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AT&T's A-list: Here's a free way to never ever get overages again!

wikoogle

wikoogle

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 12, 2009
929
0
Here is a silent FREE feature that AT&T recently added that no one seems to be using...

It's a feature that you have to actually enable, but it's free and it saves SOOOO MANY MINUTES.

My entire family is on the 1400 minute family plan. We regularly used to get overages.

Then last month, I enabled this free feature on our account, looked through our minute usage and added the 10 numbers we most frequently call that use up our minutes to the A-list.

Now, I just found out we used up a grand total of 200 anytime minutes this month and suddenly have 1200 rollover minutes!! :eek:

Here is info on the A-list straight from AT&T...

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-sales/promotion/a-list.jsp

Unlimited Calling with A-List
Add your favorite peeps to your A-List – then talk to them as much as you want!

Here's the scoop:
Current Individual plans 900+ minutes ($59.99 and over) per month, and
Current FamilyTalk plans 1400+ minutes ($89.99 and over) per month
qualify for A-List
No extra charge with your qualifying plan
Add up to 5 numbers on your individual plan
Add up to 10 numbers on your FamilyTalk plan
Add any domestic number, on any network – including landline numbers
Calls to and from your A-List numbers are not charged against your rate
plan, Mobile to Mobile, or Rollover® minutes.
Update your list online as often as you want, right from your
myWireless Account


I just talked to several of my friends about it and none of them knew about this feature. So pass it on. I think many AT&T customers are paying overages when they don't have to.
 
I don't consider it "free" as it's part of the 900 minute plan. You make it sound like it's something normal people cannot get. As long as you're on the 900 minute plan, you get A-List.
 
This has been around for a while...6 months or so. But you're right, AT&T doesn't advertise it very well. Sucks that you must have a 1400 minute family plan to qualify, though.
 
AT&T doesn't advertize it.

And they don't enable it by default. You have to go in and enable it manually.

Most AT&T customers seem to unaware of this for these reasons and still pay overages.
 
wikoogle said:
AT&T doesn't advertize it.

And they don't enable it by default. You have to go in and enable it manually.

Most AT&T customers seem to unaware of this for these reasons and still pay overages.
Click to expand...

Even the employees at the AT&T store were unaware of it. They told us we were only using about 500 minutes a month, and we could drop to a lower minute plan. The guy didn't mention once (although I had known it) that we used almost 1400 without the A-List
 
mackmgg said:
Even the employees at the AT&T store were unaware of it. They told us we were only using about 500 minutes a month, and we could drop to a lower minute plan. The guy didn't mention once (although I had known it) that we used almost 1400 without the A-List
Click to expand...

Exactly.

We need to get the message about this feature out. Because AT&T is doing a crappy job of doing so.

AT&T makes tons of money on overages, they have no incentive to promote this.

They just want to be able to tell a customer that is about to cancel AT&T and switch to T-Mobile, that they offer a feature just like the Fav 5 feature. But otherwise, the less people that know about this feature, the better as far as AT&T's bottomline is concerned.

If this wasn't the case, this feature would be showing up in AT&T's ads and it would be enable by default.
 
wikoogle said:
AT&T doesn't advertize it.

And they don't enable it by default. You have to go in and enable it manually.

Most AT&T customers seem to unaware of this for these reasons and still pay overages.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? If you go to AT&T's website right now and look at the 900 minute plan, it plainly says it comes with A-List. When you check the different plans, there's a specific column just for A-List. And it even says "Get unlimited calling to and from your favorite U.S. phone numbers at no extra charge with A-list." Then at the bottom with the footnote, it says "† Add any U.S. number, on any network - including landline numbers. Calls to and from your A-List numbers are not charged against your rate plan, Mobile to Mobile, or Rollover® minutes."

I really don't know how much more clear you want them to be.

As for employees not knowing, well, inept employees exist in all facets of society. However, I don't know where you all are, but I've seen and known about A-List for a LONG time now.

They may not advertise it well, but Sprint didn't advertise their Pick 5 well either. In the end, in my opinion, it's up to the customer to know what the plan includes, not for AT&T to advertise all over. When I joined AT&T I did my homework on the plans. Most customers should do the same, if they have overages because they didn't take advantage of A-List, that is their fault, not AT&T's for not advertising it more.
 
If you sign up to an eligible plan at the AT&T store, the employees won't tell you about it or enable it for you by default. So the average user won't have it enabled and will pay overages.

Even if you actually get the plan online, the A list won't even be enabled by default. You have to go in to plan details and then manually add it to the package!

Listing the features of a plan is not advertizing, especially when the feature isn't even enabled for you by default when you sign up for the plan.

Advertisement means promoting your features in advertisements.

You know T-Mobile consantly advertizes their "Fav 5" program. A list is the same thing, but one that never gets talked about in AT&T ads.

AT&T would prefer their current customers not know about the A list and continue to pay overages, but while still being able to tell a customer that is about to switch or cancel because of overages, that they offer this same feature as T-mobile.


This is precisely why so many users here are unaware of this feature. And this is why it's important that we spread the word amongst other iPhone/AT&T users.
 
wikoogle said:
If you sign up to an eligible plan at the AT&T store, the employees won't tell you about it or enable it for you by default. So the average user won't have it enabled and will pay overages.

Even if you actually get the plan online, the A list won't even be enabled by default. You have to go in to plan details and then manually add it to the package!

Listing the features of a plan is not advertizing, especially when the feature isn't even enabled for you by default when you sign up for the plan.

Advertisement means promoting your features in advertisements.

You know T-Mobile consantly advertizes their "Fav 5" program. A list is the same thing, but one that never gets talked about in AT&T ads.

AT&T would prefer their current customers not know about the A list and continue to pay overages, but while still being able to tell a customer that is about to switch or cancel because of overages, that they offer this same feature as T-mobile.
Click to expand...

I understand your point completely, but I get the feeling your point is that AT&T HAS to advertise their plans and what they come with. But in my opinion, they can do whatever they want. They don't need to advertise if they don't want to. Again, it boils down to the customer to know what the plan includes, whether it be A-List or international calling for instance. I just think your perspective is that of a customer, which isn't wrong, but if you're talking about AT&T, you have to think like a big business. Why would they advertise something, if they don't have to? Secondly, lets say you activate in a store, I don't know about you, but I always get their brochures and read over them. Their current brochure has A-List as a feature.

But besides that point, I have seen advertisements for A-List, not a ton, but also A-List isn't AT&T's biggest feature. You keep mentioning T-Mobile, their biggest feature was Fave 5. AT&T's is Rollover. A-List and everything else currently will play second fiddle to Rollover, because Rollover is and for the foreseeable future, their biggest and most important feature. Also remember, none of the remaining Big 3 have that, but they do have the Fave 5/Pick5/A-List.

Also - I want to make it clear, I do not work for AT&T. I've pretty much been a customer for every cell company sans T-Mobile.
 
Yes, AT&T can do whatever they want.

All I'm saying that since they are not advertising it, we should spread the word about this awesome feature that very few people are aware of (or have enabled). It works amazingly well with Rollover, since it saves you a ton of minutes every month that get added to your rollover minutes. You can add more and more people to your family share plan without ever having to go past 1400 minutes.

Just about everyone in the US with an iPhone has AT&T, so we should really get the word out to the macrumors community and their friends and family to take advantage of this free feature.

It can save a lot of people here a whole lot of money over time.

P.S: I haven't seen a single ad for the A-list, and I've been looking. I even checked youtube. Can you link me to one?
 
You are right about them not telling you about the a-list. I just read everything about something I purchase. The a-list is great. I have five lines and we usually use 3 to 4 thousands minutes a month for the a-list and 2100 plan so we are well covered. For all five lines it is our main phone line.:)
 
wikoogle said:
AT&T doesn't advertize it.

And they don't enable it by default. You have to go in and enable it manually.

Most AT&T customers seem to unaware of this for these reasons and still pay overages.
Click to expand...

If you think about it just a little bit you may realize there is no way for AT&T to “enable it by default” as you say. Do you really expect AT&T to magically know who you want on your A-List?

You are acting like a kid who purchased a car, drives it around for a year then suddenly finds out it has trunk. Hey everyone look my car has this neat little storage area in the back. They even give you a key to lock it. Wow I wonder if all the other people in the world know most cars have trunks.

You did not discover anything a sensible person does not already know about their AT&T service.
 
Jetaray said:
If you think about it just a little bit you may realize there is no way for AT&T to “enable it by default” as you say. Do you really expect AT&T to magically know who you want on your A-List?
Click to expand...

Stated like someone that has no clue about how the feature works but decides to butt in anyways. Beautiful.

Enable by default doesn't mean to have numbers on your A-List. Enable by default means that the feature A-list even shows up on your account. That you can click on the A-list and click manage your A-List and add numbers to it.

By default, the entire A-list section doesn't even exist on your account. Even if you go to the A-list website and try to log in to manage your A-list, it tells you that your account doesn't have it.

The only way to get the A-list is to go to account management, then manage features, then add features, and scroll down till you see the feature A-list list, select it and click add it, then modify account, before A-list shows up on your account as an option that you can set up or manage.

How does that make any sense, to have to go into account management to add a feature that is already advertised to be a part of your plan by default. Would it make any sense if the only way you get free nights and weekends, is if you go into account management, scroll down to that feature, and then manually add it? Would it make any sense if you only get rollover minutes if you had to do all that and enable the feature? Would it make any sense if after signing up for a 1400 minute plan, you don't actually get the 1400 minutes or get to make calls, until you log into account management, scroll down to 1400 minutes and add them manually to your plan that you already signed up for and are paying $80 a month for?

The average person wouldn't know to do that unless someone tells them to (ie. the point of this thread, to get more people to do that). In fact, the average person that set up their account at the AT&T store wouldn't even know how to access their account online to enable a feature such as this.

That's what I mean by having it enabled by default in eligible accounts. Only after doing all that do you even have an a list section that you can access on your account to manage and add numbers to.
 
OK I will agree they could make it easier to setup your A-List. I have no doubt if you called a service representative they would be happy to assist you in setting up your A-List. The A-List is a self service feature and most likely designed that way to reduce cost.

I just don’t agree that the average customer who is on a budget, researches, and chooses a cell phone carrier is too stupid to setup an A-List. Anyone who spends the money to get a qualifying account and wants to use it to its fullest potential should be able to set up an A-List.

Now if you would have started a thread stating AT&T A-List service is a pain to setup I would have never responded (I agree with that statement). In stead you gave the impression like it was some kind of feature they hidden on purpose to prevent use, I simply disagree. It would be like me saying hey AT&T is advertising call forwarding, but they hide the code I need to activate the service. Like call forwarding the A-List is advertised as a feature but requires the user to put a certain amount of effort into using the feature.
 
I'm waiting for the day when carriers just make it unlimited for a set price. It doesn't cost any extra to actually use a phone to make a phone call depending upon the plan you have. All you're doing is modulating the microwave frequency to carry voice or data. These plans just need to go away.
 
I had this when I was on Verizon, and I had the iPhone with the 900 plan which is the minimum you need to get the Top 5 A-List under the Individual plan. Two months ago I switched everyone to AT&T with me, went to a family plan and now we have top 10 A-List, we hardly use any of our 1400 Family Plan minutes, I have thousands of Rollover minutes now, but way better then Verizon. We were using 300 per month adn I was paying for 1400 so basically 1100 left over that we were throwing away on Verizon.

I will never go back to Verizon Wireless, Never, Ever, Never, Ever, No Way :mad:
 
wikoogle said:
AT&T doesn't advertize it.

And they don't enable it by default. You have to go in and enable it manually.

Most AT&T customers seem to unaware of this for these reasons and still pay overages.
Click to expand...

no sir it's a feature of calling plans that are 900 or more...by default it IS enabled...why not just get unlimited and be done with the charades?
 
figured i'd chime in since I actually work at an AT&T store.

First, sales associates in store have no way of "enabling" your alist, if your rate plan qualifies, it is there for YOU to activate through your online account profile on ATT.com. There is no option for sals reps to ADD it or ENABLE it when making changes to your account in store, it is there by default and up to YOU and YOU alone to use it if you want.

Second, It is clearly displayed in all literature given to customers at time of purchase, you can find this information out on ATT.com or by looking in one of the rate plan packets in store.

now granted im sure there are plenty of AT&T sales associates that don't build this feature up as much as they should, but it is required of ALL at&t employee's to FULLY cover all the features of each rate plan at time of purchase (it's one of the questions in the survey emailed to customers asking about their experience in the store), some of you just dealt with employee's who weren't being as clear as they could be.

hope this helps! :)
 
Hey thanks for the info, wikoogle!

I just checked my Family plan and A-list was unchecked.

Just added the feature and now have to figure out who we call the most.
 
A lot of people tie their Google Voice number as their only contact. Then, they hand out and make calls form the GV number. This gives them unlimited calling to anywhere in the US. GV makes the call, and calls your cell phone. So, ATT sees the incoming call to your cell number from GV. When someone calls you, they call their GV number, and GV calls your cell number......Again, ATT only sees the call between your GV number and the ATT network.
 
ctt1wbw said:
I'm waiting for the day when carriers just make it unlimited for a set price. It doesn't cost any extra to actually use a phone to make a phone call depending upon the plan you have. All you're doing is modulating the microwave frequency to carry voice or data. These plans just need to go away.
Click to expand...
Amen to this.
 
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