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T-Mobile is the provider that sells Sidekick device or the deaf community since few years, it has been popular allows deaf people to communicate freely to anyone in the world with powerful tools such as AIM, E-Mail and other features.

Yep, the Sidekick is a great simple starter cell phone for anyone, not just for deaf people.

For past year and half, many people have complained that T-Mobile charged too much money for the device, the current price today is $349.99, with no discounts. If you are a current customer and would like to make upgrades, you are forced to pay the discount price of $249.99.

During the time we were selling Sidekick I and II, there were insane pricing wars. Go check the archives at some Yahoo Groups related to deafness. You’ll see past advertisment for “free” Sidekicks with Data Plan. At DeafNation Expo for the past two years, certain T-Mobile dealers were advertising “free” sidekick, with or without rebates.

I have news for customers that didn’t buy the Sidekick for “free” when they had a chance: Those days of “free” Sidekicks with data plan only are G-O-N-E! Those days of $49 Sidekicks with data plan are G-O-N-E! The lowest Sidekick price with data plan is $99. Ask around or do a little digging… the bargains are still there. Go to a DeafNation Expo or a major deaf expo. Chances are there will be a T-Mobile dealer selling Sidekicks at a low price.

So the current price of Sidekick is $349.99? B.S. Even T-Mobile doesn’t sell at $349.99 without a contract. On second though, I suspect that the insignator of this petition wasn’t being that upfront that the $349.99 is probably the price for buying a Sidekick II without a contract or credit history check, much like buying a prepaid cell phone.

80% deaf people cannot afford these cost, most of the people are on SSI or almost no money, we need make sure T-Mobile to offer reasonable and make it affordable for us.

If you can’t afford a cell phone, you have no business buying one. Period. Need a cell phone? There’s cheaper 2 way pagers on the market. Or buy a prepaid phone with SMS.

T-Mobile is not legally obligated to make it more “affordable”. T-Mobile has every right to set a price to recoup the investment for building a network infrastructure, paying for employees, paying for sales commission, covering fraud (LOTS OF FRAUD), and set aside money to upgrade the network to the next generation of wireless technology.

We need our strong actions to be heard, T-Mobile will need to listen our concerns not care about our needs, they want our money, we do not have jobs like hearing world has. We do not make a lot of money, deaf people do have hard time with jobs out there and T-Mobile just cant expect us to pay the full price. Mostly of deaf people have Sidekick under parents name because of credit.

Crab theory and I’m tired of it.

Many deaf people have bad credit and impossible to get sidekick. T-Mobile needs to develop a special program where deaf people can be able to purchase them with a discounted or a payment plan.

T-Mobile is not legally obligated to provide a layaway plan. Either save money, or buy a cheaper 2 way pagers, or a prepaid cellphone with SMS or do without.

If they have bad credit, there’s so many books in the library to help them fix it and manage their money better. There’s so many excellent financial blogs. You are responsible to educate yourself on financial savvy.

If you agree with this, you feel you should pay less and be able to get it without credit check or some solution, sign this petition and show the support and we will send your voice to T-Mobile and I will make sure that they will hear our concerns!