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iPhone FORCIBLY added a DATA PLAN HELP!

X

xmomox

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 26, 2009
8
0
They can do this? I thought they needed your permission first?!

I've been using my iphone for 5months, i bought it from someone else.
No data plan. Then today I woke up with a text message "ATT REQUIRES IPHONE TO HAVE A DATA PLAN WE HAVE ADDED THE NECESSARY PLAN"

Then i tried going on the internet without wifi and it worked!

What do I do?! I can't pay 30$+ a monthD:
 
xmomox said:
They can do this? I thought they needed your permission first?!

I've been using my iphone for 5months, i bought it from someone else.
No data plan. Then today I woke up with a text message "ATT REQUIRES IPHONE TO HAVE A DATA PLAN WE HAVE ADDED THE NECESSARY PLAN"

Then i tried going on the internet without wifi and it worked!

What do I do?! I can't pay 30$+ a monthD:
Click to expand...


You are "supposed" to notify them before adding/swapping a phone.

Somewhere in their terms of service it states that they will do just that if you own an iPhone (or I believe any smartphone) and don't have a dataplan. You have the option to remove the iPhone and the dataplan but if you keep it you're SOL. You obviously "skirted the system" to use it without a data plan. Basically ... "You've been busted!"

Either pay up or get rid of it for a non-smartphone.


TOS: http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/legal/plan-terms.jsp

Data Plans: An eligible data plan is required for certain devices, including iPhones and other designated smartphones. Eligible data plans cover data usage in the U.S. and do not cover international data usage and charges. If it is determined that you are using an iPhone or other designated smartphone without an eligible data plan, AT&T reserves the right to add an eligible data plan to your account and bill you the appropriate monthly fee.
 
They can add it without your permission since the terms at purchase stated that a data plan is required for the iPhone.

If you put your sim in another phone and then call AT&T to have the data plan removed, they will remove it. Once you place the sim in the iPhone, they will add the data plan once again.
 
Hahahahahahaha.

They can't do that to me because I have pay-as-you-go.

Also, to the guy who said to get an iPod touch... an iPod touch can't make phone calls or send text messages from anywhere.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

tctony said:
Get an iPod touch.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree. Get a phone you can afford. They clearly state in the TOS that a data plan is required with an iPhone. If you can't afford the data plan then get a different phone. Whether you think it's fair or not, those are the rules they set.
 
xmomox said:
They can do this? I thought they needed your permission first?!

I've been using my iphone for 5months, i bought it from someone else.
No data plan. Then today I woke up with a text message "ATT REQUIRES IPHONE TO HAVE A DATA PLAN WE HAVE ADDED THE NECESSARY PLAN"

Then i tried going on the internet without wifi and it worked!

What do I do?! I can't pay 30$+ a monthD:
Click to expand...

Go to your AT&T online account and it will show you have the iPhone. They know the instant you put your sims card in it. Pay up!
 
yay for Rogers, they haven't done this to me.

although they know i have an iPhone and no data
 
xmomox said:
They can do this? I thought they needed your permission first?!
Click to expand...

You had to agree to AT&T's terms of service before your account was ever activated. You've also been notified on your bill every time they changed/update the terms, and by keeping your service active you agreed to the new terms. In those terms, you agreed to two important things:

If you use any smartphone you have to have a data plan.
If you start using a smartphone and don't add the data plan, AT&T can add it automatically.

IOW, if you can't afford $30 extra per month, it's time to find another phone.
 
xmomox said:
They can do this? I thought they needed your permission first?!

I've been using my iphone for 5months, i bought it from someone else.
No data plan. Then today I woke up with a text message "ATT REQUIRES IPHONE TO HAVE A DATA PLAN WE HAVE ADDED THE NECESSARY PLAN"

Then i tried going on the internet without wifi and it worked!

What do I do?! I can't pay 30$+ a monthD:
Click to expand...

If you purchased it from Att then they gave a subsidized price and are entitled to require you to maintain a data plan. If, as you said, you purchased the iPhone from someone else then their 2yr contact has ended or they payed the early termination fee...either way they should not be entitled to require you to have a data plan. I purchased an original iPhone when the iPhone 3G was released and was able to call Att and have them block data from the phone. Give Att a call and explain the situation and see what they say.
 
If, as you said, you purchased the iPhone from someone else then their 2yr contact has ended or they payed the early termination fee...either way they should not be entitled to require you to have a data plan.
Click to expand...

Maybe you shouldn't be required to, but you are.
 
Applejuiced said:
They havent done it to a few friends of mine that have been using iphones for a long time without data but could be a sign that they might start soon.
Click to expand...

I've heard of several people having the data plan added on to their iPhone accounts now. I think it started happening around the time that people started using the Nexus one on AT&T. Lots and lots of Nexus users suddenly found themselves with data plans.
 
joebobthehob said:
Maybe you shouldn't be required to, but you are.
Click to expand...

I'm sure they'd rather keep you as a voice only customer than not be a customer at all...it's an unsubsidized phone after all. You shouldn't have to take a data plan, and if they add one threaten to take your business elsewhere. Explain the situation and keep asking for supervisors if the customer service rep isn't able to help you....worked for me.
 
Thanks for all the answers! I'm giving them a call tomorrow since today is easter sunday. I hope i'll be able to keep using the phone! :x
 
So you have been using a device that requires a data plan as per your cell provider's TOS and you're upset that they added it? My advice to you if you want to know what to do is don't buy a phone that has a data plan requirement attached to it.
 
Leet Apple said:
I Don't think they can do that in Canada, Most people i know don't have a Data plan.
Click to expand...

Actually they CAN do that in Canada. You MUST have a data plan for any smart phone that has need to access the internet. For those that have not been charged with a data plan count yourselves lucky I am not sure how you are accessing data or if you are. However for anyone buying a phone that requires data, you must purchase a data plan or they won't allow you to have a contract with either Rogers or Telus. I don't like to include Bell but ... they exist also.

WW
 
Wrathwitch said:
Actually they CAN do that in Canada. You MUST have a data plan for any smart phone that has need to access the internet. For those that have not been charged with a data plan count yourselves lucky I am not sure how you are accessing data or if you are. However for anyone buying a phone that requires data, you must purchase a data plan or they won't allow you to have a contract with either Rogers or Telus. I don't like to include Bell but ... they exist also.

WW
Click to expand...

The point is the carrier can block data access for your smartphone, so you're not accessing any data through their network, at least that's the case for Att.
 
astrorider said:
I'm sure they'd rather keep you as a voice only customer than not be a customer at all...it's an unsubsidized phone after all.
Click to expand...

To be blunt, not really. For every person willing to cancel over a data plan there are about a dozen others who may complain but ultimately are willing to either accept the plan or keep service and go to a different phone.

Besides, it's not like canceling does you any real good - all of the major carriers now require data plans on smartphones.

astrorider said:
You shouldn't have to take a data plan, and if they add one threaten to take your business elsewhere. Explain the situation and keep asking for supervisors if the customer service rep isn't able to help you....worked for me.
Click to expand...

Well let's be clear on one thing from the start - if someone did remove the data plan from your iPhone, they were in violation of policy, because what they had to do was actually remove the iPhone from your line and put in a dummy IMEI number so they could block the data. It violates policy, sure, but you could often get away with it in the past. They didn't start doing sweeps looking for phones in violation of the policy until the end of last year after the general smartphone data plan requirement came into effect, and for whatever reason didn't seem to do many changes to iPHones until the last few months. So if you're still using your phone without the data plan... it's quite likely that you'll end up getting a text message like the OP.

Call and talk to a supervisor all day if you'd like. Even if they block your data, next time the network sweeps your account, it'll slap the data plan right back in place. The sweeps don't give a crap about there being a data block on your account, they only care about the network IMEI that's reporting from the phone you're actually using. Now, if you were using any smartphone other than the iPhone you could try to talk them into giving you an exclusion that would make the sweeps pass you by (it's meant for people who were grandfathered in on Blackberries and etc with no data plans before the policy change), but that exclusion doesn't do jack for the iPhone - iPhones have always been required to carry a data plan.
 
Just use a go-phone sim. You're not under contract so they can't do anything.
 
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