Did I get over on AT&T or did they get over on me?

April 13, 2009 4:37 AM

I just had a very interesting transaction with AT&T Wireless about switching up my phones, but somehow I feel like I am going to lose in the end.....

Brief back story: I was a blackberry guy for the longest and I loved it. Eventually the commercials got to me and I succumbed to the lure of the iphone and got one in December. No real complaints, but my heart remained with blackberry, so I began to research how I could go back with minimal expense as I was only 4 months into my iphone contract.

The objective of my call: What's the cheapest way I could get a Blackberry Bold and switch over my service. I was prepared to spend $$ (if the price wasnt too obscene) to buy a new or refurbished BBB, and then sell my iphone on ebay or craigslist, and hopefully get close to the same amount I spent.

I spoke with an older sounding woman who immediately laughed when I told her my situation. She explained that she had been getting a lot of calls from people who want to switch from the iphone to the Bold. She then asked me if I would be interested in getting the Bold for only $60-70 bux. Of course I was interested. The website said that a new Bold with activation was $549, and a refurbished was $399.

She kept playing up on how she was going to show me how to do it, and if I agreed, she would need to get her supervisors approval.

In a nutshell.
She would open a new line of service on my existing plan (my wife and I both have our phones on a family plan). I would get a new phone number on the Bold.
When it arrived, I was to take the iphone and Bold to my local AT&T store, and have them take the SIM card from the iphone and put it into the Bold, therefore making the Bold my primary phone, and the iphone would have the new phone number.

From there, she told me to wait about a week, call AT&T, explain what i did.. (I wanted a Bold and was going to give the iphone to a friend)...Tell AT&T that my friend had to leave the coutnry indefinitely (perhaps getting called back to active duty in the army), and ask if we could put the iphone and service on 'vacation hold'. She told me it would not cost me anything, my contract would be running but there would not be an monthly bill. She then said that I should call back every 4-6 months, to explain that 'my friend' was still on active duty', and to keep the phone on hold, and to do this until the two year contract ran out....then cancel that line.

I was suspicious, but trusting since I was speaking to a real AT&T rep, and not some random website promising great deals. I asked here this could backfire on me, and she assured me that it wouldn't.

She then went on to say, that if I bought a discounted carrying case for the phone ($23), she would get me a new Bold for nothing.

I went from being prepared to pay $500 for this phone to getting it for nothing. She went to talk to her supervisor, and moments later the deal was done.

So, the phone is on its way, and I know what I was instructed to do.

I am still suspicious and concerned...Yet, I am trusting as it came from AT&T. Are all these sales calls monitored and recorded? I know the date, time, and first name of the person i spoke to. She wasn't allowed to give me a personal extension should I need to ask her a question or had concerns, but I am sure my Order# would direct them back to her.

Was this sales rep trying to pull something over on her own company? Is this 'vacation hold' scenario legit? Morally, I see the faults in doing this....At the same time though, wouldn't an AT&T sales rep be aware that their calls may be monitored, and that if this does prove to be a scam, she would be fired and possible prosecuted? I'm not sure which way I am leaning in proceeding now that I think about it a little more.....How does AT&T win in this deal? The big guy always wins right??

posted by TwilightKid to shopping (6 comments total)

I can tell you that unless you acted on this "special deal" while on the phone, you have pretty much zero chance of getting the same deal again. I have often been promised things from AT&T, including a "waiver" on the upgrade time period, a "long time customer discount" of $200 from the cost of a phone, and lastly, a "vacation hold" while I was going to be out of the country for a few months. I did not jump on any of these offers at the time they were offered to me and whenever I called back to get the offer, no dice. Not only no dice, but seriously, "What the christ are you talking about?" type of behaviors when I asked about the other deal. So, good luck trying to get that offer again.

As for the transferring a phone number of a new line to an old phone on an old line - also, good luck. I tried this scheme when the Blackberry 830 first came out (remember how freakin' sweet it was?) and ended up having to manually swap the SIM cards in the phone with a RAZR to maintain my old number and had a huge amount of issues with service. So, good luck with that.

All in all, AT&T is my favorite cellphone company and I've had them for over eight years, but somethings really are too good to be true.
posted by banannafish at 5:28 AM on April 13

Well, the deal went through.

I got the confirmation from AT&T via email that my phone and case were shipped and my credit card was only charged for the case as per what she told me.

At this point, it is just a matter of bringing the phone in to the soe and having the SIM cards switched out, and make sure the numbers are transferred.

My biggest concern is this 'vacation hold' thing.
posted by TwilightKid at 5:50 AM on April 13

I am not sure if it applies to your family plan, but my friend went out of the country for a year. He had a regular plan on AT&T (not a family plan) and had to pay $15 a month just to keep his number and account, but without any services. AT&T told him that he could only do this for six months total for the duration of his contract. Plus, the months that his phone was on hold did not count towards his contract. He still received a bill every month.

Maybe the rules are different for someone who is on "active duty" and is on a shared family plan, or maybe their policies have changed with the economy but I would carefully check your next monthly bill to see if your new number pops up, and if any charges have been associated with it.
posted by hooray at 6:38 AM on April 13

Well, if the vacation hold doesn't work, the early termination on the iphone should be less than you were planning to pay for the Bold in the first place, right?
posted by cabingirl at 6:40 AM on April 13

I second the idea that vacation holds or suspending a line also 'holds' the contract. Just call them up and ask (whatever rep you talk to) about the policies for suspending a line.
posted by Xhris at 7:54 AM on April 13

Just to clarify, you don't need to go into the AT&T store to switch the SIM cards. Pop it out of the top of the iPhone, stick it in the appropriate place on the Bold, and your old iPhone number will automagically be on the Bold. If you need to have the contacts on the iPhone ported over, that you may need to do in the store (depending on your technical proficiency - I'm fairly certain that could be done on your home computer as well, although I don't personally know how the Bold connects to a computer or manages contacts).

I would also be aware that your initial signup with the iPhone was most likely for 2 years. As others have stated, it would most likely put your contract obligation on hold - after a year of the service being on "vacation hold", you would still be held to the same amount of time for service payment. But if the person on duty claims this isn't the case, and that after 2 years you don't owe anything, you're in luck. I would warn that AT&T will most likely figure out this "loophole" before the two years is up, as they figured out after a couple of months that my wife's 3G iPhone was chugging along all fine and dandy on a 2G iPhone data plan (it was $15 less per month for the exact same service).
posted by shinynewnick at 8:42 AM on April 13