

Tell HN: Check out T-Mobile - percept

I&#x27;ve been thinking about posting this, and the Verizon story reminded me. It&#x27;s not exactly related to hacking or startups (though if you&#x27;re a start-up founder or bootstrapper, you&#x27;re probably looking to reduce your expenses), but this is a community I frequent and would like to share it with people here.<p>If you&#x27;re not a T-Mobile user, consider checking out their service.<p>I switched (back) this summer, and they paid $190 for my iPhone 5 trade-in, and $150 for the remainder of my Verizon contract (the latter as a prepaid MasterCard, received quickly and easily used for their bills or anything else):<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.t-mobile.com&#x2F;offer&#x2F;switch-carriers-no-early-termination-fee.html<p>If you&#x27;re unsure, they&#x27;ll send you an iPhone 5s to try for 7 days (I didn&#x27;t try this, so can&#x27;t comment):<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;explore.t-mobile.com&#x2F;test-drive-free-trial<p>I have no contract to fulfill with T-Mo. I did have to purchase a new device which includes a payment plan, but the way I look at it, I got to upgrade from iPhone 5 to 5s (and now the 6 is available), they bought my old phone and paid my fees, and I&#x27;m still paying ~$25&#x2F;mo. less compared to Verizon. Not a bad deal.<p>Service seems roughly equivalent in my metropolitan area (and when I had them the first go-round they were superior to VZW at my location).<p>I hope this helps someone.<p>Disclaimer: I&#x27;m not a shill, just an HN reader and occasional poster.
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UnoriginalGuy
As someone who has looked carefully at T-Mobile some things I have picked up:

\- Their stores suck, they will lie (per Reddit's T-Mobile sub, there are
numerous threads about it, they flat out lie).

\- "Jump!" is a poorly conceived upgrade program that doesn't make financial
sense.

\- Their selection of financed phones is limited compared to the big two
(unlocked is $300+, some people want to pay $20-30/month, T-Mobile has a
moderate selection).

\- Coverage varies. Coverage while out-of-town sucks.

\- I did the 7 day test drive, zero hassle. They shipped it, I used it, then I
returned it to the store. Took 5 minutes to return, they didn't even TRY to
sell me there and then.

\- The Test Drive order confirmation sends an invalid tracking link
([http://http//](http://http//) at the start). When I contacted T-Mobile via
Twitter they didn't understand the issue with that.

\- In order to do the termination fee thing you have to trade in (for some
reason).

\- You'll have to endure people saying "un-carrier" unironically.

\- You'll have to endure their "I'm a hip 20 something" nonsense
advert/staff/feel.

\- They don't offer employer discounts (unless military/government) anymore,
so if you get one NOW you might lose money on the switchover (we break even).

\- Their international roaming is pretty incredible. Free "slow" data,
inexpensive calls, and free texts(!). Even their "fast" pay for data is
cheaper than AT&T's offering (all on the Simple Choice).

\- Their music streaming thing is cool, but no Google Music.

My biggest problem with T-Mobile is I want to switch but their selection of
phones blows right now. Fortunately the Sony Z3 just appeared to save the
day(?), but would still like to see the Z3C.

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1123581321
Because I spend so much time on Wifi/iMessage, I migrated my old $80/mo AT&T
450 voice/200 texts/unlimited data to TMobile's $3/mo 10c per minute/text (the
fee includes 30 minutes/texts.) I average about $5 per month for about the
same effective benefits I had at $80 per month, and plan to use my 4S on it as
long as possible since I like the form factor.

They may lie in their stores, but I haven't had any trouble doing all my
business online except for when I bought the TMobile SIM.

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tehwebguy
Do not get T-Mobile.

Their coverage map, in Orlando at least, is a lie. Promised LTE coverage was
constantly 4G, I even dropped to Edge and No Service on a daily basis where
the map said coverage was "Good"

