Last month, Metro by T-Mobile (formerly MetroPCS) started charging customers a $15 fee whenever they put their SIM card in a different phone. The fee has technically existed for years, but it wasn't enforced well — customer support or sales representatives often canceled the charge. Metro's new policy made the fee mandatory, and the $15 charge didn't even include taxes.

Following coverage by several news outlets, and complaints from angry Metro subscribers on Reddit and other sites, the carrier has now walked back on the fee. Here is the statement that Metro provided to Android Police today:

"All current Metro customers can now complete a device (IMEI) change free of charge by calling 611, *228 or 888-8metro8 and using our automated system."

It's still bizarre that Metro requires customers to provide their IEMI numbers after switching SIM cards, but that could be a legacy holdover from when the carrier used its own CDMA-based network. Still, it's nice to see at least one bogus carrier charge go away.