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lulabell79's profile

Tutor

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6 Messages

Friday, October 21st, 2016 4:14 AM

Canceling wireless service after 15 years of customer loyalty.

Canceling my wireless service after 15 years of customer loyalty....unless at&t can save me. The time has come that my husband is no longer letting me strong arm, dodge, or just plain ignore him on the matter of my phone bill being twice as much as his and my daughter's bill on Straight Talk. I tried adjusting my data pkgs to save money and get my service comparable to what they get for $45 per month and was never able to get my bill much under $70 per month and that didn't give me enough of a cushion on my data (I didn't feel like). So I finally threw my hands up and went to unlimited data, which I loved when using data, of course, but my husband has all but forced me to switch to Straight Talk with the completely legitimate argument that paying double the money for service I can get for less than half as much is a no-brainer, right? Right and wrong. I have a hard time making the commitment to the switch because I'm a very loyal person when it comes to matters of business and work and love and so forth, and I'm also the hopeless romantic who still thinks at&t may have one last offer for me in an effort to win me over and keep me on for another 15 years.... for instance, a courtesy wiping of my current balance of around $250 that my service was just suspended due to non-payment of this past due amount. ($40 of this is a reconnect fee from last month that was completely unfounded, having been suspended 2 days after my account became past due last month, which HAS NEVER happened before. So technically that $40 should've never been added to my bill) That puts us at around $210. Hypothetically if at&t could make that past due amount go away, or the biggest portion of it, and then put me in a talk, text and data plan that suits my needs for $60 or less per month, then I wouldn't hesitate to stay with at&t for another 15 years as long as you all continue to do right by me. So please contact me at your earliest convenience if you think there is something that can be done to keep me on as a customer and allow me to retain the security of being an at&t wireless customer of 15 years!

New Member

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25.7K Messages

7 years ago

Well, you just told this to other customers. If you want something done, actually contacting at&t would be the only way to get anything done.

Tutor

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6 Messages

7 years ago

My service was suspended for non payment due to my plans to switch, then a case of switchers remorse hit me so I reached out via the only communication I had available, my UVERSE Internet that I'm also a long term customer of, also a long term customer of directv... I mean I want to stay with them. I plan to call today and see what can be done. I also have a private message in process with a customer support specialist and am awaiting some possible solutions to my issue. Thanks for your input.

ACE - Expert

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14.1K Messages

7 years ago


@lulabell79 wrote:
Canceling my wireless service after 15 years of customer loyalty....unless at&t can save me. The time has come that my husband is no longer letting me strong arm, dodge, or just plain ignore him on the matter of my phone bill being twice as much as his and my daughter's bill on Straight Talk. I tried adjusting my data pkgs to save money and get my service comparable to what they get for $45 per month and was never able to get my bill much under $70 per month and that didn't give me enough of a cushion on my data (I didn't feel like). So I finally threw my hands up and went to unlimited data, which I loved when using data, of course, but my husband has all but forced me to switch to Straight Talk with the completely legitimate argument that paying double the money for service I can get for less than half as much is a no-brainer, right? Right and wrong. I have a hard time making the commitment to the switch because I'm a very loyal person when it comes to matters of business and work and love and so forth, and I'm also the hopeless romantic who still thinks at&t may have one last offer for me in an effort to win me over and keep me on for another 15 years.... for instance, a courtesy wiping of my current balance of around $250 that my service was just suspended due to non-payment of this past due amount. ($40 of this is a reconnect fee from last month that was completely unfounded, having been suspended 2 days after my account became past due last month, which HAS NEVER happened before. So technically that $40 should've never been added to my bill) That puts us at around $210. Hypothetically if at&t could make that past due amount go away, or the biggest portion of it, and then put me in a talk, text and data plan that suits my needs for $60 or less per month, then I wouldn't hesitate to stay with at&t for another 15 years as long as you all continue to do right by me. So please contact me at your earliest convenience if you think there is something that can be done to keep me on as a customer and allow me to retain the security of being an at&t wireless customer of 15 years!

People have mixed experiences with any provider, though the more limited covereage of prepaid providers often make the actual use of the phone worse and, in my experience at least, the customer service is almost non existant if you need it. That said, Straight Talk might be a better choice for your family. 

 

As for your bill, since I don't work for AT&T I can be blunt: AT&T doesn't want customers who do not pay their bills in a timely manner. Your service was suspended for non-payment last month (which is totally legitimate, if you didn't pay on time). It sounds like your service has again been suspended for non-payment. If you want to remain an AT&T customer, you need to pay your bill in full and have your service restored. Once that happens, you can see if you might be able to get some sort of special deal from AT&T; however, I wouldn't hold my breath, since, like I said, AT&T doesn't want customers who don't pay timely. 

 

 

Finally, your service must be active to port to another provider, so if you leave AT&T while your service is suspended, you will get new phone numbers. 

ACE - Sage

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116.6K Messages

7 years ago

I echo MicCheck.   ATT isn't going to lower your bill, they might not reinstate your wireless account.

If you are dead set on staying with ATT, why not switch to Cricket?  Cricket is AT&T prepaid, will use your current phone without unlocking.  It also has slightly larger data plans.

 

 

Tutor

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6 Messages

7 years ago

I've been a customer for 15 years. Obviously I pay my bill. Last month they suspended me 2 days after my bill was past due. This was a first for that in my entire term with them. As for this month, I let them suspend it intentionally because I planned to switch and paying at&t wasn't going to be my priority this week. They have ALWAYS gotten their money from me.

ACE - Expert

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14.1K Messages

7 years ago


@lulabell79 wrote:
I've been a customer for 15 years. Obviously I pay my bill. Last month they suspended me 2 days after my bill was past due. This was a first for that in my entire term with them. As for this month, I let them suspend it intentionally because I planned to switch and paying at&t wasn't going to be my priority this week. They have ALWAYS gotten their money from me.

Perhaps, but after you've stopped paying on time is not when you should be trying to ask for favors. 

ACE - Sage

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116.6K Messages

7 years ago

Definitely not the time to ask for favors.

 

 

Tutor

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6 Messages

7 years ago

This community seems to have no real knowledge of at&t and how they do business. They have always valued me as a customer and I haven't had a chance to speak with them yet but I guarantee you in an effort to keep me as their customer, they would be willing to make some adjustments to my past due bill and my monthly service plan price to better suit my my needs and my budget. So thanks for the feedback, but so far, only one has even been a reasonable response.

Teacher

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9 Messages

7 years ago

Well. Your request was kind of odd to start with. But I've been a customer for over 20 years and definitely leaving. This company has no interest in keeping long term customers regardless of the timeliness of their payments. If you are looking for some good information for someone in your position. The reason you are getting no positive feedback is because there is no one with a positive experience. Maybe you should consider than when making your decision. I pay more for the best service and am no longer getting mediocre service. For bad connections and nasty customer service I can get that for less than half of what I'm paying. I can't control the quality of service or the customer care. But I can take my business elsewhere because enough is enough.

Tutor

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6 Messages

7 years ago

You're correct that my post was odd to start with. I think it was a bit of a rant combined with a plea for someone to assure me that I should stay with at&t and back it up with some positive feedback from their own experiences, but like you said the outlook on that does appear to be quite dim. The common thing most want to spout off is PAY your bill on time or to heck with you and at&t will not even consider helping me out unless my bill is current and my service is restored. I've never been a habitual offender for service interruption!!! Years ago when my husband and I were newlyweds we had a few disconnects when money was tight. I have, however, been habitually late paying my bill, but only due to our pay periods and what works best for paying our monthly schedule of bills and we PAY a $5.00 late fee every month for the freedom to pay later than the due date; when it's more convenient for us. We changed our due date a few years back to be closer to our pay period, but it wasn't long after that at&t changed their billing dates which gave us a new statement date and due date and completely screwed that up for us, so we were right back where we started. It doesn't really matter when I pay, as long as I pay within the accepted time frames set by at&t and pay my $5.00 late fee for their (my) inconvenience, that's what is important to them!!! OBVIOUSLY after 15 years, THEY KNOW THEY WILL GET THEIR MONEY!!! So all these uptight responses that want to act like payment of my bill ON TIME or making my payment late or being suspended ONE TIME in 2 years (twice counting last month when they suspended it 2 days after my bill was past due and I called them in a frenzy and had 2 different customer service/billing reps even admitting they had no idea why all of a sudden they would suspend me 2 days into "past due" status and they both agreed that in my service history that's never happened before!!! So that time doesn't count!! Their BAD!) is such a DEAL BREAKER and is the source of my problem and to remedy that would make all my at&t dreams come true is just ludicrous and hardly the point nor is it the determining factor in whether I receive a better deal or a cheaper plan or a better value! They know that I will pay my bill, as they can see that I've been paying it for the last ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY MONTHS (yes, that's 180 months!) The point of my post was to vent my dilemma to other customers and get some feedback on other people's wireless plan costs and to see if anyone else was able to receive a plan similar to straight talks $45/unlimited talk, text and web for anywhere even close to that price. I even said around $60 or less to give an idea of what I was willing to pay for a plan that meets my needs, as unlimited data is not necessary as long as I have enough data to accommodate my average monthly usage. In retrospect, I wish I'd never posted anything in this at&t communisty....oops, I mean community. With the exception of the first and last comment, the others were just nagging little dudley do-rights that want to jump on the shame game wagon and scold you about your payment timeliness and chalk everything that I may be lacking from at&t up to my poor payment history that I obviously don't have since I have managed to remain a customer for fifteen (15) glorious years! So thank you everyone for absolutely nothing! I shall handle this one way or another...and we will see what at&t is really made of. I'm likely going to be disappointed. If so, then I'll be a straight talk customer by the end of the day. Now, in response to the comment regarding the necessity for my service to be active in order to port my number: I could care less about keeping my number. I've had it so long that a new number seems like a nice idea for weeding out people that I could totally live without hearing from if they suddenly no longer had a working phone number for me! The people who matter will be notified and it takes 30 seconds to save a new number under an existing contact, so no big deal. I know people who have a different phone number every few months due to their switching around from one prepaid company to the next or various other reasons. So taking my number with me, definitely not a make or break issue whatsoever for me. Now that I've summed all that up - I hope everyone is even more confused and ready to jump on a new bandwagon topic as to why I totally suck or at&t is completely worthless, one or the other, because there really is no such thing as a happy medium in this world anymore! Peace out folks!

 

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