It's safe to say people with grandfathered unlimited data plans are safe. But what about text plans? 200, 1000, 1500.. will those all just automatically just transfer over as well?
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AT&T upgrade - Grandfathered text plans
- Thread starter F123D
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You have to watch out for that. They got sneaky last year and didn't make it clear how to keep the old text plan, and made it look like you HAD to choose a new one. Man, I was steamed when I realized, and of course when I called to complain they would not let me switch back.
I dropped their text plan recently and am using a free app. I would have been happy to keep paying the $10 to AT&T, but no. So, now, they get nothing.
With an upgrade they should be safe. However last year there were issues with both grandfathered unlimited data plans and old SMS Txt plans making it through the pre-order.
The issue last fall there were problems: the load on the servers, and people clicking too fast or not verifying what they were selecting during the multiple checkout steps that they had to go thru to complete their pre-order. Yes this happened on both Apple and AT&T. Double Check what you are selecting!
You will want to double check that your features are listed correctly as you step thru the checkout process for your pre-order and that all your features show. They will show for upgrades while new line purchases will not see these (grandfarthered) features.
If all else fails, AT&T can in most cases recover your old feature codes. It does take time you may have to be very firm. Last year there were many customers that did not pay attention, chose new features and then many days later claimed they "somehow" lost them in the pre-order.
Dave
Last year, they had a screen that came up that simply said, "Select your text plan." In tiny writing on the page somewhere it said, "skip to keep your current plan" or something like that, but it was NOT readily apparent. What they should have done was list their features just like they do now... the whole list, and the current selection has a clicked radio button next to it.
By listing only a couple of options that were available for new customers and not displaying the customer's current choice, they hoodwinked more than one person into giving up their cheaper, better plan. And like I said, they would not switch me back.
It was quickly apparent once iMessage was on the horizon that AT&T was going to force everybody to unlimited text message packages, thus removing virtually all benefit/advantage of iMessage. (It still kind of puzzles me how most people didn't seem to have been bothered by that, but whatever.)
Thankfully, I saw that train coming and switched to the $5, 200 text message plan in time.
I use TextFree for the vast majority of my non iMessage texting, and the 200 texts is enough to cover texts for people who I don't feel like having to explain "okay, here's my phone number, so call me here if you need me, but if you want to text me, do so on this other number" (ie, work people).
I don't remember having any trouble last year being tricked into unlimited texts. Maybe because I pre-ordered through AT&T's website. I'll be sure to be on the lookout for it this time though.
They'll have to pry my $5 text plan from my cold dead hands. Its not so much the money as it is the principle that I want the benefit of iMessage. If you have unlimited texts you're not "saving" anything. Okay okay the money is a factor too. I love having "unlimited" data and having my bill be $72.xx AFTER all taxes and fees each month. Can't do that with unlimited texting!
Thankfully, I saw that train coming and switched to the $5, 200 text message plan in time.
I use TextFree for the vast majority of my non iMessage texting, and the 200 texts is enough to cover texts for people who I don't feel like having to explain "okay, here's my phone number, so call me here if you need me, but if you want to text me, do so on this other number" (ie, work people). I don't remember having any trouble last year being tricked into unlimited texts. Maybe because I pre-ordered through AT&T's website. I'll be sure to be on the lookout for it this time though.
They'll have to pry my $5 text plan from my cold dead hands.
Its not so much the money as it is the principle that I want the benefit of iMessage. If you have unlimited texts you're not "saving" anything. Okay okay the money is a factor too. I love having "unlimited" data and having my bill be $72.xx AFTER all taxes and fees each month. Can't do that with unlimited texting!
You have to double check the features as you go thru the process. Last year was a mess due to the servers being overloaded and the connections dropping between Apple and AT&T.
This year we can expect there to be lots and lots of problems with the new Mobile Share Data plans getting selected in error.
Dave
This year we can expect there to be lots and lots of problems with the new Mobile Share Data plans getting selected in error.
Dave