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southpoleman69

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 15, 2010
68
0
pa
Just to clarify, the reasoning behind wanting out is that the service has gone down steadily where i live, and the bills just way to high. The fact that even with 3 lines the best that can be offered to me is 205/mo rather than 220/mo is just to high. Ive considered prepaid iphones, vzw, sprint and tmobile. Vzw has the best coverage for me, but it would mean 2 new phones, and quite honestly they seem just as high at 40/ line with 4 gb at 70/mo comes to 150, plus my ipad on att. With taxes would bring it close to 200. My discount is actually from a previous job, so if i leave att, i wont have it anyway. Ive never dealt with unlocking so im clueless when it comes to that
 

JoshGlzBrk

macrumors 6502a
Aug 27, 2009
760
15
Just to clarify, the reasoning behind wanting out is that the service has gone down steadily where i live, and the bills just way to high. The fact that even with 3 lines the best that can be offered to me is 205/mo rather than 220/mo is just to high. Ive considered prepaid iphones, vzw, sprint and tmobile. Vzw has the best coverage for me, but it would mean 2 new phones, and quite honestly they seem just as high at 40/ line with 4 gb at 70/mo comes to 150, plus my ipad on att. With taxes would bring it close to 200. My discount is actually from a previous job, so if i leave att, i wont have it anyway. Ive never dealt with unlocking so im clueless when it comes to that

Once you terminate your at&t contracts, or once a contract for an at&t phone is up, they will unlock it for you within a week after you request it. You can also purchase an IMEI unlock off eBay for as low as $1.30 and have it done in under 24 hours.

example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=171062007500&ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123

T-Mobile option:

With T-Mobile's family plan, your three iPhones with unlimited talk, text, and 2GB for each phone is $120. If you wanted unlimited data it's $150.

Keep in mind that mobile hotspot comes with the 2GB plan, and with the unlimited plan, each phone gets 500MB of hotspot data. So that could be used for your iPad.
 
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davidg4781

macrumors 68030
Oct 28, 2006
2,798
398
Alice, TX
Just to clarify, the reasoning behind wanting out is that the service has gone down steadily where i live, and the bills just way to high. The fact that even with 3 lines the best that can be offered to me is 205/mo rather than 220/mo is just to high. Ive considered prepaid iphones, vzw, sprint and tmobile. Vzw has the best coverage for me, but it would mean 2 new phones, and quite honestly they seem just as high at 40/ line with 4 gb at 70/mo comes to 150, plus my ipad on att. With taxes would bring it close to 200. My discount is actually from a previous job, so if i leave att, i wont have it anyway. Ive never dealt with unlocking so im clueless when it comes to that

I think you may need to reevaluate your plan, unless I'm missing something.

I'm assuming you have 2 phones and one iPad.

AT&T's mobile share plan for 4GB with unlimited talk and text is $70. Add on your two phones at $40/ea is $150. And to share that data with your iPad is an additional $10.

I know it's a lot, but cell phone service with all the extras is a lot. You can try T-Mobile but pay full price for your phone or drop the data.
 

nwmtnbiker

macrumors 68000
Apr 5, 2011
1,617
23
Fidalgo Island
I told them that I was moving out of there service area after looking at the service map. All they needed was a rental agreement and the landlords telephone number. I printed rental agreement off from the net and had my friends phone number with instructions. They never called my friend... This was with Verizon and about 11 months left on contract.

Yes I know it is crooked and wrong but paying close to $200 a month and having your service go downhill monthly isn't right either...
 

PM-Performance

macrumors 6502
Feb 12, 2012
320
47
----------

[/COLOR]

In my case, I had 5 lines I brought over, 3 were under contract on Att for anywhere from 1-1.5 years, and 2 lines from Verizon which weren't under contract. I had $600 in EFT on the 3 contract lines. The tmobile rep I worked with gave me $200 of credit per line that I brought over, so $1000 in total. I had enough to pay off the AT&T EFTs, and $400 leftover. My bill went from $260/mo, to $126 on tmobile, after my 15% corporate discount was included. Plus the leftover credit.

I was able to bring over three phones from att that we unlocked, and we used the $400 credit towards two iP5 purchases.

So far, very happy! But I agree 100% with deeddawg. Try it out first. Make sure the coverage is there for you. I happen to be in an area that gets good 4G coverage, and now starting to see LTE too in some spots, so it works for me (coming from att where I also had LTE 90% of the time).


WOW!!!! Deff not a common thing. I have seen this happen for a line or two within a month or two of contract renewal, but you sir made out like a bandit. lol.
 

Nathan21585

macrumors member
Aug 9, 2010
89
0
Central Florida
Just to clarify, the reasoning behind wanting out is that the service has gone down steadily where i live, and the bills just way to high. The fact that even with 3 lines the best that can be offered to me is 205/mo rather than 220/mo is just to high. Ive considered prepaid iphones, vzw, sprint and tmobile. Vzw has the best coverage for me, but it would mean 2 new phones, and quite honestly they seem just as high at 40/ line with 4 gb at 70/mo comes to 150, plus my ipad on att. With taxes would bring it close to 200. My discount is actually from a previous job, so if i leave att, i wont have it anyway. Ive never dealt with unlocking so im clueless when it comes to that

Yeah I am not sure what you have on your plan but its not $205 for two iPhones and a iPad on the 6gb mobile share. It's only $170. You must have some other features are something that is raising the price.
 

southpoleman69

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 15, 2010
68
0
pa
Yeah I am not sure what you have on your plan but its not $205 for two iPhones and a iPad on the 6gb mobile share. It's only $170. You must have some other features are something that is raising the price.

My plan currently is unlimited talk n text and 6 gb of data across 4 lines(3 phones, 1 ipad) att tells me once i eliminate the one phone im taking off i could lower my plan to 4 gb but thats what would bring it to 205. If i went with 700 mins(which is more than enough) it would be 190, for 10 dollars more/mo i can have unlimited. Im kinda frustrated because it just seems, or im being told they dont offer anything different that will make my bill lower. Originally when i started with 2 lines i had 700 mins with rollover unlimited text and data for 140/mo. Added a 3rd line and it bumped it severely. Then i lost my data, and at that point added the ipad. Which brougjt me to where i am. 220/ month for what i dont use. Now im being told they cant get it that low. Or even close
 

davidg4781

macrumors 68030
Oct 28, 2006
2,798
398
Alice, TX
My plan currently is unlimited talk n text and 6 gb of data across 4 lines(3 phones, 1 ipad) att tells me once i eliminate the one phone im taking off i could lower my plan to 4 gb but thats what would bring it to 205. If i went with 700 mins(which is more than enough) it would be 190, for 10 dollars more/mo i can have unlimited. Im kinda frustrated because it just seems, or im being told they dont offer anything different that will make my bill lower. Originally when i started with 2 lines i had 700 mins with rollover unlimited text and data for 140/mo. Added a 3rd line and it bumped it severely. Then i lost my data, and at that point added the ipad. Which brougjt me to where i am. 220/ month for what i dont use. Now im being told they cant get it that low. Or even close

Check out their website. You've got something wrong going on there.
 

Nathan21585

macrumors member
Aug 9, 2010
89
0
Central Florida
My plan currently is unlimited talk n text and 6 gb of data across 4 lines(3 phones, 1 ipad) att tells me once i eliminate the one phone im taking off i could lower my plan to 4 gb but thats what would bring it to 205. If i went with 700 mins(which is more than enough) it would be 190, for 10 dollars more/mo i can have unlimited. Im kinda frustrated because it just seems, or im being told they dont offer anything different that will make my bill lower. Originally when i started with 2 lines i had 700 mins with rollover unlimited text and data for 140/mo. Added a 3rd line and it bumped it severely. Then i lost my data, and at that point added the ipad. Which brougjt me to where i am. 220/ month for what i dont use. Now im being told they cant get it that low. Or even close

Yeah 2 iPhones and a iPad on the 4gb mobile share plan is $160 or on the 6gb is $170. Someone gave you wrong info. A very useful tool to see exactly what it would be is http://myattrpc.com/
 

AbSoluTc

Suspended
Sep 21, 2008
5,104
4,000
You can transfer responsibility of your lines to someone else. Search for sell your cell plan or something similar online. I had a second line I no longer needed. Listed it with 3 of the sites and offered $40 extra if anyone took it. Someone did. Saved me $20 a month and/or an ETF of $250. Line is gone and I only have one line and one phone :)
 

southpoleman69

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 15, 2010
68
0
pa
OP, how much time is left on your contract ? This should help if its worth going elsewhere or not and taking a hit.

On one its over in december, the other 2, jan 2015. Im confident i can make the money back selling the iphones, but would obviously have to buy new.
 

kmichalec

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2010
878
284
WOW!!!! Deff not a common thing. I have seen this happen for a line or two within a month or two of contract renewal, but you sir made out like a bandit. lol.

Got my first bill from Tmobile. The $1000 credit (5 lines at $200 each) has been applied as promised. Sitting on a negative $750 balance as of right now. So, yes, there are ways to get out from the AT&T EFT's.

Good luck! :)

TmobileBill.jpg
 
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GodWhomIsMike

macrumors 6502a
Sep 24, 2007
580
2
I been very happy with AT&T. I know there are a lot of people that don't share this sediment, but after 5 years, I only had one rep I spoke with that annoyed me. Other than that one rep, I've always had amazing customer service, and everything works great. I can't complain. I just wish I reported that one rep about a month ago.
 

KUguardgrl13

macrumors 68020
May 16, 2013
2,492
125
Kansas, USA
He switched from AT&T to tmobile without an etf?

Just found out yesterday that his ETF is about $250, and the final bill brings it up to about $370. That was for one line with unlimited talk & text, 2 gb data, and an international calling plan. His contract started October 2012.

He pays something like $60/mo for tmobile with a work discount for a similar plan.
 

JoshGlzBrk

macrumors 6502a
Aug 27, 2009
760
15
It's definitely possible to get out of an ETF as of right now. I got out of a $1000 worth of ETFs just today by emailing the ceo's email address and complaining about the new 61 cent fee.
 

southpoleman69

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 15, 2010
68
0
pa
It's definitely possible to get out of an ETF as of right now. I got out of a $1000 worth of ETFs just today by emailing the ceo's email address and complaining about the new 61 cent fee.

care to elaborate on how exactly you handled it? hoping if i send relatively the same idea ill get the same results. how did you find the correct email?
 

JoshGlzBrk

macrumors 6502a
Aug 27, 2009
760
15
care to elaborate on how exactly you handled it? hoping if i send relatively the same idea ill get the same results. how did you find the correct email?

I emailed the ceo (randall.stephenson@att.com) basically saying that I had originally chose AT&T because they didn't have any of these stupid fees. And now that AT&T has them there was no reason to continue to do business with them. And that I have moved all my lines back to my previous carrier (Verizon) and asked if there was a way out of the ETFs. A few days later I got an email/phone call back from a woman in their customer appeals executive office department saying that she had spoken to their legal department and whatnot and had waived the pending ETFs on my account.

But keep in mind, this is after I had already ported all three lines away from them. I know from previous experiences that if they agree to waive an ETF while your account is still active, they will terminate the account right then and there. So it's kind of a risk.

The ONLY reason I jumped ship was because it was highly likely I could get out of those fees (my friend did it two weeks ago the same way), and I had secured a verizon unlimited data plan that I really wanted. So I went for it.
 

kmichalec

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2010
878
284
I emailed the ceo (randall.stephenson@att.com) basically saying that I had originally chose AT&T because they didn't have any of these stupid fees. And now that AT&T has them there was no reason to continue to do business with them. And that I have moved all my lines back to my previous carrier (Verizon) and asked if there was a way out of the ETFs. A few days later I got an email/phone call back from a woman in their customer appeals executive office department saying that she had spoken to their legal department and whatnot and had waived the pending ETFs on my account.

But keep in mind, this is after I had already ported all three lines away from them. I know from previous experiences that if they agree to waive an ETF while your account is still active, they will terminate the account right then and there. So it's kind of a risk.

The ONLY reason I jumped ship was because it was highly likely I could get out of those fees (my friend did it two weeks ago the same way), and I had secured a verizon unlimited data plan that I really wanted. So I went for it.

Not doubting you, but I don't see why AT&T would do this for you? They had no obligation to do it, and once you left, they wouldn't be getting any future monthly fees from you, so why would they just choose to waive those ETF's if you already left them? All the more reason to keep the ETF's in place. AT&T is not really known for being charitable.
 

davidg4781

macrumors 68030
Oct 28, 2006
2,798
398
Alice, TX
Not doubting you, but I don't see why AT&T would do this for you? They had no obligation to do it, and once you left, they wouldn't be getting any future monthly fees from you, so why would they just choose to waive those ETF's if you already left them? All the more reason to keep the ETF's in place. AT&T is not really known for being charitable.

I'm guessing the contract was changed because of the added charges. I've read of a lot of people leaving Sprint for issues like that. Basically they changed the terms and he's not agreeing to the new terms.
 

deeddawg

macrumors G5
Jun 14, 2010
12,223
6,351
US
Not doubting you, but I don't see why AT&T would do this for you?

I'm guessing the contract was changed because of the added charges.

Yep, the new $0.61 per line per month fee can be spun as a change to the contract thereby allowing escape from ETF.

However also as noted there's a strong chance they'd waive the ETF and terminate the lines right then and there, meaning you'd be SOL if you hadn't already ported out.
 

kmichalec

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2010
878
284
I'm guessing the contract was changed because of the added charges. I've read of a lot of people leaving Sprint for issues like that. Basically they changed the terms and he's not agreeing to the new terms.

Maybe, but I'm sure AT&T notified everyone at the time when the new fees were added, and provided an option to accept/decline the fees and therefore service at that time, but if you continued service, you were agreeing to the fees. By continuing service after all this time, you've legally agreed to the fees, so there would be no reason to just let you out now. I can't imagine AT&T's lawyers would allow that kind of loophole after you've agreed. Sprint maybe. Not AT&T.

But then again, stranger things have happened...
 

deeddawg

macrumors G5
Jun 14, 2010
12,223
6,351
US
Maybe, but I'm sure AT&T notified everyone at the time when the new fees were added, and provided an option to accept/decline the fees and therefore service at that time, but if you continued service, you were agreeing to the fees.

"All this time" depends on your billing cycle regarding the fee that went into effect on May 1st. Probably tough to do anything now unless you had a very late in the month billing cycle, but it's not like the window closed weeks ago.

1.3 Can AT&T Change My Terms And Rates?
We may change any terms, conditions, rates, fees, expenses, or charges regarding your Services at any time. We will provide you with notice of material changes (other than changes to governmental fees, proportional charges for governmental mandates, roaming rates or administrative charges) either in your monthly bill or separately. You understand and agree that State and Federal Universal Service Fees and other governmentally imposed fees, whether or not assessed directly upon you, may be increased based upon the government's or our calculations.

IF WE INCREASE THE PRICE OF ANY OF THE SERVICES TO WHICH YOU SUBSCRIBE, BEYOND THE LIMITS SET FORTH IN YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUMMARY, OR IF WE MATERIALLY DECREASE THE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA IN WHICH YOUR AIRTIME RATE APPLIES (OTHER THAN A TEMPORARY DECREASE FOR REPAIRS OR MAINTENANCE), WE’LL DISCLOSE THE CHANGE AT LEAST ONE BILLING CYCLE IN ADVANCE (EITHER THROUGH A NOTICE WITH YOUR BILL, A TEXT MESSAGE TO YOUR DEVICE, OR OTHERWISE), AND YOU MAY TERMINATE THIS AGREEMENT WITHOUT PAYING AN EARLY TERMINATION FEE OR RETURNING OR PAYING FOR ANY PROMOTIONAL ITEMS, PROVIDED YOUR NOTICE OF TERMINATION IS DELIVERED TO US WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER THE FIRST BILL REFLECTING THE CHANGE.
 

kmichalec

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2010
878
284
Yes, sorry about my previous posts. I thought this was a fee that's been there for a while. I didn't realize it was something they just added.

I just tried calling them for the heck of it. No luck. Went through 3 diff reps, and a district manager. Posted the details here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=17506669#post17506669


I did look at the wording of the above legal-ese, and they are getting around this by stating that it's not a "material" increase, and therefore not a condition for getting out of ETF's. Very sneaky and underhanded, AT&T!

Sounds like the person who managed to get them waived just got lucky and got the right person at the right time. I don't think this will be the norm whatsoever.
 
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