T-Mobile raised prices on plans it promised would 'never' change; FCC got 1,600 complaints

In January 2017 T-Mobile announced its 'Un-contract' for T-Mobile One plans, including a plan for people aged 55 and over: 'T-Mobile will never change the price you pay for your T-Mobile One plan.' Under CEO John Legere it criticised rivals for bill shock. A separate FAQ page said the only real guarantee was that T-Mobile would pay a customer's final month's service charge if it raised prices and they chose to leave within 60 days. The press release carried no such caveat. T-Mobile dropped the Un-contract in 2022, replacing it with a similar 'Price Lock' on current plans.

In May 2024 T-Mobile texted customers on plans such as T-Mobile One, Magenta and Simple Choice that, 'for the first time in nearly a decade', prices would rise by $5 per line a month for voice lines and $2 for connected devices. Ars Technica found customers who had signed up in 2017, including a 70-year-old Rhode Island woman whose bill would go from $60 to $70. By late June the FCC had received about 1,600 consumer complaints.

One Georgia customer who switched to Verizon said T-Mobile reps denied any knowledge of the final-month promise, and a later email said he had notified T-Mobile too late. T-Mobile's replies to the FCC explained the limits of the guarantee and asked it to close the complaints.

The 2017 press release stated the price would never change but left out the cancellation-credit caveat that was the only real guarantee.

The promise was heavily marketed to seniors on fixed incomes, as customers told Ars, making a later increase feel like a broken pledge.

T-Mobile argued it needed to raise prices to cover rising costs while reporting $8.3 billion in 2023 net income, which customers found unpersuasive.

A headline promise that the FAQ quietly undercuts becomes a liability when you finally raise prices. Make the real terms as visible as the promise, or do not make it.

Ars reported that the FCC would not say whether it was investigating, and the FTC declined to say how many complaints it had. In the same month the NAD found T-Mobile's Price Lock ads for home internet misleading in an AT&T challenge, and T-Mobile agreed to follow the recommendations for those ads; that did not help mobile customers. Some customers moved to Verizon, others stayed. The article reports no regulatory penalty.