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Ten Lies T-Mobile Told Me About My Data Plan

Posted by timothy on from the electronic-lips-are-moving dept.

reifman (786887) writes "Last June, my post "Yes, You Can Spend $750 in International Data Roaming in One Minute on AT&T" was slashdotted and this led to T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeting 'how crappy @ATT is' and welcoming me to the fold. Unfortunately, now it's TMobile that's having trouble tracking data; it seems to be related to the rollout of their new DataStash promotion. Just like AT&T, they're blaming the customer. Here are the ten lies T-Mobile told me about my data usage today."

11 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. heres another lie. by nimbius · · Score: 5, Informative

    Your data plan doesnt take into account advertisements which are basically subsidized at your expense. It doesnt count the silent data collection performed by most apps, or silent updates performed in the background. root your phone, install http://fdroid.org/ and download adaway to null-route advertising servers and reclaim some of your data plan

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:heres another lie. by LordLimecat · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Your data plan doesnt take into account advertisements which are basically subsidized at your expense. It doesnt count the silent data collection performed by most apps, or silent updates performed in the background.

      Those updates offer you the option to defer them till Wifi.

      More to the point, most geeks object vocally when carriers try to look at what you're doing. T-Mobile doesnt. They provide a pipe. What sites you visit, how big their ads are, and what apps you download-- none of that is their problem. If you use their pipe, they count the data.

      Its worth noting though that they dont charge overages, you just lose LTE access when you cross your limit. Oh no, cry me a river. Maybe you want to look at deferring those updates till wifi, or quit watching youtube over LTE, or (gasp) upgrade your plan. T-Mobile's plan is so much better than any other carrier, its laughable, and here you are complaining that theyre not DPI'ing you to detect what the ads are.

  2. Article bad web page design by MrL0G1C · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Light grey text on a white background FFS, how can anyone think this is a good idea?

    --
    Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
    1. Re:Article bad web page design by cruff · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A curse and a pox on web sites that use such low contrasting schemes. The article may have been interesting, but I'll never know what he intended to say because I simply can't read it without getting eyestrain and a massive headache.

      I agree 150%! I will often close a web site nearly immediately if it has piss poor graphical design. By the way, have you investigated if your browser has the option to turn off page styles? In Firefox selecting the View/Page Style/No Style menu option will turn off the crappy graphic decisions made by the web site author, if you really need to view the site.

  3. Screw this clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Ten Lies T-Mobile Told Me About My Data Plan

    Here are the ten lies they told me during the course of the more than hour long call:

    1. The first two reps told me that there was never a bug affecting data usage. Eventually, the supervisor acknowledged that yes there had been (as I’d been told in January) but that it had been fixed.

    2. They said maybe it was my fault – that I just didn’t realize how much data the iPhone 6 uses despite having had it on my account since September 2014 with four consecutive months under 3 GB.

    3. They told me my phone had slowed because I’d already used my 3 GB plan data and 3.5GB of my 10 GB data stash (which activated at the end of January). But their website showed this was clearly not the case.

    What the T-Mobile Website Showed

    Perhaps he mistakenly was combining the plan data and data stash usage (3.45 GB) but he continued to repeat that it was 3.5 GB from my data stash. Still later, he told me I had used up 6.5 GB of my data stash.

    4. Then, they told me their website usage data was up to 3 days behind. When I told them that the website was already including most all of the data from today (2/20), my call was at noon, he said it was up to 24 hrs behind.
    feb220

    Data usage on 2/20 from T-Mobile Website during the call

    Here’s what it says tonight:

    5. Then, they told me that my entire data stash was gone because when I switched plans from Unlimited to 3 GB, I lost my data stash – ignoring my pleas that their January account tech had made the plan switch to fix the bug with billing in January.

    6. They told me there might be a problem with my iPhone which they would help me troubleshoot. I told him I was hesitant to begin troubleshooting with someone who was quoting me statistics that didn’t reflect the reality shown on their website.

    7. Then, the supervisor told me that perhaps I didn’t need to worry about this because the plan would reset tomorrow on the 21st because it’s a short month, not on the 26th as it always has. Here’s what the website showed:

    What The T-Mobile Website Showed

    8. Then, the supervisor told me my phone has only been using my DataStash (not my plan data). Again, the website:

    9. They told me that my phone has been using up my entire DataStash over the past several months. The DataStash didn’t begin until late January.

    10. And perhaps the last lie came at the beginning of the call, a voice said the call would be recorded for quality assurance. The jury’s still out on that one.

  4. Slow news day by Chris453 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I also have T-Mobile, use my phone all the time for web browsing/apps, never use wifi, and my data usage for the last 30 days? 1.24 GB. Maybe you are holding your iphone wrong.

    1. Re:Slow news day by cptdondo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. I've had T-Mobile for years, use them internationally all over the world, and never once have I run into this, except in China when my nexus 4 decided to download a new version of Android, over and over and over.

      This whole article translates to WAAAAHHHH!!!! I'm a whiner and I didn't get my way so I'm going to throw my mashed peas at the wall!

      Grow up and quit whining. Sometimes you run out of your data allotment and all that happens is that TMobile throttles you down to a slower speed so you can't stream porn anymore.

      Much ado about absolutely nothing.

  5. Data-counting and accountability by KreAture · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What bugs me with these data-counting plans is how they never have to prove to anyone that their numbers correlate to the real world.
    If you sell apples by the lb you have to use a set of scales approved by the government. You have to show that it has been checked and correctly installed.
    So, why does this not apply to bits and bytes?

    So many users see odd calculations and billings from so many companies that one should think it was obvious by now this isn't fair...

  6. Let's get technical by arth1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    From TFA:

    It also remains a bit frustrating to me that the carriers are allowed to bill you for data amounts without actually having to show you the URL endpoints related to each data packet.

    Um, wot? First of all the endpoints are not URLs - presumably he doesn't know the difference between socket addresses and URLs.

    But to present a list of each data packet? I don't think this guy has any idea at all of how networking works. Even if his phone operated with an X.25 1500 byte packet size and everything he sent or received were even multiples of that, a 3 GB usage would then mean at least two million lines listing endpoints. In real life usage, much more.

  7. Whine, whine, whine by Art+Challenor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    WTF. We have one person's bad experience with a phone carrier as "news". If we're just going to start publishing individual complaints the entire site will be filled with rants about Verizon and AT&T, that's without even starting on Comcast and Time Warner.

  8. Funny, my experience has been completely different by KingOfBLASH · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I find this article funny because my experience with T-Mobile has been completely different.

    I'll admit, I only consider them good because the competition is so bad (and I've had a number of cell carriers), but so far I'm very happy with them:

    • I get an unlimited data plan for the cost of a limited data plan on Verizon
    • I get LTE in all major metro areas, and it's FAST
    • Unlimited really seems to be unlimited. I abuse it (streaming movies for instance) and haven't once seen a slow down. And I check periodically with a speed test app
    • Due to a large european network, roaming abroad can be cheaper than other carriers
    • While other carriers like Verizon and AT&T have a lot of bad press for tracking of users / selling users data, there's been none from T-Mobile. A cynical person might say this is because they're just better at it, but I feel it's important to reward companies who do the right thing.

    The only complaint I have is they disable the personal hotspot on my phone after 5 GB of usage each month. After that I have to pay.

    In short: they might not have everything I want, but they are awesome compared to everyone else out there.