So after 3 customer service interactions with AT&T, I was finally able to get them to reduce my Early Upgrade Fee to $150. I am currently the 3rd line on a Family Plan and my full subsidized upgrade isn't effective till 05/2013. If any of you out there are having similar predicaments I suggest politely point out how paying the ETF and switching carriers would be cheaper for you. Initially, the call resulted in the rep. telling me that everyone is getting their upgrade fee reduced to $150...and despite pointing out that I did not see the changes in my upgrade pricing grid, the rep. claimed it would take effect at midnight. Of course I did not believe this but I ended the call ensuring the rep. had taken notes. I just recently got on AT&T's online chat and brought up the same issue..specifically pointing out what the earlier rep. had told me about the early upgrade fee.. and after checking the notes, the online rep agreed to make the necessary changes to my account allowing me to upgrade for the lower price. Unfortunately the Apple Store is down and the ATT upgrade eligibility check is also down so I cannot confirm if the price reduction has been applied yet, but I do have the names and chat logs from the reps so I am assuming they won't renege on our agreement. Moral of the story: if your ETF is less than the price of the Early Upgrade Fee, get in contact with AT&T. Right now their online chat is the only method to contact them, but they are available till 3am EST.
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AT&T Early Upgrade Price Reduction an apparent success
- Thread starter chraos
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Orly? If this is true, I applaud your persistence! Weird we haven't seen a news item about it yet though....
Because it is not true!
The best the OP could hope for is to get a credit of the $150 on their account and that will be subject to an audit and even it might be removed.
Dave
oh, i guess i forgot to mention that the original rep. had no idea what they were talking about when they said everyone's early upgrade free was going to be reduced. I knew that wasn't the case even when I asked them to double check. Perhaps that is the reason the online rep "hopefully" allowed the credit to my account. Unfortunately, I can totally imagine a scenario like the above poster mentioned where they review the notes and negate this offer.
keep refreshing the page until the "Billing & Payments" chat says "Chat Now" next to it. took a good 30 refreshes. good practice for the pre-order at 3am
no everyone is not, that is just what the first rep I spoke to told me. I even asked them to double check and they claimed "yea, just for the iPhone 5 we are going to reduce the Early Upgrade Price to help our loyal customers" or something like that. It was definitely either complete BS or a total misunderstanding on their part. No way AT&T "helps their loyal customers" without the loyal customer putting up an 8 round fight
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oohh haha, i see now. clever
It definitely worked for some
As posted in the poll thread I called an hour ago and got $500 to offset both primary and secondary. All I said was can you help with with the $250? She said she will check with supervisor but should be ok and I said for both lines? She said yes she knows what I am asking!!!!
As posted in the poll thread I called an hour ago and got $500 to offset both primary and secondary. All I said was can you help with with the $250? She said she will check with supervisor but should be ok and I said for both lines? She said yes she knows what I am asking!!!!
Has anyone successfully called in and got the upgrade fee waived? If so, what phone number did you call?
Apparently they were willing to help this loyal customer in a big way. she even said I can see you have been with us for a long time. I suspect it is a formula based on not just length of service but how much you are paying plus maybe even data usage and such. I say this because it was a breeze asking for it.
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611 but it got routed to Business Acct Customer Care according to the pre recorded voice. I have to say I tried a few time because first few times I got kicked off due to high volume. I did have to get a second rep to do so though. First one was totally clueless she told me just $199 to upgrade.
i called att just not they waived the 36 dollar fee just told them never missed a payment and customer since 09 took 5 min
I was able to get the $250 upgrade fee waived via a credit of $250 to my account.
I still have to pay the 250 bucks extra when I preorder tonight but it will be credited to ATT account so I end up getting my money in the form of no phone bill for a couple months.
I still have to pay the 250 bucks extra when I preorder tonight but it will be credited to ATT account so I end up getting my money in the form of no phone bill for a couple months.
There's no way for anybody to change upgrade eligibility within AT&T's billing system.
You have two options...
1. A $150 credit towards your account (Each rep has up to $250 credit per account... anything higher will create a billing case and routed for approval/denial)
2. Manager overriding the price of the phone
Now number 2 is really not an option because no manager will override the price for an iPhone 5, even if there's notes on the account... It's something that could cost the manager's job.
OP, be prepared to pay that $900 for the iPhone 5 if you're eligible for that "early iPhone upgrade..." You will probably be able to get a $150 credit towards the account pretty easily though.
You have two options...
1. A $150 credit towards your account (Each rep has up to $250 credit per account... anything higher will create a billing case and routed for approval/denial)
2. Manager overriding the price of the phone
Now number 2 is really not an option because no manager will override the price for an iPhone 5, even if there's notes on the account... It's something that could cost the manager's job.
OP, be prepared to pay that $900 for the iPhone 5 if you're eligible for that "early iPhone upgrade..." You will probably be able to get a $150 credit towards the account pretty easily though.
That is definitely true the rep who helped me said so. Since I asked for $250 x 2 for both lines she could only do one and put me on hold to get her supervisor to do the other as a way around it. In the end it worked and like I mentioned it was a series of 10 credits to my account that came close to $500.
I just tried calling and they wouldn't budge on the upgrade price or even waive the upgrade fee at all for me. In contract until May 2013.
I tried explaining that if I switched to Verizon it would be cheaper, even including the ETF. ($199 + $165 ETF = $365) vs $449 early upgrade price.
No luck.
I tried explaining that if I switched to Verizon it would be cheaper, even including the ETF. ($199 + $165 ETF = $365) vs $449 early upgrade price.
No luck.
Got the bill credit of $250 for my line, but I have to pay $449.99 for it and then call back in a week and they will credit me the money.
I'm on a family plan with my parents and I was going to order my dad the iPhone 5 on his upgrade, but with this, I'll use mine and save his for the new Note II or something for myself in the near future.
AT&T is fantastic. Glad to be doing business with them.
I'm on a family plan with my parents and I was going to order my dad the iPhone 5 on his upgrade, but with this, I'll use mine and save his for the new Note II or something for myself in the near future.
AT&T is fantastic. Glad to be doing business with them.
this is true the maximum for my account they credited was $100!!this is awesome. and they waived 36 activation fee.
$199+$100 =$299 for iphone 5 for early upgrade amazing
$199+$100 =$299 for iphone 5 for early upgrade amazing
There's no point in arguing with a CSR...
Either the CSR will be helpful and won't mind giving you a credit, or the CSR won't want to give you a dime.
AT&T's credit policy is EXTREMELY relaxed when it comes what CSRs are allowed/not allowed to do when it comes to applying adjustments; it's really up to our discretion and we have up to $250 to play around with.
Waiving upgrade fees are one of the easiest calls a CSR can take and it's so easy to just go ahead and waive it; rather than spending 10, 15, 20 minutes or even longer arguing about a fee... (especially when AT&T wants our Average Handle Time on each call to be very low) But there still are some CSRs that don't like to credit and choose not to.
Bottom line... If you a get a rep that doesn't even want to waive an upgrade fee, don't argue... hang up until you find somebody else who won't have a problem waiving it.