C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The T-Mobile Shell Tuesdays discount has suddenly dropped to just ten cents a gallon, or half of what it used to be.
- There was no warning of the change, though it’s likely to be permanent (or at least for the next few months).
- Many customers are deeply upset about the continued decline of the Tmo Tuesday program, and this latest change didn’t help any.
T-Mobile used to be the cool carrier, breaking industry norms and offering exciting extras like streaming perks and even free gadgets, gear, discounts, and more through its T-Mobile Tuesday program. In recent years the program has been scaled back significantly, offering fewer perks and even cutting down the number of stores that carry some of its physical freebies. Now they’ve gone and messed with Shell Tuesdays as well!
With the new year, we missed the excitement on Reddit over the increase yesterday, though Phone Arena eventually shined a light on the change. In short, the Shell fuel discount that was previously $.20 on Tuesdays has been cut down to just $.10 a gallon without any warning. That’s not much in savings, with even larger vehicles likely only seeing around $1 or so back from the effort.
Do you still consider T-Mobile Tuesday a legit customer benefit?
3 votes
To be fair there are plenty of other programs offered by grocery stores, gas stations, and the like that can bring similar savings if you look around, but we’d argue that’s not the point. We’d say the bigger issue here, and the real reason many are up in arms, is that T-Mobile constantly is taking away staples from its customer base or making wonky changes that limit customers (such as the Hulu perk no longer allowing for upgrades) while constantly shifting its pricing structure further upward.
At the end of the day, Shell Tuesday dropping to ten cents isn’t likely enough to cause anyone to drop the carrier or anything drastic, but it does signal that T-Mobile continues to march away from the Uncarrier vision it used to win over new customers. If we are being honest, the new approach is no better or worse than any other player in the market but it’s still such a large shift that it’s hard not to feel a little duped. At least for now, T-Mobile still has some strong advantages like shorter repayment periods and typically cheaper pricing. Whether that continues to be the case in the years to come? We’ll just have to see.
