2 Year Contract up but NOT allowing iPhone upgrade for another 4 months?!

iphone_chick · ‎10-06-2011

My friend has the iPhone 3G. This phone BARELY is supported anymore. He didn't get the 4G because of the initial problems with it. Now the 4GS is out and he wants to upgrade. He checks his upgrade elegibility and they tell him he's not eligible for an upgrade until FEBRUARY! His two year contract is up. He can leave AT&T at any time but has been a customer forever (since WELL before the iPhone was ever thought of).

He called customer service to get to the bottom of it. He has made late payments in the past but his bill has been current for some time now. While he was on the phone he set up auto-pay so he wouldn't have to worry about forgetting. They explained that when you make late payments, your upgrade eligibility gets pushed further and further out. HOW can your upgrade eligibility get pushed WELL past your contract end date? No one could really explain that to him. They kept pushing him up the chain but no one could explain. At first, they said it was Apple that made that requirement. They said he could get any phone BUT the iPhone. They then basically said that it was AT&T's doing and they couldn't override the system. They didn't want to lose him as a customer but the COMPUTER wouldn't allow the override.

So you mean to tell me my friend is no longer under contract with AT&T but he has to be stuck with an old iPhone for FOUR months? Or he can just end his business with AT&T and make the switch to Verizon or Sprint. At the very least they should offer him a NEW contract with them. They'll treat someone who walks in off the street better than a long time customer. It's a shame.

It makes me question whether I should continue MY service with AT&T. I'm eligible for an upgrade but may just go back to Verizon. At least I'll be able to be on the phone without dropping my calls!

drumn_bass · ‎08-27-2008

Well this usually happens when someone not only paying their bill late but late to the point when line gets suspended and it has to happen 4 or more times in 12 months. That is correct, AT&T can not discount an other phone until your friend can prove he will pay his bills, which is, sound like, in about 4 months.

"It makes me question whether I should continue MY service with AT&T."

Why?

I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent AT&T’s positions, strategies or opinions.

iphone_chick · ‎10-06-2011

I agree that he was wrong in paying his bill late BUT that's something they should let you know. Especially once your contract is up for almost a year, you should be notified when they want you to re-up. I think companies should be clear with their contracts with their customers. When my friend called, the customer service reps weren't totally clear on what the issue was. They just knew it was in their system and they couldn't fix it. They were trying to blame Apple. If AT&T is not knowlegeable about why a policy is in place, how do they fully expect their customers to just blindly accept it?

As far as my relationship with AT&T, my main concern is the service. However, I don't like it when I feel that others are getting screwed. This thread wouldn't exist if people didn't have issues with AT&T's policies regarding upgrades. How do I know that I won't find myself in that same situation in the future? There are other options available to iPhone customers now. AT&T isn't the only carrier anymore. Maybe people leaving in droves will help them focus on these very real customer service issues.

21stNow · ‎07-07-2010

It has been said before, but I'll say it again. You can check other carriers' forums and see the same complaints that you see here. Look for these thread titles:

"Carrier" sucks

Bad Customer service on "Carrier"

I hate "Carrier"

Customer Loyalty Means Nothing to "Carrier"

I guarantee that you will find these thread titles and/or posts on all four of the national post-paid carriers' forums.

AT&T is one of the nicest carriers when it comes to late payments. AT&T holds out a little longer than some others before suspending service. If service is suspended, I think that their reconnect fee is lower than some others. But, the customer has the option to avoid all of this by paying his bill by the due date. If the bill is paid late, an upgrade date is probably not the customer's biggest problem.

iphone_chick · ‎10-06-2011

One of the reps on here has forwarded my friend's issue to someone in the company. She says he should be able to upgrade since his contract is up. We'll see what happens. I'm just glad someone is willing to look into this instead of just pawning him off on a P.O. Box. Thank you!

cgarre · ‎07-13-2010

I was up my contract for 3 years, still i wasnt able to get an upgrade, reason a botched upgrade last year (iphone 4, which i returned to apple in 10 days .. and i told att ... just that att forgot to put that in system .. ) . So i was in a phantom contract ... without a phone that i could have bought And they say its too late they cannot do anything to reverse it .. They cannot give me an iphone ... so i took samsung galaxy s2, thank god atleast i was able to get something else, otherwise it is sad that i was in contract for my phone from dec 2006 - very sad.

The problem is that we just have 4 monopolistic carriers, i think carriers should focus on service and should not be in the business of phone devices. Also there should be NO contracts !.

dww0311 · ‎10-07-2011

iphone_chick wrote:
I agree that he was wrong in paying his bill late BUT that's something they should let you know. Especially once your contract is up for almost a year, you should be notified when they want you to re-up. I think companies should be clear with their contracts with their customers. When my friend called, the customer service reps weren't totally clear on what the issue was. They just knew it was in their system and they couldn't fix it. They were trying to blame Apple. If AT&T is not knowlegeable about why a policy is in place, how do they fully expect their customers to just blindly accept it?

As far as my relationship with AT&T, my main concern is the service. However, I don't like it when I feel that others are getting screwed. This thread wouldn't exist if people didn't have issues with AT&T's policies regarding upgrades. How do I know that I won't find myself in that same situation in the future? There are other options available to iPhone customers now. AT&T isn't the only carrier anymore. Maybe people leaving in droves will help them focus on these very real customer service issues.

Look at it ths way - AT&T (or indeed any carrier) allowing you to upgrade represents an extension of credit. If he's preented late pays, then he's a credit risk, and they're going to deny him credit by not giving him a discounted price.

This is in the terms of service that each customer receives.

hnzw_rui · ‎09-07-2011

cgarre wrote:
The problem is that we just have 4 monopolistic carriers, i think carriers should focus on service and should not be in the business of phone devices. Also there should be NO contracts !.

Good luck getting that to fly in the US. Without long-term contracts, that $200 iPhone would cost $650. While I actually don't mind paying upfront for phones as long as we get better pricing on services, instant gratification is alive and well and most people much prefer paying a lower upfront for the device with a higher monthly.

leftspin · ‎09-17-2012

This just happened to me, but since my contract already ended they were able to waive the penalty. Further, they even set it up so that I could walk into a local AT&T store and pick one up on launch day. Funny thing is, the customer support rep on the line blamed the policy on Apple (i.e., she said it was Apple's policy to push back upgrade dates on on-payment, not theirs). Whatever. Regardless, she did a great job on my case so no complaints.

ShaunMN · ‎03-03-2011

I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to post your comments and opinions related to this topic. This topic has been thoroughly discussed and will now be closed, as it is very old.

Remember to always mark items that you find useful as "Accepted Solutions”, you can even mark multipleposts in a single thread. This will help other users find this information too!!