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Is this AT&T rep lying to me?

mrat93

mrat93

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 30, 2006
2,353
3,419
There's a Nokia 2330 for $7.99 at wireless.att.com. I want to use this as a phone to take to concerts and other places where it can potentially be harmed. I have another prepaid phone from over three years ago that I use for the same purpose, but the 2330 has a camera whereas my current one doesn't. I just wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be charged anything if I don't use the SIM they provide me.

I used their live help tool to get some questions answered.

Michael: Hi, I'm looking at the prepaid Nokia 2330 GoPhone for $7.99.
Michael: I want to use this as a backup phone in case my normal phone fails for whatever reason. If I purchase this phone, but never use it with the SIM card supplied with it, will I receive any bill of any sort?
Annie: I'd be happy to assist you with your inquiry.
Annie: Pay as you go service does not run on contract so you do not have to worry about termination fees or be lock into a contract.
Michael: Okay, so if I put in my own SIM card immediately, I won't ever be charged for anything?
Annie: The GoPhone will have it's own sim card and number with it as contract services are separate from Pay as you go.
Annie: Once you activate your $25 pre-paid card, you'll have 90 days till it expires.
Michael: I understand that. I just want to be positive that if I put my own current SIM card in the GoPhone, that there will be no additional charges over the cost of the phone.
Annie: May I first ask if you are currently an AT&T wireless subscriber?
Michael: Yes.
Annie: Do you currently have a contract with us?
Michael: Yes, I do.
Annie: The rates plans you have on your Post Paid account are tied to your sim card that you are using.
Annie: If you lose your phone, you can replace it with our Wireless Insurance instead.
Annie: You can still purchase a Pay as you go GoPhone and plan on the side if you don't mind using a different number for your back up phone.
Annie: Have you already found everything that you are looking for?
Michael: No, I want to be able to remove the SIM card from my current phone, and put it in the Nokia 2330 so I can use the same number.
Michael: Can I do that?
Annie: I'm afraid not.
Michael: But I have another phone that I do it with. Why wouldn't this work?
Annie: Our GoPhones are designed to work with Pay as you go service only.
Michael: I have an iPhone 3GS that I don't want to risk taking taking to concerts or other places where it can be harmed. I got a GoPhone about a year ago for this purpose, and it works fine the way I described.
Annie: We do not have information to the sim card compatibilities on a GoPhone, you are welcome to try putting your sim card into the GoPhone if you wish.
Click to expand...

Since she didn't give me a definite answer, can somebody else? If I buy this phone as pay as you go, but never use the SIM, will I be charged anything other than the cost of the phone? Thanks.
 
since the go phone is not subsidized i cannot see any reason why they would charge you extra money.
 
A while back when I had my iPhone (original 2G), I was prevented from taking it into my workspace (due to the camera). I bought a cheap GoPhone and every morning when I got to work, I popped the SIM card out of my iPhone and put it in the GoPhone, leaving my iPhone turned off and locked in my car. I never activated the GoPhone SIM and didn't have any issues using my iPhone SIM.

But that was two years ago...
 
To Eldiablojoe,

I have not ever had any problem with AT&T reps in any store I've gone to. I don't see where she was lying, she may have been mistaken but that is all. How could she lie when she didn't give the OP the direct answer he was looking for. That is why he posted on here.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

She told you what she is trained to tell you. She's just doing her job. Technically you are not supposed to do this. The whole reason they sell the pay as you go phones is so you ....you know... Pay as you go. There is no contract to sign, so once you buy the phone, it is essentially the same as any other GSM phone. If you can put a sim card in it, it will work with that sim's phone number.
 
LMAO
Eldiablojoe said:
If the AT&T Rep's lips are moving, there's a very good chance they're lying.
Click to expand...

anyways OP, you won't get charged anymore than you normally would be for your iPhone because like the rep said your sim card is tied to your number which is tied to your phone bill. so no worries! when I had t-evil, I was switching between sidekicks, blackberries, and dumb phones with no problem.
 
strange I didn't know this was an AT&T forum

damn I wish, oh do I wish that somewhere online there was a place where I could ask support questions on an AT&T forum

:rolleyes:
 
ItsJustafnPhone said:
strange I didn't know this was an AT&T forum

damn I wish, oh do I wish that somewhere online there was a place where I could ask support questions on an AT&T forum

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

People like you are annoying. Come into a thread to add absolutely nothing useful. What's the point? Didn't know this was a add nothing use to the thread forum.


To answer the OPs question though as I did basically the same.

Yes, you can put your iPhone sim in the gophone (although some gophones use a standard size sim. in that case you'd need an adapter most likely)
No, you won't see any charges or account changes at all.

Here is what I did.

When I first got my iPhone 4. After a couple weeks I was going to return it. However, I already sold my 3GS. I wasn't sure what permanent phone I wanted so in between I wanted to get a cheap gophone. I got one. Just put my iPhone sim in it and it worked.

No account changes, plan changes or anything occurred.

I ended up keeping my iPhone, but till this day I still use the nokia as a backup when needed.
 
ItsJustafnPhone said:
strange I didn't know this was an AT&T forum

damn I wish, oh do I wish that somewhere online there was a place where I could ask support questions on an AT&T forum

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Stop it. :rolleyes: There is an ignore feature, learn to use it or express some self control by not clicking on threads that CLEARLY highlight AT&T as being the potential issue outlined in the post.


OP, it sounds like she is not quite correct about what she is saying. I wouldn't say she is lying, I'd say she's just stupid.
 
You can get a lot better phones off of eBay for not a whole lot too, just something else to consider. I use a Q9h (that I love) as my backup (and for tethering), load that thing up with opera mini and some other things and you are good to go. That and if you have exchange, itl be synced upseiche after it gets on the network. Only paid fifty bucks for it.
 
Yes, you can take your SIM card from your iPhone 3G/3GS and put it into a AT&T Go Phone.
I've done it with my son's phone before. His go phone was not the Nokia you're speaking of, but switching it out worked fine for us. We were not charged anything extra since we did not activate the go phone sim card.
 
I work at an AT&T store so let me clearify for you!

yes you can put your SIM card in ANY AT&T phone and use it just as your original phone/plan. We actually tell this to customers constantly, especially if they have a broken phone and aren't enrolled in wireless insurance and aren't due for an upgrade because go phone prices are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than buying a phone outright. The only problem you might run into is if you have an Iphone4 it is the ONLY phone right now that uses a MICRO sim card so you would have to buy a micro sim adapter to make it fit into a phone that uses a standard sim card, but if you don't have the IP4 then you should be just fine!

hope this helps!
 
Hells yea you can do it. I work for a government contractor that handles mobile phone for government entities. Its tiring activating phones all day, the best part is having someone with AT&T/TMobile who want to activate a replacement phone.

I don't even make a call to AT&T, I tell them to swap their SIMs and get to hang up :D

It's a beautiful thing.
 
I overheard a conversation about this when I was at wal-mart not too long ago. There was a lady who broke her phone and it wasn't insured so she was looking for a cheap solution. The guy at walmart said that basically at&t doesn't like contract customers buying go phones and putting their sim cards in them because they would rather have them replace the phones through them at a higher price and possible contract extension...however there isn't anything to prevent people from doing it.

You shouldn't be charged any extra money.
 
jessica. said:
Stop it. :rolleyes: There is an ignore feature, learn to use it or express some self control by not clicking on threads that CLEARLY highlight AT&T as being the potential issue outlined in the post.


OP, it sounds like she is not quite correct about what she is saying. I wouldn't say she is lying, I'd say she's just stupid.
Click to expand...

OneMike said:
People like you are annoying. Come into a thread to add absolutely nothing useful. What's the point? Didn't know this was a add nothing use to the thread forum.


To answer the OPs question though as I did basically the same.

Yes, you can put your iPhone sim in the gophone (although some gophones use a standard size sim. in that case you'd need an adapter most likely)
No, you won't see any charges or account changes at all.

Here is what I did.

When I first got my iPhone 4. After a couple weeks I was going to return it. However, I already sold my 3GS. I wasn't sure what permanent phone I wanted so in between I wanted to get a cheap gophone. I got one. Just put my iPhone sim in it and it worked.

No account changes, plan changes or anything occurred.

I ended up keeping my iPhone, but till this day I still use the nokia as a backup when needed.
Click to expand...


Dear MacRumors, I bought a Sony Erricson W995 Phone at AT&T and somehow the Bluetooth function doesn't work ?

as you can see

Both my question and the OP's

Have absolutely nothing to do with the iPhone!

Gee i wonder if there is a Forum I could find answers to..
:Google search:
http://forums.se-nse.net/index.php?act=home

http://forums.se-nse.net/topic/52984-w995-bluetooth-wont-connect/

Boy that was hard, I had no Idea I could find Sony Erricson answers in a Sony Erricson forum :rolleyes:
 
If you follow any of the instructions in the box with regards to prepaid activation, the IMEI and the prepaid SIM become locked to one another.

If you just open the box, pop your SIM in, you'll be fine. If you register that IMEI, you'll also get those included bonus minutes applied as Rollover minutes to your account.
 
nixiemaiden said:
I overheard a conversation about this when I was at wal-mart not too long ago. There was a lady who broke her phone and it wasn't insured so she was looking for a cheap solution. The guy at walmart said that basically at&t doesn't like contract customers buying go phones and putting their sim cards in them because they would rather have them replace the phones through them at a higher price and possible contract extension...however there isn't anything to prevent people from doing it.

You shouldn't be charged any extra money.
Click to expand...

That Walmart guy should stick to working at Walmart and not think so much. The GoPhone replacement option is standard practice and policy.
 
TomG, I was just joking. Sorta. I know that they don't ALL lie (there's one somewhere that doesn't) about EVERYthing.

Deeddawg and ghayenga, many people consider lying to be both actively giving false information AND/OR omitting information. Omitting is just as bad.

I believe that BSing is also lying. If I razzle-dazzle you, confuse you, and basically give out ************* information because I'm either ignorant or actively trying to deceive is also lying.

YMMV
 
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