Home Internet not eligible for Emergency Broadband Benefit

Copying this from yet another thread. Yet another example of a serious question going unanswered. This is unacceptable T-Mobile. Where are your answers?

@tmo_mike_c I know you may not have the answers for this question, but I would ask that you please look into it, pass it on to your supervisor, and get this customer some answers. Someone there at T-Mobile can fix this. Someone there can give these people answers. 

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.

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.

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.

 

https://tmo.report/2021/05/fccs-emergency-broadband-benefit-available-for-signup-t-mobile-participating

 

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.

We’re proud to participate in the FCC Emergency Broadband Benefit program, which offers temporary payment assistance on internet services to customers in eligible households impacted by the pandemic.

Not a customer? Call 1-800-T-MOBILE to learn more.  https://www.t-mobile.com/content/dam/t-mobile/assets/pdf/ebb-factsheet-fcc-logo.pdf