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Free AT&T Microcell

M

megsalias

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 23, 2010
162
1
Mobile, AL
I don't know that AT&T ever really quit sending out letters for free microcells, but if they did, they're at it again.

I received a letter in the mail yesterday saying I just need to go pick mine up, so I'm going to get it later today. I'm still a little bit confused about what criteria they're using to select who gets these for no cost though. I have pretty decent service inside my house (3 or 4 bars normally). The only reason I can come up with is because I have two iPhone 4s on my account that aren't in contract. I was an AT&T customer previously, but my current account has only been open a few months.

Anyone else receive a letter recently?
 
I didn't get a letter but while in an AT&T store buying a Mophie case I asked about them. He looked up my address on a coverage map and said because where my house is he would give me one free. Been using it the past week and love it. 4-5 bars with very clear calls.
 
D1G1T4L said:
I didn't get a letter but while in an AT&T store buying a Mophie case I asked about them. He looked up my address on a coverage map and said because where my house is he would give me one free. Been using it the past week and love it. 4-5 bars with very clear calls.
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Same here, I was just mentioning it randomly while picking a phone out for an upgrade. He took one out and gave it to me for free. Maybe because the area the store was in is in a bad service area or because he upgraded my device? (I also added on the tons of features like tethering, family messaging, and some global stuff so that probably made his day)
 
Hmm, I wouldn't mind having one. I'm sure gophone doesn't qualify though.
 
the microcell is a very flawed product. it drops the same amount of calls and takes forever to connect calls. Good thing i got it for free because if i had payed for the thing I would be one angry camper..
 
I'm hoping I'll get one of those letters. Otherwise AT&T will have a former customer when the sixth generation iPhone comes out next year. I get 3 bars at best at my home, and in almost every call I either have to play the "can you hear me now?" game or the call is dropped.

I honestly don't know whether Verizon is better, but my roommate with FRAKING SPRINT has no trouble and Verizon's map shows I'm on the edge of its "extended 4G" area -- yes, 4G.
 
Well, I got mine home and set everything up. I can actually tell a difference in the call quality, and I really didn't think I would be able to. I originally had an issue with my iPhone connecting to the M-Cell, but it seems to be working okay now...5 bars.

This is a semi-unrelated rant, but:

AT&T Customer Service will be receiving a phone call from me tomorrow. When I went to pick up the microcell, I had the representative make a change to the user information on my account. He apparently did not know what he was doing. I left the store, and about an hour later, I suddenly had NO SERVICE anywhere. Needless to say, I was not pleased. I drove all the way back to the store, where after an hour, a different guy finally realizes that the first guy somehow changed my SIM number in the computer. I was given a new SIM card, and all seemed to be okay. Until...overhearing the conversation, the first guy comes back over and proceeds to explain how it MUST have been MY fault. Uh, no. So what should have been an overall positive experience turned out to be plain irritating.
 
Ive done just about everything to get a free Microcell, but nothing has worked. All Ive gotten was we will come look at the towers and then see what we can do for you -.-''' needless to say I'm no happy, data speeds are horrible and voice calls are very muffled and "can u hear me now type of thing", and no one can tell me what kind of speeds should be expected from their towers. They would hate to loose a customer that has been with them since 1996...
 
antman2295 said:
Ive done just about everything to get a free Microcell, but nothing has worked. All Ive gotten was we will come look at the towers and then see what we can do for you -.-''' needless to say I'm no happy, data speeds are horrible and voice calls are very muffled and "can u hear me now type of thing", and no one can tell me what kind of speeds should be expected from their towers. They would hate to loose a customer that has been with them since 1996...
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Go to the Better Business Bureau.. They seem to listen to them..
 
Just got the free offer. But I don't need it! I have 4 or 5 bars and great service at all times. :D

Sometimes it's actually better than my freaking Cablevision broadband service. :mad:
 
Givmeabrek said:
Just got the free offer. But I don't need it! I have 4 or 5 bars and great service at all times. :D

Sometimes it's actually better than my freaking Cablevision broadband service. :mad:
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I could use one.. want to drop me an email and make a deal?
 
Sorry, but you have to agree to a one year contract to use it. And if you don't use it you pay $200. I'm sure it's tied into an account. :eek:

You need to have a talk with your friendly AT&T rep. Maybe you can get a discount?
 
Givmeabrek said:
Sorry, but you have to agree to a one year contract to use it. And if you don't use it you pay $200. I'm sure it's tied into an account. :eek:

You need to have a talk with your friendly AT&T rep. Maybe you can get a discount?
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Thanks, I didn't know there was a contract associated with it..
 
Got mine today

I got the email today and went to pick it up. Set it up and am now getting 5 bars in my basement. Previously only 1. Although the second call I tried failed.
 
I didn't get a letter but I went in to the AT&T store on Mother's Day and the employee asked how the service is at my house and I said that it can be pretty spotty, ranging from about 3 bars to searching. She responded asking if I wanted a free Microcell because I qualified for one (I said yes, of course). So really, there was no work on my end to try and get her to give me one, apparently my area is known to be spotty.
 
I'm moving and my new home is an awful dead zone. I can barely hold into one bar and there's no way in hell I can access 3G, grrr! Too bad the deal is far too good to pass up. I wonder how much work it would take to get a CSR to press the magic button...
 
Yea, I received the letter about a month back. I asked the rep why and she said that there must be a lot of people in the area complaining about the service. I took it but the lag in dialing out is a pain to deal with.
 
I just got a free microcell. See my steps I took...

I have extremely poor coverage at my home and I have made numerous calls to customer service so that I can have a "paper trail" of dropped call events. I have also downloaded and use religiously the AT&T Mark the Spot app. AT&T really does use and keep this data from this app. At first I thought it was just something that they wanted us to think we were as customers would use and then do nothing with the data but they really use it!

Here is what I did:
First I had a history of calls complaining about dropped calls and service at my home. I was always polite when calling and ran any test they needed me to. I use the Mark the spot app all the time. I called 2 days ago and spoke to a CS rep and asked for a microcell. She could not give me one but did say that I could get a rebate. I told her that I had a problem with paying for an item and service to improve their (AT&T) services for something I am already paying for with my monthly plan. I respectfully declined and just had her document my call again.

Two days ago I call the AT&T office of the President (877-707-6220) and specifically asked that someone from the Executive Response Team contact me. The lady looked at my account and asked me what issues I was having and noticed that I had already made several calls regarding my service. She stated that a member of the team would contact me within 72 hours. I received a call today from them and was at all times very polite. I told him of my issues and said that I heard that the microcell could aid me with my issues and since I have been a long standing customer, he agreed. Said that he would send me out a microcell free of charge. I thanked him for his time, concern and prompt customer service. I never once had to threaten that I was going to leave AT&T.

The deal with the microcell is that it uses the minutes that you have on your plan. It does not use Night & Weekend minutes, mobile to mobile or your Rollover. You can have the option to get the unlimited for 19.95 a month however, the guy told me he hasn't seen an instance where someone went over their minutes using it.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

aramosc said:
the microcell is a very flawed product. it drops the same amount of calls and takes forever to connect calls. Good thing i got it for free because if i had payed for the thing I would be one angry camper..
Click to expand...

Well it's like Vonage. It only works as well as your Internet connection. It doesn't amplify a weak signal. It just routes it through the internet.
 
I received my letter a few days ago in Morrison Colorado. I will be picking one up to try out. I typically get 2-3 bars at the house depending where you're standing. Basement.... forget about it. My internet is very fast so I don't think I'll have the lagging issues some are speaking of.
 
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