If you grew up watching SpongeBob, you knew everyone’s favorite yellow character from Bikini Bottom didn’t want you to be a jerk at Christmas. Whelp, it looks like T-Mobile didn’t get the message since its sub-brand, Metro by T-Mobile, is being the jerkiest jerk of Jerktown with a new, absolutely ridiculous hidden fee you would’ve never guessed existed.
As spotted by Android Police, if you subscribe to Metro and insert your SIM card into another phone besides your main, you’ll be charged $15. $15! This goes for every time you switch phones which is absolutely absurd.
AP notes this fee did exist before, but it’s been avoidable in the past. In fact, you used to be able to contact Metro support and get the fee waived. Another way to dodge the charge was to enter your second phone’s ESN into the carrier’s website before inserting your SIM. Now, though, both of those conditions are gone and, as of this week, there’s no way of avoiding the $15 charge.
Admittedly, there probably aren’t a lot of people subscribed to Metro that swap phones very often. But while I may not have a plan with them, I certainly won’t be signing up any time soon since part of my job is regularly swapping phones to test.
Of course, I’ll be contacting Metro to see what this is all about anyway and hopefully get a statement from them. Until they clear things up, though, it looks like T-Mobile managed to get its budget carrier on Santa Claus’ naughty list this year.
