Although interestingly, I did end up paying 3x the normal rate for the past 7 months, until I reviewed my bills again.
This is how it went.
They had one of those 'not really a discount' price structures going on. i.e., say the normal market price of a service is $100 a month, they'll price it at $400 per month and then say you get a 75% discount. You still pay normal market price.
The contract was for 2 years. After 2 years you can call 'm up and cancel, or renew at a new price. If you don't do anything, they won't cut your service (which makes sense, that'd leave a lot of customers surprised 2 years in), but they'll 'silently renew' the contract every month indefinitely, until you cancel. So you're not actually tied into anything after those 2 years.
But the shitty thing is this... after 2 years, the 'discount' price ends, and you end up paying the $400 rate.
Not just that, but the original $100 'discount' rate (the normal market rate at the time, btw), was for connectivity + a phone, because I got a free iPhone included. Obviously it's not free, it was just priced into the $100 contract.
Plus, after 2 years the market rate of the connectivity + phone dropped from $100 to $50, the connectivity itself cost only something like $30.
So instead of paying $30, I was paying $400. I was never called up or something to discuss my options, they simply executed a silent agreement we made in 2013 in tiny letters.
I made up the numbers btw, they're not as shocking but in the past 7 months I ended up paying $250 more than I should have. Legally what they did was fine, but it was really shitty and felt like a 'gotcha'. I appreciate I should keep track of when my contracts end and check my fees, but when a company exploits this, they're no longer in the business of profiting off offering me a service I want, but they're in the process of unduly extracting surplus cash for non-service above their own market rates. That's 'gotcha' fees if you ask me.
Other than that, I'm really happy with T-Mobile, solid company that I've always been quite happy with. I've contacted them about the above to see if they want to meet me halfway and credit me a substantial fraction of these bs extra gotcha fees. If not I'll likely switch to a competitor, hope I won't have to.
If you called and asked I switch off your contract plan to a new one they would have happily worked it out.
While it would be nice I just don't expect them to go out of their way to get people to switch because it's a lot of effort to orchestrate for minimal gains.
It would be great to see a good faith "hey you would save $ by switching to our new plan" from t mobile I can't help but think they don't because people hate dealing with phone companies, even if they're trying to do good stuff.
Most people don't want to be sold a new "better" plan, even if T-Mobile said it was cheaper. A lot of people would ignore it just like they ignore any sales pitch, such as a new Comcast deals they get calls/emails about. No one wants to switch plans and exert that effort unless they have to. If they want to save money they'll be the ones initiating the change. At least that's how I'd think about it.
But seriously, call t mobile and ask if there's anything hey can do, maybe they'll give you a short term deal to make up for the extra you had been paying. They've been awesome in dealing with these types of problems when I've talked to them. They're more interested in customer loyalty And happiness than a little extra $$ at this point.
Got back to me, they won't be reimbursing, crediting or discounting me anything.
If you really don't think this is gotcha pricing, I'll repeat once more... after two years I paid off my phone (i.e., I'm not paying for it anymore, so my monthly fees go down). Instead of reducing my fees by switching me to one of their normal plans (which would cut my fees by 50%), they switched my contract and hiked my fees by 50%.
For a sense of the extra fees they were charging silently for 7 months, here's two example comparisons:
1) They have a plan (to which I switched today), that's 3x cheaper than what they had me pay, but that doubles my monthly data cap and keeps my monthly minutes exactly the same. They were overcharging 3x for less service.
2) I currently get a certain data cap + minutes on a no-phone contract. They have an offer for a free iPhone 5S (1y old model) with 50% more minutes and 5x the data cap, that's about 30% cheaper than what they had me pay. I pay more than the plan that gives me way more service + a free phone that's worth hundreds of dollars. Oh and I'd get 4G instead of 3G, too.
Again, they silently hiked these fees, at a point that they could either 1) switch me to a normal-rate product (that I switched to today), or 2) send me a freaking email or text message about the fee hike at the very least. It's a shitty move.
It's really shitty because I feel I need to switch to stay true to my ideals. At the same time, I can't think of a less shittier company, I really like T-Mobile and expect every major telco to have pulled this trick except them. Anyway I reduced my fees by 2/3rds today with a simple call for now, will think about what to do after.
> While it would be nice I just don't expect them to go out of their way to get people to switch because it's a lot of effort to orchestrate for minimal gains.
That's not quite true. They did switch me on a new contract automatically when my 2 year contract ended. And that new contract was priced 3x the normal rate, and it's a 1-month contract they renew every month until I cancel.
So it's not 'a lot of effort', they did switch my contract, but instead of switching to a normal one they switched me to a 3x overpriced one at a rate they don't actually offer to customers on their website.
As for the gains, well that's the whole point of my post, the gains on me were huge: they're making money by silently switching me to a ridiculously overpriced contract on the basis of a tiny-letter clause in a contract of a few years back. About a third of the money they extracted from me so far is for non-service, money they'd only make when the customer is lazy/ignorant enough to not spot the exploitation. That's the definition of 'gotcha pricing', isn't it?
As for the switching part... That's true for 2 year contracts. I hate being called up for that, because I'm just locking myself in to another 2 years. I'd rather sit this one out, and then get a great deal myself on the next one. But in this case it didn't apply because they renewed me for an indefinite 1-month contract at 3x their own market rate, they could've just as easily either 1) automatically and silently renewed at their NORMAL prices they actually charge in their shop for a 1 month contract, I wouldn't even be involved in that and it'd be a fair deal or 2) at least call me or email (didn't receive even a text to my phone) to inform me they RAISED my fees even though they reduced their offering to me! without necessarily pitching any new contract, merely informing me would've been nice.
I mean, to give you a sense of the deal they got me on silently (without a single notification) vs the normal market rates in their store right now: They have an offer in their store that costs 30% less than what I pay now. That offer gives me 50% more minutes and 400% more megabytes than what I have right now, on a 4G connection instead of 3G right now, with a free 1 year old model of an iPhone (5S) included, vs no phone part of the contract I have right now.
And they never even informed me of this bs, it's textbook gotcha pricing. I'm not saying T-Mobile is a crappy company, just that in my anecdotal case, they screwed over a customer with a shitty clause in their contract to take advantage of the fact customers tend not to review a services' fees a few years into a contract. There are fair and practical alternatives to that, but they chose gotcha pricing instead. I don't think you can see it any other way.
> But seriously, call t mobile and ask if there's anything hey can do
Yeah as I said already contacted them, they're getting back to me.
This is how it went.
They had one of those 'not really a discount' price structures going on. i.e., say the normal market price of a service is $100 a month, they'll price it at $400 per month and then say you get a 75% discount. You still pay normal market price.
The contract was for 2 years. After 2 years you can call 'm up and cancel, or renew at a new price. If you don't do anything, they won't cut your service (which makes sense, that'd leave a lot of customers surprised 2 years in), but they'll 'silently renew' the contract every month indefinitely, until you cancel. So you're not actually tied into anything after those 2 years.
But the shitty thing is this... after 2 years, the 'discount' price ends, and you end up paying the $400 rate.
Not just that, but the original $100 'discount' rate (the normal market rate at the time, btw), was for connectivity + a phone, because I got a free iPhone included. Obviously it's not free, it was just priced into the $100 contract.
Plus, after 2 years the market rate of the connectivity + phone dropped from $100 to $50, the connectivity itself cost only something like $30.
So instead of paying $30, I was paying $400. I was never called up or something to discuss my options, they simply executed a silent agreement we made in 2013 in tiny letters.
I made up the numbers btw, they're not as shocking but in the past 7 months I ended up paying $250 more than I should have. Legally what they did was fine, but it was really shitty and felt like a 'gotcha'. I appreciate I should keep track of when my contracts end and check my fees, but when a company exploits this, they're no longer in the business of profiting off offering me a service I want, but they're in the process of unduly extracting surplus cash for non-service above their own market rates. That's 'gotcha' fees if you ask me.
Other than that, I'm really happy with T-Mobile, solid company that I've always been quite happy with. I've contacted them about the above to see if they want to meet me halfway and credit me a substantial fraction of these bs extra gotcha fees. If not I'll likely switch to a competitor, hope I won't have to.