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12 Messages

Friday, November 26th, 2010 8:38 PM

No Upgrade on Family Plan Line

This has been driving me nuts over the past few weeks and I was wondering if anyone here could help.

 

So my family just moved back to California in August and since my sister (who has been living here) already had a line with AT&T we signed up with their family plan and just added our new lines to hers. As it turns out, that wasn't as simple as we had hoped and we got slapped with a $400 bill the first month because AT&T's system got a bunch of stuff wrong.

 

We got that sorted out but we still paid a lot more than what we were supposed to in the first month. Then in October, I discovered that my phone (which is unlocked from abroad so I did not get a AT&T phone) was having a lot of issues like randomly turning off and restarting and being unable to get a signal.

 

So now I've been looking around for an upgrade but the problem is AT&T says the only line on the family plan that is eligible is the primary line...which is my sister who just got the HTC Aria when we signed a new contract. I checked with AT&T and they said they can only offer me the off-contract price for my line, but her line can get a great discount.

 

My main question is: Why can't I get a phone from AT&T at a normal upgrade price when I never got a phone from them in the first place?

 

You would think they would love to sign me up for an extended contract but there's no way in heck I'm paying $600 for a new phone just for that privilege. AT&T has already caused my family enough headaches and now they're doing this! Ridiculous.

 

Anyway, thanks if you read this and I appreciate any answers in advance.

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12 Messages

13 years ago


@hme83 wrote:

@Saad073 wrote:

 


@UNSC_REACH wrote:

Yeah 3rd party dealers can do it too, although sometimes they mess it up. You might want to go to a corporate owned store.


Does anyone have experience using another person's upgrade with Wirefly? They have a sweet deal going on right now.

 


Be careful and make certain you've read and understand all of a third party dealer's additional terms and conditions if you want to go that route.  Most of them require no changes to the plan (certainly no downgrades) for the first 180 days of service or they reserve the right to charge you back for the conditional discount (usually $250).

 

As long as the line of service that is the subject of the upgrade remains open and unchanged, I'd think you'd be fine even if it's being used in a different phone; but I'd think through it well first, as having a different person using the service may introduce more likelihood of a change to the service and/or features that are a part of the commitment.  The third party resellers can be a good deal - but for the first six months you typically give up the flexibility of being able to make changes to the voice plan and/or features; you retain this flexibility by upgrading directly through at&t.


It looks like Wirefly charges $350 now for smartphones if the plan is changed. I think I might call them tomorrow and ask whether or not I can transfer the phone to another line without a penalty. And yes, the primary line that I wanted to use the upgrade from is also a smartphone with data plan and nothing will likely change in the first six months.

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