ATT Torture - Cannot Upgrade - Over 7 hours of Misery

On your order form?  I assume they are not shipped?

With a 2 year plan, the phones are free.  Not until day 4 and Rep 21 was I informed of the $40 per line fee.

I have 3 out of 5 on my kitchen table.  I am returning them.  I cancel the data plan, and am going to buy new dumb phones and switch to sprint.

Each of your phones has a line fee now, of course they have a line fee.

Did you look at the ATT plan builder?  

The Mobile Share Value Plan is ala'carte.    All carriers do it this way now.

data plan

line fee

phones

I buy all my phones off eBay for half what ATT sells them for, activate free and my line fee stays at $15 for each.

Return the phones, yes.  But the half price data plan, no.  Keep it and buy your smartphones online.

Sprint is cheaper because you get what you pay for.  Lousy coverage and 1 GBS of data each at LTE speed, the rest at a 2 G speed.  Since this is your first smartphone, typical use is 2 GBS a month.  My boys use 5-6.  You will need that big data plan and Sprint can't match it.

i have the same data plan, and 6 phones, 2 tablets.  Even with home wifi we use 15-20 GBS a month.

When returning the phones, they have to be shipped.  Record the tracking number and don't lose it!    

I almost bought a mint, electric blue S5 on eBay last night.  Sold for $265.   

Yeah, thanks.  The kids can stick to their dumbphones and take their laptops to the library.  We're rural so no internet at home or cable tv. 

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@TreatedAwful wrote:

You do not have it right.  The data plan is $130/mon. Phones were free with a 2 year contract

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The $130 is only for the data. In addition to that, each line on the plan pays an access fee of $40 which is discounted by $25 for each line that is not on a contract. By buying the 2 year contract phones, you don't get the $25 discount until the contract is completed. As @lizdance40 has been trying to tell you, by getting the 2 year contract "free" phone, you are actually paying $600 for each phone. 

If you are rural, Sprint probably doesn't cover you anyway.  Sprint and T-mobile are mostly city coverage.

If you don't have home internet, even 30 GBS, shared, in the hands of kids or (gulp) teenagers won't last long at all.

I think sticking with the dumb phones is a good idea.  It's a slippery slope to a huge bill otherwise.

When the kids are older they can get a GoPhone plan of their own with unlimited, but throttled data.  (And off your bill)

Sorry you feel you didn't get the straight story.  This plan has been out for 2 years.  And most people have been using smartphones for 5-8 years.  

You are kind of the hold outs.

FYI.  The dumb phones att sells on the web site are limited.  Most are messaging phones with screens and still cost a couple hundred dollars.  They are over priced.

My dad got a ZTE z222 from Amazon for $20.   His last one lasted 6 years.