By 
In an effort to provide pre-paid customers with an experience more similar to that of a postpaid contract customer, T-Mobile is doing away with their FlexPay plans and instituting a deposit system. The aim is to provide customers with poor or little credit to their names with an option that is more straightforward than FlexPay, a system that never really seemed to take off for the magenta carrier.
Depending on the result of a mandatory credit screen, customers will need to plop down a deposit ranging from $50 to $400 dollars. After this, the customer will receive many of the same perks as a postpaid customer, including handset subsidies. After 12 months of good standing, the customer can get their deposit back. Understanding that many customers may not want to run a credit check, T-Mobile will still provide pre-paid options as well.
[via TMoNews]
say what? none of this makes sense.
oh no! lol i was JUST looking at this
Sprint pimp slaps tmobile
so, as a tmobile flex pay customer, i wonder what will happen to my plan when they make this change. i have been debating on leaving tmobile already, so if they try to screw us over then i will simply leave. when they make the change i will have 30 days to end my contract.
I didn’t even know they did credit checks.. I was a prepaid customer for like a year and a half (not flex), and when I got my current phone and plan 18 months ago I just paid them the $200 phone subsidy price and was out the door in minutes.. If they checked me, I sure didn’t notice.
This is basically a reversal of when they moved away from deposits and started flex pay several years ago. Flex pay does cause too much confusion with the different pricings for the hand sets, the fact you can only have up to two lines, and pro-rations when doing plan changes in the middle of a billing period. Took them long enough to realize its more trouble than it is worth.
I work at a Walmart in South Carolina, and just about every T-mobile contract we do is a flexplay contract. I think this is a pretty terrible idea for them. Although I do like this part “After 12 months of good standing, the customer can get their deposit back.” I definitely think this is going to hurt our T-mobile sales.
This will be bad for T-Mobile in the long run.
What T-Mobile is proposing is basically a return to the old policy of $50-$400 down payment to post-paid accounts (as opposed to the outgoing flexpay method, which didn’t seem to have any problems in my neck of the woods.)
In some markets, like the midwest, Flexpay is still advantageous, since some people are just unwilling to plunk down $50 to $400 of money that doesn’t gain interest and is unguaranteed to return to them if they lose their jobs and don’t make their monthlies on time. Given the unemployment rate, this is something that should still be factored into decision making.
And even if we don’t use that model, there is STILL NOT ENOUGH TO OFFER THAT COMPETES AGAINST VERIZON, SPRINT AND AT&T. The advantage of Flexpay was that it was exactly that – FLEXIBLE. Given that the returning method is not flexible, people (like me) are now more apt to go to other providers who may have better products. (Example, I might go get a XOOM from Verizon as opposed to G-Slate or Galaxy Tab 10″ because I don’t see the advantage of having a T-Mobile Postpaid account anymore.
Way to Go, T-Mobile. Based on this model, you’re convincing people like me to jump to “Big Red”.
Just when I was able to take a gasp of air, I find hands around the throat of my tiny pay check! C’mon T-mo, thought you were gonna play fair!