Confusion or misleading?
T-Mobile is excited to offer their customers the new iPad Air, along with special financing which includes a $0 down and low monthly payment to attract customers. And, in keeping with this excitement, CEO John Legere had been tweeting about T-Mobile’s free 200MB monthly plans for the iPad, stating, “Yes. Everyone gets the 200MB of data. No exceptions. No strings attached.”
This was a great attention grabber, not to mention deal, considering AT&T is offering 250MB of data for $14.99/month. Soon after Legere tweeted about the plan, confusion ensued. After the claim was made that “everyone” would get 200MB of free data, CNET’s Roger Cheng discovered otherwise (basically he found out that not everyone will qualify for T-Mobile’s financing plan on the new iPad and therefore will not be accepted for the free 200MB).
T-Mobile has since clarified
After CNET’s article, T-Mobile clarified its statement saying, “new customers who want to take advantage of T-Mobile’s no-money-down plan are required to sign up for a $20-a-month plan,” which seems odd, since they are trying to draw new customers in with this promotion.
They go on to state, “unlike the On Demand plan, the $20 plan does provide an additional 500MB of data. The 200MB of data is ‘free,’ but doesn’t kick in until after you sign up.” Wait. What? So T-Mobile wants new customers to join their network, take advantage of their iPad financing, but dangle free data in front of you only if you agree to a bigger data package? Once you agree to the $20/month data plan, you receive an additional 200MB for free, but this still seems a little misleading.
So what is the bottom line?
The takeaway for interested T-Mobile users/potential users: iPad owners that purchase an iPad elsewhere and bring it to T-Mobile, buy it from T-Mobile at full price, sans special financing, or already have an existing voice plan with T-Mobile and apply for special financing, can receive the 200MB of data for free with no additional data plan needed.
This hardly seems like “everyone gets 200MB, no exceptions” that was tweeted by Legere earlier. But, I suppose, we should all assume, “there’s always a catch.” And there is, but, really, the 200MB is free, so long as you qualify according to the terms above.
AT&T offers a similar financing program, but there is no free data. If you can navigate the terms of T-Mobile’s “freebie” program, it is not a bad deal.
