T-Mobile would rather lose your business to another company than keep a customer.
I lost my phone, and I am within one month of the end of my contract. T-Mobile told me I could put my phone number on hold for up to 30 days and not be charged, until I decided if I wanted to get another phone, another sim card to use in an older phone I had, etc.
I chose to move to another carrier who had better coverage. T-Mobile told me that my number had to be put into 'active' instead of 'suspended' status in order to be ported to another carrier. However, if it is active and is ported before the end of my contract, they would charge a $200 termination fee. I explained that I could stay on suspension until the contract term was up, since it was within 30 days, and then port it over, and not pay the fee, so what is the difference? They refused to cooperate or be reasonable, so now I am just giving up the phone number, I'll keep the phone on suspension, and they will get no more money from me. I also explained that if they didn't work with me on this, I'd cancel our T-Mobile service for our other phone number on the same family plan.
Then, they told me that, since I am on a family plan, my husband's phone (which has another year on contract) would have to move to an individual plan, which would require a new contract. I told them that I didn't have to do a new contract when I went to the family plan, so I shouldn't need one to go to an individual plan. I called back and spoke to another agent to validate, and she confirmed that changing rate plans requires a new contract. I explained that we would rather take an early-termination 'hit' than sign a new contract, and couldn't they just honor the original contract, but they were not willing to budge.
So, now, I am just going to keep one phone number on suspension, and cancel the plan in 20 days when my contract expires. I'll just give up the phone number and immediately get a new plan with a new carrier. I'll pay the $200 fee to move my husband's phone to the new carrier, as well. T-Mobile's net loss will be at least $1000 in monthly service charges, because we are moving two phones, instead of one, but they don't seem to realize, or care.
If other Telecom carriers are out there, reading this, please use this as an example of what NOT to do. It just doesn't make any business sense to lose money because you are not willing to work with a good customer.
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