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Teacher

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1 Message

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. 

Former Employee

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636 Messages

10 years ago

I've talked to a few customers where that's happened.

I've only seen 3 customers personally like that, but the one consistency/pattern I've noticed on the last 2, (didn't pay attention to the first) is that they were all set to start on the day of the new cycle.

I don't know if that's the reason (maybe the credits apply midnight the night after the plan starts), but I've personally just fixed the bills for a customers, was told to tell them it'll be fixed next time

-Alex

Guru

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294 Messages

10 years ago

That was my initial thought. For some reason, the changes might have been future dated instead of made effective immediately. In my situation, my bill was actually lower than the advertised price because of the prorated adjustments that came because of the change. 

Contributor

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1 Message

10 years ago

This is the problem with at&t the new 160 dollar share plan.I just changed my plan to the new $160 mobile share family plan 10gig of data.My plan this month went up to 303 dollars i called to ask what is going on and the lady told me i have to pay the price of what it cost before the rate plan change until the second billing cycle.I mean  my billing cycle ends on the 4th of every month i called in on the 3rd to have my plan changed to the new pricing of the rate plans.How and why do i have to pay the charge for the old rate plan for the first month if i changed my plan before the billing cycle? My bill is $303 dollars this month and i was suppose to pay about $195 after 4 lines plus taxes and the $29 at&t next installment that i have on one of the phones in my family plan.Also i have a 17% discount from my company applied to the plan.Whats going on if someone can explain this mess to me i would like to know.

Scholar

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105 Messages

10 years ago

You will not get an answer here. All you will get is guesses. It appears the people that switched plans close or on the start of the billing date are being charged $40 on some of the lines instead of the promised $15. The standard answer from customer service appears to be "Pay the incorrect charge and lets see what happens". You have to get to an AT&T employee that has the authority to give you a credit for the incorrect billing. I would start with the customer retention or cancellation line.

 

The error in billing is understandable but the lack of correction is inexcuseable.

Scholar

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397 Messages

10 years ago


@T-Boy wrote:

You will not get an answer here. All you will get is guesses. It appears the people that switched plans close or on the start of the billing date are being charged $40 on some of the lines instead of the promised $15. The standard answer from customer service appears to be "Pay the incorrect charge and lets see what happens". You have to get to an AT&T employee that has the authority to give you a credit for the incorrect billing. I would start with the customer retention or cancellation line.

 

The error in billing is understandable but the lack of correction is inexcuseable.


The above issue almost occurred to me--I changed plans on the very first day of my billing cycle so that I wouldn't have to try to deal with all of the pro-rated partial month charges that come about when changing plans mid-cycle; I asked a rep via chat as to whether I would be charged $40 or $15 on my upcoming bill--he told me it would be $40 on the current bill, and a $25 credit on the following month's bill to offset the $40 charge from the previous bill plus the normal $15 charge for the following bill.  I asked the guy to confirm--I guess he talked to his supervisor because he came back and told me that my bill will reflect $15 across the board rather than the $40 on this bill and $25 credit to offset that on the following month's bill.

 

A few days later I checked my upcoming bill via OLAM and sure enough it is showing all charges correctly, including the $15 for both the previous/current cycle and the following cycle.

 

Bottom line--if a rep is telling you that you'll be charged $40 for the first month and be credited back $25 to offset that charge on the following month's bill, you should have the rep check with a supervisor/manager like I did.

Teacher

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7 Messages

10 years ago

I think I'm going to contact cancellation next month if they don't double the deduction on my next bill, since I had one rep explain to me that the first bill wouldn't include the $25/line deduction to make it $15/line, but that my second bill would include it twice. And if they refuse to correct that, I'll heavily consider going with the T-Mobile buyout option because at least it is cheaper to get screwed over by them than it is to get screwed by AT&T.

 

Is there anyone here who can actually explain why "The System" is configured to not instantly apply the $25/line deduction? Not only does it sound shady, it also doesn't make any logical sense from a software standpoint (I am a professional software developer). I've talked to 2 different reps who claimed that the system eventually changes after 1-2 cycles instead of instantly, but never got an answer on why that is the case. And I refuse to overpay those charges, so if they don't get corrected in the next bill I'll be going on a witch hunt.

ACE - Expert

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6.6K Messages

10 years ago

We switched our 4 line plan on the first day of the billing cycle and it's been billing us at the promised $15/line rate. We do have a FAN, don't know if it plays a role or not.

Tutor

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3 Messages

10 years ago

I agree!  They make you sound like that you are getting a good deal!  They do not tell you about all the fees

Guru

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294 Messages

10 years ago


@ecmillan wrote:

Is there anyone here who can actually explain why "The System" is configured to not instantly apply the $25/line deduction? Not only does it sound shady, it also doesn't make any logical sense from a software standpoint (I am a professional software developer). I've talked to 2 different reps who claimed that the system eventually changes after 1-2 cycles instead of instantly, but never got an answer on why that is the case. And I refuse to overpay those charges, so if they don't get corrected in the next bill I'll be going on a witch hunt.


The system is configured to instantly apply the deduction, just maybe not correctly. I got it right away. No waiting. Seems there's a bug or something causing many to not get it right away. 

Tutor

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1 Message

10 years ago

The site says 40.00 per phone with 2 year contract and 15.00 per phone without contract. It is a rip off. I wanted to do the 10gb value share for 100 a month and then 30 for 2 lines. As soon as we go to buy a phone and sign a contract that 130 a month becomes 180 a month. The only other options are purchase a device at full cost or sign up for AT&T next which is a bigger rip off. You end up leasing or financing a new phone. In the end you pay more for the device. At&t makes this value share sound good, but it's crap. I've got 2 lines, 156.00 a month. Unlimited data, texting and a ton of minutes that I never have to look at. All I want is the mobile hotspot and there is no affordable way to get that.
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