Forum Discussion
Home Internet not eligible for Emergency Broadband Benefit
So I went through the application process and got approved but now T-mobile is telling me that my home internet is not eligible for the benefit. What gives? Why have it on the page advertising it if their plan does not qualify? What does someone need to do to qualify? They are advertising that they are a part of this yet no one is having success in setting it up.
lulla wrote:
So I went through the application process and got approved but now T-mobile is telling me that my home internet is not eligible for the benefit. What gives? Why have it on the page advertising it if their plan does not qualify? What does someone need to do to qualify? They are advertising that they are a part of this yet no one is having success in setting it up.
According to T-Mobile, only T-Mobile Home Internet accounts activated before March 10, 2021, are eligible for the EBB.
I would encourage you to file a complaint with the FCC. Here is a copy of a message I added in another thread. t-Mobile is flat out lying to customers about their eligibility. When you sign up thinking you will get your EBB, even after you're approved through the FCC, your applications WILL BE DENIED. T-Mobile will not tell you this outright, and refer you instead to an "internal memo" that states there is a March 10th cutoff date. The secretary for the Office of the President himself took 2 weeks before he could find this answer for me.
T-Mobile is lying to potential customers and current Home Internet Plan consumers about its EBB eligibility process.
I submitted my first EBB application to T-Mobile back in the middle of May, after receiving approval through the FCC for EBB. 3 applications and dozens of emails, calls, and complaints later, I was told by the Office of the President of T-Mobile that the cutoff date for Home Internet Plans receiving EBB was March 10th. If you call T-Mobile's customer care line today, I would bet money you will be told a Home Internet Plan opened TODAY would qualify for EBB.
T-Mobile is allowing this lie to continue being spread by its customer support. Nowhere on T-Mobile's EBB site is information about a March 10th cutoff. I encourage anyone else who has been lied to by T-Mobile to contact the FCC and file a complaint. These business practices need to change immediately. The management clearly doesn't care about a genuine concern of its paying customers. If they are not willing to correct these lies, more people will fall victim to their bait and switch.
To be clear, as of my writing this, if you do not have a Home Internet Plan activated prior to March 10th, YOU WILL BE DENIED YOUR EBB WITH T-MOBILE. They will not tell you this themselves, unless you file a complaint and wait weeks for the President's office to tell you. Call and ask customer service yourself if you need confirmation of these lies.
https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us
I am also being told by Tmobile that my home internet is not eligible for EBB. They keep saying I do not have a qualifying rate plan which is ludicrous. As far as i'm concerned there are no tiered rate plans for their home internet if that is what they mean. If the story you linked is true. They are falsely advertising this benefit on their website without explicitly stating it is only for those who got their home internet service before March.
Ditto, I too was taken by this scam, switching my home internet service to T-Mobile after qualifying for EBB. No one gave me any information to the contrary when I did so, but when things didn't appear correct on my bill, I contacted customer service; only to be put on hold for excessive long periods of time, transferred repeatedly, and told different information by everyone (oh, and disconnected several times!) At some point, they started throwing around the March 10, 2021 date, saying you had to be signed up for home internet by then to be on that plan, but this EBB program only allowed people to start signing up for it May 12, 2021, so that makes no sense!? I was told that only a "Hot Spot" was offered by T-Mobile for that program, but nowhere on the national EBB site or T-Mobile does it say anything like that. As a matter of fact, if you look on the national site to the companies participating it this program, they have T-Mobile listed as offering both Fixed/Mobile options and on T-Mobile site they say they offer several EBB plan only excluding Magenta Max. This is just wrong and bad business, I hope everyone does file a complaint.
tomwil wrote:
lulla wrote:
So I went through the application process and got approved but now T-mobile is telling me that my home internet is not eligible for the benefit. What gives? Why have it on the page advertising it if their plan does not qualify? What does someone need to do to qualify? They are advertising that they are a part of this yet no one is having success in setting it up.
According to T-Mobile, only T-Mobile Home Internet accounts activated before March 10, 2021, are eligible for the EBB.
Well, this is information that would have been great before I switched carriers. I have been a phone customer for years but switched to the home internet less than a month ago. The application tells people to sign up and choose a provider and T-mobile is listed as one of those, so this really makes no sense. Even T-mobile advertises as "Not a Customer, click here to learn more", and also links to a factsheet that I followed and complied with when choosing them. I called ahead and set up, so this is a bit misleading on their part.
Nos enorgullece participar en el programa Beneficio de emergencia para banda ancha de la FCC, que ofrece asistencia temporal para el pago de servicios de Internet a clientes de grupos familiares elegibles que han sido afectados por la pandemia.
¿No eres cliente? Llama al 1-800-T-MOBILE para obtener más información. https://www.t-mobile.com/content/dam/t-mobile/assets/pdf/ebb-factsheet-fcc-logo.pdf
lulla wrote:
So I went through the application process and got approved but now T-mobile is telling me that my home internet is not eligible for the benefit. What gives? Why have it on the page advertising it if their plan does not qualify? What does someone need to do to qualify? They are advertising that they are a part of this yet no one is having success in setting it up.
According to T-Mobile, only T-Mobile Home Internet accounts activated before March 10, 2021, are eligible for the EBB.
I signed up the Home Internet service today and went through a two hours run around of speaking with different representatives who seemed utterly incompetent regarding the EBB sign up process. I'll be filing a complaint with the FCC regarding this farce.
Also, to add. They had me switch plans today to a plan that cost the same amount and made me reapply. Really silly to do all of that if they don't cover it.
They told me the same thing. They said that the FCC set limits on which plans qualify. That is not what the provider information docs say. They also said I couldn't transfer from another provider, but rather had to reapply. This is also false. (Links below) They said that if I don't change to a higher priced voice plan I won't qualify. This makes absolutely no sense. The FCC didn't set these rules. T-Mobile did. I've been with them for over 15 years and just picked up their Internet a couple of weeks ago. I asked the store employee about the EBB and he did not mention that the internet wouldn't apply or that I'd have to pay more to qualify. It's a horrible business practice, not to mention a bit audacious to think they have more authority than the FCC. Add one more complaint being filed.
I have been informed that I have to switch from magenta Max plus w/ magenta tablet to just magenta and add "plus", while keeping the magenta tablet. The bill is the same, but, magenta Max is the best plan for 5g. T-mobile apparently doesn't want those on the max plan to have this assistance. Not does T-mobile care about the disabled people, for which I'm one. I truly regret switching to them.
lulla wrote:
tomwil wrote:
lulla wrote:
So I went through the application process and got approved but now T-mobile is telling me that my home internet is not eligible for the benefit. What gives? Why have it on the page advertising it if their plan does not qualify? What does someone need to do to qualify? They are advertising that they are a part of this yet no one is having success in setting it up.
According to T-Mobile, only T-Mobile Home Internet accounts activated before March 10, 2021, are eligible for the EBB.
Well, this is information that would have been great before I switched carriers. I have been a phone customer for years but switched to the home internet less than a month ago. The application tells people to sign up and choose a provider and T-mobile is listed as one of those, so this really makes no sense. Even T-mobile advertises as "Not a Customer, click here to learn more", and also links to a factsheet that I followed and complied with when choosing them. I called ahead and set up, so this is a bit misleading on their part.
Nos enorgullece participar en el programa Beneficio de emergencia para banda ancha de la FCC, que ofrece asistencia temporal para el pago de servicios de Internet a clientes de grupos familiares elegibles que han sido afectados por la pandemia.
¿No eres cliente? Llama al 1-800-T-MOBILE para obtener más información. https://www.t-mobile.com/content/dam/t-mobile/assets/pdf/ebb-factsheet-fcc-logo.pdf
I am going through the same thing
