A T-Mobile customer is accusing the company of “slow[ing] her signal” while she’s on a payment arrangement. She went as far as to call that practice theft.
The accusation comes from creator Jailene (@jailene._), getting more than 313,000 views. Her caption tags T-Mobile, claiming, “I’m so over @T-Mobile getting [to] charge for a service I’m not even getting.”
She explains further in the short video.
“PSA, did you know if you are on a payment arrangement for T-Mobile,” she begins, “they will slow your signal, so you’re technically on a payment arrangement for a plan that you’re entitled to, but you’re not receiving the service that you’re paying for?”
She then concludes, “T-Mobile, that’s stealing.”
Is it though? And what is she even talking about?
Breaking it down
In talking about a “slowed signal,” she’s likely talking about reducing the amount of phone data she’s receiving, or what’s sometimes called “throttling,” giving the perception of a phone getting data more slowly than it normally does.
According to T-Mobile, that’s a function of you plus the customers around you.
“The T‑Mobile Fair Usage commitment is how we ensure that the highest number of customers have the best possible experience for the most common uses on our network,” the company explains on its site. “The vast majority of customers on T‑Mobile-branded and non-T‑Mobile-branded, Sprint-branded, Metro by T-Mobile branded, and Assurance Wireless-branded plans receive higher priority than the small fraction of customers who are Heavy Data Users on their rate plan.
“For most T-Mobile-branded rate plans, a ‘Heavy Data User’ is defined as a customer using more than 50GB of data in a billing cycle,” it goes on to say. “The threshold number is periodically evaluated across our rate plans and brands to manage network traffic and deliver a good experience to all customers while offering a range of customer choices.”
Jailene confessed she was on a payment arrangement. That arrangement, according to T-Mobile, is something granted when a customer is behind on paying but is still allowed to use the service. Per its site, “Your account must be less than 30 days past the due date to initiate a payment arrangement,” and “you must pay any balance that is 31 or more days past due before you can set up a payment arrangement.”
What people said
She did evoke some reaction with her video but maybe not what she anticipated.
“This is the most false information I’ve ever heard,” one contended. “You prolly just mad you financed a bunch of stuff and now you can barely pay for it and decide to post this in retaliation.”
“If you’re on a payment arrangement, doesn’t that mean you were unable to pay for the bill to begin with, hence the need for this arrangement to ‘catch up?’” another said. “They could in theory cut your signal off completely until you’re caught up, but they still chose to give you service.”
“Girly I’m on T-Mobile’s payment plan,” someone else said. They haven’t changed nothing for me. They’ve been great for me.”
That led Jailene to cryptically respond, “Go in the store hun they’ll tell you.”
“Signal never slows down for a payment arrangement unless it’s completely suspended,” one assessed.
“Loud and wrong,” Jailene replied, sticking to her original thesis, despite being challenged.
@jailene._ I’m so over @T-Mobile getting charge for a service I’m not even getting #fyp #tmobile #dobetter #singalsucks ♬ original sound – jailene._
The Daily Dot has reached out to Jailene via TikTok direct message and to T-Mobile via email.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
