Forum Discussion
Impossible to activate new prepaid MI line on website, control disabled
Dear T-Mobile and Community:
I'm running across a problem trying to activate a new prepaid MI line on a new account. It appears that a required website control is disabled in the website's coding.
These steps have successfully duplicated the problem on five different browsers, including Windows/Edge, Windows/Firefox, Windows/Chrome, MacOS/Safari, and IOS/Safari:
1. Start at: https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/prepaid-internet
2. Click on First GET STARTED button right in center top of page, takes you to: https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/plan-detail/mobile-internet
3. Select any plan (I used the first one, 2GB/$10 for testing).
4. In the popup, select NEW CUSTOMER.
5. You're now in PRODUCT SELECTOR with your plan selected. Scroll to Device, Choose Bring your own device.
6. Click on the newly-exposed tab "Lets connect your device with this line!"
7. Skip IMEI check (My T-Mobile iPAD isn't recognized by the system, but that's a database issue, separate from this.)
8. Tell the system you have a T-Mobile SIM card, input your SIM card number. Verify and click CONTINUE.
9. On the next screen, put in your new email address, choose a PIN, and put in your contact information. Click CONTINUE.
10. Now you're at https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/cart/line-setup, which is the page with the problem.
10A. Put in device nickname.
10B. Choose get a new number.
10C. Opt-in to E911, input address.
10D. Select ZIP code for Primary Place of Use PPU.
AND... the bug:
10E. Observe that the PRIMARY NUMBER MENU is *disabled* (greyed out completely), and unable to be input or selected.
10F. Observe that the CONTINUE button is ALSO *disabled* (greyed out completely), and unable to be selected.
The only choice at this point is "EDIT CART', which takes you back two pages to step 8, above.
In short it is impossible to get past this point on any computer or browser, and is therefore impossible to self-active a Prepaid Mobile Internet line with your own SIM card as a new account on the T-Mobile website.
Please advise!
Interesting! I'm not quite sure why this is happening but I'm going to forward your screenshots and steps back to the engineer to see if we can figure it out.
I appreciate you being extra helpful and breaking down each step. 😊
BonusLover wrote:
I had this same issue but found success on Chrome (no special browser settings, adblock and other extensions do not interfere).
To activate a prepaid line where you get a new number, you need to type the area code you want the number to be from, click the search icon (i.e. magnifying glass), check the reCAPTCHA box, then click the search icon AGAIN, and it'll generate and display a number in red font. Then, you need to click the red box to accept that number.
Now, finally, AT LAST, the primary number drop down and the Continue box are valid and let you go through to the payment section. Everything else after that was easy. Just not the greatest web site, clunky and not intuitive compared with other carriers in the year 2021.
This needs to be marked as the answer. I was having this issue in MARCH 2022, tried two different computers, and finally found this thread.
You have to check the box for new number, enter area code, click search, click recaptcha, and click search again before you can then select the first number it gives you or look at other available numbers.
After this, I was able to proceed to checkout. It's absolutely mind-boggling that this interface has been so poor for as long as it has. How many people never signed up because they couldn't get past this?!Same issue, while trying to open a new account with two lines. I tried the workaround from @BonusLover, but it did not work for me.
I had to call 1-800-937-8997 to sign up.
