Looks like I am another victim of the AT&T BOGO SCAM Fraud

You've touched on two things here that I didn't fully grasp from your earlier posts.

First, that you were looking for the exact date of my purchase.  To answer that question more precisely, I purchased on December 20, 2016.  I am pretty sure I mentioned that month, and the requirements of my bogo at least a couple of times - which should narrow down precisely which bogo I was talking about.  The requirements - as I understood them - were:

add a new line - did that

buy one new iPhone 7 or 7 plus - did that

have DirecTV - did that

sign on for the replacement plan thing - did that

get second iPhone 7 of lesser value for free - not so much

Just to complete the beginning of my story again - the initial issue was that for some reason AT&T showed my new line and phone being purchased later than the first phone (which would have disqualified me from the bogo).  Probably 90% of my conversations with AT&T customer care/intensive care have revolved around that issue.  After showing my receipt repeatedly in different ways - that proves I purchased both phones on 12/20/16 I was repeatedly told that the credit would show up on my next bill.  At no point did any of them accuse me of not reading the deal, or tell me that the sales rep had given me bad information - which is about 90% of the responses I saw on this forum.

The second thing is - it never occurred to me that I would get any kind of real help from anyone on this forum.  I never intended to provide any of my proof of purchase details on this public forum.  I did not start this thread, but I replied as more of a "me too." I have already written off AT&T, and am not looking for any suggestions from self-proclaimed cellphone geeks.  I started writing back because of the condescending "help" from some of the contributors suggesting that the people that were tricked into paying full price for a phone they didn't really want did so because they did not read the deal carefully.  Then some following that up with "the bogo works EVERY time" which I know for a fact is false.  So I felt compelled to reply, repeatedly, to help preserve the validity of the complaints in the face of what seemed like AT&T fans trying to discredit all the complainers as illiterate fools.  I did not take the quotes about details of bogo offers seriously, because in one of my many phone conversations with AT&T one of the intensive care reps told me that the details of my bogo offer were no longer publicly available and could not be provided to me.  So my assumption is that if they aren't publicly available, non-employees on this forum would not be able to get them.  Also, the details of the bogo have never been a factor in my dealings with AT&T customer care. All of them immediately knew which deal, and what the qualifications were. The only reason I asked that phone rep about it was when they invented a new reason (service interruption) to not honor the bogo - after almost a year of back and forth.  Since I've gone this far in the story, the latest interaction ended with me getting a partial credit of about $150.  They said it was partial because of a service interruption - which I mentioned in one of my earlier posts.  The AT&T reps could not tell me why there was a service interruption, but it lasted for approximately 1 hour back in 2017.  At no point did I cancel my AT&T service for 1 hour.  AT&T said they didn't know why else it would be in there, but they were only giving me credit up through the date of the interruption.  Since I cannot prove that there was no service interruption, I have no way to refute this.  That is when I mentally gave up on AT&T.  However, I'm sure if I try to terminate my service before the end of the 30 month period they will charge me for the full cost of the second phone along with whatever other penalties they hid in the fine print of the deal I signed.

So, to sum up, it's not that I was refusing to answer your questions - I just didn't see any real value in the responses. Mostly just accusations that I and others merely invented our issues with AT&T because we didn't read the poster in the store, and/or the sales people are well known to be thieves and con-artists. What did you hope to accomplish by knowing the exact date of my purchase?  Based on the tone of the other responses from "experts," my impression was that your intent was not to help us solve our problem, but to try to be the one to prove that my problem was a failure of due diligence, and that AT&T is blameless because of a previously secret detail that even the other intensive care reps couldn't find.

@BogoVictim37

Thank you....  your receipt is key.  I would say based on the information you now provided, no one knows how to fix it.   Wish I were surprised.  

The easiest outside way of getting lump sum credit, is to file a complaint with the BBB or FCC. That will get you a direct contact from someone high enough up the chain to actually be able to do something.   Please include the information you just provided which is clear and obviously contradicts your printed receipts.  

       Critical....

(Just to complete the beginning of my story again - the initial issue was that for some reason AT&T showed my new line and phone being purchased later than the first phone (which would have disqualified me from the bogo).  Probably 90% of my conversations with AT&T customer care/intensive care have revolved around that issue.  After showing my receipt repeatedly in different ways - that proves I purchased both phones on 12/20/16 I was repeatedly told that the credit would show up on my next bill.  At no point did any of them accuse me of not reading the deal, or tell me that the sales rep had given me bad information - which is about 90% of the responses I saw on this forum.“

   I can pass on your post,  but honestly, working from inside ATT drags is butt.  While it’s worked, it’s often taken 2 months to get resolved.  It’s been too long already.  

I've been scammed, too!!!  We went to the store to make sure everything was done right. The clerk told us we were eligible for the BOGO, so we upgraded to iphone 8plus. He said after three months if we paid our bill on time, we would see a credit on our bill. Five months go by and no credit. I call the company and they said I was not eligible for anything they could find, so no refund and nothing they could do.  Apparently, they run these specials with no accountability to the people they serve, and we're left on the hook for the misinformation of their sales clerks and independent offices. ATT needs to do a much better job at training their store owners to represent their product honestly and openly.   [Edited to comply with Guidelines]

---

@Suzie76 wrote:

Apparently, they run these specials with no accountability to the people they serve, and we're left on the hook for the misinformation of their sales clerks and independent offices.

It sounds like it was NOT a special when you purchased. They were NOT running a special at the time.

ATT needs to do a much better job at training their store owners to represent their product honestly and openly.  

That would be great (obviously).

And the public should be better trained at reading the actual offer and NOT just walking out of a store with ZERO paperwork that supports the supposedly "free" phone.

Which one of these sounds like it'd be easier to do?

This has happened to me as well. My son had a Track phone, the ones you buy minutes as you go that you buy in the plastic packs at Walmart. You know no contract, cheap phone. The ones you get for your 15 year old to be sure he is responsible enough to have a "real" phone. Well, he did great we decided it was time to get him on my plan. We walked into a AT&T store to see about getting him a new phone added to my contract. They sold me on the BOGO promotion! Since you are adding a new I phone activation to your plan you get a free I phone if you sign up with Direct TV! Sounds great. Signed up in store for the new phone, received my "free" upgraded phone and got Direct TV! Mind you the guy even called Track phone to release the phone number so my son could keep the same number. After months I was still being charged a monthly charge for the "free" phone. I called AT&T multiple times to resolve the charges. After many promises to see the correction on my bill in 48-72 hours, still nothing. Now 16 months later, I am still being charged and the case I had to file is still "being solved". I have contacted the store who says, "I don't have an AT&T contract!" So, what exactly do I have? THey say I have 2 phones I have to pay in full before I can cancel my services. They also claim they can't find me in the Direct TV account yet they receive my auto payment every month. I called the 800 number they gave me which is answered by an AT&T representative and they gave me my original Direct TV account number that was given to me when I signed up 16 months ago. They also tell me the new converted account number since apparently AT&T took over Direct TV. Another call with AT&T I ask for a copy of my contract because who keeps those, right?! I was told the store has a copy of my contract. I called the sore I spent 2 1/2 hours in signing up with this promotion and they say they don't have any documents in the store. The store also looked up my sale and say the my sons Track phone used AT&T towers so it was an upgrade not a new activation! WHAT?! So I didn't qualify for the BOGO promotion that your sales representative signed me up for! WHAT A SCAM!!!! I have contacted Better Business Bureau and have discussed with an attorney how to file a small claims case. AT&T is STEALING from me!!!!! The amount of money they owe me for my "free" phone would pay off the phone I should be paying them for. It's too late for me to just stop paying because I've already paid so much. It would go to collections and hurt my credit. I would love to just cancel services and change providers! The worst part is I have had AT&T for 14 years...... who knows how long they have been scamming me not to mention the millions of other people that they are doing this to.

---

@123abcd123 wrote:

I have contacted the store who says, "I don't have an AT&T contract!" So, what exactly do I have? THey say I have 2 phones I have to pay in full before I can cancel my services.

You don't have a contract for your cell service. But you bought two phones that you (basically) took out a loan for, if you cancel your plan you owe for the loan (it's like canceling a MasterCard, you still owe if you didn't pay off the loan yet).

The store also looked up my sale and say the my sons Track phone used AT&T towers so it was an upgrade not a new activation! WHAT?! So I didn't qualify for the BOGO promotion that your sales representative signed me up for! WHAT A SCAM!!!! I have contacted Better Business Bureau and have discussed with an attorney how to file a small claims case.

I'd point out to them that in the fine print of the offers usually say that it excludes some carriers, but does NOT list which carriers (anywhere as far as I can see).

@BogoVictim37 "They said it was partial because of a service interruption - which I mentioned in one of my earlier posts." So after all that, we finally get the answer for why you didn't get the BOGO, which is that your service was interrupted. It was probably a situation where the account was past due and suspended for an hour but then the payment went through so the suspension was lifted, and you didn't even know it. That's not a scam, it's in the terms and conditions of the BOGO agreement.