Change to T-Mobile Tuesdays makes it harder for some subscribers to get their "free stuff"

T-Mobile is making a big change to its T-Mobile Tuesdays reward program. No, the carrier is not changing the program to T-Mobile Wednesdays but starting with the free rechargeable flashlight that the carrier is giving away to subscribers next week, the T-Mobile store that you usually pick up your rewards from might not have any rewards in stock. According to an internal T-Mobile document leaked by The Mobile Report, T-Mobile's third-party stores will no longer be giving away physical T-Mobile Tuesdays items.

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The leaked memo points out that starting September 17th "customers will be able to get their T-Mobile Tuesdays free stuff exclusively at T-Mobile owned and operated stores and Metro by T-Mobile stores." Authorized retailer locations will no longer have the "free stuff" to give away. So if you opened your account via an authorized T-Mobile dealer and you're entitled to a T-Mobile Tuesdays giveaway, you will need to pick it up at a corporate T-Mobile store or Metro by T-Mobile store.

T-Mobile alerted its customers through an entry in the T-Life app on the Magenta Status page under "Next Tues." A banner showing a flashlight says, "Your free flashlight might be at a different store on Tuesday." Tapping on the banner will reveal the name and location of the T-Mobile or Metro by T-Mobile store that is holding your free flashlight.

Third-party retailers, known as "TPR" in T-Mobile lingo, have been under fire for allegedly using customer pickups of T-Mobile Tuesdays giveaways as an excuse to look up a customer's account information in order to serve up a dubious "deal." These "deals" would then be offered to subscribers as a way to improve the metrics of the rep and the store and would occasionally be added to an account without the customer's knowledge or approval.

Some employees at third-party locations demanded that subscribers consent to an audit of their account in order to receive their T-Mobile Tuesdays freebie even though such action is not required to receive the reward. Although it isn't known for certain why T-Mobile is taking this action, by removing the third-party retail outlets from the equation, these shenanigans might be reduced.

Unfortunately, for some T-Mobile subscribers, the closest T-Mobile store to them is a TPR which means that a subscriber might have to make a longer trip to pick up their "free stuff."