Teacher
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1 Message
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.
little birdy
Scholar
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151 Messages
8年前
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loganic
Former Employee
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636 Messages
8年前
I'd reccomend you check the new 10-15gb share plan. They are currently offering specials for contracts starting before feburary.
View the details here www.myattrpc.com
-Alex
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little birdy
Scholar
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151 Messages
8年前
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loganic
Former Employee
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636 Messages
8年前
And you didn't really look at the pricing option per the website listed there
It says smartphone lines can get the $15 (discount) pricing by being on 10gb or higher, if their contracts started before 02/02/2014.
If your contract ends june of 2015, that means it started june of 2013, so . . . it qualifies if my math is right.
Maybe I missed something?
-Alex
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mmcguy
Contributor
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1 Message
8年前
I'm sorry, but every time I even think about chaning plans, upgrades or replacing phones, my blood pressure rises. Buying a phone or a plan is worse than trying to buy a new or used car from a dealer. The sales people are bent on pushing you to the highest cost, highest profit plans in order to maximize their commission. They use shell games and "bait and switch" tactics to confuse and frustrate customers to the point they just give up and buy whatever is on the table or they walk out of the store. The string of posts on this one topic are a prime example of this. Name any other consumer product where customers are subjected to such tactics.
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hme83
Master
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5.9K Messages
8年前
Fortunately at&t has finally brought a pricing plan to the table that can benefit single line users. 🙂 I changed my plan to a single line user MSV plan the day before my billing cycle ended, and my April payment is $61 instead of the $91 I'd been paying for the smallest voice, text, and data (my data usage is < 1GB/month), using the device that I choose to use - which happens to be a smartphone.
Similarly, I use phones for well beyond 2 years - I'm coming up on 3 years of use with my Nokia E7, and I've never had a phone get lost, stolen, or broken. I pay more to purchase non-branded (non-subsidized) devices, take care of them, and typically use them until advances in the network technology simply make a particular device difficult to continue to use; then they become "backups". lol.
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GeekBoy
Master
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4.1K Messages
8年前
I believe that I read your post, about what happened to you. I will tell you that if you have talked to the correct people in the billing department that you will find that you will get the discount. I have 2 iPhones on my plan. the first contract started in Sept 2012, and the second in November 2012. Both are still under contract unil late this year. In Feb, I switched them both over to the new 10GB Mobile Share value plan. Now, the first month's bill was confusing because I made the change take effect immediately, not delaying it until the beginning of a new billing cycle. This meant that my new bill was pro-rated for a little over half the month on the old rates, and then the rest on the new rates. In the end, my bill for that month went from $182 down to $168. Now my first full month on the new plan bill arrived a little while back, and it is all the way down to $118 where I expected it. (I receive a FAN discount through my employer). I have the $130 plan for 2 smart phones, and that is what I was billed prior to the discounts and taxes/fees being applied.
I'm not sure who "they" are that told you that you can't get the $25/month discount for having a smartphone on your MSVP because you are under contract, but I suspect that "they" are mistaken. Most likely what you had happen was that your new plan changes went into effect at the start of the new billing cycle. I have heard that some people (most?) have an issue with not getting the $25/smartphone discount for the first month if they have the changes take effect at the beginning of a new billing cycle. If this is the case, I susggest you contact the billing department and ask them to correct your bill to give you this credit. If you have trouble working with the billing department, try contacting the AT&T Customer Care group directly via IM on the support forums and they can help you.
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lucasgriff18
Contributor
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1 Message
8年前
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GeekBoy
Master
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4.1K Messages
8年前
The thing to understand about the Mobile Share Value Plans is that they are designed to give a reduced service rate for customers who are not purchasing a subsidized phone. If you purchase a subsidized phone, your monthly bill will go up $25/month for 24 months to pay for that phone subsidy. If you purchase an off-contract phone yourself, you may pay as much as $450 more for the phone, but you'll save $600 in service charges over the course of 2 years.
When you purchase a new subsidized phone under contract, you are just having to pay the higher rate for your service to subsidize that cheaper phone. AT&T just took the approach of offering customers who were under contract prioer to 02/01/2014 this reduced price service fee as an incentive to get them to move from their older plans to one of these newer Mobile Share plans. The other side effect is that customers will "get used to" this lower monthly bill, and be more inclined to purchase an off-contract phone when their current contract expires just to keep the lower service rate too. Over the course of 2 years, it could save a customer as much as $150, which is not an insignificant amount of money...
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sandblaster
ACE - Expert
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58.9K Messages
8年前
People are so entrenched in the subsidized phone model, many just can't get on board with paying full price for their phones even though it works out costing less but it is clear that all of the carriers are trying to get out of the subsidized phone business. To the OP's question, is Tmobile or Sprint any better, Tmobile is the carrier that started the "pay full price for your phone" trend. I don't think they even offer subsidized phones any more.
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rickmagley
Mentor
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26 Messages
8年前
We are just a few of the victims of this very bad marketing scheme.
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cla12170
Teacher
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15 Messages
8年前
I have been totally misinformed by att about this plan. Before switching I had a lengthy conversation with a representative so I could make an educated decision on whether i wanted to switch. I was repeated told that switching would not have any effect on my upgrades which all four of our lines had due. we switched over and then both my daughters upgraded and then their phone charges went from $15 per phone to $40.This will make my plan more expensive then what it was prior. I called and spoke to a supervisor who stated he couldnt help me but would request a call from his supervisor for me that i would recieve in 24 to 74 hours. 2 weeks later no call. I called again today and this supervisor was noce and wanted to help because he saw that I was completely misinformed and agreed the charges were unfair based on information I was given but said his system will not allow him to help me and fix this problem. I have been a customer for over a decade and think this misrepresentation is completely unacceptable and an unfair business practice. I should not be charged for things I was told would not be the case and should be given an option to have this corrected by someone
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Constructive
Employee
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28.7K Messages
8年前
You say your daughters upgraded their phones? did they get smartphones? if so the system will automaticly add the 25.00 data plan to any smart phone. Theres no way around this, if you have a smart phone you get the data plan. I found this out the hard way when my kids decided to go in and purchase iphones for themselves and got a bill for an additional 50.00.
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cla12170
Teacher
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15 Messages
8年前
They both already had Iphones when we switched to plan. They upgraded their iphones to another iphone. Before switching to plan I questioned service rep repeatedly on how upgrades would affect plan and he repeatedly stated we could upgrade as we always have with NO effect on plan. Our cost would remain $160 a month. This statement was clearly misleading and untrue
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cla12170
Teacher
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15 Messages
8年前
as well as we ALL have had smartphones for years. I was told the mobile share plane would reduce my monthly cost from $260 a month to $160 a month. It would NOT have any effect on any upgrades we had coming to us and upgrading would change nothing. This clearly was and is misleading. This is ATT policy and it was violated
AT&T's Code of Ethics - Fair Dealing:
VIII. Fair Dealing
We have a history of succeeding through honest business competition. We do not seek competitive advantages through illegal or unethical business practices. Each employee, officer and director should endeavor to deal fairly with the Company's customers, service providers, suppliers, competitors and employees. No employee, officer or director should take unfair advantage of anyone through manipulation, concealment, abuse of privileged information, misrepresentation of material facts, or any unfair dealing practice.
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