Simple Mobile, a reseller of T-Mobile cellphone service, offers a $60 “unlimited everything” plan that includes unlimited data. To no one’s surprise, there is a hard cap on the unlimited data according to Howard Forums and our tipster Eric. Naturally you can’t find that limit anywhere on their website, and if you exceed it you’re asked to pay $10 for an additional 100 MB of data.

I was suckered into a new mobile phone plan with a new company called Simple Mobile. They are a T-mobile MVNO (essentially a reseller) claiming to offer UNLIMITED talk, text, and data for $60/mo.

The reality is… Their $60 plan is NOT unlimited. When you hit 1000MB in one month your data service is simply terminated without warning.

They will offer to sell you an additional 100MB for $10. This policy is not stated anywhere on their website. If you call or write and complain, they will simply tell you to go elsewhere and will not provide any refund.

I can already imagine some readers will say “Too bad Eric, you were trying to game the system by overusing an unlimited plan when we all know there is no such thing.” But that’s what makes this annoying: we all know there’s no such thing, yet here is a carrier still advertising as much, which seems like a textbook example of false advertising.

Besides, readers here and on Howard Forums tend to know a little more about the details of cellular agreements. That doesn’t mean everyone does, and you shouldn’t have to possess hidden knowledge of how cellphone plans work when the point of fine print is to disclose everything before signing up.

The fine print on the bottom of the “Plans” page says that the plan can be terminated for “abusive conduct or abnormal call pattern(s),” but I couldn’t find any other fine print that defines abusive or abnormal behavior as “heavy data usage,” nor could I find mention of a maximum usage cap of 1000 MB or any other amount.

Here’s what I found on the Terms & Conditions page (emphasis mine):

8. Charges and Call Details. You may review your call and charge details on our website at http://www.mysimplemobile.com/myaccount. Domestic and Puerto Rico data usage is billed in full-kilobyte increments and is rounded up to the next full-kilobyte increment at the end of each data session. If you are on a metered data plan, and exceed your data limit, you may purchase an additional data plan to resume data usage. [This is what happened to Eric, although he was not on a metered plan. -Ed.] We do not guarantee that you will not receive spam or other unsolicited messages, and you agree that we are not liable for such messages.

[…]

15. Misuse of Service or Device. You agree not to misuse the Service or any Device, including: (a) reselling or rebilling our Service; (b) using the Service or Device to engage in unlawful activity, or engaging in conduct that adversely affects our customers, employees, business, or any other person(s), or that interferes with our operations, network, reputation, or ability to provide quality service; (c) tampering with or modifying your Device; (d) “spamming” or engaging in other abusive or unsolicited communications; (e) reselling Simple Mobile Devices for profit, or tampering with, reprogramming or altering Devices for the purpose of reselling the Device; or (f) assisting or facilitating anyone else in any of the above activities. You agree that you won’t install, deploy, or use any regeneration equipment or similar mechanism (for example, a repeater) to originate, amplify, enhance, retransmit or regenerate a transmitted RF signal. You agree that a violation of this section harms Simple Mobile, which cannot be fully redressed by money damages, and that Simple Mobile shall be entitled to immediate injunctive relief in addition to all other remedies available.

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