Easy enough, right? Except, no: Walmart apparently no longer handles prepaid T-Mobile phones, only postpaid. The store locator told me there was a T-Mobile outlet in my nearby Walmart. Plan B: Find a store and get help from a human. (After a Google search, I did find T-Mobile's phone-activation page - but the first thing it asks for is an activation code, which was nowhere to be found.) Um, what activation code? My iPhone 6 arrived without one. In fact, I couldn't find anything related to activating a phone. Surely they'd have some big, splashy banner: "New iPhone 6 owners, click here!" Nope. Instructions not includedīecause calling customer-service departments ranks up there with getting a tooth filled, I went to T-Mobile's Web site. But then what? I still didn't have service.
Sure, I was able to set up the iPhone, sign into my iTunes account, and restore my backup from my old phone. (For the record, if you are a T-Mo customer and do have a matching SIM card, it's probably just a matter of, well, popping it in.) Because I'm not currently a T-Mobile customer, I didn't have a SIM card I could just pop in. There was no information in the box about activating the phone, creating a T-Mobile account, porting my current number, or anything else.
Reselling my previous iPhone would help defray the cost, and I'd be free to try T-Mo for a month or two, then take it to a less-expensive MVNO if I wanted (more on that below).īut when the new iPhone arrived, I didn't know what to do next.
That was my thinking when I splurged on the no-contract iPhone 6 from T-Mobile. Read on for my tale of woe, or skip ahead to "Options for Activation," below, if you just want help getting service.
Did you preorder a T-Mobile iPhone 6 or 6 Plus from Apple? I did.