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- Trump Mobile has changed the pre-order deposit terms and conditions for the T1 Phone
- The new terms suggest that the phone might never actually ship
- It's the latest in a long line of embarrassments for a product that increasingly looks like vaporware
The Trump Mobile T1 Phone is the gift that just keeps on giving — well, as long as you haven’t paid a deposit for one. For everyone else, this is one of the most amusing and baffling ongoing stories in tech.
As of May, the T1 Phone — first announced back in June 2025 — still hasn’t shipped, and it has also missed its previous March shipping estimate. So, when will people actually receive it? Well, maybe never.
While roughly 590,000 would-be buyers have paid a $100 (around £75 /AU$140) deposit to secure the gold-colored T1, so far, no one appears to have received the handset, and changes to the product's terms and conditions cast further doubt over whether it will ever be shipped.
As spotted by International Business Times UK, an update to the T1's terms and conditions on April 6 specifies that paying a deposit “is not a purchase, does not constitute acceptance of an order, does not create a contract for sale, does not transfer ownership or title interest, does not allocate or reserve specific inventory, and does not guarantee that a device will be produced or made available for purchase.”
It also includes the telling addition that this payment “provides only a conditional opportunity if Trump Mobile later elects, in its sole discretion, to offer the device for sale.”
That caveat suggests the company might choose not to sell the T1 Phone at all, and with all mentions of a possible release date now scrubbed from the Trump Mobile website, too, we probably won’t see this phone anytime soon anyway.
Mounting frustration
Right now, prospective buyers are understandably unhappy. In fact, some have been for a long time, with Joseph Cox of 404 Media, for example, describing the pre-order process as “'the worst experience I've ever faced buying a consumer electronic product.”
But as the wait goes on, ever more people are understandably getting frustrated; penguinz0 recently posted a lengthy YouTube video about his frustrations.
If you’re among those that have paid a deposit, you can in theory at least contact Trump Mobile to request a refund — something you should strongly consider doing, especially as the updated terms also state that “device specifications, features, software, hardware components, storage capacities, bundled accessories, colors, and configurations are subject to change prior to final sale,” so you might not even be buying the phone you put a deposit down for.
And even getting a refund might not be easy — while the terms and conditions say you can request one, there are unverified reports of people receiving emails saying the deposit is non-refundable. Who could've seen this coming?
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