Feature changes

Use this page to effectively change features and educate customers about the services, discounts, and expected monthly recurring charge related to the new feature.  

Review account

Review the customer's account and current plan/features to understand status and details.

Review the following based on the customer's current feature status

  1. Inform the customer that the retired feature cannot be re-added after making this change.
  2. Share what’s included with the new plan or feature so customers clearly understand the benefits, changes, and other items comparable to the old plan.

  1. If the new feature is not eligible with the customer’s current plan, you can offer a comparable feature.
  2. If the customer does not want a comparable feature and wants the one requested, inform that a plan change will be required.

Advise the customer about impacts to current features & plan benefits (if applicable)

When moving customers between plan groups (such Magenta to Magenta MAX, TE to TI, ONE plan to Magenta), some features (such as Netflix or Stateside International) may drop as plan/SOC eligibility varies between plans. These dropped SOCs will need to be re-added during the plan change process to prevent customers from being charged for features that are discounted or On Us. For Netflix, if feature is not re-added during the plan change, those customers will need to take extra action and re-redeem Netflix.

Explain that voicemails may be lost during a plan change. Ask your customer if they have any voicemails in the inbox that need to be saved. If yes, walkthrough how to protect and save voicemails.

  • If a SOC conflict error appears when migrating between plans that receive the Netflix on Us benefit: 
    • You must manually replace the old Netflix on Us SOC with the new SOC. 
    • Ensure that the effective date of the new compatible Netflix on Us SOC is the same as the expiration of the old Netflix on Us SOC. 
    • This prevents the customer from losing their Netflix on Us benefit. o If you do not add new Netflix on Us SOC during a back-dated change, the customer will have to re-redeem Netflix. 
  • If Netflix was removed during a plan change and not re-added, add the feature and inform the customer that they’ll receive a T-Mobile SMS with a link to re-redeem Netflix on Us.
  • Some plans come with Netflix On Us that have a $0 MRC, while other plans have an additional charge for the Netflix version. 
  • Customers can also upgrade the Netflix version for an additional cost. Make sure you understand the customer's desired Netflix experience compared to the current experience prior to making a Netflix feature change.

Do not backdate the Unlimited Talk and Text only plan if the customer has used any data on their current plan as doing so will result in LARGE OVERAGES of $15/MB for the customer. If the plan has a data feature, you must future date to the next bill cycle start date.

Check existing promos

Check for active discounts, credits, & promos to identify feature change impacts.

Checking for active promos ensures that your customer won't lose any discounts or credits that are provided by the current feature. 

  1. Determine if new feature is compatible with any existing any active discounts/promos (such as free add-a-lines):

    1. Review the existing offer’s page to confirm eligibility with the new feature/plan.
    2. Review the new feature's page to check for:
      • Any existing promo impacts. Use the new feature's page to find these impacts.
      • Existing discounts are available on the new feature (such as AutoPay). Use the new feature's page to find these impacts.
    3. Determine if there are any impacts to Netflix On Us and Microsoft 365 On Us.
       
  2. Tell your customer what discounts will transfer, if any will be lost in the change, and any other promo impacts.

Recap

Explain the new monthly cost and highlight the benefits & differences of the new feature.

Discuss the new MRC with the customer

To make sure a feature change is right for your customer, compare the current total MRC with any taxes to the new feature's MRC for the same number of lines.

  • If new MRC is equal or less than current MRC, explain the cost savings and any added benefits such as unlimited data or included taxes.
  • If new MRC is higher than current MRC, let your customer know the difference and help decide if any added benefits make the switch right.

Recap the new feature changes & benefits

  1. Recap the changes that will be made to the account. Be sure to highlight all the new, great benefits of the new feature:
    • Any benefits gained or lost (such as customer will now get unlimited data with even more GB of hotspot with the new feature)
    • Any discounts/promos gained or lost (such as customer will now get Netflix On Us Standard instead of Basic with the new feature)
  2. Explain how this affects the monthly recurring charge (such as the bill will now be lower). If the bill is higher, highlight the added value of new included services, like Netflix, making up for the price change. 

Explain billing

Share the new billing date, any taxes, fees, one-time charges, and discounts.

Tell your customer about the effective date for the new feature and provide information on prorated charges if applicable, according to their billing type:

  • While features become effective immediately on the selected date, the provisioning of some features may take up to two hours to become functional.
  • Some feature MRCs do not prorate, such as data and Stateside International. 

Next bill will reflect prorated monthly charges for both the old and new feature.

 

  • When adding new features: billed prorated MRC for current month, plus full MRC for the next month.
  • When removing features: will receive a prorated credit on next month’s bill for time without the feature.
  • Change from one feature to another in middle of the bill cycle: credited the prorated monthly charges for the removal then charged the prorated feature amount for the remainder of the bill cycle, along with next month’s full monthly charges.
  • Changing to a lower cost feature mid-cycle: next bill will be lower than new monthly charge. This is due to the cost difference in the features prompting a credit toward next month’s monthly charges.

Explain any bill recalculations or other one-time charges to avoid call-back confusion. 

Change feature

Complete the change in the system according to your role - Care or Retail.
  1. Complete the feature change using standard systems for your channel. 
  2. Backdate, future date or same-day change the SOC.

Retired features

  1. If you are making a change to a retired data feature to revert a T-Mobile error, senior reps and coaches have the ability to view many data services not normally available by using the All OWN SOCs screen. 
  2. Representatives with this access should be cautious when selecting data features from the All OWM SOCs as this view does not have IMEI to SOC mapping and displays retired data features.

Educate

Educate customers about the following resources to understand the bill, review account details, and manage future changes:

  • Setup and manage T-Mobile ID Learn how to set up a T-Mobile ID login and password in order to log in to My T-Mobile and the T-Mobile app.
  • Understanding the bill Understand about everything that appears on a bill, such as taxes and fees, AutoPay discount, and any one-time charges (if applicable).
  • View & manage your plan Learn about everything the new feature offers – such as Simple Global, Netflix On Us, and more.
  • View active promotions See what promotions and other great stuff comes with the new feature.