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AT&T Grandfathered Messaging (not Data) Plans

M

mcgroarty

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 7, 2011
76
24
Has anyone successfully placed an iPhone 4S order with AT&T while keeping their existing $5, $10 or $15 text messaging (not internet data) plan?

I have the $5/200 text messaging plan. This is all I need, as I use TextFree for most texting. When placing an iPhone 4s upgrade order on either AT&T's or Apple's site, there is no option to select the grandfathered plan. It's $20/Unlimited or Nothing.

After two hours on hold, I managed to speak to an AT&T rep. He was adamant that I could not keep the $5 plan if I upgrade to an iPhone 4S. However, this contradicts what another user was told to expect:

vahighland said:
OK. I chatted with a CSR, who forwarded my to a "specialist." She said that the $5 text messaging and Unlimited Data plans are no longer available; however, if you call customer care are placing the order, they can add those plans back. It's just that the online system will no longer recognize those plans.
Click to expand...

My phone rep declined to double-check with a manager. He insisted that my messaging plan was "incompatible with a new iPhone" and I ultimately declined to order.

If anyone has successfully completed an order with their grandfathered text messaging plan intact, I'd like to hear about it. Otherwise, it's not worth jumping back into the hold queue (or placing the order via AT&T, for that matter!).

Update: A subsequent AT&T representative says you can't select the grandfathered text messaging plan on either AT&T or Apple's websites, nor can they specify the old text messaging plan during a phone checkout at AT&T or Apple. However, AT&T will honor the old plan if you call immediately after activating.
 
Last edited:
mcgroarty said:
Has anyone successfully placed an iPhone 4S order with AT&T while keeping their existing $5, $10 or $15 text messaging (not internet data) plan?

I have the $5/200 text messaging plan. This is all I need, as I use TextFree for most texting. When placing an iPhone 4s upgrade order on either AT&T's or Apple's site, there is no option to select the grandfathered plan. It's $20/Unlimited or Nothing.

After two hours on hold, I managed to speak to an AT&T rep. He was adamant that I could not keep the $5 plan if I upgrade to an iPhone 4S. However, this contradicts what another user was told to expect:



My phone rep declined to double-check with a manager. He insisted that my messaging plan was "incompatible with a new iPhone" and I ultimately declined to order.

If anyone has successfully completed an order with their grandfathered text messaging plan intact, I'd like to hear about it. Otherwise, it's not worth jumping back into the hold queue (or placing the order via AT&T, for that matter!).
Click to expand...

My $5 messaging plan was moved over. I'd give a SS, but it appears the apple store has gone down again.
 
ohio.emt said:
I was able to keep my $10 plan, ordered through apple.com
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Odd! I tried (and just re-checked) on store.apple.com, and I'm still only given the $0 or $20/Unlimited choices. My current $5/200 plan isn't an option.
 
I didn't have to choose apple already had the voice and text options selected, I only had to reselect my unlimited data plan.
 
Just upgraded

Just upgraded on AT&T site - I'm in a family plan and unlimited texting still covered and my unlimited data plan went from old rate of $39.99 to $30.00 - will cover part of cost of shifting my daughter to my old 3GS.
 
mcgroarty said:
I have the $5/200 text messaging plan. This is all I need, as I use TextFree for most texting. When placing an iPhone 4s upgrade order on either AT&T's or Apple's site, there is no option to select the grandfathered plan. It's $20/Unlimited or Nothing.
Click to expand...

Just like you - I have the exact same $5 plan and almost exclusively use TextFree for texting. I keep the $5 plan around just for those rare times when TextFree is down for more than a few minutes, picture messages, and to text my employees at work.

I figured AT&T would do something like this - all the more reason for me to wait it out for the unlocked.

Though - iO5 with iMessage will also cut down on a huge amount of texts through the carriers. I could almost get away with NO text package with iMessage but I do have some frequently texted friends who don't have iPhones.

Clearly AT&T saw this coming and (smartly from a business sense) wiped out all the smaller plans. Still sucks from a consumer standpoint though.
 
Just to follow up with my earlier comment. After placing my order and chatting with a CSR, I talked with customer service. The customer service agent stated that my existing Unlimited Data plan and $5 text messaging would be carried over. She doesn't need to do anything to my account.

This contradicts what the CSR agent on chat told me. She told me that customer service would have to add the grandfathered Unlimited and $5 text messaging plans back to my account. :confused:

The good news is that I took screen shots of the chat session, so if At&t tries to pull a bait and switch, at least I have some leverage. I will call back on Oct 14 to try and find out the real story.
 
james92se said:
Just like you - I have the exact same $5 plan and almost exclusively use TextFree for texting. I keep the $5 plan around just for those rare times when TextFree is down for more than a few minutes, picture messages, and to text my employees at work.

I figured AT&T would do something like this - all the more reason for me to wait it out for the unlocked.
Click to expand...

The unlocked phones in November are $200 more than even AT&T's early upgrade prices. ($849 for the 64GB!) If you're upgrading yearly, you'd actually be about break even on the $180/year increase from going to unlimited texting.

Anyway, here's hoping someone's got good news on the $5 plan. I'd hate to pay AT&T another $180/year for no extra service or go through the headache of switching to Sprint or Verizon for better messaging plan choices.
 
remove plan

Do we really think they are going to eliminate it like this, or is it maybe they just can't process it online?
 
Same issue here... AT&T did not even list my 1000 txt plan. I sent them an email and we'll see...
 
mcgroarty said:
The unlocked phones in November are $200 more than even AT&T's early upgrade prices. ($849 for the 64GB!) If you're upgrading yearly, you'd actually be about break even on the $180/year increase from going to unlimited texting.

Anyway, here's hoping someone's got good news on the $5 plan. I'd hate to pay AT&T another $180/year for no extra service or go through the headache of switching to Sprint or Verizon for better messaging plan choices.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm just gonna go unlocked. I got $540 for my iPhone 4S so I'll only be paying a little over $200 out of pocket for the 32 GB 4S. The fact that I could end up paying nearly $200 extra a year for a forced texting plan I don't need (I like my current $71-after-all-taxes-and-fees monthly bill including unlimited data!) really irks me. Besides, since my bill isn't that high I'm always offset on the upgrades corresponding with phone launches. Paying the extra $200 now will set me up nicely for the next iPhone (of course I guess I'd then likely still be forced off my plan).

I guess at the bottom of it - the thing is, if I have unlimited texting (whether forced or voluntary), I'm really not saving anything or getting any advantage out of iMessage ;)
 
I didn't get to keep my $10 for 1000 texts for each line (2). I had to upgrade to $30 for unlimited. Pissed me off. I'm going to tell everyone to quit calling me or emailing me - text me instead.
 
It was poor design on the website. While it only showed two text plans, if you chose NONE you retained your old plan as it was.
 
I too have the $5 texting plan with AT&T. I originally had the pay per use texting when AT&T's unlimited was $30 a month. When they dropped it to $25 a month, I looked at my data usage, and the most I'd ever used in a month was about 300Mb, so I opted to go for the $25 a month/2GB deal, and reassign that $5 to texting so I could do that. Was a good deal for me, based on my usage habits.

Anyway, this morning when I try pre-ordering the 4S with Apple's site, I'm only offered the "Pay per use", or $20 a month. There's no "none" option there. I'm forced to make a change. I suspect if I bought it in the Apple store directly, I probably would have the same option.

If I go through AT&T's site, there's a "none" option for texting, which from what I read above tells me that it'll keep my current one. I sure hope so, because I don't want to lose that upgrading the phone. I did note however, if I went through the front door with the big iPhone 4S graphic on the AT&T site, I never saw this "none" option. I had to log into my account, and manually attempt to upgrade the line go get the "none" option for texting.

Does AT&T have a live online chat customer service feature to ask?

vahighland said:
Just to follow up with my earlier comment. After placing my order and chatting with a CSR, I talked with customer service. The customer service agent stated that my existing Unlimited Data plan and $5 text messaging would be carried over. She doesn't need to do anything to my account.

This contradicts what the CSR agent on chat told me. She told me that customer service would have to add the grandfathered Unlimited and $5 text messaging plans back to my account. :confused:
Click to expand...

It appears from this that the $5 will carry on whether it's automatic or manual intervention. While I would like to know for sure before pre-ordering, I feel a little better about it after reading through this thread.
 
markel253 said:
It was poor design on the website. While it only showed two text plans, if you chose NONE you retained your old plan as it was.
Click to expand...

Is this the AT&T website we're talking about? I submitted my order there, but I wasn't even presented with any text plan options.

My assumption is that my old plan will be carried over. Hope so anyway!
 
Just went through AT&T chat, where the representative says the equivalent of "none doesn't mean no text plan, silly rabbit. None means keep my 1000 message plan!"

He also went on to share that he has no power to fix this, so I've now been on hold for their "ecom" department for about 10 minutes so far.
 
Chief Oddball said:
Is this the AT&T website we're talking about? I submitted my order there, but I wasn't even presented with any text plan options.
Click to expand...

How do you get it? Through the sexy iPhone 4S graphic on the front of their site, or did you log into your account first? See the bold text in my post above yours.
 
Makes sense that selecting none on the AT&T site keeps your same plan. If I recall the options were for making CHANGES to your plans. Was confusing though.
 
Joe Siegler said:
How do you get it? Through the sexy iPhone 4S graphic on the front of their site, or did you log into your account first? See the bold text in my post above yours.
Click to expand...
Hey Joe, nice to see you on here. I met you at the Gearbox Community Day a few months back. Hope you're well.

When I preordered I went through the "front door" on AT&T's site and, as you noted, wasn't presented with any options. This gave me pause at first so I tried to order through the Apple store instead, but gave up on that after about an hour and a half of trying and just assumed that the texting plan issue would work itself out. At least I did not expressly choose a different texting option. I switched to the "unlimited data for iPhone 4S" plan without difficulty.

From the sound of things in this thread, my $5 texting plan will be retained -- though frankly, I'm almost afraid to call AT&T and ask, lest they accidentally mess up my account while they're dorking with it. Had that happen too many times to mention with Comcast, except at least there, there wasn't the chance of losing some service level that I could never get back!
 
Damn it, I did the same thing, I have no need for unlimited what a sleazy way to word that question. Guess I'll be on the phone again to ATT
 
jpeg42 said:
Makes sense that selecting none on the AT&T site keeps your same plan. If I recall the options were for making CHANGES to your plans. Was confusing though.
Click to expand...

No, it doesn't make sense. Especially at 4 freaking 15 freaking am.

How hard would it have been for them to put "No change" instead of "None" as a choice?

I just spent 45 minutes on hold waiting for these E-com people, only to be told that they can't change the order either. She said I would have to wait until I get the phone, then go into the store and cancel the text plan. When I pointed out that the 1000 message plan I have now is no longer available as a new option, she said "I'm sorry, ma'am, I have no information on what text plans are available."

WHAT??

Ridiculous. I'm going to freaking cancel my text plan altogether when I get the phone. Anyone that can't text me through iMessage can send me a damn email.
 
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