Do I stay or do I leave?

Hello there,

I am writing to you with hope that you can provide assistance in my situation with AT&T.

On August 20th 2014 my wife and I bought two Amazon Fire Phones from AT&T Store at Northgate in Seattle. We opted to create new account with new phone numbers because the store assistant was unable to port anything from T-Mobile or US Cellular.

For the week we used the phones we realized how terrible they were. Most of the time spent on the phone was actually with Amazon support while troubleshooting various issues. We decided to call it quits and I went back to the same AT&T store on August 27th to return the phones.

Unfortunately the store assistant told me that phones cannot be returned once the box is opened. He did mention, while looking up the order that one of the lines was setup as a 2 year contract and another one was setup on Next. I told him that it is odd because my wife and I bought the phones at a same time and were given impression that both lines were going to be on Next. I also did not pay the $200 down nor did I sign any contracts. Store person appeared to be just as confused as I was but then he called his manager. I spend another hour or so trying to retrace what happened with her and finally she reassured me that everything has been resolved and both phone lines are now on Next. I still, however could not return or exchange the phones.

After a few months of trying to make the Amazon Fire phones work for us and largely failing, I received a call from T-Mobile associate asking me if I would consider switching back to T-Mobile if they pay my early termination fee and let me upgrade to a new phone. Can you imagine the relief that would provide? I did, however decide to speak with AT&T Customer Relations before switching over to see if AT&T would be willing to step in with an upgrade instead.

On Jan 30, I spoke with an AT&T Customer Relations associate about my situation. I explained how I tried to port the numbers to AT&T at the store and she said that at least T-mobile numbers should have been easily portable. I also said that I tried to return the phones a week after buying them and the store wouldn't take them because the box was already open and she said that actually phones can be returned two weeks after purchase, EVEN after opening the retail box they came in... I then explained that the two lines were accidentally setup wrong, one on 2 year contract and another on Next when I obviously intended to have both of them on Next. She confirmed that this was this the case which perplexed me even more as the store manager reassured me that she fixed the mistake....

At any rate, I explained the offer i got from T-mobile and she said that the absolute best she can do is to upgrade the line that was put on a 2 year contact now and the line that is on Next in June 2015. I would just need to call them back and she would put a note on the account which would tell the cust. relations associate to set me up with an upgrade.

I was pretty happy with this resolution, but as I did not want to fight with my wife for who gets the new phone I told her I would just upgrade both lines in June. This way nobody feels left out. She said that it was very nice of me and that she already added a note stating so to my account.

On June 12th I contacted Customer Relations to discuss the promised upgrade. Unfortunately they weren't able to find the note immediately and I had to explain everything from scratch several times to ensure that person actually understood my situation. After a while he was able to locate the note and said this is what it said:

"cust wants an upgrade and is threatening to cancel.cust ed. we can upgrade his phone, wife can pay to upgrade, cust will call back in 5 mo when his wife is able to upgrade."

This is in no way, what I was told by AT&T person in January! Why would I say that wife can pay to upgrade in 5 months? June-date was communicated to me by AT&T Customer Relations, I did not count 5 months till my wife can pay. Why would ever agree to pay if T-Mobile would take us in and upgrade and pay the ETF right away?

At any rate, before actually making a switch I thought I would reach out to AT&T here one last time to see if someone would be willing to help...

I have also sent this in private message, along with my contact information to ATTCustomerCare