Account Suspended For Seemingly No Reason

Thanks everyone — I had the exact same issue… account suspended after a few hours — had no idea WTH was going on until I found this thread… and apparently this is a well-known issue, as it appears to have been going on for at least 3 years, if not longer… RIDICULOUS.  

I understand that TM may be doing this to reduce fraud, fake activations, don't want customers charged for services they aren't receiving yet etc., HOWEVER - I think it's more about the former (reducing fraud, fake activations ala Wells Fargo) than the latter (charging for service you aren't receiving), because OBVIOUSLY I'm receiving the service because you SUSPENDED IT!  Also, you can tell the SIM is activated and being used in a phone… so I think the excuse of not charging for service not yet being received is bogus BS… it's cover for something else, such as fraud reduction…

SOOOO, if that IS the case, fine, leave it place - BUT, TELL THE STORE employees #1, and #2, create a 2-step authentication with the customer to verify they are using the service on their old/existing phone and are waiting for the new one - BOOM!  That's it, done - no more angry customers whose service was suspended seemingly out of thin air AND you still have a fraud reduction system in place.

Until then, the fix is to call 611 (customer service) and/or go to back to the store and ask them to reinstate it… note that the first time I called the rep didn't know what to do, but after reading this thread, I called back and Mabel (rep in The Philippines) was great and knew exactly what to do - service was reactivated within minutes.  Woohoo!  Thanks Mabel.

So, key takeaways:

** For customers experiencing this issue, call customer service at 611 or go back to the store to reactivate the service.  If the first rep you speak with doesn't know what to do, call back.
** For TMobile - you need to fix this - this is just f'g idiotic.  I was with AT&T for more than 20 years, and was an INCH away from porting back to either them or Consumer Cellular over this. If you feel the need to retain the auto-suspend, make damn sure your store reps know the procedure AND institute a 2-step authentication to verify that the customer is ok with using the service until their new phone arrives.  That should help fix the issue for customers and help keep potential fraudulent activations you might be concerned about under wraps.