Att and Costco kiosk scam

The kiosk in Costco was a 3rd party retailer that is not employed by either Costco or AT&T itself. Usually it is Smart Circle who sends new account to other companies (in this case AT&T).

Like other companies who use these authorized retailers, AT&T will only honor what is on the official order they received (which should match the promotions on their website). If the paperwork you got from the kiosk different from the official order then you dispute with the kiosk. However if you were only 'promised' by the agent any offers, or the fine print of qualifications meant you didn't qualify for everything, then the order would be correct on both sides. In that event you could try a BBB complaint on the kiosk location for misrepresenting the offer.

So any scam that occurred was from the 3rd party kiosk. AT&T itself is not a scam. Doesn't matter how the Terms and Conditions were explained to you by the 3rd party, but what they actually are. No matter what some seller promises, read the paperwork fully.

Thank you for all the knowledge Juniper if u are not att employees why u even giving all the info if u not going to resolve anything. all the info u provided dose not  help me and why would att do business with such a third party  company who ruining their name unless they benefit from this scam.  As a big company like att they should do their due diligence so that customers do no suffer. In this case att should atleast do the right thing and fix my bill but they running unethical business here

AT&T's published prices for five phone lines with the auto pay and paperless billing credit with debit card or checking (otherwise it's $10 credits for each phone line you left on the table)

Your Costco membership discount gets you the premium plan at the same cost as the extra plan.  Tablet lines are $20 each.

35.99 *5 = $179.95 + 20 +20= $219.95 before taxes, any additional amounts over the bill credits, before insurance, before next up

So what else is on the bill? Are you still being charged for all of your phones with no bill credits? Are you being charged for insurance? Next up?

So the price for service sounds correct assuming that you get bill credits which entirely cover the cost of phones. And switch credits that cover your taxes.

So what aren't you getting? What's on the bill?

So i m not getting that perimium plan that u are referring to. To bring cost down att  lowered my plan to the bare bone plan.

Yes i did set up all the autopay att ask for on time and made all the payments on time thinking att will do the right things. So currently i am paying top dollar but getting lower service and higher bill. 

 Are you still being charged for all of your phones with no bill credits? Yes

Are you being charged for insurance? Next up? They took that off 

@Nirav 

This is a customer to customer forum. Though we are not AT&T employees, many of us (from all walks of life) have a lot of expeirence with many situations that arise. So we share our knowledge and experience to help others find a solution, get on the right track, or sometimes just a realistic perspective on the situation even when it may not be what we want it to be.

From what you've explained, the issue is the 3rd party kiosk agent gave bad info and all AT&T could do was honor what was actually on the official order. That is where you dispute with the kiosk, or file a BBB complaint. If what you got matches the order AT&T received which would line up with what they have online, then your bill would have nothing to fix as would be correct as would be the kiosk agent who told you wrong instead.

Those 3rd party retailers have multi-year arrangements which means companies cannot really do much until time comes to renegotiate. Do wish they weren't used in the first place, but it gets products and services more wide spread for them so expected they will continue to be used.

Are you still being charged for all of your phones with no bill credits? Yes

And is the difference between the $206 quote, and your current bill, your phone installments?

    I'm going to assume the answer is again - Yes

So what happened to your trade-in phones? Did you use labels from AT&T to mail those phones to Assurant Mobile in lavergne Tennessee, within 30 days,  with a label that looks something like this one?

Yes?  No?  Had you no idea that was required?  

Because you didn't mention a single thing about the trade-in offer in your original post. 

If you switched in mid-October, bill credits on trade-in phones should have started in mid January, 3 months from whenever you made your purchase. 

@Nirav  Anytime one deals with an AT&T Retailer, either a kiosk in Costco, Target, Sam's Club, etc, or visit a Retail Store (brick and mortar), you take the chance of encountering questionable employees who will do and say anything to make a sale. They just pass that information on to AT&T who has no clue as to what was said and/or promised to the customer. The TOS (Terms of Service) are clearly detailed on AT&T website and those are the only terms that AT&T will accept, regardless of what the retail salesperson told you. As we have mentioned many times before, retail stores and kiosks are not owned or operated by AT&t and are not staffed with AT&T employees. Technically , you did business with the retail operator, not AT&T.

It pays for the customer to be suspicious of any deal that sounds really good and to pay close attention to what the receipt indicates and to read the TOS, ideally on AT&T's website. If you didn't get a detailed receipt that's a red flag. When you send a phone back as part of a trade in program you need to keep the receipt and tracking information in case anything goes wrong.

You can always file an online complaint with the BBB. They won't do anything with the complaint (same for the FCC) but will forward it to AT&T Upper Management who will assign it to a Senior Manager in the Office of the President, and that person will contact you. That way you can discuss it directly with AT&T and hopefully they can come to a resolution that will be acceptable to you. Just have all of your documentation in order when they call.

Hi @Nirav, We understand your situation.
Sounds like you've been through a lot, and we want to help change this experience for you.

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@formerlyknownas thanks for being logical here unlike @Juniper who just gave useless info , Yes i did trade in my phone within time limit and called to several times to Costco att VIP service to confirm they got the phone  and they said yes i confirmed if there is anything else need to be done on my end  and they confirm several times no. So from my end i honestly followed everything that i was told and updated payment method and continue making payments even though my bill was lot higher i can add screenshots from the txt conversation with the att rep at Costco if that will help me resolve this issue