AT&T Retention Department?

[LWP777]

I'm wondering if their retention department will lower my monthly bill if I tell them I want to cancel. I'm currently paying around $125 for the unlimited plan for my 3GS. The only cell service that actually works in my house is Sprint, but because of my love for the iPhone, I used to transfer all my calls to my house phone. That stopped once AT&T came out with the Microcell to fix that problem (which I had to pay $150 for). Well, the Microcell works, but not to the degree that I thought it would. Many calls are still unclear and garbled.

My wife has always been on Sprint and upgraded to an HTC EVO a couple of days ago. After playing around with the phone, I was pretty impressed. I would still prefer to keep my iPhone, but I'm at the point where our monthly savings would be pretty significant in addition to the phone actually working in my house without the help of the Microcell. If I stay with AT&T, our total cell phone bill would be about $200 monthly. If I switched to Sprint, it would be about $140 a month. I think switching to an EVO would be worth the $60 savings.

If I explain this to AT&T's retention department, will they do anything to keep my business? I would gladly stay with them if they could lower my monthly bill. But with the way they run their business, I suspect they will tell me to take a hike. My early termination penalty is currently $115.

On a separate note, what are the pros and cons of an iPhone vs. HTC EVO?

 

[saving107]

Try giving them a call, #611. How would we know if AT&T will give you a discount?

My opinion, if you call and say I want to cancel my account with you because of bad reception service in my house, they are more likely to say "I'm sorry to hear that your having problems with our service, but let me transfer you to the correct department that handles cancelations"

You will be 1 less customer, out of millions.

 

[Applejuiced]

I dont think AT&T will lower your bill, thats the plan that you signed up for.
They might give you some kind of credit off towards your next months bill but they dont lower your monthly rate like other companies if you threaten to leave.

 

[tills24]

I dunno if they can or would lower your bill, but I've had excellent luck with the retention area. Pre-iPhone I used to get the junk "free" phones, and they'd last 13 months, so I'd call and say I'm going to leave because the phones are junk, and all three times they sent me a better phone rather than have me leave. I'd tell them that I'd rather pay the buy out cost and go to Verizon than pay the same amount to get a new phone at the no contract price.

 

[scaredpoet]

I'm wondering if their retention department will lower my monthly bill if I tell them I want to cancel. I'm currently paying around $125 for the unlimited plan for my 3GS.

Highly unlikely. AT&T, like Verizon, are currently in a situation where they are gaining way more customers than they lose. They know that for every customer who wants to cancel, there's several more who want to sign up. Especially for the iPhone, and this will probably be the case even if an iPhone shows up on Verizon. It's the phone people want to get.

In light of that, I have my doubts AT&T even has a retentions department. A cancellations department, definitely. And although they might try to look at your bill and perhaps suggest modifications or maybe a FAN discount if you're eligible, you're not likely to get any special treatment.

The only cell service that actually works in my house is Sprint, but because of my love for the iPhone, I used to transfer all my calls to my house phone. That stopped once AT&T came out with the Microcell to fix that problem (which I had to pay $150 for). Well, the Microcell works, but not to the degree that I thought it would. Many calls are still unclear and garbled.

FWIW, there is talk on the AT&T forums that a firmware fix exists for microcell users who have these problems, and although it's not for the public yet, some lucky people have been allowed to be part of a beta testing group. Maybe if you complain firmly to someone and get transferred to the tech group that handles microcells, you might be able to get yourself on this list.

If I explain this to AT&T's retention department, will they do anything to keep my business? I would gladly stay with them if they could lower my monthly bill. But with the way they run their business, I suspect they will tell me to take a hike.

Probably. Sprint has been losing customers like a sieve for years and they've only be able to stem the tide very recently, so they have a much more active retentions department than AT&T.

On a separate note, what are the pros and cons of an iPhone vs. HTC EVO?

You're probably in a better position to answer that question than any of us.

Good luck with the EVO.

 

[LWP777]

Try giving them a call, #611. How would we know if AT&T will give you a discount?

My opinion, if you call and say I want to cancel my account with you because of bad reception service in my house, they are more likely to say "I'm sorry to hear that your having problems with our service, but let me transfer you to the correct department that handles cancelations"

You will be 1 less customer, out of millions.

I think you're probably right. It's just amazing to me that Sprint is so much cheaper than AT&T. Their "All-Everything" plan is $69.99 per month, plus an additional $10 for the EVO. It only has 450 peak landline minutes but any mobile to any mobile is free all the time, so essentially it's unlimited minutes for me because I don't talk much to landlines. Also, my corporate discount at Sprint nets me 14% off the base plan each month. AT&T gives me a $4.22 discount every month. If these good android phones keep coming out, maybe AT&T will be forced to adjust to the market and lower their service costs.

 

[LWP777]

Highly unlikely. AT&T, like Verizon, are currently in a situation where they are gaining way more customers than they lose. They know that for every customer who wants to cancel, there's several more who want to sign up. Especially for the iPhone, and this will probably be the case even if an iPhone show sup on Verizon. It's the phone people want to get.

In light of that, I have my doubts AT&T even has a retentions department. A cancellations department, definitely. And although they might try to look at your bill and perhaps suggest modifications or maybe a FAN discount if you're eligible, you're not likely to get any special treatment.




FWIW, there is talk on the AT&T forums that a firmware fix exists for microcell users who have these problems, and although it's not for the public yet, some lucky people have been allowed to be part of a beta testing group. Maybe if you complain firmly to someone and get transferred to the tech group that handles microcells, you might be able to get yourself on this list.




Probably. Sprint has been losing customers like a sieve for years and they've only be able to stem the tide very recently, so they have a much more active retentions department than AT&T.



You're probably in a better position to know that then any of us.

Good luck with the EVO.

Well, I don't know a ton about the technology of cell phones like a lot of posters here are but here are my initial thoughts so far with the EVO:

-- The screen is absolutely beautiful. It's bigger than the iPhone but not so big that it makes the phone look clunky.

-- The OS on the EVO is good, but not as good as the iPhone. I think this is the iPhone's #1 advantage over all other phones. The EVO just operates a bit slower than the iPhone. It's not bad, but just slower.

-- The Android app store seems to be coming along pretty well. A lot of the apps that I love on my 3GS are available in the Droid store.

-- There is way more customization on the EVO. I know many here jailbreak their iPhones (I never did) so I'm sure they can already do cool stuff, but there is no need to "jailbreak" an EVO, because it's built for customization.

-- The cameras are fantastic on the EVO. There is flash. It's practically a mini camcorder.

-- The browser on the EVO is very good, but not quite as good as Safari IMO.

-- The EVO is 4G, although Sprint does not have a ton of 4G coverage areas yet.

-- The battery life sucks, which I'm used to anyway with the iPhone

-- If you use Google for your calendar and email, the phone works incredibly with that. If you use iCal or other clients, it gets tricky.

Those are my thoughts for now!

 

[hcho3]

Well, I don't know a ton about the technology of cell phones like a lot of posters here are but here are my initial thoughts so far with the EVO:

-- The screen is absolutely beautiful. It's bigger than the iPhone but not so big that it makes the phone look clunky.

-- The OS on the EVO is good, but not as good as the iPhone. I think this is the iPhone's #1 advantage over all other phones. The EVO just operates a bit slower than the iPhone. It's not bad, but just slower.

-- The Android app store seems to be coming along pretty well. A lot of the apps that I love on my 3GS are available in the Droid store.

-- There is way more customization on the EVO. I know many here jailbreak their iPhones (I never did) so I'm sure they can already do cool stuff, but there is no need to "jailbreak" an EVO, because it's built for customization.

-- The cameras are fantastic on the EVO. There is flash. It's practically a mini camcorder.

-- The browser on the EVO is very good, but not quite as good as Safari IMO.

-- The EVO is 4G, although Sprint does not have a ton of 4G coverage areas yet.

-- The battery life sucks, which I'm used to anyway with the iPhone

-- If you use Google for your calendar and email, the phone works incredibly with that. If you use iCal or other clients, it gets tricky.

Those are my thoughts for now!

If you don't have a coverage area, then you should have already returned your phone in 30 days...

Calling AT&T and asking for a discount is just stupid. AT&T might offer you 1 time discount, but they won't give you anything permanent. Return your iphone and change the provider. Also, I really think you are a troll because you are just trying to compare iPhone to Evo 4G and you are just using your coverage as an excuse.

 

[mpossoff]

I think you're probably right. It's just amazing to me that Sprint is so much cheaper than AT&T. Their "All-Everything" plan is $69.99 per month, plus an additional $10 for the EVO. It only has 450 peak landline minutes but any mobile to any mobile is free all the time, so essentially it's unlimited minutes for me because I don't talk much to landlines. Also, my corporate discount at Sprint nets me 14% off the base plan each month. AT&T gives me a $4.22 discount every month. If these good android phones keep coming out, maybe AT&T will be forced to adjust to the market and lower their service costs.

That's why you should choose carrier over device. In my area sprint is lousy. Unfortunately you didn't make the right choice, you chose the device.

Marc

 

[Irish Rose]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

No, they will not.

 

[LFSimon]

The retention departments only offer great retention offers to other people. Never to you or me. I always read stories of the great irresistible offers they give people who threaten to quit; but when I call they basically say "sorry to see you go".

 

[LWP777]

If you don't have a coverage area, then you should have already returned your phone in 30 days...

Calling AT&T and asking for a discount is just stupid. AT&T might offer you 1 time discount, but they won't give you anything permanent. Return your iphone and change the provider. Also, I really think you are a troll because you are just trying to compare iPhone to Evo 4G and you are just using your coverage as an excuse.

Wow. Amazing. Did you even read my post? I PREFER the iPhone over EVO. I simply listed some things I liked and disliked about EVO. If AT&T wasn't such a terrible company, I would never even consider switching. Are you really that sensitive about iPhones and talking about other products?

I understand I could have returned my phone in 30 days but that doesn't help the daily dropped calls I have to deal with all over my city. If they can't do anything for me, then so be it. That's why I posted to find out if anybody had any luck. Other carriers (like Sprint) offer deals to customers all the time if they threaten to cancel.

 

[scaredpoet]

I understand I could have returned my phone in 30 days but that doesn't help the daily dropped calls I have to deal with all over my city.

Actually, the whole point of the 30 day return period is to discover if you have such an issue in the first place. If your calls are dropping within the first 30 days, that's a sign to call it quits while you still can.

No matter though, the resale value on your iPhone is still quite high and will no doubt offset your ETF.

Other carriers (like Sprint) offer deals to customers all the time if they threaten to cancel.

That would be because Sprint has roughly half the customers of AT&T and Verizon, and are fighting to hang on to every last one.

 

[Block]

.

 

[Jetaray]

The retention departments only offer great retention offers to other people. Never to you or me. I always read stories of the great irresistible offers they give people who threaten to quit; but when I call they basically say "sorry to see you go".

From my experience the only people who get great discounts are the long time customers who have invested lots of money into the carrier’s service. An example would be a person who always used the highest minute plan available (for many years) and upgraded phones as technology improved.

Those that come here and brag about getting cheap service most likely fail to mention they have been paying a premium price for a long time. Or they just recently found out they qualify for discounts because of the employer the work for.

 

[Gen]

Go with Sprint, better service and cheaper

 

[jcole31]

I've been with AT&T/Cingular for about 4 years and have noticed the customer service has steadily declined. There was a time when I'd call about an issue and they would immediately offer a credit to my account without me even asking. Now, they just say "I'm sorry you are having an issue, let me transfer you to our worthless tech support".

Long story short, new customers are flocking in in big numbers, losing some existing customers is no big deal to them.