T-Mobile CEO John Legere has become a “rock star” of sorts ever since T-Mobile started its Uncarrier promotions last year. The Uncarrier deals are certainly enough to grab attention, but it’s his trash talking that has made him a popular personality on Twitter. Things like #spintlikehell and #neversettleforverizon create a lot of buzz, but eventually things boil over.
That’s exactly what happened earlier today when Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure lashed out at Legere on Twitter. Claure rattled off four consecutive tweets since he couldn’t keep it to 140 characters.
“I am so tired of your Uncarrier bulls**t when you are worse than the other two carriers together,” he wrote. “Your cheap misleading lease imitation is a joke. You trick people to believe that they have a 15 dollar iPhone lease payment when it’s not true. You tell them they can upgrade up to 3x, but you don’t tell them the price goes up to 27 dollars when they do. You say one thing, but behave completely different. It’s all a fake show. So its really #Tmobilelikehell.”
@JohnLegere I am so tired of your Uncarrier bullshit when you are worse than the other two carriers together. Your cheap misleading lease
— Marcelo Claure (@marceloclaure) July 2, 2015
Claure is referring to T-Mobile’s new JUMP! On Demand program, which gets you a 16 GB iPhone 6 for only $15 per month and the ability to upgrade up to three times a year. You also need to trade in a working phone to make it happen. The normal price is $27 (without a trade), and that’s what Claure is complaining will be the new price after three upgrades. It’s something that T-Mobile isn’t openly sharing with its customers.
John Legere has never held back in his comments regarding Sprint, or any of the other major carriers in the past, but what set Claure off today was Legere’s comments regarding Sprint’s new All-In plan that debuted two days ago.
Legere said in two different tweets last night, “”It may not be revolutionary…” – CORRECT! #Allin = @sprint reverting back to the old-school carrier way,” and “I give credit to @sprint for swinging the bat when they do – but #allin is a swing and a miss, guys!! #sprintlikehell.”
However, Legere wasn’t derogatory in either of those tweets. He’s said much worse things of Sprint on Twitter before.
Take it one step further, and Sprint is far from perfect. The company’s new All-In plan gives customers unlimited data, texts, and phone calls for $80, but there was a hidden clause stating that video streaming would be capped at only 600kbps. Claure and Sprint pulled the limits after customer frustration, but the new language is ambiguous at best, “we might have to manage the network in order to reduce congestion.”
Legere has yet to respond to Claure’s attack, but it’s likely to be as explosive as your local 4th of July fireworks show if he does.
