Contributor
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2 Messages
MicroCell - Activation not permitted with GoPhone or Data only subscription
I live in an area where i get one bar on AT&T
I have a pre-paid GoPhone account and I pay AT&T $55 a month for this phone with about 1GB of data, more than sufficient for my needs.
I have a data only post-paid account for my iPad for which I pay $30 a month.
My wife has a Federal Gov AT&T phone.
I bought a MicroCell to improve our phone reception at home and attempted activation:
1. System wont register to a data only account (iPad)
2. System wont register to a GoPhone account
3. Since my wifes phone is her employers we have no account access so cant register on that account.
AT&T Technical support said they cant help!!!
AT&T - Are you really so inefficient that you cant find a work around for us? Is our money not good enough for you? Don't you care?
Anyone - can you suggest a fix - I have 14 days before I must return MicroCell and if I do that I'll switch my accounts to Verizon and be done with it.
My father-in-law has AT&T but his address is in Texas we live in SF - could this provide a fix? although I suspect the GPS issue will then come into play?
AndersonIsland
Tutor
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8 Messages
8 years ago
lines, they aren't willing to reinstall the micro cell-even though we
accidentally had the service for over a year, we just switched to Verizon
and now get the service that AT&T refused to offer.
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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117.1K Messages
8 years ago
@AndersonIsland. Reinstall? It plugs in like your router does. You own it, you just plug it in.
How do you accidentally own a Microcell and use its service? You post comes off bogus.
@Karleyj.
You have 2 options, both require you be on a postpaid plan. It is possible that switching to postpaid may resolve your coverage issue, without further steps. Whatever reservations you have about postpaid may be unfounded. ATT has no contract. You can continue to buy phones at full price and keep your bill service only (my choice as well). A shared data pool with 2 lines and 16 gigs of data is $120 plus about $12 in taxes. Rollover and zero overages. See other data plans and how the plan works here. https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html
On postpaid, you either use wifi calling capable phones (turn on this capability in your diaper settings. Or you can buy a Microcell which uses your home wifi to make calls and text.
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OttoPylot
ACE - Expert
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24.2K Messages
8 years ago
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OttoPylot
ACE - Expert
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24.2K Messages
8 years ago
@AndersonIsland - as @lizdance40 said, there is no accidental installation of the MicroCell. You post is unclear and makes no sense. I'm glad that Verizon covers your area. No cellular carrier offers 100% reliablity in all areas of the country. If you want to troll and trash AT&T that's fine. You've done that now move on.
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AndersonIsland
Tutor
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8 Messages
8 years ago
a post paid situation, even though it's not a contract. My issue is this:
since my cell worked for a year after I switched to a go phone, they have
the capability of making it happen. They just choose not to. I know I can
buy a booster, but why stay with AT&T and spend more money just to work
around them? Verizon gives me a better signal.
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AndersonIsland
Tutor
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8 Messages
8 years ago
bought my way out of the contract to go prepaid as I entered retirement.
Once we signed up for go phones, nothing changed- the cell worked fine.
After a year I switched go phone plans to a less expensive plan. When I did
that it (according to AT&T) signaled the system that I was no longer on
postpaid, and it turned off the cell. So the prepaid system has the
capability of using the cell, it's just not allowed.
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AndersonIsland
Tutor
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8 Messages
8 years ago
bought my way out of the contract to go prepaid as I entered retirement.
Once we signed up for go phones, nothing changed- the cell worked fine.
After a year I switched go phone plans to a less expensive plan. When I did
that it (according to AT&T) signaled the system that I was no longer on
postpaid, and it turned off the cell. So the prepaid system has the
capability of using the cell, it's just not allowed.
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OttoPylot
ACE - Expert
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24.2K Messages
8 years ago
@AndersonIsland - this is a common issue with GoPhones and switching plans. My guess is that you kept the same phone number that was used to originally register/activate the MicroCell. What AT&T said is correct. The system still had you under a post paid account, but once you switched plans, and that change went thru the system, the post paid account requirement was tagged to your new account. I wish AT&T would make that a bit clearer especially with folks who want to save money and switch to prepaid plans, but unless you tell them you are a MicorCell user, they won't know.
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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117.1K Messages
8 years ago
@AndersonIsland. Thank you for explaining. I retract my early comment and apologize.
If Verizon works for you, I'm glad. Thank yup for clarifying what actually happened.
Postpaid plan continue to get less expensive. The new plans on August 21 lowered the cost of data for bigger packages a lot. Single lines are still cheaper on Gophone, but once your have 2 or 3 lines, postpaid and a shared plan are now cheaper than Gophone
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Avedis53
Professor
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2.2K Messages
8 years ago
AndersonIsland, you got lucky and were able to use the Mcell for a while after switching to a pre-paid account. The system finally caught up with you and now you are upset because AT&T won't make an exception for you. Your justification is that you spent thousands and were a customer for years. So what? I probably pay as much as you did, if not more and I wouldn't expect AT&T to do that for me.
The Mcell is a "perk", so to speak, for post paid account holders who typically spend more per month than pre-paid customers. There is a cost to AT&T to provide the Mcell product and it's associated backend hardware and I don't think they make enough on prepaid phones to include them, especially since they can "disappear" at any moment.
Enjoy Verizon.
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