T-Mobile is giving away free T-Mobile stock shares and weekly gifts such as a free Domino’s pizza and a free Vudu movie to subscribers as part of a loyalty program that also includes such weekly grand prizes as trips to Las Vegas and the Inca Trail.
Unlike other carriers’ loyalty programs, president/CEO John Legere said T-Mobile’s program isn’t “a scam to sell more crap.” “Loyalty programs are trickery,” he said, noting that 90 percent of comments about loyalty programs in social media are negative and that 58 percent of people don’t use the programs they’ve signed up for. The T-Mobile programs are “100 percent about thanking our customers,” he claimed.
Under the stock-share program, called Stock Up, primary account holders of postpaid consumer accounts get one free stock, currently worth about $42, if they apply in the next two weeks. They also get the option to earn up to 100 shares per year by recommending friends to sign up. Many subscribers will get one share for each friend who activates service. Subscribers who have been on the T-Mobile network for five or more years get two shares per referral.
“No publicly traded company has ever done this before,” Legere said of the stock-share program.
T-Mobile Tuesdays: Under the separate T-Mobile Tuesdays program, the carrier provides free gifts every week to the primary account holders of prepaid and postpaid consumer and business accounts. Subscribers redeem the gifts via a T-Mobile app for Android and Apple phones.
The programs do not apply to subscribers of MetroPCS, T-Mobile’s prepaid subsidiary.
Gifts available on T-Mobile Tuesdays consist of a free Domino’s pizza, a Wendy’s Frosty dairy dessert and a Vudu movie every week, though the selection will change from time to time.
On top of that, the carrier each week will add a surprise gift such as free movie tickets, free gift cards, free subscriptions, free ride-sharing and the like from such companies as American Giant, Buffalo Wild Wings, Condé Nast, Fanatics, Fandango, Gilt, HotelTonight, JackThreads, Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures, Lyft, Major League Baseball, MGM Resorts International, Samsung Electronics America, Inc., Shell, StubHub, The Clymb, The Grommet and Warner Bros.
Tomorrow’s surprise gift is a free ticket from Fandango to the opening weekend of this summer’s “Warcraft” movie.
Also every Tuesday, every account holder will be able to play a game on their phone to win a grand prize, the first of which is a trip on a party bus to a private screening of Warcraft along with 40 friends with free access to the movie theater’s concession stand. Other grand prizes will include a trip for two to Las Vegas, the Inca Trail, and trip to MLB All-Star week in San Diego will also be available.
More stuff: Also for subscribers, T-Mobile is expanding its free in-flight texting via Gogo on domestic flights to include free in-flight messaging on iMessage, Google Hangouts, WhatsApp and Viber for the duration of the flight. Subscribers will also get one free hour of smartphone Wi-Fi on the flights.
Legere pledged that the carrier wouldn’t share subscriber data with its partners.
