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Teacher

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Friday, February 21st, 2014 2:48 AM

Mobile Share Value Plans Questions and Discussion

Beware.. The $160 per month plan for 4 smart phones with ATT is pretty shadey. They don't tell you that you are required to pay for 4 smart phones at full retail price. Maybe that small detail is buried somewhere in the fine print when the adds on TV play, but make sure you know exactly what you are paying for before jumping onto this.... It's very, very tricky. 

Contributor

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1 Message

10 years ago

The new ads are a little more clear but when I sign up in February it was not only mine but the agent at Best Buy that understood it to be 160.00 per month for the 10g data shared with or without contract and had us turn in our old i phones in for 150.00 credit torward the new i phone 5s so that we only had to pay $1 for the new i phone 5s.  When she did the paper work it was coming up at the 260.00 amount and she called the service department and was told they would fixed it on there end to reduce it to 160.00.  It was a shock to me when I open my bill to see that I am paying 260.00 and nothing was done to reduce it and now AT&T is telling me that there is nothing they can do and that I have already gone over 14 days and cannot even get out of the misleading deal.  I switch from Verizon to lower my bill just to end up paying more each month.  

Tutor

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5 Messages

10 years ago

you need to go directly to the supervisors and lay the hammer down!  be firm and to the point and do not back down.  they told you $160 and they are LEGALLY bound to that.  I've worked in marketing for 9 years and I know how businesses like AT&T and Verizon mislead customers.  if you stand firm and don't back down they will make the adjustment for you.  don't believe the garbage excuse "the computer won't let me..." men wrote the software, men can change it and it does happen.  I haven't paid a new device activation fee except for the first day we enrolled with AT&T.  it's a junk fee and AT&T can't tell you how it's spent.  So everytime we upgrade our phones I get it waived.  you can't successfully argue against sound reason and logic so they have to conceded.  keep trying, it's total garbage that they're doing you like this.

Scholar

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397 Messages

10 years ago


@troyspizza wrote:

The new ads are a little more clear but when I sign up in February it was not only mine but the agent at Best Buy that understood it to be 160.00 per month for the 10g data shared with or without contract and had us turn in our old i phones in for 150.00 credit torward the new i phone 5s so that we only had to pay $1 for the new i phone 5s.  When she did the paper work it was coming up at the 260.00 amount and she called the service department and was told they would fixed it on there end to reduce it to 160.00.  It was a shock to me when I open my bill to see that I am paying 260.00 and nothing was done to reduce it and now AT&T is telling me that there is nothing they can do and that I have already gone over 14 days and cannot even get out of the misleading deal.  I switch from Verizon to lower my bill just to end up paying more each month. 


How much were you charged for the iPhone5s (before the $150 credit was applied)?  If you were charged the subsidized price for the phone ($199/$299/$399 for 16/32/64 GB respectively)--meaning, no AT&T Next or you paying full retail price up front for the phone, then you would not qualify for the $160 MSV 10 GB deal.
If you didn't pay full price for the 5s (before trade-in credit) or agree to AT&T Next, you won't/don't qualify for the $160 offer.  The only ways you're getting the $160 deal is if you bring/use your existing phone regardless of whether you were still under 2-year contract as of 2/1/14 (which doesn't apply in your case since you stated that you upgraded to the 5s), purchase a new phone under AT&T Next, or pay the full retail price of the phone up front.  If you did anything that put you under a new 2-year contract (e.g., upgrade to a new phone under subsidized pricing) after 2/1/14, you don't get the $160 deal--or more accurately, those lines for which you did not either use your own phone, purchased a phone under Next , or paid full retail price for will not qualify for the $25/line discount (on MSV 10+ GB plans).

Scholar

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105 Messages

10 years ago


@jane697 wrote:

@troyspizza wrote:

The new ads are a little more clear but when I sign up in February it was not only mine but the agent at Best Buy that understood it to be 160.00 per month for the 10g data shared with or without contract and had us turn in our old i phones in for 150.00 credit torward the new i phone 5s so that we only had to pay $1 for the new i phone 5s.  When she did the paper work it was coming up at the 260.00 amount and she called the service department and was told they would fixed it on there end to reduce it to 160.00.  It was a shock to me when I open my bill to see that I am paying 260.00 and nothing was done to reduce it and now AT&T is telling me that there is nothing they can do and that I have already gone over 14 days and cannot even get out of the misleading deal.  I switch from Verizon to lower my bill just to end up paying more each month. 


How much were you charged for the iPhone5s (before the $150 credit was applied)?  If you were charged the subsidized price for the phone ($199/$299/$399 for 16/32/64 GB respectively)--meaning, no AT&T Next or you paying full retail price up front for the phone, then you would not qualify for the $160 MSV 10 GB deal.
If you didn't pay full price for the 5s (before trade-in credit) or agree to AT&T Next, you won't/don't qualify for the $160 offer.  The only ways you're getting the $160 deal is if you bring/use your existing phone regardless of whether you were still under 2-year contract as of 2/1/14 (which doesn't apply in your case since you stated that you upgraded to the 5s), purchase a new phone under AT&T Next, or pay the full retail price of the phone up front.  If you did anything that put you under a new 2-year contract (e.g., upgrade to a new phone under subsidized pricing) after 2/1/14, you don't get the $160 deal--or more accurately, those lines for which you did not either use your own phone, purchased a phone under Next , or paid full retail price for will not qualify for the $25/line discount (on MSV 10+ GB plans).

You do understand that what you say is correct but that is not what he was told at Best Buy. When I go into a retail store and buy a product I expect to be told the price I am paying from a person that is authorized to sell AT&T products. If the sales rep had explained the extra cost he would have lost a sale. Do you think that might be part of the problem??

 

My wife went to an AT&T store in June 2012 and bought a new Iphone. No problem, we pay the $99, the upgrade fee, and buy her a data plan. I look at the bill today and I see a $2.99 charge for AT&T Roadside Assistance. I call AT&T and find out I have been paying $2.99 for the last 18 months for AT&T Roadside Assistance for a woman that already has Roadside assistance on her car from the car manufacturer. She never agreed or authorized this so the rep at the AT&T store just added it on his on. OK, maybe I should have looked closer at the 10 page bill before now, but this is why AT&T has so many problems.

 

Next, my Mobile Share Plan came out at the $15 per line like it suppose to be and the AT&T rep gave me a $50 credit for this service I didn't even know I had.

 

I ended up buying the AT&T Roadside Assistance on my daughters phone because her car does not have this coverage and if it works like they say its good protection for $2.99 a month.

 

Adding things you didn't approve and giving incorrect pricing is very poor business and will cost them customers.

Contributor

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1 Message

10 years ago

They told me when I walked into the store I had to supply my own phones to get this deal!

 

Former Employee

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636 Messages

10 years ago

Hey outlaux57,

 

The $160 ($100 + $15 per phone) price is the price of purely service, without budgeting any cost for phones

Using phones you already own is the easiest way.

Buying phones at the full retail price is the alternative.

 

If you want to buy a phone and those options don't work, then you may want to budget the extra cost for the phones.

Either the extra $25/month contract phones would costs (pointless/overpriced)
, or the A&T Next  ($10-$40 depending on the phone, usually it's less, including the upfront charges).

-Alex

Scholar

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105 Messages

10 years ago


@loganic wrote:

Hey outlaux57,

 

The $160 ($100 + $15 per phone) price is the price of purely service, without budgeting any cost for phones

Using phones you already own is the easiest way.

Buying phones at the full retail price is the alternative.

 

If you want to buy a phone and those options don't work, then you may want to budget the extra cost for the phones.

Either the extra $25/month contract phones would costs (pointless/overpriced)
, or the A&T Next  ($10-$40 depending on the phone, usually it's less, including the upfront charges).

-Alex


See how easy this is to explain.  Why can't AT&T employees do the same. I'm sure they are doing a better job now but believe me in February I talked to several AT&T employees and they did not have a clue how the program worked.

 

One sentence:  The Mobile Share Value plans "DO NOT INCLUDE THE PHONES"  But then if you understand this you might not sign up for Obamacare, opps I mean the MSV plan.

 

Last question:  Why does AT&T refuse to let you go back to your old plan??   They moved people to where they wanted them to be.

Scholar

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419 Messages

10 years ago

I was told that on the new share plan and using Next, there is NO upgrade fee... or Next fee as opposed to a contract data plan upgrade.

Scholar

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419 Messages

10 years ago

I was told you do not pay taxes on the new Next phones.

Former Employee

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636 Messages

10 years ago

Hey timbuk2okc

That's correct about the upgrade fee. It's not part of the agreement for AT&T Next.

 

The 'typical' AT&T Next has you paying the taxes upfront; they're not added to bill, but I've seen 'specials' offered by various places to eat the taxes, so you pay nothing upfront. Those offers are based on the sales channel, and not able to be manually applied.

 

-Alex

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