T-Mobile recently irritated a large swath of their customer base when they decided to force customers on older plans to migrate to newer ones (then said “just kidding” later on). It seems the magenta carrier has decided it likes this whole “make the customer opt out” thing though, because now they’re doing the same thing with customers receiving paper bills.
According to posts on Reddit as well as a tip sent in to us here at The Mobile Report, T-Mobile is alerting customers that receive paper bills that they will be automatically switched to paperless billing on November 8th.
T-Mobile: To simplify how you receive your bill we are converting your account to paperless billing by 11/8. This means you will enjoy the convenience of digital billing and will no longer receive a bill in the mail. You will receive a text when this change is complete. If you prefer a paper bill, you may opt-out of paperless billing after 11/8 at t-mo.co/paperbill5
Text sent to customers
Annoyingly, if the customer wants to opt out of this change, they’ll have to wait until after the change is made on the 8th, then go into their account settings and turn it back off. No opting out early for this one.
This decision is yet another cost-cutting move that is anti-consumer. T-Mobile likely pays quite a lot of money in processing and printing paper bills. Flipping a giant metaphorical “on” switch for paperless billing for their entire customer base and forcing those customers to individually turn it back off again is likely going to save them a few bucks.
The downside, though, is obvious. There are likely many customers who are used to paper bills and rely on receiving one to know when their bill is due. T-Mobile is sending customers warning texts, but that isn’t enough. The process should be opt-in, not opt-out, just like the plan migrations.
Funnily enough, many customers online have advocated for turning paperless billing off recently, in a sort of protest for the forced plan migrations. The idea is forcing T-Mobile to print paper bills for everyone would cost them more. I guess the company beat them to the punch on that one.
Customers that receive paper bills and want to continue receiving them will need to visit the special billing page on their account after November 8th. Currently there is no fee for requesting paper bills, but that could easily change once this move is completed. Only time will tell.
Thanks for the tip, Josh!
