Man drops his phone in the lake. Then he tries to transfer his Mint Mobile number to a new device—but it requires text verification

A broken phone should be a one-day errand. For creator Jon Dawson (@thejondawson), it became a three-month standoff with a budget wireless carrier he now treats as a personal antagonist. “Mint Mobile has held my business phone number hostage for the last three months,” he says in a video aimed squarely at the company. He calls it, flatly, “the worst company I've ever dealt with in my entire life.”

As of this writing, Dawson's post has more than 372,000 views.

What's the context?

Mint Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator — an online-only brand with no retail stores that leases access to T-Mobile's network and sells plans starting at $15 a month. Ryan Reynolds famously owned a roughly 25% stake and became its grinning pitchman. When T-Mobile bought Mint's parent company for up to $1.35 billion in a deal that closed in 2024, Reynolds reportedly cleared about $300 million and kept the spokesman job. Dawson got a verification loop.

Lost in the loop

“I broke my phone, dropped it in a lake,” Dawson admits. Moving his number to a new device required a text verification he couldn't receive on a dead phone. Customer service, Dawson claims, sent emails that never arrived, then a call-back quiz asking which ZIP code he'd once used Wi-Fi roaming in. He failed. The reward was a 30-day account suspension.

Three months and 11 attempts later, Dawson says he bought a T-Mobile plan and a new number just to function while still paying Mint for a line he can't use and can't quit. “You need a text verification to cancel your Mint account,” he notes. His closing shot flubs the name but not the venom: “Ryan Gosling or whoever it is that runs this company, you are garbage by association.” (He meant Reynolds, of course.)

@thejondawson @Mint Mobile #storytime ♬ original sound – Jondawson

The peanut gallery

Commenters echoed Dawson's experience.

“This is literally my job. File an FCC complaint,” said one commenter. “The BBB doesn't care. The FCC will apply pressure. They will be required to follow up with you.”

Many people noted the funny actor swap. “Ryan Gosling catching strays like ‘WTF did I do?'” joked one person.

Some people were immediately turned off by the brand. “I was considering getting Mint Mobile, but I certainly won't now,” said one disappointed individual.

Held hostage

Dawson isn't alone in feeling trapped by a carrier's own defenses. One T-Mobile subscriber told Reddit the company's “‘Port-Out Protection' is broken and cannot be removed from some accounts,” stranding numbers they hoped to move. Mint customers, meanwhile, have flooded the same platform with service complaints.

Buzz News reached out to Dawson via TikTok message and comment, and to Mint Mobile via email.