Contributor
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2 Messages
Pricing Upgrade Sham
Hello Follow AT&T Customers,
I've spoken/chatted with 3 customer service folks at AT&T wireless for the last 2 hours because I had this crazy rediculous idea that I would simply log into my account this morning and order up two new phones for the two lines I have. Silly me!
From what I have been able to confirm - I am no longer able to do what I have done for decades which is to purchase a new phone and re-up my contract for a couple years. If I'd like to do that, I can only do it over the phone, not in store or online (though the website contradicts and says I cannot do it anywhere every again), and AT&T will punish me by increasing my monthly bill by $30 ($15 more a month for each phone line). I will, however, own the phones for $49 and $129 respectively.
If, however, I do what they are forcing me to do go with the Next plan - I will pay over $50 more a month on my bill and after 30 months will have paid thousands of dollars to own the phones. I am not here to debate the math! I am VERY VERY good at math and have figured it out every way that I am absolutely losing money by the carloads if I stay with AT&T either way so I have begun looking at other carriers. It's a real pain as you all know to switch carriers especially when you're happy enought with you plan that you wanted to buy two new phones this morning! But before I leave AT&T this week I'm wondering if anyone has been able to get through to anyone there to have those $15 a month penaltys removed? And yes, they are penatlys, you can call them whatever you want AT&T, I was born at night but not last night and I've worked with misleading, deceptive companies for decades.
Anyway, fellow sufferers of AT&T and their business practices, has anyone found a way around this or should we bail?
GeekBoy
Master
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4.1K Messages
9 years ago
Ad as for your comment about owning the phones, you will "own" the phones with a carrier subsidy, which means that until you fulfill your contract terms, the phone will remain locked to the csarrier that subsidized it. You can always buy your phone outright from any source, and own it, as well as keeping that out of contract discount that you have a problem with losing.
Smarphones are not cheap, they really do cost over $500 to buy most of them. When you get one for $0.01 or even $199, you are really only paying a small portion of the real cost and the carrier is subsidzing the rest, and in return, your are locked into their service with that phone for a period of time (including international roaming if you travel outside the US). If you purchase the phone outright, it is either already unlocked, or you can get it unlocked and then you can use it with just about any carroer out there.
Additionally, in the US, carriers are moving away from offering contrsact subsidized phones, much like much of Europe did years ago. You can still get contract subsidized phones in the US for now, but expect that to go away before a new contract you get now expiires...
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abouttoleave
Contributor
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2 Messages
9 years ago
I guess you didn't read the part where I clearly stated I was looking for fellow customers. I already heard your cut and paste corporate lies 3 times so please refrain from spamming this post.
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GeekBoy
Master
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4.1K Messages
9 years ago
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Busternutt
Professor
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3.2K Messages
9 years ago
Jerry is a customer, just like you and I. Everything he has said is accurate. The $30 you will be paying for 24 months is not a penalty; it is to pay the actual cost of the phone. After that, you get your discount back, since the phone is paid for. This is very different from past practice, where you continued to pay that "extra" $30 for ever.
You may not like the answers you get here from other customers and that is all right. Go ahead and switch carriers (it's really not as hard as you make it sound to port your number). But be aware, your going to pay for the phone, one way or another, with any of the big 4 carriers you choose. Go with the smaller carriers, and you'll soon be complaining about your service/coverage.
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