How to buy a new T-Mobile phone?

Might be worth talking to T-Mobile about a deal where you do the 4/$100 + 2.5 GB ea but only if they agree to let you keep the 2.5GB ea and not cut you back to 1GB ea. I betcha they'll go for it, basically consider you to be grandfathered in to 2.5GB.

Actually, they probably mean that new customers starting service after the end of the year will get 1GB, not that existing customers will be cut back. You may not need to try and make a special deal.

It may cost a little more per month because of taxes and fees, but you get an extra .5GB per phone, rollover data, the phones you want and T-Mobile's superior customer service.

Get T-Mobile on the phone if you want to do a deal. You won't get anywhere with the store wonks. Over the 17+ years I've been with T-Mobile I've found them to be pretty cooperative. I think they will make the deal.

As for the added cost... well, you get what you pay for...

Your LG F6 is compatible with T-Mobile 3G and 4G LTE so that's good. You're probably aware that T-Mobile now owns Metro. But I don't know how bringing your LG to T-Mobile works. Best guess is you would have Metro unlock it and use it unlocked on T-Mobile. That would be the preferable solution anyway, unlocked is the way to go. T-Mobile is the most bring your own device friendly of all carriers. They should have a way to make it work.

T-Mobile does not do contracts. They do not do so-called 'subsidiaries' where you pay the same monthly bill even after you've covered the cost of the phone. Other carriers don't actually give you a phone or discount phones with subsidies. They make you pay by figuring the cost into your monthly bill.

IOW, with 'subsidized' phones and contracts, you continue paying for a phone forever, your monthly bill never goes down. With such deals, phone companies love it when you keep using a phone, the longer the better. You're still paying for a phone anyway and the carrier gets pure gravy.

Instead of 'subsidies' that appear to customers to offer discount phones, T-Mobile is upfront about it. No contracts or subsidies, but they offer no-interest financing, even no money down if you have good credit. Just add the payments into your monthly bill. Then when the phone is paid for, the bill drops, unlike a subsidized phone and contract.

8afuzzball said:

I'm on a family plan (4 lines for $100) with MetrPCS and I want to buy my son and wife a new phone.

My son wants a iPhone and my wife wants a Samsung Note 4. Unfortunately Metro doesn't offer those phones.

Since service is poor in my house, we need WiFi-calling on the phones which means I must buy T-Mobile phones.

So my question is, how can I buy a new T-Mobile phone?

I've tried going into a T-Mobile store and even if I offer to pay full price, they will only sell me the phone if I sign up for T-Mobile service.

Yes, I could switch to T-Mobile instead of Metro as they offer 4 lines for $100 but on Metro, the $100 includes taxes. Also, Metro is doing 2 gig of data and while T-Mobile is doing 2.5 gig of data per phone is only through the end of this year then goes back down to 1 gig.

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Have you tried Swappa? You can get phones from all different carriers (plus unlocked). They come from private sellers, but all closely vetted to avoid scams. It's run from the people of XDA. I see new/sealed phones on there all the time. Here's a listing for a new Note 4.

But my question to you is: if you buy a T-mobile phone (with the wifi calling feature) would you be able to use the wifi calling on the MetroPCS network? I was under the impression that it was a feature only if you were on the T-mobile network. If it wasn't, I would think there would be mods out there for everyone to put that on their phones/ROMs/etc.

Yes the wifi calling is cross-compatible between T-Mo and Metro. Remember now that T-Mo owns Metro the phones all run on the same network and towers. The current Metro GSM phones incorporate the wifi calling as they run on the T-Mo system. For identical brand/model phones sold by both carriers, the firmwares are nearly identical aside from the branding and each can actually be flashed to the other brand phone.
T-Mo/Metro wifi calling is not available on any outside BYOD phones either from other carriers and unlocked or unbranded/unlocked, and I am not aware of anyone getting it to work on such devices or on a custom ROM.

Fox Mulder said:

Yes the wifi calling is cross-compatible between T-Mo and Metro. Remember now that T-Mo owns Metro the phones all run on the same network and towers. The current Metro GSM phones incorporate the wifi calling as they run on the T-Mo system. For identical brand/model phones sold by both carriers, the firmwares are nearly identical aside from the branding and each can actually be flashed to the other brand phone.
T-Mo/Metro wifi calling is not available on any outside BYOD phones either from other carriers and unlocked or unbranded/unlocked, and I am not aware of anyone getting it to work on such devices or on a custom ROM.

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Huh. Good to know, bad to hear (as I type on my OnePlus). Thanks!

You can try Swappa, there are some reputable sellers there that sale unopened brand new phones, it just depends on how much you are willing to spend. I am looking at one T-mobile Note 4 right now at 710, Never been opened.

Make sure the seller checks both Metropcs and T-Mobile IMEI, depending which carrier you use. I bought a "new in box" GS5 that was good on T-Mobile but not on Metropcs. The previous owner just stopped making payments on his account when he sold the GS5 which left it open for 120 days and made the phone unusable.