Last month I got on here with the purpose of lowering my bill, because my brother is with T-mobile and he only pays $60/mo and has unlimited everything, and I was paying $100+/mo for mine. I have been with AT&T for over 6 years and have had a very good experience with them, that is, until a couple of days ago.
I logged on to my account online and started chatting with a very nice customer service rep and explained to her what I was trying to do, I was VERY clear and said to her three times: "I need to lower my bill but I do not want to give up my unlimited data", she suggested switching to one of the mobile Value share plans BUT I would have to give up my unlimited data, which I DID NOT want to do, so I told her I needed the cheapest plan that would let me keep my unlimited data AGAIN, she walked me through the process of choosing a new plan and she mentioned that I was able to upgrade to a new phone for free, which I thought it was pretty cool. When I got to the last page where you review the changes you are about to make, a summary with a monthly estimate appeared, showing that my bill was going to go down from $100+ to $67.50, what a deal!, the customer service rep mentioned that taxes and junk fees still needed to be added, I was still okay with paying $70+ a month instead of $110, she said that by switching to this new plan I was definitely going to save money.
I went ahead and paid for the taxes on the new phone since the device itself was "free". The following day I checked my bill overview to see if the changes have taken place, I didn't see anything and once again, I used the live chat service and chatted with a CS rep and he told me that it could take up to 48 hours to see the changes on their website. A couple of days later I get an e-mail, showing the summary of the changes I had made, I didn't have a chance to look at it because I had to go out of town that day and was busy getting everything ready for my trip. I was not concerned because in my mind I knew what those changes were. I get back from my trip a week and a half later, I looked at that summary and see that the total due monthly was not going to be $67.50 plus taxes and junk fees, but $89 plus taxes and junk fees INSTEAD, putting my bill to around $90+ maybe $100, so I was not really saving any money! I decided to go to check my bill online and I couldn't find ANY of the changes I had made listed under my account overview, except to my surprise I was only signed on to their "AT&T Next upgrade plan", in which I am supposed to pay installments of $32.50 a month, but everything else on my account overview was exactly the same as it was before, when I spoke with a CS rep on their live chat, she informed me that IF I had made those changes, they were not made successfully so everything she could see on their system was that I added the "Next upgrade" which meant that my bill was actually going to be not $90+ but $126 and some cents a month!! I almost had a heart attack, I explained to her that I had e-mails that AT&T had sent me and that they showed lower amounts due monthly, she went on to apologize for the misunderstanding but that there was nothing she could do, my bill was going to be $126+ a month, period, I told her that they needed to honor that since they put it in writing in an e-mail and that I had proof of it, all she said was "sorry for the misunderstanding but the system shows your next bill will be $126+" basically, telling me she didn't give a flying fig about what AT&T had put in writing, that they would NOT honor it. She not only informed me that the changes were not made sucessfully, but she went on to tell me that she could see on the system that I personally had gone to my local AT&T store and that they had signed me up for their Next upgrade service, which it NEVER happened, I told her I had made all the changes to my plan online and that one of their CS reps walked me through the process, that the same CS rep said I had the option to pick up my new phone at the local AT&T store instead of having it shipped, and that is all I did, I did pick up my phone at my local store but I NEVER had them sign me up for their AT&T Next upgrade service. This rep went on to suggest I was making this up because as she said "we don't offer the option to pick up your phone at the store through the "Next upgrade" service, these phones are always shipped".
I decided to call AT&T CS and talk to them instead because I was going to have a heart attack if I kept chatting with that girl on their live chat, but the guy on the phone made things even worse, he told me that was the amount I was going to be charged on my next bill and there was nothing he could do about it, he said that I was the one who made the decision to go and upgrade my phone through their "Next" service, so $126+ was going to be due next month AND on top of that I could NOT cancel the service because the 14 days "buyers remorse" period had expired so I was stuck with it.
I cannot believe, for the life of me that AT&T would do something like this, I have been a customer of theirs for over 6 years and this is all I get as a thank you for being a loyal customer? they will NOT honor the e-mails they sent me, they just apologize for "misunderstandings", how can one misunderstand something that has been put in writing? I wish someone in upper management would contact me and help me with this problem because this is an outrage, AT&T emplyees are talking people into using their "Next upgrade" service without us fully understanding that we are actually going to be paying more a month when all we want is to lower our monthly bills.
I have two different e-mails from AT&T showing what my new monthly charges should be, you should honor them.
Sincerely,
J.V.