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AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

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Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#101

Post by kokiland »

wikwocket wrote: post #89
rogerbinns wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> their support they have been friendly, competent, and helpful I've been a tmobile customer since 2007. In the middle of last year I took my line from a family plan into an individual plan. That involved speaking to 7 different people (several of whom contradicted each other as they then forwarded me to the next one) and being hung up on 3 times (as they messed up the transfers). Then the bills I started getting wer…

To piggy-back off this: My family left T-Mobile because we didn't get reception in the 1st floor of our house. The last monthly bill was for 8 days of service out of 31, so it should have been prorated, but wasn't - they charged us for the whole month, despite automatically detecting the date we ended service. The rep said that this was just how their "system" handled mid-month terminations. My point is not that T-Mo…

Same here, I canceled my plan mid-month and T-Mobile sent me a bill for the whole month. However, I gave them a call and they simply took the entire month off, I didn't even have to pay for the days of the month I used. I called them again a month later to make sure I don't have any outstanding balance, and my account was all paid off.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#102

Post by X-Istence »

wikwocket wrote: post #89
rogerbinns wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> their support they have been friendly, competent, and helpful I've been a tmobile customer since 2007. In the middle of last year I took my line from a family plan into an individual plan. That involved speaking to 7 different people (several of whom contradicted each other as they then forwarded me to the next one) and being hung up on 3 times (as they messed up the transfers). Then the bills I started getting wer…

To piggy-back off this: My family left T-Mobile because we didn't get reception in the 1st floor of our house. The last monthly bill was for 8 days of service out of 31, so it should have been prorated, but wasn't - they charged us for the whole month, despite automatically detecting the date we ended service. The rep said that this was just how their "system" handled mid-month terminations. My point is not that T-Mo…

Yeah, I switched to AT&T from T-Mobile and T-Mobile charged me for the whole upcoming month even though I made sure to switch over on the last day of my billing cycle. It was cheaper for me to just pay it then fight it...

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#103

Post by ewillbefull »

kevingadd wrote: post #53
ewillbefull wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you've got a GSM phone with the right radio bands, I suggest taking a look at the $30 plans here: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans Keep in mind the top $30 plan (unlimited data) requires you to activate a new phone that you have to buy from Walmart.

Not accurate, actually, though I understand your confusion. I ordered a SIM from them a few weeks ago (on the website) and then activated my phone with one of those plans. No Walmart.

Went to T-Mobile store friday, they sold me a microsim for my nexus 4 and told me to go to the walmart down the street to activate the $30 plan. I tried calling customer support but they also told me to go to walmart to get the plan.

I get to walmart and they tell me I have to buy one of their shitty phones to activate the plan. I call customer support again and asked if I could return the sim I bought at the store, and they said "it depends on the store."

Lied to and pissed off customer here. Just ordered a sim online and we'll see how that goes. I'm going to try to get a refund for this card anyway.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#105

Post by seanmcdirmid »

illuminate wrote: post #94
aneth4 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AT&T is a company providing a service for a price. They are not scum. I've used AT&T for many years. I'm not always delighted with every policy - the now changed policy of refusing to unlock out of contract iPhones was a particular bone. However I have almost always been satisfied with the service and have had no problem contacting them to correct billing issues. Why people feel entitled to services at the price they…

"Why people feel entitled to services at the price they choose is beyond me." Sometimes, it's crazy, but people expect real competition versus oligopolists that mostly collude between themselves and show zero concern for regulatory action.

I pay about $14 a month for 800 talk minutes and 300mb data. There is real competition in a few countries, we should expect that in the free market USA.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#106

Post by DanBC »

RobotCaleb wrote: post #61
timcederman wrote: post #56

What's with the svbtle ripoff?

What's with the only comments where I hear someone complain about a website looking like another website only ever asking about svbtle? What's so special about that site? Or in sites looking similar in the first place?

Dustin Curtis posts here. He made an unfortunate post announcing svbtle, which annoyed a few people. One of them made a svbtle rip off.

(http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3742314)

(http://dcurt.is/codename-svbtle)

(http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3744237)

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#107

Post by yozmsn »

US Cellular has the exact opposite policy, you have to back their rep in a corner to admit it, but he'll say that you can get any phone you want from them, subsidized or not and cancel the data plan within the first month (when you get the phone, online at least you need to sign up for a plan, but after you can call them up).

The trouble with USC is that they're a regional carrier, and they really only support the upper midwest, though their national plan uses Verizon/Sprint's network when you leave their coverage area.

If that works for you, I'd highly suggest you look into a plan, they don't do the iPhone, but they do have free incoming and other fun stuff.

I know this because I'm with USC right now and was attempting to force them into giving me a free GSIII without data, and they said, the data thing is really just a strong suggestion, "our customers call to complain that their 'phones don't work' and often it's because they wanna use the internet without a wifi signal, so we kinda 'mandate' a data plan that you can opt-out of" He did repeatedly say that the phone might not work predictably without a data plan, I told him that was okay, I was up to the task.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#108

Post by ISL »

boushley wrote: post #77

Have you looked into ting? (ting.com) They currently only have android, and they are just using Sprint's network but they are month to month and it is super easy to turn off data.

Super pleased with Ting. They won't work with OP's AT&T phone, but their service is good-enough. Especially for voice, where the Sprint service roams on Verizon.

After a 2-3 month trial, I've switched everything to Ting (and bought stock in Tucows). Ting's rate plan and philosophy, or something similar, is the future. Just so long as Sprint doesn't kill them off....

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#110

Post by DanBC »

aneth4 wrote: post #79
kevingadd wrote: post #3

AT&T are scum and this sort of stuff is standard practice with them. You shouldn't be giving them your money if you can avoid it. If you've got a GSM phone with the right radio bands, I suggest taking a look at the $30 plans here: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans For CDMA I believe Sprint and Verizon offer prepaid plans without contracts at around $50 for talk/data. The key is that IMO, a prepaid p…

AT&T is a company providing a service for a price. They are not scum. I've used AT&T for many years. I'm not always delighted with every policy - the now changed policy of refusing to unlock out of contract iPhones was a particular bone. However I have almost always been satisfied with the service and have had no problem contacting them to correct billing issues. Why people feel entitled to services at the price they…

> the now changed policy of refusing to unlock out of contract iPhones was a particular bone

> Telecom is a competitive market.

Can you appreciate the dissonance between these two statements?

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