Been with TM about 5 years. Back then it was straight prepay and CS was very knowledgeable as they were located in the U.S. I seldom have to call CS, but I do monitor my minutes on a weekly basis, cause there are too many people complaining of stolen minutes to not take this seriously. I don’t use my phone on a daily basis, and thus my minutes have accumulated to the point where the cost to use my phone is less than 5 dollars per month. No where on the planet can you beat that. And I still have the original phone too, but will be upgrading to a more current model. So this plan still works for some folks, but I am concerned about these current problems TM is having.

I'm another one who got ripped off on their pre-paid plan. After four years of never using over 90 minutes a month with Verizon, I decided to switch to pre-paid. Bought 1000 minutes figuring it would last me a year. After two months, I noticed I only had 300 minutes remaining. Called customer service regarding the problem. They told me their records showed I was making about 70 calls a month. I told them that was impossible. I average about 15 calls a month. They said they show 70. I asked for a call log, but was told I was not allowed to see my calls. They tried to sell me a plan where I could access my calls. I said no thanks, fix my current problem. They said they couldn't help, and I should try going to a T-Mobile store to see if they could help. I did...they couldn't. They provided me an email address (privacy@T-Mobile.com) and said I would receive a response within 48 hours. Two weeks and 7 emails later...still no response. After three months, all of my minutes were gone, so I called customer service again. Once again, I was told that I'm out of minutes because I make 70 calls a month, and I should switch to another plan.

I hope my emails to the FCC and BBB expose T-Mobile for what they are...pre-paid crooks.

Suck it, T-Mobile!

I just got rid of my verizon contract for tmobile to go. they are a good company, plus, I don't need another bill in my mailbox every month.

Tried to use my cell phone but it would only take emergency calls only. I had 430 minutes left on my prepaid account which was paid up until July 31st 2010. I called TMobile but got someone on the phone who spoke very little English and out of desperation had to put another $25.00 on my credit card to make the call. I have been a customer since Omnipoint came into Florida several years before Voicestream took over. I am outraged over the way Ihave been treated. Called Customer Service and he agreed with me that I had been treated very badly but he could do nothing for me. Why do they call it Customer Service when they don't care or give any service to their customers!

Horrible reception at my home and work place in the middle of the city even though the coverage page of T-Mobile shows "Best Signal Strength". It's outrageous.

I am giving this 3 stars because I love the phone and the prepaid minutes stretch out far. The con is that they did not have a number in my area code and reception can be spotty. The good news is that after removing the battery and sim card and then replacing them, I recovered service. Indoor reception could be better.

I'm a teenager, and I text a considerable amount. I'll break this down into a few categories.
- Coverage:
Spotty traveling and at home (east coast). In my own home the service is bad, I've had to learn where to place my phone in order to receive service.
- Rates:
Awful for texting, it's really upsetting how much i have to pay (50-100 per month) NOT TEXTING FRIENDLY. The pre-paid cards are a scam as well, unless you buy the $100 card.
- Phones
I have the razor. It turns off randomly, restarts itself, and wont send texts and i will have to restart it myself. A real pain.
- C.S.
Great costumer service. Wish they had everything else.

poor rception and customer service if i were u i would get verizon preapid with unlimited txtin bundles

tmobile preapid needs messaging bundles like at&t & verizon prepaid have. they need to get some soon like now.bcuz they maybe lossing customers bcuz of that

I love the T-mobile prepaid service. I don't use my phone that whole lot so $100 lasts me a good six months. The best part is I used it on my unlocked Blackberry, and I get to check up on the latest news on CNN, ESPN, ABC New, and SI all for free.

T-Mobile is the best prepaid service you can get for the money. A lot of people say that they have bad CS but it is 1000 times better than Tracfone or AT&T. I started out using $100 cards in 2007. It wasn't until 2009 that I used up more than $100. These phones are pretty good until you start using the living days out of it. Overall I'm very satisfied, and I never had to call CS unless it was to unlock my phone (I have had 3 phones with T-Mo). The good part is that they don't sell you the outdated cell phones on prepaid. You can buy the newest phone (full price) and use that no problem.

Before that I have had Verizon for the $45 monthly contract, what a waste of money.

Bought Samsung t349 for $100, nice toy. Decided to transfer my old Verizon # to this new TM, was afraid of problems when doing it online so I called customer service. The stupidest people I've ever seen!!! My 6 yo nephew listened them on speakers and she called them morons. After calling CS I was unable activate TM via online so the CS was the only option left, I guess I was stupid too.

Well, I did activate it after all, promised myself not to call CS again ever. Transfered my old Verizon #, so everything is as it was except I don't pay monthly $45, but rather $100 annually.

Charged it with $100 online and got 1000 minutes. So far so good. The t349 supports up to 4 Gb of memory, micro SDHC so you can put there ringtones, mp3, video, pdf, doc, txt and watch/listen these files on your phone, a micro laptop. It has photo and video cameras, voice recorder. I'm trying to figure out if it can record conversation when calling.

Coverage is spotty when in NM mountains and highways, but is great around cities.

Don't call CS, they suck! Do everything online.

I spent $1200 ($90 activation, $400 deposit, $45 monthly) in two years on Verizon, unbelievable!

Ive had this for about 3 years VEry happy with customer service and I get the 1000 minutes for $100, so its only 10 cents a minute and it lasts for 1 year. Good coverage to. I carry this and a page plus pay as you go, both do GREAT!!

Purchased my Samsung T109 about 5 months ago, and i haven't had any problems with it =). I have a simple phone cause i don't use it all the time. This kind of phone, with a Pay As You Go plan, is perfect for anyone who wants a simple cell phone, who wants to go on AIM/Yahoo messenger, and wants to play some games for kicks.

i've been using t-mobile now for the past 5 yrs i never had a problem with the service or whatsoever but the other dat i upgraded my phone then when i got home i decided i want a diffrent one so i took it back and they exchange it for the one that i want they charged me for restocking fee and thats fine with me when i got home the new phone is not working so i took it back and just took my old phone back after i got home i noticed that they charged me twice instead of giving me a refund..sucks im going there today to complaint i hope ill get my money back if not then ill be angry and never will go back to tmobile stores.

Samsung t-209 (2) purchased at Target in Chicago several years ago. Coverage map is not quite as good as Verizon, but good enough 99+% of time. The TM call plan costs less than half of nearest competitor. Phones have been reliable. We moved to Ohio two years ago but have still been using old numbers. Recently bought a RAZR V3 in Ohio - again, no problems.

We use the phones less than 100 minutes per month, so our monthly costs come out to $8 / each phone. If we use it more, we pay more. Use less, pay less. Simple. And minutes roll over and over for years.

well the refill cards work real well if you use the minutes wisley and not jus on anything and everthang!♥

I love my little phone.Iam a gold rewards member and i chose the plan where its $1.00 when you use it then free from 7pm-7am.I dont use a phone much but i love it for emergencys.

i have been using this service for 3 years now as a student. i have only payed 140 dollars for my 3 years of service ! what a bargin

the only downside is that you have to pay full price for a phone like a touch screen ( costs 450 dollars) and they dont offer lost/stolen worrenty. and they dont let you acess call history online

Love my prepaid. I use it very little, it only charges me when i use it (unlimited after 7p til 7a!) Had to get another sim card due to if you don't use in for 90days which means another number. I do get sum off calls but not alot, what can i say i paided almost nothing for the nokia, and when i purchased the new sim card it comes w/ a automatic $10 renewal every 30days for 3months which means no cell bill for me for the next three months because like i said earlier i hardly use it and when i do its after 7p (lol). at the most for the next 3months $10 does'nt look so bad .

Recycled numbers,14 calls from Target collection in 2 days,calls from collection attorneys, obscene text,, all to the previous number holder, security sucks.. stolen acct and all minutes stolen twice in 2 months,,customer service ( no speaky english so good) sucks,,,,Local store personal great,, customer service even hung up on them,, took trips and several hours each time,,,,,Foreign company in US to extract dollars Do you home work I didn't , lot of sites Tmobilefraud.com is huge and google is loaded
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=tmobile+sucke&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

Before getting a pre-paid cell phone service, I reviewed all the providers and chose T-Mobile based on that information. I got my first T-Mobile phone on 4/1/08 and bought 1,000 minutes. I was very pleased with the service until I lost my phone during a long trip. I ordered a new phone on 7/16/09 and had it sent to me in Cody, WY. I called to have it activated and was assured that it was done. However, I have not had phone service at all with the new phone. I have called customer service and chatted online with them several times. On 8/15/09 I visited a T-Mobile store in Spokane, WA, where Nick installed a new SIM card. He made a test call and said it was working fine. NOT!! I went back that afternoon and he installed another SIM card. He called customer service to have it activated and spoke with a supervisor. The supervisor placed a work order at high priority and stated that I should have service within 24 hours. However, after more than a month, I STILL do not have phone service as of this writing (8/16/09). That is the poorest "service" I have ever had!

Reps:No hablamos mas english and understand even less....as I wrote in my memior letter in Apacolypse Now - drop the bomb, wipe them all out!!

For those who keep saying they wish that they could use a more "upscaled" phone than the ones provided, you can. In fact, you can use ANY unlocked GMS phone on T-Mobile's prepaid service, you just have to pay full price for the phone. I'm currently using T-Mobile's Samsung Memoir. I purchased it on eBay for $425 (yes, I know, that's a lot of money). Anyway, as for TM's prepaid service itself, I was OK with their service for 3 years. I changed my phone number last month and, now, I have to constantly check my minutes. I'm on the Pay As You Go plan. Every time I refill, 60 minutes mysteriously disappears from my account. I had to call T-Mobile TWICE so they could fix it.

I bought a PrePaid T109.. The charger was defective and it damaged the phone...T Mobile tried to accuse me of abusing the phone, they claimed I had a spike and my complaint was with my Electric Provider..GIMME A BEAK ! The Charger was clearly defective

Bought T Mobile Prepaid in 2007..it did not work, took it back to T mobile next day and they told me I had to contact the Manufacturer, I had to mail the phone back and eight weeks later, I received a non working refurbished phone..I had five refurbished phones in 18 months...finally bought a new one as I had 2000 minutes...new phone stopped working ..it seems the charger burned out the phone as it was defective..Sim card was damaged and I lost all my minutes

I have had the plan for a month and already the nokia 2760 mini display is not working. When ever I make a call, the caller id is wrong(shows someone else's id) and when someone tries to call me they offen get directed elsewhere. I have called CS a large number of times and have had helpdesk tickets generated a number of times and is still not resolved. The phone is going back today.

I've had my prepaid service 8 months and still have $50 left of my original $100. It's great, certainly much better than a contract which I had at one time and paid about $35 to $40 a month. I find dialing #999# to check on my balance very convenient and have never had a need to call customer service. My Nokia 2760 is a neat little phone, but sometimes I think I'd like one of the more upscale phones, but they're not available to prepaid (probably just as well). Thanks to TM for simplifying my phone service.

Not perfect but about the best prepaid service you can get in the US in my experience. If you don't use enough minutes to warrant a post pay plan its fine. Their CS sucks just as bad as all the other cell providers.

very unreliable voicemail service: callers often don't get a ring when they call me, or get a message that I'm "out of the service area" when I'm just in my home. my voicemail cuts ppl off in 30 seconds. customer service has not been able to fix

T-Mobile in New York has terrible service: you sometimes have to walk along a whole street to get service. Apartments are dead areas, despite other networks (like AT&T) working fine. Funnily enough, my 6-year-old phone (Nokia) gets better reception than my friend's Moto RAZR: the reception is even worse there. I have a pre-paid plan, the value is reasonable, but there have been issues with being charged twice for credit card top-up. Start-up costs from $20 (if you already have a phone) for the SIM card, and you get some free minutes. I'm trying to find another pre-paid plan. Maybe you'll have better luck in another city.

Oops...Forgot to post the Howard Forum Wiki address...

Info on Refill Minutes:
http://wiki.howardforums.com/index.php/Refills_and_Gold_Rewards

Tips & Tricks:
http://wiki.howardforums.com/index.php/T-Mobile_Tips_&_Tricks

General info on Pre-Paid Plans:
http://wiki.howardforums.com/index.php/T-Mobile#T-Mobile_ToGo

Been with TM since 2004 after reading some good reviews here & the article on prepaid. I use my phone for calls only (no texting). Customer service (CS) as of 2009 sucks but it was not always this way. As others pointed out, TM is having some problems right now with CS & other issues. As a long time customer, I seldom have to call CS but I do check my minutes at least once a week. Plus the CS is now located out of the U.S. and they are not up to speed in the training arena, but hopefully, in future, that will change...This plan still works for me but I do wish for the following:

1. Greater transparency of numbers called. If TM can provide phone numbers dialed with Post-paid plans, they could also provide it to Pre-paid users.

2. Better accuracy in the billing of minutes used. Example: If I speak on the phone 1 minute and 1 second, TM bills me 2 whole minutes.

I initially purchased a starter phone at Wal-Mart & it came with a $100 card which instantly put me into gold status. I thought I pretty much knew how the minutes worked until I read an article at "Howard Forums" wiki. Whew! There is much to learn about how the minutes work so if you have a little time, go over there and get a little knowledge. The wiki also has excellent articles & tips on TM Prepaid as well as Postpaid plans.

I recently purchased a $100 card for $88 no taxes on ecrater.com auction site. Ebay also has deals but not all the time, so be very careful as there are scams every where. If possible, try not to give out your cell number & request the card or PIN to load the minutes on yourself, cause some of the online sellers will sell your cell phone numbers to advertisers who in turn will spam your phone.

I live in the Los Angeles area and after complaining that callers had to wait 7-10 seconds before they heard a ringing after dialing my TMobile prepaid, was told that is how their prepaids are. I had one caller dial 5-6 times and NEVER get a ringing tone, even though his display stated "connecting." And i never got the calls! T Mobile wouldn't refund the 1000 minutes i'd purchased - their solution was to bait and switch me to their FlexPay plan. I wish i'd never left Sprint!

I have been using T-Mobile pre-paid for about 6 months now after being a loyal Verizon customer for many years. I thought I would go through $100 in a few months, but I still have 200 minutes. You don't get all the bells and whistles of a calling plan, but your not paying for that either. I access my VM through my Vonage line whenever possible to save minutes. I'm looking into getting a better phone, but I will stay with this service. Can't believe all the money I spent on a monthly plan over the years.

My teenager daughter and I both use th TM prepay plan for years. We spent average $10 each per month. This plan really worked for us until last May, my daughter started to do the text messaging heavily and spent all $100 I just added to her account in less than one month. I ended switch her to Virgin Mobile (Texter's Delight). For me, TM's prepay plan is still the best deal.

I have 4 four phones with 4 prepaid plans. We are not heavy phone users (70-100 minutes/ month). Hated paying all the fees for monthly plans and not using the minutes.
A lot cheaper to buy 4 prepaid plans, get the 1000 minute right off the bat for Gold Rewards status to get the 10 cent per minute rate thereafter.
I refill all the phones after 364 days since once you are a Gold Reward customer, all refills are good for 365 days..AND all minutes carry over for 365 days. Example, my mother uses about 15 minutes per month, I have refilled her phone 3 times with $10 cards over 3 years and she still has
around 700 minutes after 4 years. Essentially, it cost $10 per year for a quality phone with decent phone service. My kids are taught to limit their phone use to the $100 recharge per year and they have no problem (teaches them good CELL phone habits too). Thanks t-Mobile!

We switched from TracFone to T-Mobile prepaid about three years ago and have been very happy with the new service. For those who want only a phone (no web browser, don't text, etc.) as we do T-Mobile's prepaid is the best deal going. We have two motorola phones that each last about ten days on a charge. For the few calls we make each week that's perfect; when we're traveling on business and might use 30-60 min per day they still last a week or so.

We routinely buy the $100 cards, so get 1000 minutes with a year to use them. At $.10/minute that's a fair deal for us, and we seldom use more than 1000 minutes per year.

Tip: if you need a phone, watch the t-mobile web site for weekend deals. They occasionally run specials where the phones that are usually $50+ go on sale and include a $25 card. That's pretty hard to beat.

My only complaint is that I've not been able to get service in some rural areas where I know there are cells-- they must have not signed agreements with all carriers, but I've never had a problem in any city or town and I travel extensively all over the western US.

I have both T Mobile prepaid and post paid accounts.I have good service in my area. Very little to complain about with the post paid account. The prepaid account is a different matter. The only messaging bundle anyone can get is with the sidekick. I talked to customer service a few different time and that is all they offer. The prepaid customer service is different as well. Sometimes the person I would be talking to seemed to be, lets say indifferent. Mentioning that I was also a post paid customer too, seemed to change the indifferent. T Mobile doesnt seem to have an email address on their web site, so you have to send comments via regular mail to New Mexico. Last time I talked to the prepaid customer service I advised them I would be switching my prepaid account to AT&T. They have message bundles.

i got 2 of these for my kids today and have discovered the information T-Mobile represents (what's written on their display in the stores) and what they provide aren't even close to the same. The phones are going back ASAP. T-Mobile customer service is the absolute worst i have ever dealt with. The truth is their prepaid service cost is shockingly expensive and VERY limited. Don't believe anything any of their salesmen tell you, they either don't know what they are selling and don't understand the rate plans, or they are all scam artists. i was told sooooo many lies. They sell phones that they advertise as web capable, then when you try to activate them you find out that the web doesn't work with that phone and you can't even buy a plan at any price that will work. WHAT IS THIS? Specifically the Samsung Gravity. it has a slide out keyboard and the display and salesperson told me it was web capable. Yes, the phone has the capability, but T-Mobile doesn't have a prepaid rate plan that will work with this phone, if you want to use it as a web browser. in fact, after being shuffled around through their customer service maze and finally ending up with a representative in india that spoke very poor English, they eventually just routed me to a phone that no one would answer. How's that for customer service? i don't have one positive thing to say about T-Mobile. i just hope i can help others not make the mistake of doing business with this rip-off company.

You can use your existing cell phone. If you buy a new phone at the store don't let them enter the sim card #er or it's locked into a new #er for good. They will tell you don't worry just use your old sim card. You know the one that has been in your phone for years and baked in your hot car, gotten wet etc. Tell them that you will be calling customer service to transfer your Existing #er to new sim card. Also if they open the blister package at the T-Mobile store tell them that you want it in writing that you don't have to pay the 10 dollar restocking fee since they are the ones opening up the package. They will tell you that it's out of there control because the store computer automatically deducts it but if you call Customer Service and choose the 'cancel your service' option you get a cheerful person who if you tell them that if they don't credit your account 10 bucks you will cancel your T-mobile service and get an iPhone. Tell the people (dopes) in the store that you might change your mind or it could be an unwelcome gift and they have no right to open package if they won't accept it back without charging you $10 fee.

umm i'm thinkin about getting a t-moble sidekick prepaid plan,but i'm not sure how the pay is...like is the text messaging free and is the bill monthly if anyone can help me or give me some advice my email adress is dejaboo1412@yahoo.com...thx!!!

TM prepaid is a total rip off, I bought the $100- x a 1000 minutes, I had left approx 250 minutes, and all of the sudden they disappeared, I was furious, I called costumer services and I was told that I had made "many many phone calls" I told the representative to prove that to me, and she told me that they don't have that information!!?? I have a Sony Ericsson phone that keeps tracks of my calls and her answer could not be further from the truth, TM just ripped me off and I am very unhappy with their BS, I feel like suing TM!!!

Umm, im only 15 and ive had tmobile for 2 years with a plan that me, my mom, and my brother share. We get 2,000 minutes a month, and unlimited txting. Every month our bill is around $150. The service coverage isnt that great. I live in Tennessee and there are alot spots where i dont get any service at all.....
when i had my Sidekick id, the screen faded away to where i couldnt see it at all. So we sent it to T-Mobile because they said they would give me a new one. When the package came in the mail i was really excited because i thought i had a brand new one. But i actually still had my old one, that didnt work. They sent it back to me saying it had water damage and they were not responsible for that. But the little dots in the phone were NOT red. (if the dots turn red, that determins if you have water damage or not.)
Me and my mom were really mad. So now im stuck with a little pre-paid phone...
:(

I tried it and got NO reception in my area. I would guess that the one-star people are all real people (who would take the time to gripe except people that have real gripes?) but that some, at least, of the five stars are shills. I looked at Consumer Reports for the Los Angeles area and TM and AT&T are tied for last place in the category of reception. CR has four categorical ratings and all of their circles for these two companies have some "black" in them.

Everybody WE need to go complain to T-MOBILE ABOUT TEXT MESSAGING bundles for prepaid customers .because we all need those badly and hopeully they will get some later this year or soon .its a great wireless company so help the prepaid customers out please

tmobile prepaid has text messaging bundles $5 for 300 $10 1000 $20 unlimited

You can use any T-mobile phone or any unlocked GSM phone.

Picked up my Nokia 2760 from Walmart about 4 mos ago now and I have no complaints about CS or service. Minutes last a long time especially when it's M2M calls which is most of mine anyway. VM is not a problem, callers never leave a msg or I pick it up. Over-All, way better coverage, rates, than my old service which used to be Boost. Does anyone know if I can use another TM phone and still keep the PP service or does it have to be one of the TM PP phones?

I've never really had a problem with T-Mobile pre-pay in the year or two I've been using it. I used to have a verizon contract, but even the $39.99 plan ended up costing me about $60 a month after all the fees, etc., and I wasn't using all of the minutes. I have a phone in my office at work and a home phone, so I use the cell mostly for the in-between times, and it ends up being significantly less expensive ($100 lasts me anywhere from 3-6 months, depending on usage).

I agree they should provide you a list of calls and the minutes used, seems that should be a pretty straightforward service to use. I track my minutes regularly using #999#, and I don't believe they're "ripping you off" as some say. The upward rounding of minutes (which all carriers do) is a bit unfair, but there's not much that anyone can do about since its a contract term - we all agree to it.

Service could be better indoors - I find that the signal can be weak inside restaurants and bars, but that's also partly Samsung phones. Motorolas seem to have better reception (but not nearly as nice designs).

I travel overseas once or twice a year, and like having a GSM phone that I can just swap out the SIM card and be on my way. You can buy any unlocked GSM phone and use it with T-Mobile prepaid, it doesn't have to be from T-Mobile. Unlocked phones can be more expensive, but you can get pretty much any phone that works on a GSM network (T-Mobile, AT&T, or any phone sold outside the US since they're all on the GSM system). Check out www.tigerdirect.com for some unlocked GSM phones.

All in all its a good service for someone who just wants a phone to use when they want to use it, but if you want to use internet or email or anything like that, or use a lot of wireless minutes, then a contract plan would make more sense.