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NJengineer's profile

Contributor

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3 Messages

Monday, March 19th, 2018 6:13 PM

Blacklist policy may create a safety risk

My sister,  chronically ill, on my family plan, and residing in another state, had a friend notify me that her phone was lost during her trip from a medical clinic. I suspended her service then waited a few hours to file a claim for a replacement. The replacement phone was promptly shipped via FedEx. After it shipped, I am notified that the lost phone was recovered so the insurance company was promptly notified. No problem, I was told. Please use the return label provided in the shipping box and return the replacement. What was NOT conveyed: the return phone would be shipped by snail mail, not the prompt FedEx, so the phone number is blacklisted until the replacement is received. I spent days of calling and hours on hold with the Lost/stolen phone department to get the phone un-blacklisted! Hoping it will be resolved by tomorrow due to the serious surrounding  circumstances.   

 

Be aware that filing a claim on a lost phone may endanger the safety of your loved one if the phone is recovered before the claim is officially closed due to the shipping and handling time. There doesn't appear to be any provisions to expedite the reverse the blacklisting procedure, even for disabled consumers. If you use their shipping label, have a Plan B at the ready in the meantime.

ACE - Expert

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64.7K Messages

6 years ago

The phone number is not blacklisted, the lost phone is. Getting it off the blacklist does not do any good until you physically have the phone in your possession anyway. If it is in the mail, what does it matter if it is still blacklisted? As for the phone line, you could be using it on another phone, you just need to contact customer to provide the imei of the different phone. As long as ATT has the imei of the blacklisted phone on that line, the sim card won't work in any phone but as soon as the line is updated with an imei of a "clean" phone, the line will work again.

Contributor

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3 Messages

6 years ago

The phone was recovered and in my sister's possession.

ACE - Expert

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64.7K Messages

6 years ago

Ok, my misunderstanding. So the issue is the insurance folks not removing the lost phone from the blacklist until they receive the replacement phone, yes? That is not right. They should remove the lost phone from the blacklist immediately. If the replacement phone does not show up, they can always bill you, in fact I am sure they would bill you. Keeping the found phone on the blacklist makes no sense. Have you contacted the insurance? 

Contributor

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3 Messages

6 years ago

Yes, thanks for asking. I contacted the insurance company more than once. That's why I posted the warning. The process time has been excruciating. I will post the start to finish timeline once I get the text notice that the blacklisting has been lifted.  

To add to the frustration, the myATT app would show the phone as ACTIVATED, so I would assume the issue was solved, then it would bounce back to SUSPENDED. So she would call in the morning to say thank you, then a neighbor or friend would contact me later in the day (after customer service hours because of the time difference between us) to say sorry to bother you but it is blocked again. The app does not help with this kind of problem. There is no expected resolution date or time given. It does say to wait 24 hours before using the phone after it is unblocked, but it gives the impression the situation has been resolved when it in fact has not. I'm trying one more time to by-pass the automated tech help to get it resolved. 
***update***
This morning  (before noon) I received a text (as promised) that my request (to remove the phone from the blacklist) has been completed. The request tracking number was in the text but there were no other instructions other than to call the 800 if I needed help. I waited until 6pm to text my sister's caretaker to ask her to turn on the phone. I immediately got the call (again) to say the phone is still blocked. Then I went to the app; I was surprised to see the phone was marked SUSPENDED - STOLEN (which is not what I reported). I tried REACTIVATE from the app twice but I got server error messages.  So, I sent a message back to tell her to turn off the phone again and wait for instructions from me. I went to my account online, which showed the phone active and ready for an upgrade on the website. My hope is it will stay that way until 5:30 pm Pacific Time because I can't contact help from NJ after 7 PM EST. If I don't return to this post, it will be safe to assume the issue has been resolved, including the refund to my account for the replacement phone that she returned. Fingers crossed. 
Lastly, as point of reference, this was taken from the SUSPEND,  BLOCK , REACTIVATE menu from the website:

 

You can suspend any device on your account. Reactivation is easy. Remember, you’ll still pay monthly charges for your plan while it’s suspended.

 
Want more info before you suspend or reactivate?
Reason Choose this option if:
LostYou can't find your device, but there's a chance you'll find it. Suspend it until you find it or get a new one.
StolenYou know your device is stolen. If you suspend it, you can then choose to block it from the network. That way, no one can use it.
Another reasonYou have other reasons. This could be travel abroad or a military deployment.
Reactivate deviceYou find a lost device or are ready to use one that's suspended.
 
For the record: I never reported my device stolen. I reported it lost. Filing the claim may have started this blacklist insanity, but when did I request or authorize that? No where on the website could I find mention of the blacklisting process or what to do to reverse it if the phone ends up there inadvertantly. Perhaps that's all in the fine print in the protection service they are selling? It would be nice someone from att looked into this. 
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