Mobile Share Value Plans Questions and Discussion

gave up unlimited plan to go on family share plan and prices have gone up. Got no notice of the increase in prices. I think it is bad customer service to raise them so soon. It is terrible to do it without notice.

im not understanding how a lot of people are talking about how they didnt get a notice of prices or how they say that theyve been mislead? i had a full understanding of how the plans worked because i took the time to do the research. if youre on a two year contract on the mobile share plan, your device's line will cost 40 dollars per month. if youre on the mobile share plan with a next device, your device's line will cost either 15 or 25 dollars, depending on the mobile share plan that you choose. everything is here to look up. yes the reps should know what theyre doing and how to explain things, but at the same time, you should take the time to research everything so you wont feel like youre being mislead. the plans are not confusing at all. 

Theyre not lying..if you have a phone thats on the two year contract, you will not get the discount. It says this on the website and the reps should let you know. The only way you pay the 15 or 25 dollars per month for the lines is if you have a next phone or if youre using a phone thats out of a contract. So no, your actual rate plan didnt change. But your device's line per month did, because youre now on a two year contract with the mobile share plan. 

Well, I heartily disagree with anyone who claims the NEXT plan is a good deal and saves the customer a lot. It's not "better" for us, it's better for AT&T! Other posters must only have one cell phone on their account. The only situation where it can be a good deal is if you never, ever, upgrade again!!!! The minute you upgrade, the so-called "savings" are right back on your bill. Yes, even with the NEXT plans!!! Oh, no, it's not under the cost of the "PLAN", but it's STILL on your bill. It is such a slimy shell game AT&T is playing. They are trying to persuade their customers that it's this big savings when in reality, the $600 they claim you save on "access fees" is just moved to another section of your bill which should be called "lease fees"!!! After 24 months, the overall savings for a "family" with multiple phones is only $189. But it will increase my bill, after taxes and all, from $200/month to $345/month!!!! And THAT's if I don't upgrade with NEXT because the $25 access fee savings is replaced by a $27 or $31 installment payment.  Last time I checked, paying $299 for a phone and committing to 2 years divided by 24 months equals $12.46/month. Not $31!  I never, ever would have or could have paid for a $600-700 phone because I can't afford that. If I could, I wouldn't have liked contracts either. But contracts are what made it possible for us middle to lower class families to be able to enjoy the new technology like everyone else. It wasn't for everyone, but it was for us! And they ripped it away and act like contracts don't mean anything to them so you are penalized if choosing them!!!

Here are all the ISSUES:

Contracts and subsidies are necessary and worth a lot to some of us!

I hate losing my ability to upgrade phones one at at time after saving up the money, pay just $199 or $299 up front (which is a lot for our family), and then commit to 2 years with them and it doesn't change my bill one cent!  There are real, live, hardworking families out there who need the subsidized option!!! Committing to 2 years with a company  IS WORTH SOMETHING but they are treating like it is NOT valuable. You now have to pay a higher access fee AND an upfront fee. And if anyone doesn't believe contracts should be held in higher esteem by AT&T, what just happened to me yesterday has caused me to want to cancel my plan with them and move to someone else. We have 5 phones and 3 are done are their contracts. Two of them have one more year before I can leave without penalty!! They most certainly DO value them because it's making it difficult for me to leave and slam the door on them. It's saving them from losing money from us over the next year. The cherry on top is now they can even get more money for contracts in addition to their obvious value to a company!!!   I will NEVER go into another contract with AT&T again and NEVER give them even $10 for an upgraded phone. I will give my money to anyone else from now on.

Grandfather Plan data charges were steadily increased to prep us to "want" the NEXT plans:

(You'd now want mobile share, and that would get you off your old plan so you would be in a position for the NEXT plan to be "easier" to sell.) We had 5 phones. We had no need for laptops, tablets, or any other devices. Our total GB usage averaged about 4-6 GB per month. I had an older plan that allowed me to keep my bill steady until they started toying with the individual data plans and costs about a year ago. Slowly over the last 1 1/2 years, on the old grandfather family plan, my bill rose from $240 per month to close to $300 per month. Two times in the past 12 months I called to complain that a hard-working family raising kids cannot afford a $300 a month cell phone bill and begged for them to notice what they were doing. We certainly weren't using $300 worth of service or value from them. Instead of helping me reduce it (meaning they "heard" me), they started raving about all our ability to add devices and use more data and how much cheaper it all was with Mobile Share. Yet every time they entered our particular specs and needs into mobile share to prove to me it was cheaper, the conversation always ended the same, "Oh, your are correct, it IS more expensive for your family, $18 more a month if you switch to mobile share and it doesn't save you money....huh, wow..." They always told me it was an oddity and they don't usually find that. They said everyone else usually is trying to add on multiple devices like laptops, etc. and need a lot more GB then we do; we just needed our iPhones only - and just a little data. I was told they didn't yet have anything to help an account like ours and it was better to stay with my old plan. I was told this again in February too.

We were DECEIVED and TRICKED out of our Grandfather Plan when we wouldn't budge:

But then last month, a rep told me they JUST changed their prices and LOWERED the access fee across the board for phones to $15, now my plan will only cost me $175 instead of $280. I was ecstatic! I re-explained our situation FULLY and said it was about time because they were about to lose our business. She told me that's why they restructured the pricing because it was hard on so many families with just phones. That's verbatim what she said!  I was told that they readjusted their fees to areas where people who use more data will pay for it, and people who add other devices will pay for that, but it shouldn't hurt families like ours anymore. I found out JUST yesterday that she LIED to me. She NEVER told me the reduction of $100 was ONLY until we upgraded the phones. Now if I upgrade through them, whether we sign a contract or use NEXT, our final bill will be over $300!!! After hours with customer service, they refused to restore my old plan. The only way we can keep our bill, our MONTHLY bill, affordable is to never upgrade any phone. ???? One of ours is broken and another is having battery issues. Phones need upgrading every 2-3 years.  I don't care if I save $189 by the end of 24 months with NEXT because I can't afford the MONTHLY cost to save that!!! I'd rather find a way to pay for a phone up front and be done with it. But we CANNOT afford $600 phones! This new era that the top four major cellular companies are creating is pushing more people out of the ability to have a smartphone, especially an iPhone.

Bring Your Own just might be a Scam!

And when I selected "bring your own" yesterday, and selected ANY of the iPhone SIM cards, the next page gave me a message that said, "We're sorry, but that device is not available for your area."  ????!!!!

Yes, I blew my stack. It was the last straw.

AT&T is "spinning" and playing loose with the facts:

It is pure spin on AT&T's part. They have become worse than the politicians. "Oh don't look at the facts head on with a straight head, it's much more appealing if you look at it this way...." Are there really that many people out there incapable of doing math and putting the comparison down on paper the way it REALLY looks? Do they really buy into the picture that AT&T paints? I'm assuming those loving this plan are individual users without multiple cellphones on their accounts, because I see no other situation where the NEXT plan, or the NEW 2-yr contract cost is good or cheaper for ANYONE.

AT&T needs to lower the TRUE cost of an account for a family of 4 or 5 who only have cellphones or smartphones as their devices, who only need to upgrade one or two every 2 years, the rest every 3 years due to outdated OS or wear and tear, and who desperately need a FAIR price for data from their smartphones and don't require outrageous amounts of data. As it stands now, the agent lied about the data. If we only needed 6-8 GB to share amongst our phones, we pay MORE than someone who is using 50GB every month!!!!  Gah!!

AT&T is about to lose a LOT of business and a LOT of money:

They just lost a ton of money. I will NEVER buy a phone from them again, not even at a discount. There are other ways to get a discount, not just through service providers. And they are about to lose my business entirely. So many people out there are in our same situation and have paid them from $5,000 to over $7,000 in the last 24 months just for the monthly service and access. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how much money they are about to lose once we all leave.

Researching thoroughly first is NOT always as easy as others make it sound &

deceitfully crafted webpages:                                                                                                         

As far as those posters making it sound like they don't understand what the surprise and anger is about because they research everything thoroughly and knew exactly what to expect, it's NOT always easy or lucky to fall on just the right pages that contain the information pertinent to each customer. And when I am dealing with an Agent on the phone, I am assuming it is saving me time so that I don't have to go fishing through all the confusing information all over the place. The agent tells you the opposite of what the truth is, or purposefully leaves out key information that might discourage you, and you are believing they are revealing everything and providing you with all the pertinent information you need to make a decision. However, I also researched this thoroughly before even contacting the agent on the phone, but their webpages are deceiving and unclear and their FAQ don't help you clarify two contradicting statements. I assumed since the agent last month told me my bill went down for the reasons I've shared on this post, that it must not apply to an existing account or to our particular structure.  Eventually, I had to chat with an agent to know whether or not I understood what I was reading. Why? Because when you are logged into your account and click on "upgrade", and you select 2 yr contracts, when the page with the phone comes up, there is NOTHING anywhere on that page warning you you're about to lose some $25 discount you didn't know you had and pay $40/per phone; for us our current $75 access fees increase to $200/month!! Not until you un-click the radio button next to 2-yr and click on the one by the NEXT plan, thenun-click that and re-click the 2-yr radio button, THEN and only then a bold red warning message appears below the 2-yr contract choice that you're about to pay higher for that choice by losing your discount. I was never going to choose the NEXT plan because I hate leasing anything, so I typically would have never seen that message at all and would have added it to my cart completely unaware. It was a quirk that I did that and it prompted me to pause and start a chat. Why doesn't that warning message appear when the page first loads for a 2-yr contract?

I pray my post will open the eyes of more people and help save some of them.  And for those of you who feel silly after reading the posts that imply you didn't do your homework or read carefully enough, it's NOT you. Shame on them for posting like that! I have a Doctoral Degree, 8 years of college, with an outstandingly high reading level and I had the exact same problems as others with being deceived.

I just found out today that we lost our $25 discount on 3 lines. We traded our iphone4's at Best Buy for iphone 5's 3 weeks ago during a promotion they had. Prior to going I called ATT customer care to tell them about the promotion and to make sure that the upgrade would NOT affect our monthly fees. The rep reassured me that since my 3 lines were out of contract that our monthly fees would remain the same.

I called customer care twice today. First time a supervisor left me on hold for over an hour. Second time a supervisor's supervisor talked to me and told me there was nothing he could do except give the $150 credit that his subordinate offered me. Then he said that he couldn't hear me and told me to charge my phone and he would call me back in an hour. Funny thing is my phone was charging during our conversation. Anyway I waited for his call back and it's now 6 hours later and no call. I wonder if he'll call tomorrow. Somehow I doubt it. 

I now know that I was not the only person customer care has mislead. The three phones we upgraded were eligible for upgrade prior to our switching to the mobile share plan. I'm kicking myself for not upgrading earlier. I was sold the mobile share plan in Feb when I called ATT for something else. The sales person just told me how much money I could save each month, without mentioning the fact that the phones we had eligible for upgrade would no longer be eligible unless were wanted to pay an extra $25/month. I should have upraded our phones prior to switching to the mobile share plan. I now think the representative knew this and purposely withheld information. 

I'm sure there are many people like me out there who were sold the benefits of the mobile share plan by representatives over the phone who totally neglected to disclose the effects the switch would have on future upgrades. 

We also have been loyal ATT customers since we first started carrying cell phones. Shame on them for not disclosing all pertinent information when they sold us the switch to mobile share and then relaying totally inacurrate information when I asked about the trade-in promotion. ATT needs to be held accountable to their employees mistakes.