I would like to thank AT&T and the highly trained representatives who take my calls when I need help or have questions for lying to me. I feel this is a great way to treat your customers, and keep loyal to a brand that only seems to be concerned with how much money they can take from customers while giving them less. I have been an AT&T customer for six years, and for the most part a satisfied customer. Over time AT&T has had its ups and downs with throttling my data speeds and when it came to the network, but they told us, the customer, it would be fixed, and it was. At the beginning of 2014 I was paying $220 a month for a Family Talk Nation plan, unlimited text, a small data plan for one line and two grandfathered unlimited data plans for iPhones and the fourth line is an old flip phone with no data. I was ok with that, the bill was a little high but it was the same every month and I never had to worry about going over on anything. In February I was sent some emails, some flyers in the mail, and even a promo text about the Mobile Share plans. Four lines with ten gigs of shared data, unlimited talk & text for $160 a month, not a bad deal. That’s a $60 savings, its worth looking into. I started by checking my data usage for the last year, in that time my two unlimited data plans together only went over ten gigs once, most of the time all the total data usage on my account was about six gigs a month. So my next question was will I have to use the AT&T Next plan to upgrade with this Mobile Share package? I do not like the concept of paying a monthly fee to lease the phone and giving it back to get another. I like the $99 or $199 upgrade charge and just renew your contract no change to the monthly bill. To get this answered I called customer service, after letting them give me the sales pitch for Mobile Share I asked about how the upgrade works, do have to use the AT&T Next program? I was told no, I could just pay the upgrade cost of the phone (the $99 or $199 depending on the phone) and renew my agreement for that line and I would be all set with no changes to the Mobile Share plan and no changes to my bill. Sounds great, save $60 a month, while keeping the service I have been with for six years. I have been waiting for the iPhone 6 to be released to upgrade three of the four lines on my account (one line is eligible now, one on 9/22, and one in feb next year). Recently I was on vacation in Texas and went walking into the ocean with my iPhone in my pocket, DERP! My bad. Went to the local AT&T Corporate Store to go ahead and upgrade to an iPhone 5C so I will not be without a phone. That’s where I found out the AT&T reps lied to me about my bill. I was told I have three options:
Option 1
Join AT&T Next at $22-$32 a month more per line (depending on the phone) that makes it $88-$128 more a month for all four lines + the $160 I am already paying, totaling $248-$288 a month for my bill.
Option 2
Pay the $99-$199 fee for the phone, renew my contract, and lose the $25 a month credit per line I was getting that made my bill $160 a month. I was NOT told I was getting a credit and that’s why my Mobile Share plan was $160 a month or I would NEVER have signed up for it. So by doing things this way my bill will be $260 a month after upgrading all four lines and paying for the upgrade.
Option 3
Do nothing and pay full price for new smart phones at $600+ each per line.
This is the worst business plan I have ever seen, all I want is to have my old plan reinstated I will gladly pay the $220 a month again to have the option of upgrading my line every 18-24 months. Had the agent answered my questions honestly I would never have switched, my next switch will be to a new carrier! I called a rep and explained the situation, he opened a case for me to get my old plan back and it was refused. I am so frustrated and upset with AT&T and its reps for lying to me I am not 100% sure even if they gave me back my old plan that I will stay.
William