Just a reminder: AT&T are liars, clowns, and untrustworthy (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

I didn't realize the infrastructure differences were so significant:
http://www.bgr.com/2012/08/31/lte-iphone-hurts-att-helps-verizon/
Also, as is you needed more evidence, if you missed this fun little nugget last week from these jokers:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/08/att-wont-charge-for-facetime-over-3g-but-will-require-shared-data/
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/22/att-defends-facetime-over-3g-decision-says-it-isnt-violating-net-neutrality/
http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/22/3260024/at-t-responds-predictably-to-facetime-controversy-says-claims-of-fcc

 

[schan1269]

I have Tmobile phone and Sprint unlimited internet...
Tmobile seems to be "2nd best everywhere"....which is good enough for me. I travel to 5 different cities and my phone always seems to work. There is only one place it doesn't, but neither does Sprint or AT&T. It is my uncles house southwest of Bloomington, IN. The only thing that works(barely) is VZW.
I've had Sprint so long I'm grandfathered into a $60/month unlimited plan. I'm dreading the day I have to "upgrade"...
Yes the CS of Sprint as laughable...but I don't have a phone, so I don't have to deal with call quality.

 

[Sam Posten]

This is more common that you'd suspect:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/13/dear-att-take-your-iphone-5-and-shove-it-up-your-a
It sounds like a game for them. Promise that they've actually done some change to your account, don't do it, and then have to escalate 4 supervisors to fix it when it goes wrong.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Pretty poorly presented by the writer though.

I was expecting a totally different outcome. And, I bet he pre-ordered his iPhone 5 from AT&T on Friday.

Frankly, I thought the outcome of his situation was much better than what I originally thought it was going to be.

I DO know that if I had been the customer in that situation, I would NOT have been satisfied with a text message saying the "issue has been resolved." I would have verified it by calling them back.

I've been an AT&T customer since my first foray into cell phones (they were Cingular back then) probably about 12 years ago or so.

I cannot remember any big problem I've ever had with them all that time...but, then again, I have never been a very "adventurous" cell phone user.

I read the posts of people here about the things they do with their phones... The parts that I understand amaze me...and then there's most of the rest of it.

 

[schan1269]

Want to talk "issues abroad" using a phone...
My cousin went for a month to Italy and Croatia(and all points between)...
Has Sprint and "forgot" to get an international plan...
Came home to a $3400 bill. Good thing she was there for "work" and got to take it off her taxes...

 

[mattCR]

That guy is an idiot. AT&T and Verizon tell you up front that their international plan is only a DISCOUNT against billable phone minutes, not that your minutes transfer. For example, in Vietnam, we get hit about $3/min talk time. So, as a company, I've repeatedly seen $1,200-$2,000 phone bills. Just part of the way it works. And to say "verizon wouldn't do it" are you kidding me? I've had Verizon international billing that was $3k+ in South America or other places abroad.

Your international data is fairly limited, international text coverage isn't always handled, and international phone is at a "discount" against full roaming rates, but it's billed added on to your account.
Sorry, if you don't read through your contract agreement, that's on you.

 

[Sam Posten]

You may be right Matt, I haven't traveled internationally in many years now. But... It doesn't sound like this is his first rodeo, he has done this before and whatever he tried to do wasn't applied at all....

 

[Sam Posten]

What's your take on this, Matt?
http://bullishcross.com/2012/09/how-att-paid-me-173-82-to-go-to-verizon/

 

[DaveF]

I've dealt with equivalent customer service cluelessness with vzw. It's no surprise that you get weird and inconsistent results if you harangue multiple people at a large company.
On the basic complaint of the author, I didn't understand it. He could spend $500 and stay with AT&T, or spend $520 to switch to vzw. Maybe AT&T has goofed pricing. But it was still more expensive to switch (until a cs rep got confused and made a billing error)

 

[Ted Todorov]

So speaking of travel, I went through the iPhone unlock process with AT&T with my (long out of contract) iPhone 3GS before our last trip, they promised that it was now unlocked, I just had to connect it to iTunes… and fortunately the day before leaving, we had a friend with a T-Mobile phone over for dinner, and sure enough the T-Mobile SIM didn't work. When we got back, I checked with an Apple Store "Genius" and he confirmed that Apple had not received an unlock request for my phone's IMEI from AT&T, which is how the unlock procedure works.

Don't know if AT&T purposely lied or were simply incompetent.

The question for anyone traveling should be: is Verizon going to offer the same unlock u​pon request for travelers for the iPhone 5 that it offers for the 4S -- if so, I'd say it is a no brainer go with Verizon.

So far as LTE, I was visiting a friend in West Orange, NJ and did a "new" iPad speedtest on AT&T LTE there and got 55.63Mbps down, 20.21 Mbps up -- 3 times faster than his Verizon FIOS, faster than my TWC DOCSIS 3.0 at home. (My second best LTE score was 39 down, 20.6 up in SF). Now I suspect that these numbers will come crashing down once the millions of iPhone 5s hit AT&Ts LTE network and crush its anemic backhaul -- but in theory at least I think AT&T's LTE network is faster than Verizon's and you can talk/use data at the same time with it.

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten /t/319145/just-a-reminder-at-t-are-liars-clowns-and-untrustworthy#post_3976729
What's your take on this, Matt?
http://bullishcross.com/2012/09/how-att-paid-me-173-82-to-go-to-verizon/

Yeah, this also happens a lot. We just went through this with an executive.. he wasn't elible on Verizon.. so full price only ($599). But, breaking Contract for him? $125. So, AT&T's same model phone $399. Breaking Contract and switching him saved us money.
It's the dumb nature of the phone companies. (BTW, he was with ATT on the last cycle, switched to Verizon to get the 4S, and will switch back to get the 5.. )

Phone companies, in general, are dumb.

In regards to "not his first rodeo" I get that, but depends on where you are. Some people don't realize the wildly different rates even on the discount plan around the world. I gave the example of Vietnam at $3 on ATT (and the same on Verizon) but try Malaysia.. it skyrockets, depending on which carrier you get up to $6/min. Your plan abroad just gets you a discount. Verizon sells international data in 125Mb/250Mb/800Mb (so does ATT) and 800Mb? about $299 a month. So most people take the 125Mb.. but you want to know how fast that goes ? All it takes is someone to pop open pandora or play 1 video and you are screwed.

I tell most people if they are going abroad: wifi is your friend, make calls using land lines if possible, and if you have WiFi, use SKYPE over your cell carrier!

 

[Sam Posten]

Thanks Matt!

 

[Carlo_M]

Ugh - I'm one of those unhappy AT&T customers and was really looking at the 5 as my ticket to switching. But these factors are shackling me to AT&T:
1. Grandfathered unlimited plan - yes I get that I'm throttled after 3GB but I never get there
2. 15% discount for work (not available for any other carrier).
I know the answer to #1-2 are "well if you don't go over 3GB then unlimited data isn't really important, just switch to Verizon at 2GB (I usually average under 1GB in data usage monthly). However with the discount for work, I pay $77 net after taxes and everything else, for 450/5000 minutes, 1000 texts and unlimited data. Even with a 1GB plan I am at over $100 for Verizon (+ taxes and fees will be more like $110). So I would be getting less data for nearly $35 more a month! And then you have to add:
3. No simultaneous data and voice over Verizon.
Double ugh. I can't make the figures add up to switch over. Can anyone convince me to switch? My apartment isn't quite a dead zone, but I often get 1-2 bars and if I go to my kitchen I tend to get dropped calls. I don't have LTE experience, does that signal penetrate deeper into buildings than 3G? L.A. is an LTE market for both VZ and AT&T.
Thanks!

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Our users were given a choice of AT&T or Verizon and so far it's running 10 to 1 in AT&T's favor.

 

[Sam Posten]

Sneaky:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/23/4358926/att-mobility-administrative-fee

 

[TonyD]

So a new fee pops up out of the blue.I guess this isn't something that allows me to break my contract under the terms I agreed to

 

[Sam Posten]

That's a very good question, but I believe the answer is NO because it is "below the line" and not above it. Which sucks.

 

[Carlo_M]

the move will net AT&T hundreds of millions of dollars — somewhere around half a billion dollars, in fact

So I'm just going to assume they'll put most of that into infrastructure and bandwidth support and I'll soon be getting five bars of LTE reception (instead of the spotty reception I get now) out in the small boondock town I live in called...Los Angeles.

 

[Sam Posten]

Assclowns:http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/att-plans-on-selling-your-data-to-advertisers-heres-how-to-opt-out

 

[KeithAP]

Assclowns:
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/att-plans-on-selling-your-data-to-advertisers-heres-how-to-opt-out

Anonymised data? That is what people should be up in arms about these days? LOL. Given every major company offering free services over the internet (email, social networking, etc) is doing far worse, not to mention what our government is doing, getting up in arms about this is beyond silly.

The first thing that writer should have done is attempted to contact AT&T and get information about how they anonymize their data. He probably would not have gotten very far but at least he would have then appeared to actually care about important issues rather than just being another alarmist blogger fishing for clicks.

-Keith