After all that... I'm sticking with AT&T

Leanna Lofte

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In case you missed it, I was planning to switch to Verizon.

Then this morning it dawned on me that I never asked AT&T about get an exception made on my husband's line. They told me on the phone that I couldn't upgrade because they never make any exceptions in under 20 months (which is weird, because they have several times in the past) and that my husband's line should be at least 20 months into the contract. Sure enough, his official upgrade date is October 21st, exactly 30 days after the iPhone 5's release date.

So, this morning, I called AT&T to ask them. After jumping through some hoops, the rep said she was able to get the line approved for full upgrade pricing because it was within 30 days of the upgrade date. Great! But I need the phone on Friday in order to get my work done for iMore, so I asked if that would be a problem. Not at all -- she told me I'd get the phone on Friday. Awesome! The only requirement was that I would have to respond to the email to accept the terms and conditions, otherwise the order would be canceled. No problem.

Several hours passed and the email never arrived.

So I called AT&T to see what was up with the terms and conditions. The girl tells me that she doesn't know how to resend them, but she can transfer me to a number that lets me accept them over the phone. Ok cool. Except that the system tells me that I've already accepted them. Nope, not right. So I call again.

This time I'm told there is no record of my order and that what I "claim" to have happened earlier in the day would have actually been impossible. I go through two different levels of managers, both who tell me the same thing. My order does not exist. No notes in my account. Nothing... except for the $358.11 pending charge from AT&T to my credit card. I have an order number that turns out to be completely useless. At this point, I'm not even concerned about the phone anymore, I'm concerned with the fact that I have a pending charge to my credit card that AT&T is denying exists. After more time on hold, a manager says she's transferring me to someone else. This "someone" ends up being some weird voicemail that spews off a bunch of phone numbers then hangs up on me.

Now I'm livid.

During one of my several conversation, someone told me to go to an AT&T store and bring my credit card statement to get it taken care of. I knew this was total BS, but I went to an AT&T store anyway so that if they told me to go to one again, I'd just say "I'm actually at the store, here, talk to the manager".

Of course, the first thing the AT&T store does is put me on the phone with 611. A really nice guy answers and I'm kinda rude by demanding to speak to a manager because I don't want to repeat myself for the 50th time just so he can transfer me and I be required to repeat myself yet another time. He puts me on hold and reads through all the notes left on my account and makes it his personal mission to set everything straight. He was able to find my order, but confirm that it never completely went though. AT&T's system immediately rejected my order because of "restrictions placed on AT&T by Apple". This is why my terms and conditions never arrived. He tells me if I wait for Oct 1st, I can get the upgrade without problem. I tell him that this isn't an option because I MUST have it on Friday to do my job.

He then speaks to several different managers on my behalf and gets the line approved to attempt the order again. He says he's not confident it will work, that the same thing may happen, but that he's going to give it a try. The system goes through several glitches but eventually my order goes though. The terms and conditions email arrived almost immediately so I accepted it and confirmed that my acceptance went through. Everything looks good. Everything except the delivery date. That is unknown.

So, my plan is to stand in line at the Apple Store on Friday and purchase an iPhone on my own line for at the more expensive price. Then when the iPhone 5 that I just ordered arrives, I'll return the one I bought at the Apple Store. This allows me to get my work done for iMore, but also saves me over $200 in ETFs and taxes to switch to Verizon.

What a day.
 
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Tanbam

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That's the first time I've heard of horrible service leading up to continued business. You should suck up the ETF and switch anyway.
 

gregsomlok

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In case you missed it, I was planning to switch to Verizon.

Then this morning it dawned on me that I never asked AT&T about get an exception made on my husband's line. They told me on the phone that I couldn't upgrade because they never make any exceptions in under 20 months (which is weird, because they have several times in the past) and that my husband's line should be at least 20 months into the contract. Sure enough, his official upgrade date is October 21st, exactly 30 days after the iPhone 5's release date.

So, this morning, I called AT&T to ask them. After jumping through some hoops, the rep said she was able to get the line approved for full upgrade pricing because it was within 30 days of the upgrade date. Great! But I need the phone on Friday in order to get my work done for iMore, so I asked if that would be a problem. Not at all -- she told me I'd get the phone on Friday. Awesome! The only requirement was that I would have to respond to the email to accept the terms and conditions, otherwise the order would be canceled. No problem.

Several hours passed and the email never arrived.

So I called AT&T to see what was up with the terms and conditions. The girl tells me that she doesn't know how to resend them, but she can transfer me to a number that lets me accept them over the phone. Ok cool. Except that the system tells me that I've already accepted them. Nope, not right. So I call again.

This time I'm told there is no record of my order and that what I "claim" to have happened earlier in the day would have actually been impossible. I go through two different levels of managers, both who tell me the same thing. My order does not exist. No notes in my account. Nothing... except for the $358.11 pending charge from AT&T to my credit card. I have an order number that turns out to be completely useless. At this point, I'm not even concerned about the phone anymore, I'm concerned with the fact that I have a pending charge to my credit card that AT&T is denying exists. After more time on hold, a manager says she's transferring me to someone else. This "someone" ends up being some weird voicemail that spews off a bunch of phone numbers then hangs up on me.

Now I'm livid.

During one of my several conversation, someone told me to go to an AT&T store and bring my credit card statement to get it taken care of. I knew this was total BS, but I went to an AT&T store anyway so that if they told me to go to one again, I'd just say "I'm actually at the store, here, talk to the manager".

Of course, the first thing the AT&T store does is put me on the phone with 611. A really nice guy answers and I'm kinda rude by demanding to speak to a manager because I don't want to repeat myself for the 50th time just so he can transfer me and I be required to repeat myself yet another time. He puts me on hold and reads through all the notes left on my account and makes it his personal mission to set everything straight. He was able to find my order, but confirm that it never completely went though. AT&T's system immediately rejected my order because of "restrictions placed on AT&T by Apple". This is why my terms and conditions never arrived. He tells me if I wait for Oct 1st, I can get the upgrade without problem. I tell him that this isn't an option because I MUST have it on Friday to do my job.

He then speaks to several different managers on my behalf and gets the line approved to attempt the order again. He says he's not confident it will work, that the same thing may happen, but that he's going to give it a try. The system goes through several glitches but eventually my order goes though. The terms and conditions email arrived almost immediately so I accepted it and confirmed that my acceptance went through. Everything looks good. Everything except the delivery date. That is unknown.

So, my plan is to stand in line at the Apple Store on Friday and purchase an iPhone on my own line for at the more expensive price. Then when the iPhone 5 that I just ordered arrives, I'll return the one I bought at the Apple Store. This allows me to get my work done for iMore, but also saves me over $200 in ETFs and taxes to switch to Verizon.

What a day.
Not cool. At&t, the only carrier who's mission statement is to hassle current customers. Im not sure, but I think if you ask att to approve you for the upgrade, Then maybe you can just walk into radioshack that morning and pick one up?
 

emozdashietxp

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i'm glad my delivery date is set to 9/21, if it was on the two week backorder, then maybe i would consider doing this. haha. plus? there's no restocking fee for at&t? some smartphones i got, that i didn't end up liking, i returned it immediately, maybe 2 days after purchase and they told me to pay a $30 restocking fee! >:l
 

Leanna Lofte

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Not cool. At&t, the only carrier who's mission statement is to hassle current customers. Im not sure, but I think if you ask att to approve you for the upgrade, Then maybe you can just walk into radioshack that morning and pick one up?

Nope. I asked if I'd be able to just pick one up at an AT&T store and was told no. The entire order had to be approved over the phone. The guys at the AT&T store confirmed this. It was either over the phone or not at all.
 

gixxer07600

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everyone thinks att is out to get their customers....cant this be said about all carriers, especially the major carriers? i use to have verizon, i have dealt with verizon customer service numerous times, as well as att customer service numerous times. my experiance is that atts customer service is better...and i in fact have heard this from all my friends who have dealt with both. i dont think people understand, that the traffic companies such as att and verizon experiance, people probably try to pull a lot of crap. they cant just fold to everyones wishes. they would make no money doing that. im sure things get clustered, and confusing for them. and while its frustrating to go through something like that, you have to remember they have more than just your situation going on.
 

Leanna Lofte

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That's the first time I've heard of horrible service leading up to continued business. You should suck up the ETF and switch anyway.

Yeah, I'm not quite sure if all this hassle was worth it, lol. For me, I think it was. I don't have a lot of money, and with a baby on the way, that $215+ is precious. And the first person I talked to, the staff at the AT&T store, and especially the last guy I talked to all provided EXCELLENT customer service. It was the people in the middle that did not.
 

gregsomlok

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everyone thinks att is out to get their customers....cant this be said about all carriers, especially the major carriers? i use to have verizon, i have dealt with verizon customer service numerous times, as well as att customer service numerous times. my experiance is that atts customer service is better...and i in fact have heard this from all my friends who have dealt with both. i dont think people understand, that the traffic companies such as att and verizon experiance, people probably try to pull a lot of crap. they cant just fold to everyones wishes. they would make no money doing that. im sure things get clustered, and confusing for them. and while its frustrating to go through something like that, you have to remember they have more than just your situation going on.
All carriers have their flaws, but I feel as if At&t doesn't provide much loyalty to their current customers. My own experience is, I was late on my bill two times this year. For that reason they pushed my upgrade to november. I'm not even on contract so I decided to call them and ask them if they can just give me the upgrade, it wont be considered an early one since im not on contract. They told me they wont be able to help me with that. That is when I decided to threaten that I will just switch to Verizon then. Guess what! They didn't care she said thank you for being a valued At&t customer. I honestly think what she said is a overstatement.
 

gixxer07600

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All carriers have their flaws, but I feel as if At&t doesn't provide much loyalty to their current customers. My own experience is, I was late on my bill two times this year. For that reason they pushed my upgrade to november. I'm not even on contract so I decided to call them and ask them if they can just give me the upgrade, it wont be considered an early one since im not on contract. They told me they wont be able to help me with that. That is when I decided to threaten that I will just switch to Verizon then. Guess what! They didn't care she said thank you for being a valued At&t customer. I honestly think what she said is a overstatement.

if your not on contract, you dont have an etf, right? why not just cancel it and start a new one, and get the phone that way? same theory, flaw being that you would lose your number. or just switch to verizon. i mean, some peoples expectations are higher than others. some people expect companies to bend over back words for them. if they let people get what they want because they threaten to switch, everyone would do it. verizon said the same thing to me when i told them i would switch to att if they wouldnt give me an upgrade, when my phone had broke, i had insurance, they didnt make my phone, and the only thing they would send me was a junk replacement phone (chocolate 2) which i had replaced 3 times in a week because they shut their self off. so, i switched to att and have been happy with my carrier since. perhaps it would be the same for you, just backwards
 

Leanna Lofte

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All carriers have their flaws, but I feel as if At&t doesn't provide much loyalty to their current customers. My own experience is, I was late on my bill two times this year. For that reason they pushed my upgrade to november. I'm not even on contract so I decided to call them and ask them if they can just give me the upgrade, it wont be considered an early one since im not on contract. They told me they wont be able to help me with that. That is when I decided to threaten that I will just switch to Verizon then. Guess what! They didn't care she said thank you for being a valued At&t customer. I honestly think what she said is a overstatement.

Not to be rude, but being late on a bill is actually a really big deal. When you are given upgrade pricing, AT&T is essentially giving you a loan (the subsidy). You pay off that loan by paying your bill. If you were late twice in a year, you were late for over 16% of your payments. The only way to prove to AT&T that you're a valuable customer is to make your payments on time.

You should set up automatic payments and paperless billing online. You'll never be late again.

Again, I'm not trying to be rude, but to explain to you why AT&T made their decision. They're running a business.
 

Leanna Lofte

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if your not on contract, you dont have an etf, right? why not just cancel it and start a new one, and get the phone that way? same theory, flaw being that you would lose your number. or just switch to verizon. i mean, some peoples expectations are higher than others. some people expect companies to bend over back words for them. if they let people get what they want because they threaten to switch, everyone would do it. verizon said the same thing to me when i told them i would switch to att if they wouldnt give me an upgrade, when my phone had broke, i had insurance, they didnt make my phone, and the only thing they would send me was a junk replacement phone (chocolate 2) which i had replaced 3 times in a week because they shut their self off. so, i switched to att and have been happy with my carrier since. perhaps it would be the same for you, just backwards

he can't keep his phone number by canceling and opening a new account. He can if he switches to Verizon, though. I'm not so sure resigning up with AT&T would work anyway, he SSN may be flagged since he was late on his bills and AT&T may ask for a deposit if he immediately asks for a new account.
 

LocoStrange

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On one hand, I am the person who sees why ATT wont allow exceptions because we did sign the contract. But, on the other hand, I do wonder why they are being more this strict this time around.
 
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Fausty82

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On one hand, I am the person who sees why ATT wont allow exceptions because we did sign the contract. But, on the other hand, I do wonder why they are being more this strict this time around.

And that, my friend is the issue. They've always done it... they've always done annual upgrades for the primary on a family plan when the monthly bill is over a specific amount (mine is over $250)... and yeah, they don't have to do it. But the kicker is that they did it, and now, with NO advance warning, no announcement, no nothing it simply isn't available. I had a phone rep tell me it was Apple's requirement. Not buying that at all.

Fortunately, I have 5 lines, and one is always up for renewal/upgrade, so it worked out... but AT&T sure pi$$ed off a lot of people.
 

Fausty82

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Not to be rude, but being late on a bill is actually a really big deal. When you are given upgrade pricing, AT&T is essentially giving you a loan (the subsidy). You pay off that loan by paying your bill. If you were late twice in a year, you were late for over 16% of your payments. The only way to prove to AT&T that you're a valuable customer is to make your payments on time.

You should set up automatic payments and paperless billing online. You'll never be late again.

Again, I'm not trying to be rude, but to explain to you why AT&T made their decision. They're running a business.

Indeed... maintaining your credit rating is of utmost importance. And frankly, nothing will prevent a company from giving you a "break" from time to time more than making them come after you for their money. That's a fact.
 

spanishcop

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Another one already?

Yeah, I'm not quite sure if all this hassle was worth it, lol. For me, I think it was. I don't have a lot of money, and with a baby on the way, that $215+ is precious. And the first person I talked to, the staff at the AT&T store, and especially the last guy I talked to all provided EXCELLENT customer service. It was the people in the middle that did not.

My goodness girl... didn't you just have a baby not to long ago?
 

cardfan

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Yeah, I'm not quite sure if all this hassle was worth it, lol. For me, I think it was. I don't have a lot of money, and with a baby on the way, that $215+ is precious. And the first person I talked to, the staff at the AT&T store, and especially the last guy I talked to all provided EXCELLENT customer service. It was the people in the middle that did not.

I had a similar situation happen i think for the iphone 3gs or 4..can't remember. Everyone got upgrades rolled back that year. Except me it seems. It was that year if you got an upgrade anytime that year they rolled it back..mine was nov or so. Of course it was obvious. AT&T agreed .

Seemed easy to fix right? Nope. It took a lot of phone calls and emails. It was a major headache. Sounds like your case. Eventually someone high up called and finally took charge of making a simple fix.

I took a few minutes to write a letter to AT&T (not email) though detailing how much I didn't appreciate the hoops I had to jump through. In two weeks they responded and gave me two months of service for free and apologized. I won't argue with free but the main thing was the apology. I felt better.
 

Markdemaio

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At&T troubles

They tried to give me the same run around. I bought the 4s last year at full price, it got stolen and had to get another one at full price (yes, I'm a boob) anyway, called AT&T to double check that I could get the 5 at the discount and of coarse they said no. After two days of screaming and fighting them (supervisors and managers) they finally told me to go ahead and order the phone and get the 64g Black for 399. So I suggest calling and screaming and act like a complete a-hole and it might work...it worked for me! Good luck!!
 

sting7k

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Cool they worked it out. But...if you need the iPhone 5 for work then shouldn't iMore/SPE sites provide you with one? Just saying, I don't have to bring in my own stuff to work. Rene should loan you his at the very least. :D
 

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