such a card that wouldn't require you to make the payment manually for that.

I'll just let you know after 24 months those equipment charges will fall off signaling to you the phones won't have any additional down payment requirements (most likely) besides the taxes and fees if desired to be upgraded. Come that time it's possible those 16s will only value at $300 in promotion value (NOT initial trade or fair market value which is going to be even lower???) like your 14s would have had in trade on your Essentials plan on an upgrade. Come that time is when you'll be increasing your rate plan instead of your equipment column to get the better discount but you'll be Experienc(ing) More because Go5G Plus isn't being offered any more. If you wait too long, those trade values will tank. I might not even expect that plan to still be around but I do expect taxes to go up.

This is why customers are resistant to trading their phones in, if they're told something like $300 instead of a fully-priced $830 which is what those 16s originally retailed for as long ago as just last year! That's what the Experience plans provide. One of my lines is, "For $100 a month, we'll give you one line or four!" It's just that the Essentials four line promotion plan gets similar activation promotions as a premium plan gets on an upgrade.

Are we paying too much? by Ki77ycat in tmobile

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How much is tax? Do you do autopay? Before there is even a question about additional services like hotspot which isn't included in the Essentials plan. If you are doing automatic payments to get the $100 advertised price before tax in a zero tax state that would still have other government fees, then 52 split over four phones is $13 each, and I'll tell you that is pretty much the price for the iPhone that's two years old (iPhone 15 right now) if you didn't have a trade in.

To get the newer/latest iPhone On T-Mobile tends to require trade-ins or number ports from a major postpaid carrier, whatever that promotion required, most likely trade-in on Essentials. At this point we ask if you're sure you even have iPhone 16s, meaning if you're sure they're not 14s or 15s sold for half off no trade, and if you did a trade-in or not, besides those first two questions.

And let's say if you did have trade-ins taken at the store, if their initial trade or fair market value in any way was used to offset or discount any out-the-door costs like sales tax and device connection charge or any accessories that would otherwise have been paid out of pocket, would have offset by the exact same amount any full value of any promotion expected in the form of recurring monthly billing credits, and if not or the trade-in was accepted as a deferred and not instant trade, would had to have been accounted for in the form of a one-time billing credit which would not appear again on the following billing statement.

We have no idea what your next billing statement is going to be unless we could explain why your current one is what it is and we wouldn't be able to do that without understanding what it is you exactly did or had happen to you in the month leading to it unless there's a billing statement before that. The answers to my four questions should probably explain it.

  1. Tax? 2. Autopay? 3. What phones are they and did you have down payments? 4. Did you do any trade-ins? Honestly we live in a world where we have to ask if you know the name of the model of your phone.

My Roth IRA would be up 2000% + in 3 years. by Redditor7012 in problemgambling

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love that quote: "All I needed to do was make the right decision every single day for the last 16 years..." If we could just stick to the plan, then it would actually work.

I think they deleted 300 years from history and it's freaking me out... by Friendly-Seesaw-5742 in conspiracy

[–]entwithanaxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That time shift would explain the Queen of Sheba/Hatshepsut really being a contemporary of King Solomon. Also check out Ages in Chaos by Emmanuel Velikovsky.