T-Mobile USA Launches Never Settle Trial For Verizon Customers
by Brandon Chester on May 5, 2015 1:09 AM EST
T-Mobile has become a very different company under CEO John Legere. Since his appointment in 2012, T-Mobile has gone through several phases of their Uncarrier campaigns which aim to differentiate them from Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon. Both he and their advertising campaigns are not afraid to directly attack other carriers in the United States for policies that have long been dreaded by consumers.
Today they launched a new campaign targeted at Verizon users in the United States. The campaign pokes fun at the "Never Settle" tagline and #NeverSettle hashtag that Verizon has been using in their recent ad campaign to promote their LTE network. T-Mobile's new Twitter hashtag for their campaign is #NeverSettleforVerizon, and the Never Settle Trial is a free trial of T-Mobile's service that current Verizon customers can sign up for.
The Never Settle trial will begin on May 13, and it will work as follows. Verizon users will port their number to T-Mobile for the trial period, but hold on to their current Verizon phone. If the user was happy with their service on T-Mobile then T-Mobile will cover their Verizon Early Termination Fee (ETF) and remaining device subsidy up to a maximum of $650 when they trade in their existing Verizon phone and sign up for one of T-Mobile's plans. If they were unhappy with the service, they can port back to Verizon and T-Mobile will cover their activation fees by sending them a prepaid Visa card for that amount, and they will also waive cost of their service while on T-Mobile.
I would assume the system is such that you keep your Verizon line during the duration of the trial, and when you port your number to T-Mobile a new number gets assigned to your Verizon account until you either leave or port back. I know on my carrier in Canada a number port request usually goes along with an account closure, so hopefully T-Mobile has planned all this out.
T-Mobile has made eight videos to promote this new campaign, and you can check those out in the source below.
Source: T-Mobile
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Reflex - Wednesday, May 6, 2015 - link
Perhaps, but it is superior to the situation on Android. Its a middle ground between the iOS and Android situations, and in WP10 it gets even better with a preview track, much of the OS being updatable universal apps (even things like settings), plus developer unlock simply being a setting in the control panel (and side loading of apps).My point though was in response to the idea that only iOS is good on Verizon. I agree that unless you are running a Nexus device, Android sucks on VZ (although its only marginally better on others). But WP is also pretty good on VZ, and until the Icon updates were always timely. And in the case of the Icon, the dev preview resolved most of the issues.
Samus - Wednesday, May 6, 2015 - link
Verizon is also the ONLY carrier to sell every iOS devices "unlocked" even if its on contract. This has been their policy since the beginning.You get what you pay for with Verizon. Customer service and coverage are top notch but they're twice as expensive as T-Mobile and Sprint, who both work well for many people.
I have Ting, and MVNO of Sprint AND T-Mobile. My wife's phone is on T-Mobile and my phone is on Sprint, so although we have the same "service" it's fun to compare who has better coverage when we're on trips (we have the same phone so the only equation is the coverage!)
Overall, the only place we've traveled where service reception was a joke is San Francisco. Everyone seems to have Verizon or AT&T there and we know why...
Reflex - Thursday, May 7, 2015 - link
The unlocked part is very important for me. My Icon has gone on two trips with me, China and Thailand. Every location I landed in a plane, my phone connected to a local carrier automatically and I got a text offering service. In Beijing I got a local SIM and it was no problem to just use my phone as is. No need to call for an unlock or anything else, it just worked.SantaAna12 - Wednesday, May 6, 2015 - link
Dropped calls on Tmobile?Here in Monterey Ca: None on the last three years.
kaidenshi - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
Unless the Verizon customer has just started service with Verizon and is already looking for an alternative, or else doesn't mind starting a new contract if they don't like T-Mobile, this is not a very smart thing to do. By porting out your number and paying the ETF (even if T-Mobile pays that ETF), you are ending your contract early and closing your account. To rejoin Verizon, you'd have to start a new account and a new contract, and be beholden to them for another two years.I don't like Verizon and I hate cellphone contracts, so I'd never have been with them to start with. But this "T-Mobile trial" just doesn't make sense for anyone involved except Verizon, as they will be the ones to profit no matter what (ETF gets paid by T-Mobile which hurts T-Mobile's bottom line, and customer possibly comes back and starts a new contract after the ETF is paid).
mem8 - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
just looking forward to new advertisement by Verizon:go check out new offer by T-Mobile, we will gladly get you back with better offer*
*after your ETF is paid
menting - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
doubt you'll have to close your account with verizon and start a new one..and even if you do, since T-mobile will be covering any associated fees (which will include the ETF), you get a new phone when you resign with Verizon, which you can resell, so factoring that in, a new 2 year contract doesn't sound too badkaidenshi - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
Have you ever ported your number? I've ported to and from various services over the past several years, and unless you have multiple lines on an account, porting out closes that account. That's true across all the major carriers and every MVNO I've tried.bznotins - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
Coverage issues are obviously going to be user-specific, but I love that T-Mobile has free international data roaming (albeit slow). Features like that are meaningful to me, so I've been happy with TMO. Obviously it helps that I don't have any coverage issues with them, but that's a "sample size of one" argument that only applies to me.Ammaross - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
I believe you're looking for "anecdotal fallacy."If you're in a highly populated area, chances are you won't have coverage issues. However, I know of a handful of "dead zones" in the city I'm in and have had T-Mobile in the past, therefore I'll not be taking them up on their offer for that same "sample size of one" reason. :)
Fallacies are fun:
https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/assets/FallaciesP...