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AT&T Grandfathered Messaging (not Data) Plans

apprunner said:
If you complain to a manager, they can add it back immediately. I just did it a couple minutes ago. 😀
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Really? I was on hold for an hour, and then the supervisor (who I never spoke to) denied me and said it wasn't possible to add it back. The CSR then "opened a case" and said I'd hear by the 25th, but she didn't seem optimistic.

Should I just call back?
 
marcsorel said:
Really? I was on hold for an hour, and then the supervisor (who I never spoke to) denied me and said it wasn't possible to add it back. The CSR then "opened a case" and said I'd hear by the 25th, but she didn't seem optimistic.

Should I just call back?
Click to expand...


Yeah, you probably just got a rep who was having a bad day. The rep that handled my call had to get her supervisor to add the plan back, but she was completely cooperative. I called in around 11:30am ET yesterday, so I probably got in before the worst part of the day in terms of wait time (my wait was about 20 minutes).
 
mlmathews said:
Yeah, you probably just got a rep who was having a bad day. The rep that handled my call had to get her supervisor to add the plan back, but she was completely cooperative. I called in around 11:30am ET yesterday, so I probably got in before the worst part of the day in terms of wait time (my wait was about 20 minutes).
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Just called back this AM, no wait time, but rep still couldn't do anything immediately because it's no longer available. However, she told me that she put it in to be fixed in 3-5 business days (same case #), and that I'd be credited for text messages sent in the interim, so I'm cautiously optimistic.
 
During checkout my $15 plan was not offered. Only the $20 unlimited.

So I added the unlimited plan but it never shows up in my cart at checkout.

I just processed the order without a text plan and when I activated the 4S, the $15 plan was there.

May drop the plan completely as I think textnow and google voice will do the same for free.
 
I called customer service yesterday to try and get my 200 message plan back. (I was one of the ones that selected "none" when checking out at apple.com, hoping it would return)

He couldn't/wouldn't do it. Should I try going to an AT&T store? Or just call customer service back?
 
I was someone who had the $5/200 plan on my 3GS. I bought my 4S from AT&T directly, and during the purchase selected "none" as my texting plan.

When I got my 4S yesterday, activated it, later in the day I looked at my acct info on the AT&T app on the phone, and it showed the $5/200 still active on my account, so I didn't have to do anything to keep it going.
 
yes

Joe Siegler said:
I was someone who had the $5/200 plan on my 3GS. I bought my 4S from AT&T directly, and during the purchase selected "none" as my texting plan.

When I got my 4S yesterday, activated it, later in the day I looked at my acct info on the AT&T app on the phone, and it showed the $5/200 still active on my account, so I didn't have to do anything to keep it going.
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yes, none worked as well - but there were some people who weren't able to select a none when doing it online or ever in the store.

as an example, after AT&T royally messed up my phone order, I just went into the store to get a device (stanford shopping center apple store thank you very much!) and they set it up in five minutes. I had 30$ no limit data and the 5$ footlong, both of which I wanted to keep. (I also had the 450 minute plan and 500 free extra minutes but didn't think that could be affected)

So, when they got to the select options screen, I was fully prepared for them to say, you have to select no limit messaging, or paygo or none, but indeed my 5$ footlong plan was NOW in the system (it hadn't been on order day as a selectable option so somebody has been doing their work in the past week) also my 30$ data plan was there.

RIGHT NEXT TO ME, was a guy, upgrading from a 3gs as was I, he had the 30$ no limit data plan but it WAS NOT A selectable option for him, why? We cross referenced our contracts, both had been customers since 2+ years, same base plan, same 5$ footlong, etc., and yet on HIS lookup screen it wasn't there. Anyway, there is really not a lot of rhyme or reason to this anomalies, they just are.

email customer care at the above email and you should be fine.
 
The difference I noticed is that if you went in to get it through the big sexy iphone 4S graphic on the front of their pages, you missed options. I logged into my account first, then went through the upgrade my phone options.
 
I called back and got a different rep, and she was able to put my old $5/200 plan back relatively painlessly. I'm good to go for another year.

Hopefully AT&T has this sorted out by next year. With all the time this took, I feel like I'd have been better off just going with another carrier who still had a $5 plan!
 
dugbee said:
Kudos to you, my friend. I emailed them a polite yet concerned email. Within 5 minutes I had a reply, and my 5/200 plan was added back! 😀 😀
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I just tried the same thing (wish I'd seen this yesterday since I doubt they work on Sunday). After 2 unsuccessful phone calls (my "case" should be "resolved" by 10/25), I'm hoping this does the trick.

UPDATE: Wow- that was fast. Quickly got a note back that everything was taken care of- checked my account and it's fixed. Many thanks to tivoboy for posting that email!
 
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I heard back from AT&T tonight on the case I opened with them about my vanishing $5 plan. A support rep got his supervisor involved to add it back. At first the supervisor did not believe that I ever had the $5 plan (which is nuts, because I've had it as long as it's existed.) The CSR, to his credit, stuck with it and showed the supervisor a copy of my last bill which had the $5 plan listed on it.

They added it back in about 30 seconds.

Now when I log into my account on ATT.com, I can see the plan has returned to my Features page. All is well!
 
I see contradicting responses from AT&T's staff are a universal phenomenon in all aspects of their business.

My AT&T preorder forced a change from "iPhone Data" to "iPhone 4s Data", both the 2 GB. I was able to keep the $10 plan.
 
different

marty11 said:
I see contradicting responses from AT&T's staff are a universal phenomenon in all aspects of their business.

My AT&T preorder forced a change from "iPhone Data" to "iPhone 4s Data", both the 2 GB. I was able to keep the $10 plan.
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the data plans, 2GB, unlimited, whatever actually have DIFFERENT CODES per device. So unlimited code for iphone 3gs, iphone 4 and iphone 4s are all different. It doesn't make TOO much sense, but it IS AT&T afterall.
 
Keep the Full Grandfathered Plan?

Hi All,
I just upgraded from the original iPhone to the iP4S. Bought my cell at the Apple store and stayed with AT&T because I'm grandfathered into the plan. The plan ALSO says I get 1500 FREE text messages; however, AT&T says that this option is no longer offered. They put me on the unlimited text plan for $20 so I called their CSR and complained. Expressed how I've been a loyal customer since they first got the iPhone and expected them to honor BOTH the unlimited data plan as well as the 1500 text messages for $30/month.

After MUCH resistance, AT&T said they could offer me 200 text messages/month for $5 -- a plan itself no longer offered -- but couldn't give me the free 1500 text messages as that was linked solely to the original iPhone.

Did I get misled and should I call back AT&T to get the 1500 free texts per month or is the 200 texts for $5 the very best I can get even though I'm grandfathered?

Don't want to fall out of the best grandfathered plan possible just because AT&T seems to be trying to shake guys like me loose 😉

Appreciate the thoughts. Be nice to have the free 1500 texts per month if there's any way to still keep that along with my unlimited data plan.

Thanks for your thoughts! 🙂
 
TorqueChap said:
Hi All,
I just upgraded from the original iPhone to the iP4S. Bought my cell at the Apple store and stayed with AT&T because I'm grandfathered into the plan. The plan ALSO says I get 1500 FREE text messages; however, AT&T says that this option is no longer offered. They put me on the unlimited text plan for $20 so I called their CSR and complained. Expressed how I've been a loyal customer since they first got the iPhone and expected them to honor BOTH the unlimited data plan as well as the 1500 text messages for $30/month.

After MUCH resistance, AT&T said they could offer me 200 text messages/month for $5 -- a plan itself no longer offered -- but couldn't give me the free 1500 text messages as that was linked solely to the original iPhone.

Did I get misled and should I call back AT&T to get the 1500 free texts per month or is the 200 texts for $5 the very best I can get even though I'm grandfathered?

Don't want to fall out of the best grandfathered plan possible just because AT&T seems to be trying to shake guys like me loose 😉

Appreciate the thoughts. Be nice to have the free 1500 texts per month if there's any way to still keep that along with my unlimited data plan.

Thanks for your thoughts! 🙂
Click to expand...
The original iPhone Unlimited Data plan did not include 1500 free SMS Txt messages. The $20 iPhone Unlimited Data plan included 200 SMS Txt messages. You had to option to select a 1500 SMS Txt plan or an Unlimited SMS Txt plan.

Did you happen to have one of the Enterprise packages that bundled the Unlimited data with SMS Txt messages at a single price?

The Enterpise plans for the original iPhone were: $45 $55 $65 ( 200, 1500, Unlimited ) but included a $25 discount so they would have been: $20, $30, $40. If you provide the name of the data plan and your previous SMS plan, I can provide you with the proper Feature codes.

If you want someone to resolve this, please send an email to customerfollowup@att.com and provide the specific feature information from you most recent bill that indicated your previous plan. They should be able to assist you with a reset that was caused as part of the iPhone 4S online purchase.

Dave
 
dave006 said:
The original iPhone Unlimited Data plan did not include 1500 free SMS Txt messages. The $20 iPhone Unlimited Data plan included 200 SMS Txt messages. You had to option to select a 1500 SMS Txt plan or an Unlimited SMS Txt plan.

Did you happen to have one of the Enterprise packages that bundled the Unlimited data with SMS Txt messages at a single price?

The Enterpise plans for the original iPhone were: $45 $55 $65 ( 200, 1500, Unlimited ) but included a $25 discount so they would have been: $20, $30, $40. If you provide the name of the data plan and your previous SMS plan, I can provide you with the proper Feature codes.

If you want someone to resolve this, please send an email to customerfollowup@att.com and provide the specific feature information from you most recent bill that indicated your previous plan. They should be able to assist you with a reset that was caused as part of the iPhone 4S online purchase.

Dave
Click to expand...

Hi Dave,
Sounds like I likely had the Enterprise Package although it was never described to me as such. Had the unlimited data bundled with 1500 texts for $30.

I'm looking at my last bill and it states:

"Data Unlimited for Original iPhone & 1500 Text Messages: $30
Includes: unlimited domestic data, unlimited domestic data on the AT&T WiFi Basic Network, 1500 domestic text messages, $0.05 each additional text message, visual voice mail."

The only other reference I see is "MediaMaxi1500MSGS" with $0.00. Didn't know if this was relevant or not.

Appreciate the help. If you can confirm with the proper feature codes I'd be most appreciative! (Get the sense that I got reset/downgraded when I upgraded to the iP4S despite attempts to the contrary. Probably one of the few that was still using the original iPhone!)
 
OK, you never had Free 1500 SMS Txt messages, it was really a $15 feature that was bundled with the data plan.

First the bad news, AT&T is never going to give you both Unlimited Data and 1500 SMS Txt messages for $30. They however can offer you the $30 Unlimited Data Plan + one of the two previous available SMS Txt messages plans that would have matched your previous bundle.

The way the original iPhone Data plan worked was that for $20 you got both Unlimited Data and 200 SMS Txt messages. That worked out to $15 for the data plan and $5 for the 200 SMS txt messages. You had the next higher combination of the $15 data plan plus $15 for 1500 SMS Txt plan all for $30.

So over the last couple of years had you moved to the iPhone 3G or 3GS or even the iPhone 4 you would have had to pay more since the all the data plans move to the $30 Unlimited Data plan and did not include any SMS Txt messages in a bundle.

Now a little good news that new customers don't have an option to get. As the Care rep offered, you should be able to choose any of the 3 previous SMS Txt plans: $5, $15, or $20 for unlimited. So you would have to add the $5 200 SMS Txt message plan or the $15 1500 SMS Txt message plan.

MMV1 IPHONE DATA 200
MMV2 IPHONE DATA 1500
MMV3 IPHONE DATA UNL​

Dave
 
Thanks for the incredibly accurate info, Dave.

Two follow-up questions, please:

1. I currently have the 200 text for $5 plan. Can I upgrade down the road to the more expensive 1500 texts/month if need be or will AT&T try to force me to go with the unlimited plan? (Didn't know if being grandfathered applied to future upgrades?)

2. Is there any way I can add a line to my AT&T account with the same (or similar) grandfathered benefits? Would love to get my long-time girlfriend on my grandfathered plan if at all possible 🙂

Much obliged for all your help, Dave!
 
doubt it

TorqueChap said:
Thanks for the incredibly accurate info, Dave.

Two follow-up questions, please:

1. I currently have the 200 text for $5 plan. Can I upgrade down the road to the more expensive 1500 texts/month if need be or will AT&T try to force me to go with the unlimited plan? (Didn't know if being grandfathered applied to future upgrades?)

2. Is there any way I can add a line to my AT&T account with the same (or similar) grandfathered benefits? Would love to get my long-time girlfriend on my grandfathered plan if at all possible 🙂

Much obliged for all your help, Dave!
Click to expand...

While I think one can always get to a grandfathered plan that they are CURRENTLY on I don't think you can get to a grandfathered plan that you are NOT currently on, like the 1500 texts plan. One would have had to make that change prior to it no longer being available. YMMV though, depending on if you are still under contract, how many times you call, etc.,
 
TorqueChap said:
Thanks for the incredibly accurate info, Dave.

Two follow-up questions, please:

1. I currently have the 200 text for $5 plan. Can I upgrade down the road to the more expensive 1500 texts/month if need be or will AT&T try to force me to go with the unlimited plan? (Didn't know if being grandfathered applied to future upgrades?)

2. Is there any way I can add a line to my AT&T account with the same (or similar) grandfathered benefits? Would love to get my long-time girlfriend on my grandfathered plan if at all possible 🙂

Much obliged for all your help, Dave!
Click to expand...
No you will not be able to upgrade back to the $15 SMS Txt message plan in the future. It is a now or never option since the option has been removed from the available feature list. The only reason you could get it now is that is what you had before the upgrade to the iPhone 4S and all the recent confusion.

The only way to add a line to your account and hope to get this deal for your GF is to use the original iPhone loophole. You can add her line by using iTunes after you restore your old original iPhone as new, install a new Mini-SIM and follow the iTunes activation steps, adding the original iPhone Data plan with one of the combined SMS Txt message plans. 😉

Does your GF currently have an AT&T account? If she is with another carrier you can even port her number to AT&T using iTunes and your original iPhone. 😀

Once you get your GF working on the original iPhone then she can switch to a later version of the iPhone and the system will make the changes to her data plan.

Dave
 
My 1st iPhone was White iPhone 3Gs 32GB. Which I bought in Oct. 2009 at the local AT&T store and got the Unlimited Data & Messaging

This time my 2nd iPhone I made sure to buy my White iPhone 4S 64GB at the Fifth Ave. Apple Store in case AT&T would try to screw me. I was concerned I wouldn't get grandfathered. I had no problem.

When the Apple salesman went through the phone activation on his iPhone and we got to the carrier plan on the screen my Unlimited Data and Message were both options So i kept my same exact plan!!
 
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