Took about 6 chat reps but they finally did it. The last one was not easy I was just stern and persistent. It took a "if you won't help me, connect me with your supervisor" to do it. They fight tooth and nail. Just keep trying. Have an answer for their canned excuses ready.
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Carrier AT&T get your upgrade fees waived.
- Thread starter Captainobvvious
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Just tried and didn't get very far. They basically said it was impossible to waive the fees, etc. But I think I inadvertently made the mistake of doing the chat just before they were going off duty (they even cut me off in the middle of typing something!). I'm going to try again tomorrow.
How often is chat available? Whenever I login I see "Chat agents currently busy" or "We're sorry, but Live Chat is not available for the topic you have selected."
Nevermind...I was able to chat with an agent. First agent I got, they waived the fee within the first 5 minutes.
Nevermind...I was able to chat with an agent. First agent I got, they waived the fee within the first 5 minutes.
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I don't know if it's because I have so many fees (for 5 people) but I can't get them to budge. Second agent I've talked to was no more help than the first. What did you say, bananataffy?
I have a friend who works the call center. They have a canned response on the upgrade fees and he offered the following advice to me:
Don't let them put you on hold, they have a time limit per call that they have to resolve the issue. If they put you on hold, the time resets. However, they can put you on a soft hold which does not reset their time.
Its true that they can't "waive" the upgrade fees. However, they can offer you credit on your bill that equals your upgrade fee. If you ask for a credit versus waiving the fee, then its a whole separate issue and they can usually do that without any problem. and usually does not require any supervisor approval.
If you are on a two year contract and they mention that they are giving you a device at a subsidized price and the upgrade fee is a part of that subsidy, remind them that you pay a $40/month access fee, which is $25 more per month than the NEXT access fee which equates to $600 over the life of the contract, which equals the full price of the device over the life of the contract.
I have done this for the last 3 upgrades and have not had any issue getting a "credit" to my account equal to the upgrade fees.
Don't let them put you on hold, they have a time limit per call that they have to resolve the issue. If they put you on hold, the time resets. However, they can put you on a soft hold which does not reset their time.
Its true that they can't "waive" the upgrade fees. However, they can offer you credit on your bill that equals your upgrade fee. If you ask for a credit versus waiving the fee, then its a whole separate issue and they can usually do that without any problem. and usually does not require any supervisor approval.
If you are on a two year contract and they mention that they are giving you a device at a subsidized price and the upgrade fee is a part of that subsidy, remind them that you pay a $40/month access fee, which is $25 more per month than the NEXT access fee which equates to $600 over the life of the contract, which equals the full price of the device over the life of the contract.
I have done this for the last 3 upgrades and have not had any issue getting a "credit" to my account equal to the upgrade fees.
Actually it's more like $150 over the price of the device before the upgrade fee since the discount off list with a 2yr contract is only $450. Ask them how paying a $40 fee so they can charge you $150 extra is supposed to be a good thing...
They finally caved in 2 days ago! Just kept pressing the same issues I had..I was not going to budge, bill is due tomorrow. Tuesday I was polite..calm..finally getting a tad aggravated. I said I would like to speak to your supervisor, was put on hold for 3, 4 minutes. (Little skeptical since these fools now have to pay a huge fine for 'secret charges' on bills)
She came back and stated "ok, I will remove the $40 fee, but this is a one time credit only."
Ok cool..I'll call you back in 2 years when I -will probably get a new phone AND if I decide to stay with ATT. The upgrade fee is just a joke.
Hung up, saw the credit was applied on my acct., I immediately paid the bill.
Wasn't easy - just had mine waived thru chat first time. Here was my tact:
- asked for a credit on upgrade fee since phone is back ordered
- reminded them that i never had a late payment since I held an account (ten years)
- sent them links to this forum, and said they have applied credit to those in similiar situations, and it would seem discriminatory for them to not apply credit.
They initially offered $20 - but i declined - saying it is all or nothing, and that i once called and got $50 credit just for never missing a payment. I also said that I would consider cancelling my upgrade and would want my eligibility restores since my local APple store now has the device i want in stock, and if not I would switch to VZ or Sprint.
She claimed she had to get supervisor approval - but applied the full $40 credit at the end.
this whole process took about 8 minutes on an online chat window.
- asked for a credit on upgrade fee since phone is back ordered
- reminded them that i never had a late payment since I held an account (ten years)
- sent them links to this forum, and said they have applied credit to those in similiar situations, and it would seem discriminatory for them to not apply credit.
They initially offered $20 - but i declined - saying it is all or nothing, and that i once called and got $50 credit just for never missing a payment. I also said that I would consider cancelling my upgrade and would want my eligibility restores since my local APple store now has the device i want in stock, and if not I would switch to VZ or Sprint.
She claimed she had to get supervisor approval - but applied the full $40 credit at the end.
this whole process took about 8 minutes on an online chat window.
I mentioned the same thing multiple time, I NEVER missed a single payment on bill since 2004. Didn't seem to impress the majority of reps I talked to. (I usually got the "And we thank you for being a loyal customer...but.) THAT scripted remark would start to make my blood boil.
First time I asked for a credit, I didn't 2 years ago with the $36 fee on iPhone 5 (the ATT rep at the store did all the work so I didn't care. This time I got the phone in the mail, I activated it..hence I did the 'labor')
I suppose my persist -pain in the a**- calling over and over for a month paid off.
For what it's worth I was able to get them to credit my account for both $40 "upgrade fees". originally they only wanted to do one, so I was forced to use my Jedi mind tricks to get the other credit ...
ATT rep offered me $25 per line
escalated it to the manager and she ended the chat on me
2nd chat:
new rep says she read the transcript and is now willing to offer $20 per line
LOL
Now Customer relations says no go on any credits
escalated it to the manager and she ended the chat on me
2nd chat:
new rep says she read the transcript and is now willing to offer $20 per line
LOL
Now Customer relations says no go on any credits
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had to call retention after 2 failed attempts
Ended up calling retention on the 14th day of renewal service. Both lines got the 40+ taxes credit right away, also got a very kind individual. Online chats and regular customer service reps are beginning to get hard to deal with.
Ended up calling retention on the 14th day of renewal service. Both lines got the 40+ taxes credit right away, also got a very kind individual. Online chats and regular customer service reps are beginning to get hard to deal with.
I have been with AT&T (in its many iterations) since 2002. I have never paid an upgrade/activation fee. My FAN provides for all upgrade/activation fees to be waived. Ive had to call a few times over the years, but most of the time, they are already waived when I get my monthly bill.
And we upgrade 5 lines every time we can - at least once every 2 years. Thats a lot of "free".
And we upgrade 5 lines every time we can - at least once every 2 years. Thats a lot of "free".
These fees normally show up on the next bill right? If so looks like they didn't charge me. Guess my FAN's perk does work
Imo Seems kinda dumb sending them links to this forum to warrant getting fees removed. Personally I've had fees removed multiple times, overages for data and phones usage, international roaming charges. It just takes some time over the phone, it's more difficult to get done with chat.
I got it waived via chat, had the same thing done with my iPhone 5 2 years ago...Also I have a fan account through my employer and Ive always paid my bill on time.
Got my $40 upgrade fee waived via chat. They don't actually waive the fee what they do is just apply a $40 credit to your bill to offset the fee
Regardles i have it waived every year without any issue at all and I am a fan account customer and a 17 year AT&T customer
Regardles i have it waived every year without any issue at all and I am a fan account customer and a 17 year AT&T customer
Is it possible that most/all of the people reporting success here actually have these FAN accounts? That seems to be a decisive factor.
Okay so - what is a FAN account? I think I have one but not sure. It does start with FAN in front of the numbers? So what does the FAN account actually mean?
It (from what I have read) has to do with your employer having a deal with AT&T to get a discount. It seems that these FAN accounts don't have any trouble getting their fees waived/credited (and on my first chat I was asked if my employer had this deal).
Well I guess the FAN did work - took me like 4 minutes total between the wait, talking, hold time again and then the rep waiving the fee. He did mention "one time only" like they do every other time. But the $40 fee has been waived. My husband works for GE so they must be a big account with some good perks.