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AT&T $18.00 Upgrade Fee

M

martiansoldier

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 12, 2010
363
82
Was on the phone with AT&T Enterprise CC to get my data plan changed to the 4S data plan and I requested if they would waive my upgrade fee like they always have in the past. The lady on the phone told me that AT&T has stopped doing that as of last week and the only way they would waive upgrade fees is if the corporate discount allowed for it.

Has anyone had their $18.00 upgrade fees waived in the past week?
 
I have a ATT Business premier account. I got two iphone4S which both charged me 18 activation each.

I called ATT phone support a week later and asked for it to be waived they did it for both phones/lines.

Just try calling in again. Seems like some reps will do it while others won't. I usually never believe 100% of what CS reps say. Only after multiple rep repeat the same thing I will being to believe lol.
 
I was able to get them to waive 2 $18 upgrade fees 2 weeks ago, but that was for non iPhone upgrades.

I was literally on the phone with AT&T right when I read your post and the guy said it's a "valid charge" and that he can't reverse it for me. Still happy that they were able to waive my 2 other upgrade fees though.
 
AT&T will almost always waive the $18 upgrade fee. The only time they don't is if the person doesn't always pay their bill on time.

Definitely call again.
 
If you had any issues while upgrading you should express these to the rep on your next call. I explained that I couldn't easily upgrade due to the servers being overloaded. I also expressed to them that I was without service for an hour while my new 4S was attempting to activate and join the network. For this I actually had a $25 credit applied to my bill!

On a side note, if you are close to a Corporate Store you may just want to pop in and request the $18 waiver. Sometimes going in person and meeting face to face requires an extra element to how you are treated. It's easy to remain faceless behind the phone but that can all change when you are looking someone eye to eye!
 
Thanks for the response guys.

I've been with AT&T since the AT&T Wireless TDMA days and my bill has always been paid in full, within a week from the bill date. Over the years, they have always waived the upgrade fees on my account without any questions, including the last two upgrade fee waivers in November 2010 when I upgraded 2 of my lines with the iPhone 4.

Will definitely try calling again or will try the local store.
 
martiansoldier said:
Thanks for the response guys.

I've been with AT&T since the AT&T Wireless TDMA days and my bill has always been paid in full, within a week from the bill date. Over the years, they have always waived the upgrade fees on my account without any questions, including the last two upgrade fee waivers in November 2010 when I upgraded 2 of my lines with the iPhone 4.

Will definitely try calling again or will try the local store.
Click to expand...

update us on what happens!
 
Okay, for those who wanted an update, after my last post in this thread on 10/26, I called AT&T once again and the lady I spoke to told me that she would notate my account to refund the $18.00 upgrade fee but I would have to call back after I see my bill to get the fee waived.

I got my bill today and called AT&T. The first representative I spoke to told me that my account was notated about me having requested the activation fee waiver but that the note also said that the fee is to be waived only if I am eligible via the corporate discount on my account. She said that my corporate discount only allows activation fee waiver and that she couldn't do anything about the $18.00 upgrade fee. I had a couple of billing errors, just got those corrected and requested a supervisor but the representative first told me that a supervisor was not available and after pressing a few more times, she told me that I'd have to wait 45 minutes or more to talk to a supervisor and put me on hold. I hung up.

Called again a few minutes later and had my worst experience ever with AT&T customer care or any other customer service for that matter. It was another female customer service representative and she bluntly said that there was no way that she could waive the $18.00 upgrade fee and that AT&T never waives the upgrade fee and would never do it for anyone for any reason. I just hung up not wanting to hear another word. She called me back and I didn't answer (twice).

Now comes the shocker. An abusive text message with a 7 letter word and an exclamatory mark from the number (288)382-70 and do note that I have all text messaging restricted on all my lines. The only text messages I can receive are from AT&T.

I called AT&T back and this time a male customer care representative answered the phone. I told him what happened and he asked me if I was talking about the "suspended line" and now I'm like what "SUSPENDED LINE"? The guy mentions that there's a note on my account that I requested the line in question to be suspended via the automated system a few minutes back because my phone was either lost or stolen. I'm totally lost now. I tried to make a call and sure enough, I get the recorded message suggesting I contact AT&T. I requested the agent to connect me to a supervisor and he did.

The supervisor asked me to explain the happenings which I did and I told him all I wanted was to have my activation fee waived and now I'm being put through all this trouble. I've been with AT&T since their TDMA days and never have had to go through anything as bad and told him that the next time I would seriously have to carefully consider renewing my service with them.

He apologized and agreed that no customer should receive text messages like I did from their customer service representatives. He was able to get in their system and verify what had happened. He sent me a text and asked me to confirm if it was the same number from which I got the earlier text and it matched. He then apologized again, reinstated the suspended line and also gave me a bill credit for the way I had been treated. He also assured me that the textually abusive female customer service agent would be reported immediately to her direct supervisor and disciplined.

I guess at the end of the day, you have to take some abuse to have your $18.00 upgrade fee waived and definitely wasn't worth the time and effort for me after all that happened.
 
Wow! :eek:

That's unbelievable. You would think with 9% unemployment that even a rep having a bad day would not pull a stunt like that.
 
martiansoldier said:
Was on the phone with AT&T Enterprise CC to get my data plan changed to the 4S data plan and I requested if they would waive my upgrade fee like they always have in the past. The lady on the phone told me that AT&T has stopped doing that as of last week and the only way they would waive upgrade fees is if the corporate discount allowed for it.

Has anyone had their $18.00 upgrade fees waived in the past week?
Click to expand...

Just had mine waived last night, first time I called they told me they were no longer doing it, so I waited and called back in 5 days and got it removed, since they have waived it for me every year when I upgrade.

It is a Bogus Fee, and they will normally waive it if you ask them however I have heard that some ppl are now having trouble. I guess they are changing their policy also because I was eligible for an early upgrade every 12 months, but since I bought the 4S I noticed my next upgrade is now 18 months out to 5-2013.
 
And that's why I left those mother %#*&ers. The worst service ever for the 1.5 yrs I used them! I've never had that many problems with Vz.

Nuc
 
Quick question: has anyone ever been able to get an activation fee waived before? (not upgrade fee)
 
I just called today and got a really cool male rep. I just asked about the $18 upgrade fee and $36 activation fee and before I could finish my sentence he said he'll go ahead and remove them both. Guess I got lucky that I got a really cool rep.
 
str8spd2001 said:
I just called today and got a really cool male rep. I just asked about the $18 upgrade fee and $36 activation fee and before I could finish my sentence he said he'll go ahead and remove them both. Guess I got lucky that I got a really cool rep.
Click to expand...

Sweet! I can't wait to get my phone so I can try... I hope I can get my activation fee waived.
 
I was just talking about this with my wife..... I never really cared but I started thinking about it today. They want me/us to pay for signing a new 2 year contract? Makes no sense to me at all. I'll be calling and having them remove it tmr. Not a huge deal but why should I pay when I already pay them $170 a month?
 
iRobby said:
I called last week. I was told they don't waive the activation fee. From reading some of these posts I guess I should try again.
Click to expand...

I had better luck getting the fee refunded by choosing the option to cancel service from their phone system. They refunded half of each of my two upgrade fees ($18 total) and refunded $20 for something different. I was going to cancel every extra service on my account for a month if they didn't refund the fee (texting, international calling, data with tethering on a 3rd line, roadside assistance, etc.), but they did it just by asking.
 
Come on folks it is only $18.

I know to some that is a lot of money but when you look at the cost you paid for your new iPhone 4S and the plan with all the taxes and fees . . . . $18?

There are more important worries in life!:eek:
 
Stealthipad said:
Come on folks it is only $18.

I know to some that is a lot of money but when you look at the cost you paid for your new iPhone 4S and the plan with all the taxes and fees . . . . $18?

There are more important worries in life!:eek:
Click to expand...

Yes, only $18.00, but it is a bogus fee. If it is a negligible amount for you as a common member on this message board, IMHO $18.00 really isn't worth anything to a corporate giant like AT&T.
 
FWIW:

I work for AT&T in a supervisory role (not getting more specific than that for obvious reasons) and if there's one thing that upsets all of us, it's people that come in/call just asking for fees to be waived for no real reason other than being cheap and acting entitled. If you're cool about it or it wasn't explained to you or something, we'll probably make the adjustment. If you act like an entitled snob and disrespect us, you'll not get very far.

This isn't even an AT&T thing, really. It's customer service and, hell, people in general. When it comes down to it, you signed a contract agreeing to pay the $18, and by no means are we required to waive it.


tl;dr like the adage goes, treat others the way you want to be treated.


As a side-note, there's no way our agents are allowed to suspend accounts or send out abusive text messages like that EVER. I can guarantee you that if that rep's supervisor found out about it, she's gone.
 
nmork said:
FWIW:

I work for AT&T in a supervisory role (not getting more specific than that for obvious reasons) and if there's one thing that upsets all of us, it's people that come in/call just asking for fees to be waived for no real reason other than being cheap and acting entitled. If you're cool about it or it wasn't explained to you or something, we'll probably make the adjustment. If you act like an entitled snob and disrespect us, you'll not get very far.

This isn't even an AT&T thing, really. It's customer service and, hell, people in general. When it comes down to it, you signed a contract agreeing to pay the $18, and by no means are we required to waive it.


tl;dr like the adage goes, treat others the way you want to be treated.


As a side-note, there's no way our agents are allowed to suspend accounts or send out abusive text messages like that EVER. I can guarantee you that if that rep's supervisor found out about it, she's gone.
Click to expand...

Well what's the purpose of the $18 fee? Like you said "treat others the way you want to be treated" - I sure wouldn't charge a customer a bogus fee for doing no work on my end, so if someone else does that to me I am going to complain (obviously I'll try to be courteous just so I don't piss off a potential psycho who has access to all of my identifying information). Provisioning a sim card doesn't cost $18 - and even if it did, why not just allow us to transfer out old SIM?
 
nmork said:
As a side-note, there's no way our agents are allowed to suspend accounts or send out abusive text messages like that EVER. I can guarantee you that if that rep's supervisor found out about it, she's gone.
Click to expand...

Well, that goes to show how well trained you are with your systems. It happened yesterday to me and the supervisor that I spoke to was able to verify that a text message was indeed sent to my phone by the psycho female AT&T customer service representative that I last spoke to.

Also, I was informed that the note on my account mentioned that my line was suspended using AT&T's automated system. Note that the representative that I spoke to had all my information including the last 4 of my social. If she didn't have the ability to suspend my account, she could have very well used the automated system with all my information to complete account verification and then suspend my account.

No wonder AT&T ranks last in wireless customer service rankings and at this rate, AT&T sure isn't headed in the right direction as far as customer service.
 
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