It appears that T-Mobile will soon start charging a $20 upgrade fee from select customers. A leaked internal memo suggests that it will be called the “Assisted Service fee” and it will only apply to a fraction of customers who are not enrolled in T-Mobile’s JUMP!, JUMP! On Demand or SCORE! programs. Those customers will have to pay this fee when they are upgrading to a new device.
T-Mobile’s $20 Assisted Service fee is likely going to go live on July 31st. This fee will be charged to customers who are not enrolled in any of the programs mentioned above when they upgrade their existing device through a retail store or via customer care.
The carrier explains in the memo that this fee is being charged for “assistance in the upgrade process” provided to customers. The cost is going to cover a new advanced SIM card, assistance is transferring data from the old device to the new, as well as help from T-Mobile representatives in selecting the new device.
Just so there are no confusions, this fee will not apply to the millions of T-Mobiel customers who are on JUMP! and JUMP! On Demand. They can continue to upgrade their devices within the scope of their respective programs without having to worry about this new $20 fee.