For the past few days I have been reading about certain "premium customers" receiving letters from AT&T containing certificates for free microcells. They seem to be unsolicited and appeared to be sent out at random.
Our immediate family has 2 family plans with 6 iphones, and 2 dumb phones so we are as premium as it gets. Most of us live in Hawaii where we get perfect reception, but our folks live in bumf@#$ Egypt Pennsylvania where you get down and thank the good lord if you have half a bar of edge. What is interesting about this interaction I had with AT&T is that I got them to define what "premium customer" means.
According to the rep I spoke to. AT&T has received some sort of grant, or endowment for a "billion dollars" to push phone service into areas where it is a diminishing return to erect a tower.
So a premium customer is someone who lives in a zipcode that has spots where there is no coverage, and it is not viable to place a tower. I follow Giz, and Engadget religiously, and I am employed in the communication industry, but I have not yet heard anything about this initiative.
It could just be a rep blowing smoke, but if they are getting ready to flood the country with $1,000,000,000 worth of microcells it could be major. That could forever change communication for all those flyover states. I know that this will make a huge difference for my parents, who can now reduce their $75 per month landline bill to a bear minimum.
Here are the steps I took to get the free microcell.
Call customer service and get on the reps good side. A little buttering up is required but once a CSR likes you they are likely to help you.
Give a sob story about the zero bars that you get at your home, and then insinuate that you may consider a competitors service.
Explain that you know about the promotion. They now know about it as well. When they ask where you heard about it tell them that you have read the blogs and heard reports from people receiving the letters.
Give them a rural zip code. Only certain zip codes qualify for microcell. I used my parents zip code 18346. You need to make sure you qualify as a premium customer. There was no verification of address necessary for me.
They will attempt to sell you on $50 microcell if you sign for unlimited minutes but with a little persistence I got them to credit my account $150, and sent my parents down to the store to pick one up. Boom 5 bars in their living room. For the first time ever.
YMMV but the ease with which I got them to give the credit leads me to believe that it should not be hard for others to do the same.
Everybody with bad reception at home should try this. We need to light a fire under the Telcos to start handing out these microcells to people who need them. Either for free or next to free. We should not have to pay to fix their network, and people deserve good reception at home.
We have been paying for a service we are not receiving for way too long
Our immediate family has 2 family plans with 6 iphones, and 2 dumb phones so we are as premium as it gets. Most of us live in Hawaii where we get perfect reception, but our folks live in bumf@#$ Egypt Pennsylvania where you get down and thank the good lord if you have half a bar of edge. What is interesting about this interaction I had with AT&T is that I got them to define what "premium customer" means.
According to the rep I spoke to. AT&T has received some sort of grant, or endowment for a "billion dollars" to push phone service into areas where it is a diminishing return to erect a tower.
So a premium customer is someone who lives in a zipcode that has spots where there is no coverage, and it is not viable to place a tower. I follow Giz, and Engadget religiously, and I am employed in the communication industry, but I have not yet heard anything about this initiative.
It could just be a rep blowing smoke, but if they are getting ready to flood the country with $1,000,000,000 worth of microcells it could be major. That could forever change communication for all those flyover states. I know that this will make a huge difference for my parents, who can now reduce their $75 per month landline bill to a bear minimum.
Here are the steps I took to get the free microcell.
Call customer service and get on the reps good side. A little buttering up is required but once a CSR likes you they are likely to help you.
Give a sob story about the zero bars that you get at your home, and then insinuate that you may consider a competitors service.
Explain that you know about the promotion. They now know about it as well. When they ask where you heard about it tell them that you have read the blogs and heard reports from people receiving the letters.
Give them a rural zip code. Only certain zip codes qualify for microcell. I used my parents zip code 18346. You need to make sure you qualify as a premium customer. There was no verification of address necessary for me.
They will attempt to sell you on $50 microcell if you sign for unlimited minutes but with a little persistence I got them to credit my account $150, and sent my parents down to the store to pick one up. Boom 5 bars in their living room. For the first time ever.
YMMV but the ease with which I got them to give the credit leads me to believe that it should not be hard for others to do the same.
Everybody with bad reception at home should try this. We need to light a fire under the Telcos to start handing out these microcells to people who need them. Either for free or next to free. We should not have to pay to fix their network, and people deserve good reception at home.
We have been paying for a service we are not receiving for way too long
