Forum Discussion
200mb free for life plan: Devices have no data service, but can go to tmobile.com
Hi everyone. I have two devices that have been long since active on the 200mb data for life plan.
One is an ipad, one is an android tablet.
The android tablet is my work tablet as a wildland fire administrator. It only gets pulled out during fire season, so it spends a long period of time off and in storage. Yesterday, I got sent to an assignment, so I bought a 30 day data pass for the tablet. I got the text saying it was active and my purchase was successful.
However, I have no data services on the device whatsoever, EXCEPT, i can browse any t-mobile website including my.t-mobile.com
No apps work, no other websites.
The ipad pretty much stays in my bedroom as a reading device, and is constantly on wifi, so i wouldnt notice if it worked or didnt work on the mobile network. However, as part of my troubleshooting with the OTHER line, i disabled wifi, and (this tablet should have 200mb available to use) like the android, I cannot browse any other website thats not t-mobile
Things I have confirmed, both in normal troubleshooting and diving into the nerdy stuff:
1. Both devices have several bars of LTE service at my house. I also drove to other locations in the county to hit different towers and confirm i didnt just have a weird glitch on the tower nearest my house.
2. I dropped the devices off LTE and tried on HSPDA 4g. No effect.
3. I confirmed the APN settings were correct. I also let the android auto update the APN.
4. I tried the older, non 4g APN (epc.tmobile.com)
5. I discovered its NOT a DNS issue. (Everyone in IT will understand) I specifically found out that http://www.usa.net successfully tried to bounce to https://www.silversky.com, so whatever DNS service its trying to use is working.
6. I tried both non secure websites and secure websites
7. Android version is updated to the newest firmware for that device.
8. I swapped the two sim cards around to try and eliminate the device(s) as the issue
9. I confirmed theres no app that may mess with data, no data saver, no VPN, nothing out of the ordinary.
10. I tried all three browsers on the device, but apps also report no data or ability to sync, so its not just 80 and 8080 traffic.
I did today, on my third phone call, get them to open an engineering ticket (and i wish she gave me the ticket number) but i was hoping someone else had this issue in the past and knows how to resolve it.
@AlHeart - thanks for the note.
After persistently talking to the T-Mobile twitter team, the same person that I was talking to finally had a light-bulb moment to consult with some other team and they figured out a solution. Apparently my account is not active, and the SIM Card and plan cannot be reinstated. Instead they offered to create a new cellular number for the data-only plan and are sending me a new SIM Card. Arriving via UPS in 2-day shipping for free. I hope I don't have to contest for the data-plan they are offering and it will the same 200MB data plan that I had before. I did not have go the route of FCC complaint as such.
Some have successfully had their accounts reinstated by filling a complaint about the fcc.
Check it out here, https://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1920706-200MB-for-Life-Free-Plans-Purged-by-T-Mobile
I am back here again! My account was "cancelled" this time by T-mobile. I reached out to the call center and contacted Twitter support but none of them are understanding what they need to do. They simply refer to terms and condition, when there is no condition for this grandfathered plan whatsoever even on their side leading to canceling the account. I am beyond frustrated with T-mobile for not honoring the device and plan they sold - and set the expectations for the users to have free 200 MB for life of the device.
Has anyone had any luck with FCC complaint?
I've been dealing with this since mid January, 2022
Hi All. On Oct 4th of 2021, T-Mobile emailed me that "You recently deleted your Mobile Internet account." I didn't, _T-MOBILE_ deleted my Free 200MB Data For Life Plan and the number associated with it. I've filed a complaint with the FCC.
I was a little late noticing because of a recent improvement to my WiFi range, but I searched my emails upon finding this thread. I received an email that Google claims could not be verified as legitimate (and was thus marked as spam) with the same message as everyone else. Apparently we are supposed to trust messages that have questionable security now...
I also went through them losing the data previously, the trial account, and then the tech department solving the issue by simply converting the plan label to one they could add onto the account. It seems they forgot to also make sure it didn't automatically terminate itself or get lost when they decided to perform another system change and discard their existing commitments.
Posted on Twitter. Can't wait for this one. I get that they gave the plan away for free, but these games don't convince me to upgrade. They are starting to convince me to terminate regular service.There is another thread on this topic:
https://community.t-mobile.com/accounts-services-4/free-data-for-life-not-working-anyone-else-11495?postid=125614#post125614Some people there have had success from calling, but the most effective seems to be a formal FCC complaint.
I got the same message as well and my number vanished from the login page.
The only thing I can think of is that they finally followed up with their policy of deactivating the number if you didn't connect to the internet for some specified amount of time (1-3 months?) I remember reading this detail long time ago and kept my tablet as a clock going for a long time. But last year I re-arranged my room and I have no clue what I did to it. So the power probably run out, and now Tmobile run out too.
