AT&T Data & Unknowlegable Cust Service

[BobbieM629]

I called AT&T on the phone and asked about adding my iPad on my account with my cell phones. The guy told me I could but since the SIM is already registered to a prepay service I need to go to AT&T and get a new SIM.

Today I head to the AT&T Corp store which is about 20 miles away.. They want to charge me $15.00 for the new SIM card. I didn't want to pay it and didn't feel I should. Last month my daughter dropped her phone in water and I walked in and they gave me a new SIM with no questions or charge..

I return home and call CS since I was not told that last night. In fact he said it would be NO CHARGE. This rep goes on to tell me that I cannot add my iPad to my cell phone account. I know people here have done this, right? I've seen posts on it..

I am so annoyed. Is there an easy way to do this, or am I stuck paying for the SIM card? Also since I purchased through BB would going there help? It's closer.. Do they have SIMs on hand to swap?

 

[goMac]

Nope, you can't add an iPad to a cell phone account.

Why would you want to do this anyway? There's no price difference or anything. Does it matter whether the iPad's plan is on the same account or not?

 

[BobbieM629]

Why would you want to do this anyway? There's no price difference or anything. Does it matter whether the iPad's plan is on the same account or not?

For billing sake.. Also I HATE using credit/debit cards, we do cash. I can pay my bill in the store, can't do that with the iPad data. Also if I have the 250mb plan and go over, it's just billed rather then having to worry about having the card with me to buy more time.. I guess you could say convience.

But if I truly can't add it to my existing account then why would they have said I could when I called? And sent me for a SIM card?

 

[KnitGirl]

For billing sake.. Also I HATE using credit/debit cards, we do cash. I can pay my bill in the store, can't do that with the iPad data. Also if I have the 250mb plan and go over, it's just billed rather then having to worry about having the card with me to buy more time.. I guess you could say convience.

Do you not have a checking account? We just have our AT&T balance drafted every month from our checking account. That way I don't have to think about it at all.

Of course, I set up EVERYTHING to draft from my checking account because if we were to be "cash only" we would not have any money! Cash tends to disappear really fast without us realizing where it's gone! Drafting it from checking keeps a log of what we are spending!

 

[ClutchThese]

yes, you can add it to your account. for the new sim, you will have to pay the 15 bucks. Not a big deal. Also, if you ask the customer service rep on the phone they may offer you a discount on your service plan. If you have two phones and an ipad, that is essentially 3 lines. With three lines they can give you free text messaging. This is on-top of your FAN discount, if you have one. The free text messaging will be a $30 savings a month alone!

They offered that to me when i put my iPad on my monthly bill.

 

[BobbieM629]

Do you not have a checking account? We just have our AT&T balance drafted every month from our checking account. That way I don't have to think about it at all.

we do, we just don't do ANY direct debits with our account. EVER. We don't have a reason too and it works for us

yes, you can add it to your account. for the new sim, you will have to pay the 15 bucks. Not a big deal. Also, if you ask the customer service rep on the phone they may offer you a discount on your service plan. If you have two phones and an ipad, that is essentially 3 lines. With three lines they can give you free text messaging. This is on-top of your FAN discount, if you have one. The free text messaging will be a $30 savings a month alone!

They offered that to me when i put my iPad on my monthly bill.

THIS is EXACTLY what they told me the FIRST time I called. Now they are telling me a different story. We have 3 lines so the iPad would be 4.. 2 iPhones, 1 text/data phone & the iPad.

 

[protox]

For billing sake.. Also I HATE using credit/debit cards, we do cash. I can pay my bill in the store, can't do that with the iPad data. Also if I have the 250mb plan and go over, it's just billed rather then having to worry about having the card with me to buy more time.. I guess you could say convience.

But if I truly can't add it to my existing account then why would they have said I could when I called? And sent me for a SIM card?

I got 4 iPhone 4 lines with them. So if I add my iPad it'd be 5 and they will give you the family unlimited text for free? Are you serious? If so, I'll call up now and do it.

 

[mdlooker]

Hmm, that's wierd. I went to the AT&T and asked the same thing because I was wondering about the free 2G of service for the 1st month and they told me that it would be free if I were to attach it to my existing account. Otherwise just activate it through the ipad for the prepaid service.

 

[tbayrgs]

Nope, you can't add an iPad to a cell phone account.

Why would you want to do this anyway? There's no price difference or anything. Does it matter whether the iPad's plan is on the same account or not?

Nice to see AT&T employees read the forums

Of course you can add it to your existing cell phone account. In fact, you could set up a post paid account for your iPad data even if you don't have an existing wireless account with AT&T.

I'll give you another reason why someone would want to do this. My wife's wireless bill is paid by her employer and as she is using her iPad for work as well, they are paying her data plan. Rather than have to pay herself and get reimbursed every month, she just added her iPad data plan to her wireless bill.

And sorry to hear the OP is having such a hard time. I made one phone call the day after launch and had it set up in about 10 minutes.

 

[BobbieM629]

And sorry to hear the OP is having such a hard time. I made one phone call the day after launch and had it set up in about 10 minutes.

Thank you. I am going to go ahead and grab a SIM card from AT&T and get it set up. They say I can't use the existing SIM because I set it up as prepay and they can't change that. If I have problems I'll have to keep calling till I get a rep that KNOWS the policy. So annoying that you get different stories from EVERY rep.

AT&T site is ridiculous but I found this: http://www.wireless.att.com/answer-...e=en_US&_dyncharset=UTF-8&solutionId=KB117144 so I will refer any shady phone rep there

 

[tbayrgs]

Thank you. I am going to go ahead and grab a SIM card from AT&T and get it set up. They say I can't use the existing SIM because I set it up as prepay and they can't change that. If I have problems I'll have to keep calling till I get a rep that KNOWS the policy. So annoying that you get different stories from EVERY rep.

FWIW, I believe I decided to skip general customer service and instead selected the option for Sales, under the logic that it was essentially a new account. Only rep I spoke with knew exactly what I was talking about, even offered to place me on hold and call my wife for verification as I'm not listed on her account. As I said, took about 10 minutes start to finish.

Best of luck.

 

[BobbieM629]

FWIW, I believe I decided to skip general customer service and instead selected the option for Sales, under the logic that it was essentially a new account. Only rep I spoke with knew exactly what I was talking about, even offered to place me on hold and call my wife for verification as I'm not listed on her account. As I said, took about 10 minutes start to finish.

Best of luck.

Ah! That actually sounds logical since I am wanting to basically add a line.. Even though it's only a data line. I will try that! Thank you bunches!

 

[bowlerman625]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

Buy a prepaid card and have charged for your bill.

 

[chiefpavvy]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

Buy a prepaid card and have charged for your bill.

Yep. I'd never give any cell company access to a bank account, you're just asking to be fleeced at some point, sooner or later.

 

[PharmD]

Sounds like we have a number of Dave Ramsey listeners in this thread. Debt is dumb, cash is king.

 

[BobbieM629]

Sounds like we have a number of Dave Ramsey listeners in this thread. Debt is dumb, cash is king.

LOL Thanks. The thread really wasn't about how to pay my bill. I use cash, it's my preference, and that's that.

Anyhow.. Back on topic.. I returned to the AT&T store today for the SIM card.. I expected to pay the $15 and guess what.. They added the iPad to my existing account (which gave me the 2GB data plan for $20 since I have a Corp work discount) AND gave me the SIM card free. I explained that I was upset they tried to CHARGE me yesterday.. The rep I had today was asst manager. He asked who I dealt with and because I was annoyed I pointed her out (she was working today too).. They clearly need to train employees better!

So in the end.. YES, YOU CAN ADD YOU IPAD TO YOUR WIRELESS ACCOUNT. It is basically another line, but data only. I am grateful my Corp discount applies! Made the deal even sweeter!!