Contributor
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1 Message
Contract Fee
My wife is wanting to upgrade her phone so we went to a local AT&T store and she found one she likes. AT&T currently has the phone for sale online for no cost with a 2 year contract. I have two phones and a iPad on my account and nothing is under contract. I really don't want to get back under contract but I figure if it saves me the cost of a phone I would. I decided to chat with a customer service rep to ask some questions. I asked if my monthly bill would go up if I got the phone by going under contract for two years. To my dismay, I was told my bill would go up $15 per month because I will lose the discount for mobile share value savings for going under contract. I told the customer service rep no thank you. My wife will just keep the phone she has.
I think it poor business practice to charge a customer more money just for being under contract. The "free" phone would actually cost me $360. I'm sure AT&T suckers hundreds of customers into this every day. Talk about bait and switch.
sandblaster
ACE - Expert
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64.7K Messages
10 years ago
Many people seem to be complaining about what they perceive as "bait and switch" but the fact that users not under contract get a discount on their service under mobile share has been there since the mobile share plans were announced. I guess you should consider yourself fortunate that the cs rep told you your monthly cost would increase if you got the 2 year contract "free" phone. Many people are complaining they weren't told that and were surprised when their monthly service costs went up.
That "free" phone is really not free and never has been. Under the old plans, the cost of the phones were included into the service plans, that's why you had to sign a 2 year contract so that the carrier could recoup the price of that phone. Most users understood that and used to complain why didn't their service cost go down after their contract ended. Under mobile share, they have separated the price of the phone from the service so you now have a choice. Get the 2 year contract phone and have the price added to your service or pay full price for your phone and keep your service costs where they are.
Like it or not, all of the mobile carriers are trying to get out of the phone subsidy business. Every carrier now has a "pay full price for your phone" plan like Next and some carriers don't even offer the 2 year contract priced phone any more. You can credit or blame t-mobile for this, they started it.
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GeekBoy
Master
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4.1K Messages
10 years ago
Probably a better way to consider this isn't that your price will go up when you get a fee phone under contract, think mor ethat your price won't be discounted because you are not under contract. That's really the case. When you are not under contract, you get a discount. They don't charge you more because you got a new phone, they just don't give you a discount because you are no longer not under contract. (I don't like that double negative, but it is really what the case is). You can buy the phone yourself for probably under $300 and still keep the $15/month discount for as long as you are not under contract. Try looking at the math and see that it could be a good deal for you. Also consider that you can use a NEXT program to purchase the phone in installments so that you don't have to put the money out all at once.
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guangzl1
Scholar
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185 Messages
10 years ago
Complaining will not help you to reduce your bill or make the company change their strategy. Of course, if there's millions of customers, then it will be different. But most customers just simply accept whatever the company has to offer, so the company gets the way how they want it.
You have to look at the majority. There's always disagreement, is all about how many people stand on one side and how many on the other side. Whichever side is weighted the heaviest, that side will get what they want by protesting. But for customers to protest with att is unlikely and nearly impossible.
So, good luck.
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