adding iphone plan in one state to a family plan in another state

[actorkid]

so, i guess this doesnt have the MOST to do with the iphone, but this forum is definitely more active than att's and you guys are way more helpful as well...


so heres the deal. As of right now i have an individual iPhone plan...it has a new york number

my family, who lives in florida have a family plan. All of those numbers are florida numbers (although they have different area codes)

Both my account and my families account are under the same name and billing info

I want to know if it's possible to add my new york number to the florida family plan without changing my number....it saves so much money that way, but i can not and will not change my number


i hope this was clear. and thanks in advance!

 

[jsfpa]

I have a similar situation and asked ATT the same question. The answer was "no". This was just a sales rep at the ATT store so he may not know what he's talking about but I have a feeling he was correct.

 

[iUser0001]

No

I live in San Jose and had a family plan with my wife with local numbers. I wanted to add my mom in Florida to our family plan and give her a Florida area code. They said no. The phones have to be within the same region or something like that. You can have different area codes though.

 

[calvy]

No, you can't do this. Your phone number has to be from the area code from which you are billed.

 

[danny_w]

Yeah, it really stinks that at&t doesn't support this. I know that Sprint does allow it, and I suspect that others do as well. At&t just wants your money.

 

[simplemind]

I had the same situation with my folks, I lived in Utah and they were in Idaho, when we switched over they said there was no way for my parents to keep their Idaho area code due to Idaho and Utah being in different regions.
Really long story short, AT&T CAN do this, I got a customer sales rep that was WILLING to help me out, after 2 days and 2 sim cards later, she turned my account into a corporate account that utilizes the family plan pricing structure. so now my parents still have their Idaho numbers with my Utah number. I am also getting my new 3GS tomorrow with a Minnesota number

It can be done, just need to talk to people who will help you out, and they are getting harder and harder to find at AT&T

 

[Michael CM1]

You have to be in the same area code, or at least a region like Atlanta that is served by about 4 different area codes. This keeps all cell phone companies from losing about 80 percent of their revenue because EVERYBODY would be on a cell phone plan with their parents, aunts and uncles.

 

[danny_w]

You have to be in the same area code, or at least a region like Atlanta that is served by about 4 different area codes. This keeps all cell phone companies from losing about 80 percent of their revenue because EVERYBODY would be on a cell phone plan with their parents, aunts and uncles.

See posts #5 and #6. It CAN be done. At&t just doesn't want to do it, just like they won't let you drop your data plan even on a 2G iPhone that is past the contract end.

 

[Felder71]

Sheesh, I never thought about that. Sprint doesn't care that we have 5 phones with 4 different area codes on a family plan. After all, we are all family. If I take a phone number with the area code of the billing address (same as my father), will they know the difference if I'm always using it elsewhere? I really don't care what my phone number is in this age of free long distance.

 

[kyleaa]

Verizon also has this restriction. I have an AT&T family plan with different area codes, but they are in the same "region" (i don't know how AT&T defines regions). I asked in the store and they said they can do about 2 major cities (area codes) away.

 

[iHosehead]

I had the same situation with my folks, I lived in Utah and they were in Idaho, when we switched over they said there was no way for my parents to keep their Idaho area code due to Idaho and Utah being in different regions.
Really long story short, AT&T CAN do this, I got a customer sales rep that was WILLING to help me out, after 2 days and 2 sim cards later, she turned my account into a corporate account that utilizes the family plan pricing structure. so now my parents still have their Idaho numbers with my Utah number. I am also getting my new 3GS tomorrow with a Minnesota number

It can be done, just need to talk to people who will help you out, and they are getting harder and harder to find at AT&T

I'm going to try the same route you did. I'll stick firm and try several people until I get someone who will help me. Are there any specifics about how you did this that could help? Did you ask for supervisors right away? How did you respond when they said no?

My goal will be to just ask nicely again..again..again..again..again..again...from rep to supervisor to rep to supervisor to rep to supervisor until I get someone with an ounce of ability to make things happen.

Any other advice would be appreciated. So sad that just to get actual customer service you have to persist until it costs them more money talking to you than to fix the problem.

 

[deannnnn]

I am on my grandparents family plan. They live in Orlando, FL with 772 area codes. I technically live in Ft. Lauderdale, FL (although I am in New York for about 9 months of the year for college) with a 954 area code and they let me join the family plan two years ago no problem.

EDIT: Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale are 4 hours apart... In my mind, it's a whole 'nother world but AT&T could see it as the same region, hah.

 

[Michael CM1]

See posts #5 and #6. It CAN be done. At&t just doesn't want to do it, just like they won't let you drop your data plan even on a 2G iPhone that is past the contract end.

I'm just hoping they'll let a friend use the 2G data plan ($20) on my old phone so I can sell it to him.

 

[simplemind]

I'm going to try the same route you did. I'll stick firm and try several people until I get someone who will help me. Are there any specifics about how you did this that could help? Did you ask for supervisors right away? How did you respond when they said no?

My goal will be to just ask nicely again..again..again..again..again..again...from rep to supervisor to rep to supervisor to rep to supervisor until I get someone with an ounce of ability to make things happen.

Any other advice would be appreciated. So sad that just to get actual customer service you have to persist until it costs them more money talking to you than to fix the problem.

from my experience, the AT&T corp. stores were no help at all, in fact, down right @$$es about it. I called 4-5 times to 611 and finally got some super nice older lady, explained my situation and stated that I was going to have to go back to being a Sprint customer if ma bell could not do something that Sprint does without question, she then told me she would get this fixed... it ultimately took 2 days to get engineering and my CSR to finally "fix" the issue, (I even had to pick up 2 new sim cards at my local store throughout this ordeal) and I cant remember if I had to fill out an "application" for a corporate account or not, but if I did, it was no big deal. I wish I would have kept her contact information, I just remember her name "Donna" and I did not ask to speak with supervisors at any time.

hope this helps out, best of luck and let us know if you get it taken care of!

 

[iHosehead]

from my experience, the AT&T corp. stores were no help at all, in fact, down right @$$es about it. I called 4-5 times to 611 and finally got some super nice older lady, explained my situation and stated that I was going to have to go back to being a Sprint customer if ma bell could not do something that Sprint does without question, she then told me she would get this fixed... it ultimately took 2 days to get engineering and my CSR to finally "fix" the issue, (I even had to pick up 2 new sim cards at my local store throughout this ordeal) and I cant remember if I had to fill out an "application" for a corporate account or not, but if I did, it was no big deal. I wish I would have kept her contact information, I just remember her name "Donna" and I did not ask to speak with supervisors at any time.

hope this helps out, best of luck and let us know if you get it taken care of!

So my wife and I got our iPhones yesterday. It was no problem to get my local number ported over from T-mobile. But my wife's number which is in another region...was not easy. I was flat out told several times that it was not possible. The only solution was to contact relocation services with AT&T and have them work with the porting guys and set her up with her own separate account under a number local to her existing number. Then she ported her existing T-mobile number replacing the temporary one....what a MESS. I was still told that we could not combine our accounts because they are in two different regions.....unless it was a corporate account. So I said," lets just make it a corporate account" I was told unless I have my own business..with a tax ID number etc... that couldn't happen.

So in final...did you have to supply a business to get a corporate account? Is there any way around this? I figure it just takes the right person to enter the right fields into the computer to make it happen. I am completely frustrated with AT&T!!!! any help would be great.