[General Topics] LLB1:
T-mobile $30 100min. Prepaid, is not Walmart $30 100min."Family Mobile" Plan

Crazy frustrating....

I don't know how long it has been so, but.....

T-mobile's "Prepaid" plans now includes a plan identical to Walmart's $30 "Family Mobile" plan. They are not the same plan.

This is important if you are a current T-mobile customer like myself.

I "highly" suggest calling back numerous times or asking to speak with someone else, if you are not getting the answer you want.

They almost had me believing I slipped into an alternate universe when one cs agent after another kept telling me, "the last agent you just spoke to was incorrect" and they assured me they had the latest info and were correct.

Get out of the call center asap, ask to speak to a rep in the USA.

I somehow lucked out and the first person I spoke with told me I could, as a current "post-paid" (translation...'regular contract service' we are all familiar with - except I have been out of my contract for years, though I don't think that matters) customer have my second line Nexus 5 moved over to the T-MOBILE 100min/5gb data $30 "pre-paid" plan. They said they would port my number as long as I gave them the number on the SIM and the IMEI. I didn't have the phone with me so I had to call back. That is the precise instant the time warp occured.

I retrieved the numbers and called back and the three following reps all told me I misunderstood.

One said I had to buy the phone from Walmart, another said I had to go to Walmart and buy the sim, a third tried to sign me up on the Walmart "Family Mobile" plan. I can't remember where but I feel I read or heard the Walmart "Family Mobile" plans bandwidth was somehow different or slower or something. I recall before being in the "T" store and the OOKLA test on the salesman S4 was 12mbps. I've seen 50mbps (yes a completely pegged needle) on a different AT&T salesman's phone (Orange County, CA) but 12 is good enough for me, especially since my home broadband is 5mbps and that's AT&T's highest "residential" plan, Elite I believe. I might as well pay the extra $20 to get Unlimited on my primary line and run my desktop through my phone and save the $50mo. I understand this can be done with the vpn named hidemyass (no joke) installed on the desktop, maybe any vpn would do but that's another thread.

There was also something about the Walmart plan always having to buy the $30 cards each month (instead of linking to a credit card) when you were texted each month to recharge. I could be wrong but it didn't seem possible with the Walmart setup, but I can tell you via the T-Mobile "Pre-paid" setup as soon as I received the text that said I was switched and needed to dial *233 to activate I was immediately allowed to enter my credit card and set up "auto-pay", for just the $30. They also try to get you to include "auto-pay" for overages (.10cents a min), but if you listen closely you can skip that.

Long story short, they said it could take 24hrs to activate, it took about 24seconds, speed is 12mbps and I happy.

NOTE: You may recall I said I did this with my second line. I don't know if you can do it when dropping your primary $50 line. By that I mean;

keeping the same sim, number, having to use a phone carried at Walmart, etc...

I ALMOST FORGOT - At the end of the call I asked the guy, "What is the right way to ask for what we just did" and he said if you say,"I want to do

a POST to PRE conversion

to the $30 100min/5GB data plan", we'll know what to do.

Good Luck

---------- Post added at 02:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:24 AM ----------

Charesa39,

The "visual guide" doesn't seem to mention, "changing APN settings to ipv4", the last line from the first link you gave.

"After I made this change I also needed to change my APN settings so that it uses ipv4 instead of ipv6. It seems like tethering with ipv6 does not work 100% yet."

so should both setting be ipv4?

thanks