Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Carrier AT&T get your upgrade fees waived.

It works!

I just want to thank the creator of this thread for saving me $80.

I just saw this thread for the first time yesterday. I followed all of the steps given in the first post of this thread except that I asked to have two upgrade fees waived or credited for me and my wife.

After a few minutes of waiting, the AT&T rep said that they were talking to their supervisor. After a few more minutes, the AT&T rep said, "No problem."

The AT&T rep then told me to wait until they were able to add the $80 credit to my account, and then they told me to log in to my AT&T account to verify that the credit had gone through. I logged into my AT&T account, and the $80 credit was there.
 
Last edited:
I tried two times. I was unsuccessful. I was told because I get 15% discount through my employer and I paid $199, they will not waive it. the upgrade fee isn't waived with my employer discount.
 
Thanks OP for this tip. Saved 2 upgrade fees.

I wasn't able to get the fees waived when I first started the chat/conversation with the rep but she offered to look into maybe getting me qualified for a company discount but I told her I'm freelance, hence the effort with asking for a discount and she completely understood after that.
 
Chatted for a long time (this is my third attempt). The rep eventually said something like "we can process the credit to account" but didn't mention how much, so I thought I was going to get everything refunded, but they only gave me a $25 credit total for 5 upgraded lines. Escalated to the supervisor and gave them everything I could think of, but no dice. Kind of pissed me off, to be honest. We've been with them since 2005, and they apparently have no problem refunding many other people's fees. This might be the straw that broke the camel's back. In two years, we'll be leaving.
 
Was able to get my AT&T upgrade fee waived as well.

I just asked straight up if they could credit it back. At first they said no because of my corporate discount, but I persisted a bit and they bent and credited the $40 fee to my account.

Just be sure to be nice to the reps. Do go in threatening or acting stupid. Just ask nicely and they might do it. They are very capable of it.

It also helps if you do it through online chat instead of over the phone.

Did the same thing on my last 2 upgrades.
 
10 min.

Got the fees waved again (have been doing it every year i upgrade). Took a total of 10 minutes and that was mainly because of the online chat reps "Typing" time.

Was extremely friendly and things went very smoothly. Another reason why i love this forum.:apple:
 
liquidtrend said:
Got the fees waved again (have been doing it every year i upgrade). Took a total of 10 minutes and that was mainly because of the online chat reps "Typing" time.

Was extremely friendly and things went very smoothly. Another reason why i love this forum.:apple:
Click to expand...

Tried extremely friendly the first 3 times and accomplished nothing. When I became a little more aggressive (not over the top), I was transferred to a supervisor who tool care of things.

Anyone else tired of hearing (reading if chat) them comment on how the upgrade fee is used to bolster the infrastructure, etc.? I told them that since I signed a two year contract and that caused my monthly payment to go up, that was how I was paying for their network. A simple no is more acceptable to me than some BS line.
 
No luck at all with my first chat. Agent insisted that it was against ATT policy to waive fees...unless you are an ATT employee. I asked how it can be against policy when I know for a fact that customers are getting the fee waived. She couldn't answer.

I'll try again.
 
jbachandouris said:
Tried extremely friendly the first 3 times and accomplished nothing. When I became a little more aggressive (not over the top), I was transferred to a supervisor who tool care of things.
Click to expand...

Yes, if anything I was probably too friendly -- I just don't have it in me to be nasty to some poor schlub working as a chat operator. I did get slightly annoyed when then just kept repeating the same stuff over and over. The people I was talking to were definitely not native English speakers, and I felt that we weren't really communicating all that well.
 
chat operator only offered $25 and resisted my push for the full $40.
I didn't feel like trying multiple times, so I took it.
 
Just got my 2 fees waived. Took about an hour on the online chat. They're getting very difficult to get waived but I persisted and got it done.
 
It took about 20 minutes of online chat to get my fee waived and account credited $40. I copied the reply: {{ I checked your account and was able to see that the $40 upgrade fee will be waived for you since you have an upgrade waiver from your employer. }} There was absolutely zero haggling on my part, just a polite inquiry about the one time charge.

I have a foundation account (FAN) discount through an employer, so apparently it is a contracted perk... I guess. I was told I've been with AT&T since 2005. My, how time flies...

iPhone 6: ordered at an AT&T retail store 10/5, Shipped 10/15, Delivered 10/20.
 
This thread rules! Saved me $47 this time. I can't count how many times this technique has gotten my fees waived. They're saying this is the last time, but I don't believe it. I think they said that last time too!
 
Second chat worked...got the $40 credited...but boy did I have to push. Agent really pushed me to switch to Next and kept saying that the $40 fee helps to reduce the initial price of the phone. Huh?

I just kept saying..."I understand. But can you help me out today?" He finally gave in...but made it sound like he was doing me a huge favor. I guess he was.

Still don't understand what this fee is for...and I'm not sure the customer service agents do either.
 
You must have gotten the same rep as me or they all spit out that line of BS. I got the same thing about how the upgrade fee is what allows me to have the discount. I asked the rep why they don't just charge $40 more for the phone then and they didn't have an answer. They subsidized cost of the phone is included in the higher monthly phone bill already. That's why buying it on next gets you a "discount". They have to take off the hidden amount that they were charging you for your phone each month.

They also gave me a line about how the upgrade fees are required by the states for all carriers... to which I asked (and got ignored) about why different carriers charge less (and some even nothing) for this.

I ended up getting $30 credited because of the pre-order hassle this year but they didn't really budge on the upgrade fee.
 
Just worked for me. Thank you MacRumors and to the O.P.

Thank you for your patience! Your AT&T Representative will be with you shortly.
Welcome! You are now chatting with 'Nicole Laduke'

Agent: Good Morning, Robert. I see you have a concern with your Upgrade fee today. I would be happy to check into this for you. I know how important it is to stay a loyal customer. =)

Me: Thanks. If I actually had to get AT&T involved with upgrading I would have no problem paying the 'fee'. As it was, it only took ME several minutes to upgrade from one device to the other. Thanks for looking into this for me.

Agent: Not a problem, I am going to take care of that for you as a one-time courtesy. Going forward, keep in mind there is a $40 fee when upgrading devices in the future.

Me: Will do. Appreciate it.

Agent: Working on this for you now.


She then tried to get me on a shared plan, but I won't go off of my unlimited.

:cool:
 
Last edited:
zuckuss00 said:
Was able to get my AT&T upgrade fee waived as well.

I just asked straight up if they could credit it back. At first they said no because of my corporate discount, but I persisted a bit and they bent and credited the $40 fee to my account.

Just be sure to be nice to the reps. Do go in threatening or acting stupid. Just ask nicely and they might do it. They are very capable of it.

It also helps if you do it through online chat instead of over the phone.

Did the same thing on my last 2 upgrades.
Click to expand...

i am on Premier account and had 2 iphone upgrades and asked if they can credit back the upgrade fee. they did but on 1 line as the credit was only about 40+ something. i will try again....
 
Boy that was easy. First try =P



Thank you for your patience! Your AT&T Representative will be with you shortly.
Welcome! You are now chatting with 'Samantha Riley'
Samantha Riley: Hello Ryan, we can certainly go over your bill and the upgrade charge
Ryan: Hey there how are you? I was just about to pay my bill and noticed it was a bit higher than usual. I went into my statement and I saw a new charge listed under "one-time charges" it looks like I was charged Upgrade Fee 10/01 $40.00
Ryan: I think this may have been an error because I was unaware of any upgrade fees at the time of purchase.
Samantha Riley: Did you upgrade your phone>?
Ryan: Yes I upgraded at the Apple store to the new iPhone 6 Plus.
Samantha Riley: Okay well then there is a standard upgrade fee when upgrading a device under the 2 year contract
Ryan: I'm not sure why there is an upgrade fee. I had no contact with AT&T at the time of the purchase or upgrade. I purchased my new phone with apple and took care of everything myself.
Ryan: There was also no mention of an upgrade fee from the employee at apple.
Samantha Riley: Yes but you did upgrade to a new two year contract
Samantha Riley: Apple only sells phones and do not disclose contract information. but with when signing up with AT&T there is an upgrade fee when upgrading.
Ryan: To be honest that does sound a little shady that I wasn't informed of this at the time of purchase.
Samantha Riley: I do apologize but when signing a contract with AT&T you are liable for the upgrade fee
Ryan: I didn't expect to pay that extra fee and now it's bill time and I have the extra cost to take care of and I don't have those funds.
Samantha Riley: I do apologize you can set up a payment arrangement to pay the rest of the bill
Ryan: Is there any way you could issue my account a credit or possibly waive the fee for the upgrade for this time only?
Ryan: I have been a loyal AT&T customer since the first iPhone came out. I do pay my bill on time and even a month ahead most times. I would really appreciate it if you could help me out.
Samantha Riley: Alright let me see what I can do!
Samantha Riley: Alright I was able to submit the credit this one time. If you log out of account and back in you will see the credit]
Ryan: I really do appreciate that.
Ryan: Let me log out.
Samantha Riley: No problem! I know how it is
Samantha Riley: no problem
Ryan: That was quick, it's right in there.
Ryan: Thank you so much.
Ryan: This helps me more than you know.
Samantha Riley: no problem! Have a great Halloween, Be safe:)
Ryan: Happy Halloween enjoy your night!
Samantha Riley: Thank you:)
 
Although I was not able to get my full $40 credit, I did receive $30.18. I did it online and it was fairly painless other then time consuming. Thanks again for the original posters help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back