Good news, T-Mobile fanboys and girls!  T-Mobile will no longer be charging customers its customary $18 ‘Handset Upgrade Fee’ when they want to buy a new mobile device (but apparently it won’t be refunding any recent customer upgrade fees).

It’s about effing time that one of the major mobile companies realizes that the best way to retain customers is to not treat us like crap! For as long as I can remember, cell carriers (and other types of service providers, like Comcast) have gone out of their respective ways to generate new business.  However, once you get “locked in,” companies essentially ignore their existing customers and instead focus all the majority of their public/customer relations on potential new clients.

As competition increases and customer choices continue to expand, it is in all the mobile carriers’ best interests to turn (at least a good part of) their attention to keeping current customers happy.  And really, why wouldn’t they want to promote more regular hardware upgrades? $18 might not be the end of the world, but it definitely stops a huge number of people from buying the latest and greatest mobile toy device.  Even if handset sales make up a minority of a company’s profits, keeping one’s customers content and satisfied is invaluable (and profitable in the long run).

[via TmoNews and Phonescoop]