AT&T Thumbs UP

[AirgunSavant]

My mother got a call in the nursing home yesterday from AT&T.
She has a cell phone but hardly ever uses it. I offered her one on my plan but she said she wouldn't use it enough.
Come to find out she had a basic plan and while away for 6 weeks she ran up a $600 cell phone bill from all of the relatives calling her. ( She is very private and wants to handle all of her own affairs)

AT&T assumed the phone was stolen but when they found out her situation they canceled the $600 bill and for $10 more a month than her old plan they put her on unlimited calling. You can't beat that service.
$600 is something she could not afford.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I didn't know anyone pays for domestic telephone call anymore.. Good they reveresd it , but there should not have been charges to begin with.

Disclosure: Lifelong manufacturing Engineer for Western Electric, AT&T, Lucent then OUTSOURCED = end of THAT career.

 

[2civics]

Good story. Thanks for sharing.

 

[AirgunSavant]

Agreed- but in this situation things got crazy fast. She keeps the cell in her car for emergency use.
I don't know how many minutes she had a month- maybe 500?
She dodged a bullet....

 

[raytseng]

I wouldn't be do quick to give AT&T a medal. they created that plan in the first place

the plan they made up looks to be predatory to seniors.
obviously it costs them very little or nothing that's why they are so quick to refund the bill actuallt means there's no justification for it in the first place.

for every senior that calls in to complain there maybe 10 that are embarrassed instead and just pay the bill.

they keep the ones that do complain happy so they dont get in trouble or on the news or local politicians involved and can keep ripping off the embarrassed ones.

they could've easily had if you exceed $100 we stop you service or give you a call or we auto switch you to a higher tier plan or whatever, but obviously the plan is designed with the pitfall to trap folks.

yes you can say free market a deal is a deal, don't be stupid; , but plans like this targeting seniors starts getting into shady territory.
many other consumer protection laws exist to prevent predatory practices similar to this.

 

[maverickfhs]

Originally Posted By: raytseng
I wouldn't be do quick to give AT&T a medal. they created that plan in the first place

the plan they made up looks to be predatory to seniors.
obviously it costs them very little or nothing that's why they are so quick to refund the bill.

for every senior that calls in to complain there maybe 10 that are embarrassed instead and just pay the bill.
they keep the ones that do complain happy so they can keep ripping off the embarrassed ones.

they could've easily had if you exceed $100 we stop you service or give you a call or we auto switch you to a higher tier plan or whatever, but obviously the plan is designed with the pitfall to trap folks.

yes you can say free market a deal is a deal, don't be stupid; , but plans like this targeting seniors starts getting into shady territory.
many other consumer protection laws exist to prevent predatory practices similar to this.


^This is true for pretty much every situation and is applicable to many places.

 

[raytseng]

well I wouldn't necessarily agree with that world view of every situation or even most situations.I would put it maybe at 5% or less of the situations at least in my transactions with the world.

a lot of companies want you to happy with them and be a win_win.
It's not always a fight and you grudgingly give up your money after negotiations, and you think the other side is always just viewing you as a dollar sign.

it must be mentally exhausting if you think everyone and everything is out to get you and everyone is nickel and diming you at every opportunity and you exit each purchase feeling like you got slightly ripped off but you had to do it anyway.

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
I didn't know anyone pays for domestic telephone call anymore.. Good they reveresd it , but there should not have been charges to begin with.

Disclosure: Lifelong manufacturing Engineer for Western Electric, AT&T, Lucent then OUTSOURCED = end of THAT career.


Try reading it again you missed some keywords such as cell phone.

 

[SuperSalad]

Originally Posted By: Rand
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
I didn't know anyone pays for domestic telephone call anymore.. Good they reveresd it , but there should not have been charges to begin with.

Disclosure: Lifelong manufacturing Engineer for Western Electric, AT&T, Lucent then OUTSOURCED = end of THAT career.


Try reading it again you missed some keywords such as cell phone.

He didn't say land-line. He said domestic, as in not international.

 

[LoneRanger]

Republic Wireless (Sprint backbone) and a 16GB Moto X (2nd gen) for me. Typical monthly bill is about $13 (thirteen). Hybrid wifi calling + data works great !!

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Republic Wireless (Sprint backbone) and a 16GB Moto X (2nd gen) for me. Typical monthly bill is about $13 (thirteen). Hybrid wifi calling + data works great !!


I've heard of Republic, and that it's nice. I've had Tracfone for years at $6 per month for 60MB, 60 minutes, 60 texts in/out. I've got like 1.5GB, 1,000 minutes and 900 texts accrued over the years. Just got a Moto G4 to use. Wife likes Page Plus service, I think hers works out to be less per month. We picked up a phone for the kids but have managed to lose the number twice already, as we'll forget to refill the phone. Not sure what to do there, as they're not allowed to have it normally.

Nice that AT&T fixed the situation for the OP.

 

[FADEC]

I didn't know that there were still cell phone plans that charged by the minute!

How much is her plan??

I have Cricket which uses AT&T towers. $35 bucks a month with unlimited talk and text, and 3gb of data included. You might want to hook her up with that.

 

[oilpsi2high]

Yeah, now how long is she locked in for?

AT&T is awful, probably one of the most expensive in the industry as well.

 

[Dallas69]

You are just a dollar sign to companies.

 

[Andrew1972]

The company did a fine gesture. They are not bad for offering a service with prices and minutes up front.

It's America and a free country so the consumer decides who, what and where thy can put their money.

 

[AirgunSavant]

That is what I have. I tried but she has a mind of her own

Originally Posted By: daddi
I didn't know that there were still cell phone plans that charged by the minute!

How much is her plan??

I have Cricket which uses AT&T towers. $35 bucks a month with unlimited talk and text, and 3gb of data included. You might want to hook her up with that.

 

[Al]

Glad they came through. But they can afford to given that you can go to another cellular company and cut your bill in half.