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1. Embed this notice
   Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 14-Mar-2026 22:26:56 JST Rich Felker

   Uhg, FFS Mint.

   I just got an email from Mint Mobile (my carrier) pestering me to setup a "Mint Family".

   The whole reason I'm on Mint is to get an affordable price *without* the bullshit of "family plans".

   A "family plan" is a tool of abuse, a way to spy on partners and children, hold threat of loss of access to one's own phone number (which, with SMS auth, is the backdoor to nearly everything) over them, to make it hard to leave and so leaving requires cooperation of the person you're leaving.

   "Family plans" should be fucking illegal.

   • Embed this notice
     Esparta :ruby: (esparta@ruby.social)'s status on Sunday, 15-Mar-2026 00:29:22 JST Esparta :ruby:

     in reply to

     @dalias I agree, Family plans are a damn evil scheme disguised with "care", and "convenience" and sometimes, but not always, with a _better price_. Additionally to the provider-lock, they profit exploiting your metadata even more, eg: the carrier can cross-reference date/location/buildings/events, that's called "activations", it's highly appreciate ($$) in multiple industries, even more if at family aggregation

     I left Mint as soon as my plan ended right after Reynolds sold-back to T-Mobile.

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 15-Mar-2026 03:18:07 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     @esparta Where did you go leaving Mint? I probably won't, being that I especially wanted band 71 service, but it'd be good to know in case I ever need to.

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 15-Mar-2026 05:21:21 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • Eric Brombaugh

     @emeb Yep. Exactly the same thing that happened with Cricket and AT&T. The MVNO business model fundamentally *shouldn't* work, so this should be no surprise. The only reason it does, kinda, work is that the main carrier brands don't want to be in the business of selling service, because it's a low-margin activity. They want to be in the business of *selling debt*, which is extremely lucrative, and that's what 10x-overpriced postpaid service hiding that it's really an exorbitant loan for the "free" $1500 phone you got with it is about.

   • Embed this notice
     Eric Brombaugh (emeb@society.oftrolls.com)'s status on Sunday, 15-Mar-2026 05:21:24 JST Eric Brombaugh

     in reply to

     @dalias Yep - I got that too. Guessing that ever since Mint was acquired by T Mobile we'll be seeing a gradual decline in adherence to the orginal values that set them apart.