~The rant is about AT&T.
~It seems there are as many UNHAPPY AT&T customers as there are HAPPY ones....maybe it's the same way with Verizon, although I can honestly say that I don't randomly hear about unhappy Verizon customers as often as I hear of unhappy AT&T customers.
~So here's the deal...about 35 days ago, I finally ordered the iPhone...the only way I could justify the insanely high service prices was to qualify for the "text, talk, surf" discount through bundling my services. We already had home phone, internet & DISH through AT&T, so bundling was a "no-brainer".
~About 1 week later I received a confirmation statement regarding the iPhone & service costs. The $25.00 discount was missing, so I called AT&T. They reported that is was indeed in the computer system and would show up on the bill. On this same call, I was informed of AT&Ts new cable service, Uverse. Turns out that switching to Uverse from DISH would save us $40+ per month. Again, a no-brainer. We made the change.
~This is where things get tricky...it also turns out now that changing to Uverse CANCELLED OUT my $25.00 discount via the "text talk surf" plan EVEN THOUGH my services are STILL BUNDLED and STILL with AT&T. WTF? The AT&T rep DID NOT tell me this during this phone call. Does this sound shady to anyone else out there?
~On that same phone call I was also told I would be receiving a $250 gift card as "incentive" to change services and/or pay any cancellation fees with DISH. Today I was told that card is $200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~Now of course changing back to DISH would be a HUGE ordeal...service people have to come out, the countless phone calls etc. Just not worth it and frankly, AT&T knows most people, me included, will not do this and so ultimately I'm screwed.
~My only option to cut costs was to lower my minute plan, which I immediately did. That will reduce my bill by $20/month and I'll just have to be uber-cautious with my phone calls. By making this change, I also lose the A-list option, which is the ability to call 5 numbers (on other service providers) w/no "minute cost". This was a nice bonus since my parents are both (still) on Verizon and O's work phone is US Cellular. Ugh. In reviewing my first bill, I still have a cushion of 150 minutes before reaching the limit on my lower minute plan, so I'm thinking that this should be fine.
~I may even be able to drop down 1 step on the text messaging plan, but I'm going to hold off for now...it would save an additional $5.00/month and I would be going from Unlimited to 1500 messages/month. I am pretty sure I don't send 1500 text messages per month, in fact, I don't think I ever have, but I will monitor it just to make sure since exceeding would likely cost me an arm & a leg.
~All that to say AT&T did NOTHING to make me a happy customer, didn't even offer a small credit for my inconvenience in having to call them, be put on hold (forever) & being transferred 3x OR for the fact that my bill is still NOT bundled when in fact it should have been bundled all along.
~If I didn't like that
13 comments:
I am with you on the whole ATT thing! I had an appointment with them recently and they showed up before the scheduled time, then said it was my fault. I did quite a bit of yelling.
I am going to cancel my cable simply because I just don't have the desire to deal with their crap but I made sure I locked in $25 HS wireless before I cancel :)
Ugh! I feel your pain although my experience isn't as all encompassing as yours. I switched from sprint to get the iPhone. I have never had as many dropped calls or poor reception. I have almost no cell service at my house with AT&T. Never had an issue with sprint. Their coverage is like Swiss cheese! Can't wait for another provider to offer the iPhone. If only I weren't addicted.... :)
My husband has been in and out of discussions with Verizon about our plan. Sometimes it is so dang frustrating! I hear you!!
you're the second person i've heard of this week having massive issues with AT&T.
AT&T has horrible cell service coverage where i live, but i love the iphone so much i put up with it.
That's horrible! They should give you what they said they would--even if you were misinformed, it wasn't your fault. They need to take some responsibility. It's frustrating.
I loved Verizon in that when my Internet was with them, no matter how small of a glitch, I called Customer Service and they gave me a month or more free of internet. Once we even tried to drop the internet since we couldn't afford it and they put us on "vacation mode" in which we could still use the internet, but we weren't being charged. In a year, we only paid for four months worth of internet.
My sister and her husband have AT&T and they always complain about dropped calls. My husband wants an iPhone, but being the techie person he is, he knows how mobile phones work, and he says AT&T is seriously outdated (as are most US phone companies). He said recently Canada started selling unlocked iPhones, which means they should be going down in price. He wants an unlocked phone so he can take it to another carrier.
Recently, he advised my sister and her husband how to unlock their phones so they could switch carriers since they were going to just get rid of theirs due to the dropped calls and they can no longer afford the outrageous bill.
They haven't switched carriers, yet, but the husband already unlocked his phone and he said it's amazing because his phone is so much more powerful now and he has access to so many things that Apple had him locked out of before. He said it's easy to unlock it, but he's waiting to do my sister's to make sure there aren't any problems in the long run.
If you do decide to unlock your phone, though, you wouldn't be able to go to
Verizon. You have to go to a GSM carrier (TMobile, i wireless, and AT&T).
This is why I'm afraid to switch; I've been with Tmobile for years with no problems. I would LOVE an iPhone but haven't been able to justify the switch yet. I hope you got it all straightened out!
I have AT&T and every time I notice a promotion has edned (i.e. free HBO, faster internet, whatever) and my bill goes up, I call to dispute and they've always been super helpful with finding me new promotions and lowering my bill.
The last time I called, she suggested that as soon as I get through to a person, as for the Retention Dept and discuss my dispute. I swear, the minute you say you are unhappy with the service or thinking about cancelling service, they unload freebies!
It's so annoying when they mess things up. I should tell you about my ongoing battle trying to get a $130 doctor's bill from LAST YEAR billed correctly. Ugh.
At least you are still saving $40 a month on cable thanks to the switch. That's still good, right?
It's interesting... I don't think I've ever heard anyone speak good of AT&T... but I've had nothing but good experiences the entire time I've been with them... I think its been about 10 year with them now (they were cellular one previous to AT&T) maybe I sucked up all the good mojo? lol
i dislike at&t as well... although i haven't had these issues (yet). i just get irritated by the crappy phone service. but i too love my iphone... if only apple would break up with at&t!!
There are rumors going around that the iphone is going to Verizon in January.
I'm sure you've all realized that AT&T no longer has the unlimited data plan--the deal Apple made with AT&T was that they'd provide the iphone exclusively to them, but in return, they must offer an unlimited data plan. AT&T is no longer honoring that deal, so the iphone may start to be offered elsewhere.
I think AT&T didn't think the iphone would catch on as fanatically as it did. It's overwhelming their system, hence, the many dropped calls. I'm sure they want it offered with other carriers now so they can get pass the bad rep they have for annoying dropped calls...
I owe AT&T an update to this post. When I was upset the other day, I tweeted about the poor customer service and an AT&T rep on Twitter sent me a message asking if he could help. In the end I got two of my issues resolved as well as an additional discount that NO ONE had previously mentioned. Hopefully the bills will be bundled next month and then all will be good.
As for the iPhone going to Verizon. I'll believe it when I see it. It was supposed to happen earlier this year, then pushed out to July and now it's January..I think they just keep pushing it out at 6 month increments.
As for the data plan...I just signed on with AT&T 40 days ago and mine is unlimited.
In early June, AT&T changed their plans. If you sign a contract with AT&T now, you don't have the unlimited data plan option. If you signed a contract before that, you have the option of keeping the unlimited data plan you originally signed for.
With this new development, Apple may not keep the iPhone with AT&T. However, as you stated, previous rumors were a major let down and Apple seems to still be working with AT&T on other things. Why AT&T, I don't know.
I'm glad you got your issues worked out. I, personally, still don't like the idea of having a plan with them. I think I'm going to go for an Android phone....
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