T-Mobile Passing on Selling Galaxy Fold Refresh

[HarryNyquist]

Source: https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/07/25/galaxy-fold-t-mobile-re-launch/

Quote

T-Mobile PR issued a statement to The Verge containing a pretty dubious explanation as to why you won't be able to pick up a Galaxy Fold in any of its stores:

 

"T-Mobile will not carry the Galaxy Fold because we already offer customers a wide range of the latest smartphones. Please reach out to Samsung for any further inquiries."

 

Already selling "a wide range of the latest smartphones" is a nonsensical reason not to offer a buzzy new product from one of the biggest players in the industry; it seems more likely T-Mobile doesn't want to deal with the potential headaches that a recall might cause.

There's no indication that T-Mobile won't support it, only that they won't sell it. $2000 for a phone is quite a bit, and I wonder if the potential returns fiasco would hit their bottom line too hard if it fails again.

 

I also have to wonder if any other carriers will refuse the option to sell the Fold at launch for the same reason. All speculation, of course; considering most carriers don't give a second thought to carrying yet another phone, T-Mobile's response is quite... well, weird.

[IronSoldier]

Sounds like a fair plan to avoid having to deal with the no doubt high return rate or numerous customers who will come in just to see it. 

[Nowak]

Fair. This thing's still gonna be a disaster.

[D13H4RD]

Probably guessing T-Mobile doesn't want to carry it for other reasons.

[rcmaehl]

Because T-Mobile would be dealing with the damage through Assurant and with it's failure rate, I'm sure they don't want people only $20(?)/month in insurance to cost them hundreds.

[The King of the Undead]

excuse me well I fail to be surprised. but it helped to learn this^

[Froody129]

Fair enough, it's a lot of risk for a low-volume product with an already- damaged reputation. One downside would be that the people willing to pay this much for a phone would likely also be willing to change to another provider to get it. Still a small loss though