A veteran wireless employee says T-Mobile is looking to close stores, get rid of reps, and move sales online.
At the start of last year, T-Mobile introduced its T-Life app which you might call its all-in-one replacement for the T-Mobile app. Last November, the carrier pulled the T-Mobile app from the App Store and the Play Store which are the iOS and Android app storefronts respectively. Not only did the Un-carrier use the T-Life app to replace the T-Mobile app, it was also used as a replacement for the dedicated T-Mobile Tuesdays app where customers went to claim their weekly rewards.
By replacing the individual apps with an all-in-one app, T-Mobile customers don’t have to remember which one they need to have on their phones to handle certain issues. However, a veteran of the wireless industry says that the real purpose of the T-Life app is to get T-Mobile customers to upgrade using the app without requiring any help from in-store reps. This way, T-Mobile not only doesn’t have to pay a commission to the rep who was involved in helping a customer upgrade his device, but in the larger picture T-Mobile won’t have to keep as many stores open.
The author of the post is a wireless employee who works for a T-Mobile competitor. He said that Verizon tried to accomplish the same thing and push for more sales to be handled online by reducing the upgrade fee for online purchases to $20 and increasing the upgrade fee for in-store purchases to $40.
