T-Mobile Monthly 4G eating through minutes too quickly?

[N4Newbie]

As has been pointed out, receiving voicemail (that is, someone leaving you a message) consumes minutes. Do you receive a lot of voicemails over the course of the month? Or, particularly long voicemails?

 

[CoMoNexus]

As has been pointed out, receiving voicemail (that is, someone leaving you a message) consumes minutes. Do you receive a lot of voicemails over the course of the month? Or, particularly long voicemails?

The CSR told me that when someone leaves a voicemail, it counts toward my minutes. I thought it counts only when I check the message, not when the caller leaves one. That's why I always call from a landline to listen to voicemail. I've never heard of a carrier charging when someone leaves a message. At any rate, I rarely get more than two or three messages a month, and they're all brief. Supposedly one of them was 18 minutes long, which is impossible because TMO's voicemail platform won't accept a message that long.

At another point, the CSR said I had used 111 minutes. When I asked her how that's possible on a 100-minute plan, she said sometimes the system allows overage. But I heard three beeps before the call was cut off.

It was a really strange, long chat session. For example, when I asked the CSR to provide a list of calls, most didn't match up with my phone's log. Some days I had two calls that were only 1 second apart in terms of length. She also told me that they can't see the phone numbers . . . after she verified several of them.

Between this and TMO not being able to explain why they booted me out of autopay -- except that sometimes it just happens -- I don't think I'll be with them much longer. I can't waste an hour or more each month on the phone or in chat sessions trying to figure out what's going on.

 

[N4Newbie]

I have one of the very first N4's and have been on T-Mobile's $30 plan from the start with no problems at all. I run over the 100 minute allotment once every few months but I handle that by always maintaining an extra balance of $10 - $20 in my account. Minutes over 100 will automatically deduct from this balance at the rate of $0.10 per minute.

As to 111 minutes, my understanding is that an ongoing call will not automatically drop because you have hit the 100 minute mark. The call will continue until you disconnect but then you will not be able to make or receive further calls (unless you maintain an account balance as I do).

I've never heard of a carrier charging when someone leaves a message.

You may not have heard of it but that has been standard practice amongst US carriers since the beginning of time. Consider moving to Europe, where cellular users pay only for calls made and not at all for received calls (whether answered or sent to voicemail).

 

[CoMoNexus]

You may not have heard of it but that has been standard practice amongst US carriers since the beginning of time.

I've worked in telecom since 1998 and been a customer of AT&T and Sprint since then. Neither charged me when someone left a message. In fact, Sprint didn't charge when I checked VM. I can't remember if AT&T charged for checking VM because I haven't been a customer in several years, but I know it didn't charge when someone left a message.

 

[mjpringle]

I have the identical experience and will take it up tomorrow with T-mobile at our local T-M store. I started the plan on a new Galaxy S4 in July and had to pay the 2nd month's $30 before the first month was up. I can already see the same thing happening this month. I seldom use the phone for regular calls and have no idea what constitutes a 'call minute'. I don't believe I'm even close to the 100 minutes maximum, despite what the T-Mobile Account info app tells me. Puzzled and annoyed.

 

[CoMoNexus]

I have the identical experience and will take it up tomorrow with T-mobile at our local T-M store.

Let us know what they say.

 

[Linh321]

What happens when your 5GB of data is up? Do you get throttled or you can't have data usage any longer? Because with even 3G 5GB last you 2 weeks 4g even faster

Posted via Android Central App

 

[CoMoNexus]

What happens when your 5GB of data is up? Do you get throttled or you can't have data usage any longer?

You get throttled, but I can't remember to what. Maybe EDGE?

 

[Unicorn Rancher]

You may not have heard of it but that has been standard practice amongst US carriers since the beginning of time.

That doesn't seem to happen for me on the $30 100 minute plan. I called my N4 from my work phone and left a rambling voicemail. When I checked my minutes that night, it was the same as in the morning. Calling to listen to the voicemail from a VOIP line didn't eat up any minutes either.

 

[Tall Mike 2145]

@ OP: I don't know what you're doing to eat through minutes like that, but I'm on the same plan you are and that has NEVER happened to me.

V?s a v?s voicemail, who the heck dials in to check voicemail any longer? If you're not using T-Mo's Visual Voicemail app, well... that's on you, then.

In a typical month, I go through about 80-90 minutes. Anything beyond that is either handled over data with GrooveIP, or on my computer using Gmail's phone dialer app.

 

[Central n ohios best]

You get throttled, but I can't remember to what. Maybe EDGE?

Yeah and it's unbearable. I though I could last on the 50$ plan but got throttled on my first day by just some simple browsing and 30 min of Google play. So I had to get the unlimited everything 70$ plan.

Sent from my T-Mobile LG Escape using Tapatalk 2

 

[cadis12]

I'm on the $30 a month plan and its been perfect for me. I usually have to throw an extra $10 on my account each month. When I do that though it takes my remainder balance and throws that toward my next auto payment of $30. So my bill the next month will be $20 something.
Last month though I encountered a huge headache. The day before my auto renewal I ran out of minutes. As usual I used the T-Mobile app and added $10 to my account and I was back in action. The next morning I went to make a call and I got the message that my account was out of minutes. Errrrr. I called the T-Mobile support and they were CLUELESS! I was bounced around for over an hour. Basically what I think happened was my account went to auto renew and it took the remainder balance from the $10 I put in leaving my account dry again until midnight. This is my assumption. Once again it was like I was talking to Lloyd Christmas for over an hour and they didn't understand what I was saying. In they end they just renewed my account a day early but man I better not have to deal with that again. I would go for the $45 plan if that becomes a reality.
BTW I was on straight talk for a few months and their data throttling was very suspicious. I was on ATT though. I don't use data much so it was annoying when I wanted to watch a you tube video here and there and it wouldn't play. Errrrr

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4