Question

200mb free for life plan: Devices have no data service, but can go to tmobile.com

jpdl
  • jpdl
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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.

19 replies

tmo_ian
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If you contacted us and we had to open an engineering ticket, we've pretty much exhausted all the troubleshooting steps related to the device and the fix should be something on the back end. The only other thing I didn't see listed is a complete wipe of the device, but since you have the ticket in it's best to let our engineers do their job first before wiping everything 😊

H

As of Oct 7th, I got the exact same message from tmo indicating - “You recently deleted your Mobile Internet account. If you would like to create a new account at a later point in time, you can use the T-Mobile ID username and password that you've already set up. Just click, 'Already have a user ID' when you set up a new account.” and since then I am not able to access my data. None of the tmo geniuses are able to help. 

A

I came across your post in a search, as I am having the same issue with a 200MB free-for-life number. I just changed the SIM for this line, as I don’t even have the device that was previously used. I’d appreciate it if you would update this thread if you find a solution.

D

I have the same issue(s) as well.

I

Same thing as hrao. 3 calls and T-Mobile is still clueless. They've told us the issue has been fixed twice, the first time the added a 1-week pass to the account and the 2nd time they did absolutely nothing that I can tell. I can assure you that we did not delete the account or mess with the data plan since the original enrollment 5 years ago. My grandma used this iPad to keep in touch and it's more useful now that ever to keep everyone safe and in touch. Please fix your system, data for life is supposed to last for the life of the tablet, not just 5 years!

H

 @iamnick24 @dtsang91 @aarlee 

Please contact the T-Mobile handle @tmobilehelp on Twitter. They were quick enough to resolve the issue. Although I had to talk to a couple of people to let them know my situation. As they had removed the account altogether, took them some time to find me with my IMEI ID and reinstate the account. Quite frustrating that they would go this far to kill the data without any notice. And the support agents on the phone have no clue about the existence of such a plan. 

 

Here’s the link from that announcement from 2013
https://www.t-mobile.com/news/press/t-mobile-reiterates-free-data-for-life-details

 

K
I received the "you deleted your account" email last month, Oct 2020. Checked my Samsung Note tablet, that was supposed to have the 200 MB for life plan and sure enough, no data loaded for this month. I called T-Mobile several times with the phone # they assigned to the tablet. They just say there is no record of my account,  put me on hold and disconnect. Please post if anyone has any luck reactivating their account.
B

MANY THANKS @hrao 

This week, I tweeted @tmobilehelp & was quickly asked to DM them. I gave them the “Mobile Internet Number” found in an old email that TMo used to send when the 200mb offer was still live. & said my mobile iPads data plan had stopped working last month after being inexplicably deleted? I simply asked that it be restored & never mentioned that it was the  free for life plan.
 

Had only 1 agent who initially was confused by a different one time data plan linked to my account that was purchased after exhausting that months 200MB limit. Pretty quickly that was straightened out & I clarified I needed my monthly 200MB plan restored, then the agent pasted the following note copied from my account after telling me:

“Yes, it has been restored on 11/08 here's the system memo for you to see:

System memo: Free T-Mobile Msg: Your free Mobile Internet data has been renewed. Enjoy another month of 200 MB of data until 12/08/2020 20:46:00. Visit us at http://mim.t-mobile.com. ^“

Weird thing is, I had checked periodically and definitely after the 8th but never was able to activate the data? When I tried after the agent told me that, the data was back & everything worked fine!

 

Z

Yep, that happened with me, too. My account with the 200 MB data for life plan was deleted without notification in May 2020. I have had no luck since then getting them to reinstate it.  I gave them the assigned phone number and the number on the SIM card, but they say there is no record of those being in their system. Very strange development...

P
Badge

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.

J

There is another thread on this topic: 

Some people there have had success from calling, but the most effective seems to be a formal FCC complaint.

J

I’m happy to report that I finally have the Free Data for Life restored.  As with @jtemery in the other thread, calls were useless, even the supervisors, but shortly after filing an FCC complaint, someone from T-Mobile reached out, and was able to send me a new SIM in the mail.

T

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.

T

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.

A

I've been dealing with this since mid January, 2022

H

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? 

A

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

H

@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. 

A

@hrao that is good to hear a solution was found!

Mine was pretty well the same as before however roaming data was not available. I called in again and they turned on roaming data for me.

 

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