T-Mobile is once again enraging a large number of customers by nixing an 'accidental' promo
Whether they were directly related or not, it was certainly not surprising to see T-Mobile follow up the biggest data breach in its history with a number of killer freebies and deals targeting both new and existing subscribers.
Unfortunately, one promotion that was seemingly applied to around 200,000 accounts took the "Un-carrier" by surprise just as it did said customers, and in order to fix the mistake that led to the deal's very existence, the nation's second-largest wireless service provider is making those people pay.
Although we're not talking about an incredibly valuable gift here, we're pretty sure at least some folks were stoked to see a free DIGITs line added to their accounts recently. The same customers will undoubtedly be pissed to receive text messages informing them of T-Mo's error, as well as the fact that the "correct monthly rate will be reflected" on their next bill.
While it's not entirely clear how this "system error" happened, Magenta apparently identified approximately 200K BANs (billing account numbers) that were not entitled to the complimentary DIGITs lines they recently received, starting a "Clean Up" operation on September 15 and evidently infuriating some customers already.
Obviously, that 200K number is nothing compared to the tens of millions of current, former, and prospective T-Mobile subscribers impacted by a 21-year-old's simple hack. The inconvenience is not comparable either, not to mention that you probably shouldn't be too upset about having to pay for something that you initially agreed to anyway. Still, the timing of T-Mo's latest blunder and subsequent clean-up couldn't have been worse.
In case you're not familiar with it, DIGITs is a service that allows you to use multiple mobile numbers on devices ranging from smartphones to smartwatches sans requiring a SIM card for each number. In this particular case, the Proxy by Digits option was subject to T-Mobile's error.
Separately, the mobile network operator also identified a different error accidentally allowing select customers to receive two RDC (Recurring Device Credits) promos instead of the one they were entitled to, although only around 3,000 people will be impacted by the "remaining clean up" operation started on September 13 after a previous attempt at fixing things partially failed over the summer.
Things that are NOT allowed: