Just a couple of days after announcing plans to close stores at indoor malls to fight the spread of coronavirus, T-Mobile now says that it’s expanding the scope of store closures.
Starting tomorrow, March 17th, T-Mobile will close around 80% of its company-owned retail stores. These locations will remain closed until at least March 31st.
The remaining 20% of stores will be distributed throughout the county. T-Mo says that its designed this plan so that most customers should be within a 30-minute drive to a store if they need one. The stores that remain open will have reduced schedules, staying open from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm local time.
You can visit T-Mobile’s website to find a store near you that’s open.
Only employees who are willing to come in and work at a store will do so. No employee will be required to work in one of the stores that remain open.
T-Mobile also says that it’s rolling out a plan for hourly retail employees to maintain their target income during these initial store closures.
At its customer care facilities, T-Mobile is working to reduce staffing levels and increase distance between work stations to create more space. Additionally, T-Mo’s customer care employees will continue being paid if they need to stay home because they’re experiencing symptoms, are high risk, or if they’ve had contact with someone who contracted coronavirus.
T-Mobile also announced today that it’ll be donating to some foundations:
- T-Mo wil donate a minimum of $300,000 and up to $500,00 to Feeding America. On Tuesday, March 17th, T-Mobile will give $1 per click on the Feeding America card in the T-Mobile Tuesdays apps. You can find the Android app here and the iPhone app here.
- The T-Mobile Foundation is donating $100,000 to the COVID-19 Response Fund, which is hosted by the Seattle Foundation and is meant to deploy resources to community-based organizations in the Seattle and Puget Sound areas.
- Additionally, the T-Mobile Foundation is offering a 2:1 match for employees who donate to Feeding America or the CDC Foundation.
Finally, T-Mobile has responded to some social media posts that are going around. T-Mo says that it does not have an offer for 60 days of free service and that customers should be cautious of social media posts that might have fraudulent phone numbers.
Sources: T-Mobile (1), (2)