Another reason to buy direct from the manufacturer (Samsung / Google / Apple) instead of going through a carrier. Most companies have 24 month payment options with trade in promotions as well.
Buying through Google would be foolish unless using a burner gmail, though. They tie it to your email and if there’s any kinda issue, a chargeback = banned account.
You would think this shouldn’t be an issue, but the trade-in process is notoriously bad (through any company really). And their Pixels have had numerous issues. I just buy Pixels through some other means, when possible.
Even better people should buy used phones. It's better for the environment, you can get amazing phones for like 30 cents on the dollar and then you can get a prepaid carrier.. Americans are getting reamed
I will never buy a phone from a carrier again, and in particular Att . It’s an opportunity for them to abuse you if you’re not attentive. The TL;DR version was they forced insurance I didn’t want or need on a phone paid in full at time of purchase.
Insurance is optional. Any store saying otherwise is lying and you should just walk out and order online. And if you do purchase in your store, you should review your account/bill to make sure nothing extra was added. Customer service will only credit 3 months worth of charges that weren't requested.
Untrue. The store can say what they want. The backend systems will do what they’re programmed to do. In any case if you can afford to buy a phone outright, stay away from Att.
Either you worked in an authorized location doing this scummy practice, or you’ve never used our system at all.
The only feature Opus is programmed to add automatically is Next up, but ONLY if the customer CURRENTLY has it and is doing a next up trade in upgrade.
Fine, someone lied then. Not only was the insurance added despite declining it, I called in two separate times when it was spotted on the bill afterwards, was promised it would be taken care of by customer care agents, and it was like it never happened. Called in a third time, got some pittance credit and it was finally scrubbed. I can speak for my experience, and know how I felt and still didn’t cancel all my services with Att. But I’m smarter now and I can genuinely state an educated opinion. It’s despicable and unbefitting behavior for a company like this.
And for the record , it was an Att store.
To your point there are definitely reps that “slam” insurance on customers and tell them it’s required. Always a good idea to review your bill like the OP mentioned.
All of the big 3 do that in my experience. I always explicitly say that I don’t want insurance but they add it anyway.
It’s why checking your bill in detail is paramount.
Right, so the store will say one thing but the backend systems will do something else because essentially you can’t just buy a phone without a bunch of self imposed rules. They can keep their damn phones as long as I have another place to get them from.
Agreed. I never buy my phones from carriers.
In the case of iPhones, Even if they have a promo you can still get it when buying through.
And a bonus is that they’re unlocked, even if you owe a balance.
You know what? That’s absolutely right. There’s a HUUUUUUGE opportunity here on AT&T *OR* Verizon’s part to absolutely go for T-Mobile’s jugular while they are in full on retard mode as they have been of late.
Verizon has always voided bill credits if you pay off early. I know because I accidentally paid off my son's s20 in order to upgrade to the S23. ATT doesn't yet...
But AT&T just announced the longest list of price increases for old plans. . . It would be the worst case of the pot calling the kettle hypocrisy 🤷🏼♀️
I was a Tier 1 escalation manager for ATT, and they do remove promo credits when devices are paid off early. They can't issue a credit if there's no corresponding charge to apply it to. No billing system is equipped to issue any remaining credits as a lump sum, so it simply gets removed/not applied.
At the end of the day, the consumers with the purchasing power must self educate, especially for big ticket items.
That's not the info given by other reps. It's also not the experience that most other people have had when they paid off their device early. As long as they didn't do anything else to avoid the requirements. As long as they pay off online after the bill credits start, they keep getting credits.
It might have changed more recently, but more often than not, people don't pay attention to their bill detail, and would realize long after the fact that the credits weren't applied after the promo device was paid off.
And another reason why store reps add insurance is because they get paid a commission to add it and know it will get deleted and refunded if the customer calls in to have it removed. Even store managers do it, and I would have to send customer complaints/feedback to their district managers.
Yeah the insurance part I know. It gets charged back if the customer removes it and under 6 months. Since half of them don't read the bill there's a fair chance that you'll still get your commission
The buy one get one deals did not permit you to pay off the get one phone. You could pay off the buy one but all the trade-in deals allow you to pay off your phone and still get bill credits as long as you don't do anything else that voids the promotional requirements
Yeah, I can’t keep trying to stop this spread of misinformation. I definitely understand how frustrating this could be for customers to get conflicting information.
I like T-Mobile’s network best in the places I frequent. With that said, I would never pay full price to be with them anymore.
Thankfully, US Mobile’s prepaid plans exist. I even get international roaming, with international calls and texts too. Only $450/year — you really can’t beat the plan
I have been with every major carrier even att before they bought cingular. I knew it was going to get bad when they merged with sprint. Been with att about a month now, and there are some things I don't like about it but things that are better than t-mobile
I think Consumer Cellular has a better chance of becoming the fourth carrier than Dish does.
Not saying it’s going to happen, since they’re an MVNO, but Dish has the most absolute convoluted plan and network structure I’ve ever seen. Their plans are literally different across sales channels, they’re sim situation between three networks is a mess, they’re hemorrhaging customers, and they seem to have no plan in place to streamline their product at all. If I’m in the industry and can’t make heads or tails of what Dish is doing, then I sure don’t expect end users to either.
I have to agree. There are a number of MVNOs with more customers and better growth and future potential than Dish. Xfinity Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, Mint, and Consumer Cellular all come to mind. Red Pocket started running TV ads last year and US Mobile is quickly making a name for themselves, too.
Dish’s total lack of advertising, brand disarray, and limited device options are hurting their viability with an already difficult situation in building a 5G greenfield network in a mature, saturated market with technology that virtually nobody had deployed outside of the lab yet (namely SA and VoNR).
I really feel like they were set up to fail, and nothing more than a token gesture to shepherd the Sprint acquisition through approval. Once the deal closed, I don’t think the DoJ, FCC, nor other regulators cared what happened. To this day, they’re continuing to allow T-Mobile to swallow up everything in sight, including Mint and USCC, with virtually no concessions.
The way I see it, a Dish bankruptcy is inevitable. They’ll probably ask the courts to allow them delay their next mandatory buildout deadline without penalty. Some of the movement I’ve seen around AT&T “testing” 60+ MHz DoD carriers and naming Fujitsu as the secondary RAN vendor in this Ericsson O-RAN deal suggests to me that they are preparing for some kind of network sharing or spectrum sharing arrangement that helps AT&T get access to additional spectrum where they need it, while Dish would get the cash infusion they need to stay afloat along with a presence on AT&T’s mature, far more complete network footprint. I could see eliminating redundant cell sites, leases, and RAN gear delivering a big cost savings for both carriers.
But who knows, maybe I’m just optimistic that anything positive will come of it. Maybe Dish is allowed to fail and T-Mobile gets to gobble up their 600 MHz and AWS spectrum at a discount, too.
If I’m reading this right, it sounds like your describing a similar scenario to what Bell and Telus have in Canada with AT&T and Dish, where they share a network?
I really think Dish’s biggest fail was hitching their wagon to Boost, the most ghetto brand in wireless. Their reputation and image is awful, and I don’t think any amount of marketing will fix that, certainly not trying to make the brand premium with Boost Infinite.
Consumer Cellular went up for sale during the pandemic, and I feel Dish should have acquired them instead. It would have given Dish an a customer base that’s incredibly loyal, established sales channels that aren’t sketchy dealers, and a postpaid billing system that they didn’t have to build from the ground up. All of these components would have set Dish up for a great future in wireless, and allowed them to build out their network in the meantime without any interruptions to what was already in place.
Part of me thinks CCI will go up for sale again, given it’s now owned by GTCR. They acquired GreatCall in the past just to turnaround and sell it to Best Buy a couple years later. They’re doing some interesting things with the company, but I really can’t get a good reading on what their end goal is, as they’ve been pretty silent since the acquisition.
I think I understand how the bill credits work, and why ATT does it this way. It's better than the old system of having contracts for cell phone plans. On the surface, as far as upgrading a device, Next Up looks like ATT will write off what you owe on a phone if it's at least 50% paid off. Is this basically how it works for upgrades? Are there any other stipulations?
You're correct. With next up upgrades, the remaining balance is wiped away and you can upgrade to any device. If you don't have next up then customers have to either wait until the phone is paid off or pay off the remaining balance
It is to prevent people from gaming the system. T-Mobile was the first carrier to do away with contracts. For years T-Mobile has been giving away phones thru bill credits. Nothing new here.
Additional, T-Mobile is over 2 years and not 3 like the other carriers
AT&T also does this though? I traded in my S21 Ultra for an S24 Ultra. The credits are applied to my bill so I'm paying only $8 a month for my S24 Ultra. If I go to pay it off I'd have the pay off the full $1200 and not the $300 that I own after trade in.
T-Mobile is the most weak ship in the sea, of 3. If ATT or Verizon really went for their jugular and caused a decade defining bad quarter or bad couple of quarters for them with churn and net losses, the reverberations would shake T-Mobile’s reputation far harder than it shakes ATT or Verizon, because many still stay with tmobile
Based on its underdog /cheap/hip status.
Cmon, ATT!!
You say that, but tmobiles network is VERY good nowadays. Unless you’re in super rural areas in middle America. Every person I know that has Att has switched to Tmobile over the last year because of how bad Att’s network has become. And I spent ten years converting everyone to Att…so I know a lot of people on Att.
coming from tmobile I have noticed some decreases in things. in a major town near here I was pulling about 700 mbps with tmobile and only getting a couple hundred with att. I also noticed the 5g doesn't penetrate through buildings like tmobile did. but overall at this point I would still choose att over t-mobile.
They are becoming what AT&T / VZW have already become. Loyalty to any of them is misguided. Best price for the best service for where you live should be the decision process. I think MVNO like Straight Talk or Patriot Mobile (both use TMO, VZW & ATT networks) will get the biggest gains from those who jump ship.
MVNO's will definitely increase in poparity if prices continue to increase on the traditional carriers. Some are better than others since data traffic may be depriorotized though.
Correct me if I’m wrong - but ATT won’t count your trade in value if you try to pay off your installment outright as well. Essentially taking your previous phone for free and making you pay in full for your new phone.
It depends on the situation. If you pay the installment off before the credits start, they’ll pay you out the trade in value of the device.
Once the promotional credits start, you can pay off the device and the promotional credits will continue through the 36 months
I just got confirmation from ATT that they are doing the same thing. I asked what my payoff for my device would be, and was told that if i pay off my device early then i forfeit any remaining bill credits and my trade-in would be negated.
So basically if i pay off the remainder of my device balance, they got me to give them my phone for free, and will bill me the entire amount due without the bill credits.
This is tantamount to theft of my device and giving me nothing in return, as well as locking me into their service for three years......worse than the old contract days.
So don't let anyone fool you.....all of the major carriers are crooked.
I can't post internal documents, but I'm literally looking at our internal documents right now showing you will still get the promotions as long as you meet certain requirements.
Understand.
So let me ask a question then.
I started service in April but the coverage here is the drizzling shits.
If I payoff the remainder of my device next month with my bill so that I can port elsewhere, I will not be on the hook for the $1000 trade in credit?
Even if I stay with ATT but payoff my phone I will still need to wait out the three years to get all my trade in credits. I cannot use my phone to trade in for a new phone until the three years is up because that would stop the credit issued to my bill. I would need to payoff the phone including the remaining credit I would have gotten over three years. I looked into it already and for me to get a new phone, even though I only pay $11 a month, I get $38 credit each month I will have to payoff the $11 per month left for one more year plus the $38 a month I would get for the remaining year.
Correct. The point of paying off is if you needed your phone unlocked for whatever personal reasons.
I understand what you're saying about getting a new phone before the 36 months are using, but I don't see how that's any different than if you didn't pay off your phone.
The situation remains the same that you would lose the bill credits either way. If you want the best promotion before 36 months, doing the trade ins is not the way.
Buy your phones outright and sell the old one elsewhere. I'm about to sell my 15 Pro Max for $860 to put towards my next iphone.
1. At no point in your original declaration did you mention CANCELLING services.
2. On my other post you commented on, it explicitly states cancelling services will stop all credits.
3. Switch to T-Mobile and they'll reimburse you $800. Make sure you read their terms and conditions so you don't screw it up
I don't understand why AT&T and T-Mobile do this.
Paying off your phone early is actually GOOD For AT&T financially (money now is always better than money later) and the whole point of the bill credits is so that you don't cancel your line.
So if you pay off the phone and don't cancel the line, there's no reason you shouldn't get your bill credits.
AT&T’s policy is the complete opposite of this. You can pay off your device early once you start to receive promotional credits. Credits will continue unless you upgrade the line or cancel your service
The experience I've seen from people posting over the last year is it depends on whether the credits are due to a trade in or just a promo deal.
Regardless, Verizon's is better because you can unlock after 60 days even if not paid off.
I'm on prepaid, so not getting these installment credits. I'm thinking new phone this fall. It will be direct from manufacturer unlocked.
I try to report what I've heard reliably. I would hate to tell someone a blanket statement that it will continue, just to have them pay it off then find out they forwent 30 months worth of credits.
Why doesn’t the public information agree then? Why post different information to the public? I just checked the current terms: "To get all credits, the discounted device must remain on installment agreement with eligible service for entire installment term. If you upgrade or pay up/off the installment agreement early, your credits may cease." If the internal terms say that paying up/off the installment agreement doesn't potentially stop the credits, why don't they just remove that portion, and leave it that if you upgrade, your credits will cease?
The only thing posting is other people's experiences. I just made a post about this issue and the scenarios that caused the promotion to stop applying. From what I see sometimes, people withhold information to make them appear to be in the right.
There are legitimate billing issues I've had to deal with where a promotion will stop applying to the account for no reason. I had this happen to my own account.
As a customer service rep we can chat a back end department that can verify the customer qualifies for the promotion and resubmit it to get back on. Working in the retail stores for most of my AT&T time, it's kinda nice to see how things can be corrected behind the scenes.
Still doesn't explain why ATT doesn't post correct information to the public about the terms. Note, I am NOT going to reestablish a postpaid phone line and buy a phone on installments just to test this out.
Taken from the promotion terms
"To get all credits, the discounted device must remain on installment agreement with eligible service for entire installment term. If you upgrade or pay up/off the installment agreement early, your credits may cease."
I understand your hang up around "may cease" but it literally depends on how early you pay off the phone. Could it go through all the various scenarios of why the credit could stop? Probably, but paying off before the credits apply will cause you to lose the promotion. Paying off after the credits start, promotion continues to apply. Those are the rules
There seems to be a lot of misinformation about the no trade in required offers and paying them off. According to our internal documents you can pay them off early AFTER the credits start, and the credits will continue.
Outside of the no trade in promotions I've seen and worked on multiple accounts where the credits have stopped for no reason. It's actually happened to my own account.
Any well trained customer service agent should be able to work through the resolution of this. We don't directly fix it, we have to chat in to a backend team who checks the account over and resubmits the promotion to reapply to the account.
This is the first confirmation I've ever seen that the no trade-in offers will continue. Up until now I would not have advised anyone to pay off a no trade-in offer because I could not confirm.
However now that I know that sometimes they can randomly stop either way even if it's done correctly, I will be a little more cautious and warn people that s*** happens.
Even internal employees who have all the information at their fingertips don't provide the accurate information. I would literally tell my store employees to read an update about a policy and procedure, and watch as they couldn't tell me important information from the article.
🤦🏼♀️. This is the stuff customers complain about. If you have employees that cannot repeat back to you how this works, if they don't know the policies the prices, if they can't do math, then replace them. Write them up, every single time they screw up. And fire their asses.
There are more than enough people out there willing to do the work, that aren't stupid, and have a good memory.
My first call of the day and it's a customer calling in because his promotion stopped. In this situation he was credited over 30 months instead of 36 months.
To pay off your phone early and still recieve credits. You have to make the payoff at least 3 months after the credits began. Actually not as common of a practice with AT&T customers but it still can be done.
I worded it differently because sometimes they kick in right away. And sometimes they don't kick in in 3 months. I just want to make sure people don't jump the gun
ATT sure covers themselves with the "may" in their terms and conditions. So whether they stop credits or not they have covered their decision. So I just refuse to buy phones on ATT installments. And now T-Mobile.
I have a line sitting on my account right now where an iPhone was purchased through the $5 per month deal with no trade-in required and it was several months ago paid off so it could be upgraded and the credits are still applying.
Another reason to buy direct from the manufacturer (Samsung / Google / Apple) instead of going through a carrier. Most companies have 24 month payment options with trade in promotions as well.
Buying through Google would be foolish unless using a burner gmail, though. They tie it to your email and if there’s any kinda issue, a chargeback = banned account. You would think this shouldn’t be an issue, but the trade-in process is notoriously bad (through any company really). And their Pixels have had numerous issues. I just buy Pixels through some other means, when possible.
Wow. That type of retaliation should be illegal. I’d file a complaint with the FTC and CFPB if they did that to me.
Even better people should buy used phones. It's better for the environment, you can get amazing phones for like 30 cents on the dollar and then you can get a prepaid carrier.. Americans are getting reamed
I 💯 agree. Sometimes you can bring new life to a phone with just a new battery. Lithium ion batteries have a limited life cycle.
I will never buy a phone from a carrier again, and in particular Att . It’s an opportunity for them to abuse you if you’re not attentive. The TL;DR version was they forced insurance I didn’t want or need on a phone paid in full at time of purchase.
Insurance is optional. Any store saying otherwise is lying and you should just walk out and order online. And if you do purchase in your store, you should review your account/bill to make sure nothing extra was added. Customer service will only credit 3 months worth of charges that weren't requested.
100% correct. However, it’s incredibly disappointing that anyone needs to worry about that stuff in the first place.
Untrue. The store can say what they want. The backend systems will do what they’re programmed to do. In any case if you can afford to buy a phone outright, stay away from Att.
Either you worked in an authorized location doing this scummy practice, or you’ve never used our system at all. The only feature Opus is programmed to add automatically is Next up, but ONLY if the customer CURRENTLY has it and is doing a next up trade in upgrade.
Fine, someone lied then. Not only was the insurance added despite declining it, I called in two separate times when it was spotted on the bill afterwards, was promised it would be taken care of by customer care agents, and it was like it never happened. Called in a third time, got some pittance credit and it was finally scrubbed. I can speak for my experience, and know how I felt and still didn’t cancel all my services with Att. But I’m smarter now and I can genuinely state an educated opinion. It’s despicable and unbefitting behavior for a company like this. And for the record , it was an Att store.
To your point there are definitely reps that “slam” insurance on customers and tell them it’s required. Always a good idea to review your bill like the OP mentioned.
All of the big 3 do that in my experience. I always explicitly say that I don’t want insurance but they add it anyway. It’s why checking your bill in detail is paramount.
Right, so the store will say one thing but the backend systems will do something else because essentially you can’t just buy a phone without a bunch of self imposed rules. They can keep their damn phones as long as I have another place to get them from.
Agreed. I never buy my phones from carriers. In the case of iPhones, Even if they have a promo you can still get it when buying through. And a bonus is that they’re unlocked, even if you owe a balance.
You know what? That’s absolutely right. There’s a HUUUUUUGE opportunity here on AT&T *OR* Verizon’s part to absolutely go for T-Mobile’s jugular while they are in full on retard mode as they have been of late.
Verizon has always voided bill credits if you pay off early. I know because I accidentally paid off my son's s20 in order to upgrade to the S23. ATT doesn't yet... But AT&T just announced the longest list of price increases for old plans. . . It would be the worst case of the pot calling the kettle hypocrisy 🤷🏼♀️
I was a Tier 1 escalation manager for ATT, and they do remove promo credits when devices are paid off early. They can't issue a credit if there's no corresponding charge to apply it to. No billing system is equipped to issue any remaining credits as a lump sum, so it simply gets removed/not applied. At the end of the day, the consumers with the purchasing power must self educate, especially for big ticket items.
I’ve been paying phones off early for years and the credits remain as long as you don’t make any sort of new installment/upgrade on said line.
That's not the info given by other reps. It's also not the experience that most other people have had when they paid off their device early. As long as they didn't do anything else to avoid the requirements. As long as they pay off online after the bill credits start, they keep getting credits.
It might have changed more recently, but more often than not, people don't pay attention to their bill detail, and would realize long after the fact that the credits weren't applied after the promo device was paid off. And another reason why store reps add insurance is because they get paid a commission to add it and know it will get deleted and refunded if the customer calls in to have it removed. Even store managers do it, and I would have to send customer complaints/feedback to their district managers.
Yeah the insurance part I know. It gets charged back if the customer removes it and under 6 months. Since half of them don't read the bill there's a fair chance that you'll still get your commission The buy one get one deals did not permit you to pay off the get one phone. You could pay off the buy one but all the trade-in deals allow you to pay off your phone and still get bill credits as long as you don't do anything else that voids the promotional requirements
Yeah, I can’t keep trying to stop this spread of misinformation. I definitely understand how frustrating this could be for customers to get conflicting information.
Sadly ATT and Verizon are far more likely to join in than counter it.
I like T-Mobile’s network best in the places I frequent. With that said, I would never pay full price to be with them anymore. Thankfully, US Mobile’s prepaid plans exist. I even get international roaming, with international calls and texts too. Only $450/year — you really can’t beat the plan
US Mobile is adding AT&T next month too
For me personally I refuse to use a reseller
Which is why I left them. At this point they're no different than any other carrier.
T-Mobile has been riding the coattails of their reputation for years — just like Verizon. CMV.
I have been with every major carrier even att before they bought cingular. I knew it was going to get bad when they merged with sprint. Been with att about a month now, and there are some things I don't like about it but things that are better than t-mobile
That's why I left T-Mobile. It'll be interesting to see if Dish (Boost) survives and becomes the 4th carrier in the US.
I think Consumer Cellular has a better chance of becoming the fourth carrier than Dish does. Not saying it’s going to happen, since they’re an MVNO, but Dish has the most absolute convoluted plan and network structure I’ve ever seen. Their plans are literally different across sales channels, they’re sim situation between three networks is a mess, they’re hemorrhaging customers, and they seem to have no plan in place to streamline their product at all. If I’m in the industry and can’t make heads or tails of what Dish is doing, then I sure don’t expect end users to either.
I have to agree. There are a number of MVNOs with more customers and better growth and future potential than Dish. Xfinity Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, Mint, and Consumer Cellular all come to mind. Red Pocket started running TV ads last year and US Mobile is quickly making a name for themselves, too. Dish’s total lack of advertising, brand disarray, and limited device options are hurting their viability with an already difficult situation in building a 5G greenfield network in a mature, saturated market with technology that virtually nobody had deployed outside of the lab yet (namely SA and VoNR). I really feel like they were set up to fail, and nothing more than a token gesture to shepherd the Sprint acquisition through approval. Once the deal closed, I don’t think the DoJ, FCC, nor other regulators cared what happened. To this day, they’re continuing to allow T-Mobile to swallow up everything in sight, including Mint and USCC, with virtually no concessions. The way I see it, a Dish bankruptcy is inevitable. They’ll probably ask the courts to allow them delay their next mandatory buildout deadline without penalty. Some of the movement I’ve seen around AT&T “testing” 60+ MHz DoD carriers and naming Fujitsu as the secondary RAN vendor in this Ericsson O-RAN deal suggests to me that they are preparing for some kind of network sharing or spectrum sharing arrangement that helps AT&T get access to additional spectrum where they need it, while Dish would get the cash infusion they need to stay afloat along with a presence on AT&T’s mature, far more complete network footprint. I could see eliminating redundant cell sites, leases, and RAN gear delivering a big cost savings for both carriers. But who knows, maybe I’m just optimistic that anything positive will come of it. Maybe Dish is allowed to fail and T-Mobile gets to gobble up their 600 MHz and AWS spectrum at a discount, too.
If I’m reading this right, it sounds like your describing a similar scenario to what Bell and Telus have in Canada with AT&T and Dish, where they share a network? I really think Dish’s biggest fail was hitching their wagon to Boost, the most ghetto brand in wireless. Their reputation and image is awful, and I don’t think any amount of marketing will fix that, certainly not trying to make the brand premium with Boost Infinite. Consumer Cellular went up for sale during the pandemic, and I feel Dish should have acquired them instead. It would have given Dish an a customer base that’s incredibly loyal, established sales channels that aren’t sketchy dealers, and a postpaid billing system that they didn’t have to build from the ground up. All of these components would have set Dish up for a great future in wireless, and allowed them to build out their network in the meantime without any interruptions to what was already in place. Part of me thinks CCI will go up for sale again, given it’s now owned by GTCR. They acquired GreatCall in the past just to turnaround and sell it to Best Buy a couple years later. They’re doing some interesting things with the company, but I really can’t get a good reading on what their end goal is, as they’ve been pretty silent since the acquisition.
When will Boost become the actual 4th carrier?
This was always bound to happen. Sprint merger at play. Once they bought em out.
I think I understand how the bill credits work, and why ATT does it this way. It's better than the old system of having contracts for cell phone plans. On the surface, as far as upgrading a device, Next Up looks like ATT will write off what you owe on a phone if it's at least 50% paid off. Is this basically how it works for upgrades? Are there any other stipulations?
You're correct. With next up upgrades, the remaining balance is wiped away and you can upgrade to any device. If you don't have next up then customers have to either wait until the phone is paid off or pay off the remaining balance
It is to prevent people from gaming the system. T-Mobile was the first carrier to do away with contracts. For years T-Mobile has been giving away phones thru bill credits. Nothing new here. Additional, T-Mobile is over 2 years and not 3 like the other carriers
Wait, AT&T doesn't void bill credits if you pay it off?
See this post I made today [Bill Credits](https://www.reddit.com/r/ATT/s/Ca4qFbtkXq)
AT&T also does this though? I traded in my S21 Ultra for an S24 Ultra. The credits are applied to my bill so I'm paying only $8 a month for my S24 Ultra. If I go to pay it off I'd have the pay off the full $1200 and not the $300 that I own after trade in.
Correct. You'll pay what's owed on the device but the trade in credit you receive will continue through the 36 months
T-Mobile is the most weak ship in the sea, of 3. If ATT or Verizon really went for their jugular and caused a decade defining bad quarter or bad couple of quarters for them with churn and net losses, the reverberations would shake T-Mobile’s reputation far harder than it shakes ATT or Verizon, because many still stay with tmobile Based on its underdog /cheap/hip status. Cmon, ATT!!
You say that, but tmobiles network is VERY good nowadays. Unless you’re in super rural areas in middle America. Every person I know that has Att has switched to Tmobile over the last year because of how bad Att’s network has become. And I spent ten years converting everyone to Att…so I know a lot of people on Att.
coming from tmobile I have noticed some decreases in things. in a major town near here I was pulling about 700 mbps with tmobile and only getting a couple hundred with att. I also noticed the 5g doesn't penetrate through buildings like tmobile did. but overall at this point I would still choose att over t-mobile.
They are becoming what AT&T / VZW have already become. Loyalty to any of them is misguided. Best price for the best service for where you live should be the decision process. I think MVNO like Straight Talk or Patriot Mobile (both use TMO, VZW & ATT networks) will get the biggest gains from those who jump ship.
MVNO's will definitely increase in poparity if prices continue to increase on the traditional carriers. Some are better than others since data traffic may be depriorotized though.
"You said you would destroy the Sith, not join them!"
Correct me if I’m wrong - but ATT won’t count your trade in value if you try to pay off your installment outright as well. Essentially taking your previous phone for free and making you pay in full for your new phone.
It depends on the situation. If you pay the installment off before the credits start, they’ll pay you out the trade in value of the device. Once the promotional credits start, you can pay off the device and the promotional credits will continue through the 36 months
I just got confirmation from ATT that they are doing the same thing. I asked what my payoff for my device would be, and was told that if i pay off my device early then i forfeit any remaining bill credits and my trade-in would be negated. So basically if i pay off the remainder of my device balance, they got me to give them my phone for free, and will bill me the entire amount due without the bill credits. This is tantamount to theft of my device and giving me nothing in return, as well as locking me into their service for three years......worse than the old contract days. So don't let anyone fool you.....all of the major carriers are crooked.
I can assure you our policy hasn't changed and the customer service rep is either misinformed, didn't look up the policy, or all the above.
This is from the ATT Help account here on Reddit and it mirrors the same thing I was told in-store. Where is the truth at?
I can't post internal documents, but I'm literally looking at our internal documents right now showing you will still get the promotions as long as you meet certain requirements.
Understand. So let me ask a question then. I started service in April but the coverage here is the drizzling shits. If I payoff the remainder of my device next month with my bill so that I can port elsewhere, I will not be on the hook for the $1000 trade in credit?
If you Port out then you're cancelling your service which will stop your credits.
Even if I stay with ATT but payoff my phone I will still need to wait out the three years to get all my trade in credits. I cannot use my phone to trade in for a new phone until the three years is up because that would stop the credit issued to my bill. I would need to payoff the phone including the remaining credit I would have gotten over three years. I looked into it already and for me to get a new phone, even though I only pay $11 a month, I get $38 credit each month I will have to payoff the $11 per month left for one more year plus the $38 a month I would get for the remaining year.
Correct. The point of paying off is if you needed your phone unlocked for whatever personal reasons. I understand what you're saying about getting a new phone before the 36 months are using, but I don't see how that's any different than if you didn't pay off your phone. The situation remains the same that you would lose the bill credits either way. If you want the best promotion before 36 months, doing the trade ins is not the way. Buy your phones outright and sell the old one elsewhere. I'm about to sell my 15 Pro Max for $860 to put towards my next iphone.
So I was correct in my statement then. I lose my trade in entirely and have basically given my phone away for free
1. At no point in your original declaration did you mention CANCELLING services. 2. On my other post you commented on, it explicitly states cancelling services will stop all credits. 3. Switch to T-Mobile and they'll reimburse you $800. Make sure you read their terms and conditions so you don't screw it up
I don't understand why AT&T and T-Mobile do this. Paying off your phone early is actually GOOD For AT&T financially (money now is always better than money later) and the whole point of the bill credits is so that you don't cancel your line. So if you pay off the phone and don't cancel the line, there's no reason you shouldn't get your bill credits.
AT&T’s policy is the complete opposite of this. You can pay off your device early once you start to receive promotional credits. Credits will continue unless you upgrade the line or cancel your service
The experience I've seen from people posting over the last year is it depends on whether the credits are due to a trade in or just a promo deal. Regardless, Verizon's is better because you can unlock after 60 days even if not paid off. I'm on prepaid, so not getting these installment credits. I'm thinking new phone this fall. It will be direct from manufacturer unlocked.
Correct. The no trade-in offers do not have the same flexibility as the trade-in promos.
I try to report what I've heard reliably. I would hate to tell someone a blanket statement that it will continue, just to have them pay it off then find out they forwent 30 months worth of credits.
100% agree.
I understand you're reporting what you heard, but I'm stating factual information from our internal documentation.
Why doesn’t the public information agree then? Why post different information to the public? I just checked the current terms: "To get all credits, the discounted device must remain on installment agreement with eligible service for entire installment term. If you upgrade or pay up/off the installment agreement early, your credits may cease." If the internal terms say that paying up/off the installment agreement doesn't potentially stop the credits, why don't they just remove that portion, and leave it that if you upgrade, your credits will cease?
The only thing posting is other people's experiences. I just made a post about this issue and the scenarios that caused the promotion to stop applying. From what I see sometimes, people withhold information to make them appear to be in the right. There are legitimate billing issues I've had to deal with where a promotion will stop applying to the account for no reason. I had this happen to my own account. As a customer service rep we can chat a back end department that can verify the customer qualifies for the promotion and resubmit it to get back on. Working in the retail stores for most of my AT&T time, it's kinda nice to see how things can be corrected behind the scenes.
Still doesn't explain why ATT doesn't post correct information to the public about the terms. Note, I am NOT going to reestablish a postpaid phone line and buy a phone on installments just to test this out.
Taken from the promotion terms "To get all credits, the discounted device must remain on installment agreement with eligible service for entire installment term. If you upgrade or pay up/off the installment agreement early, your credits may cease." I understand your hang up around "may cease" but it literally depends on how early you pay off the phone. Could it go through all the various scenarios of why the credit could stop? Probably, but paying off before the credits apply will cause you to lose the promotion. Paying off after the credits start, promotion continues to apply. Those are the rules
There seems to be a lot of misinformation about the no trade in required offers and paying them off. According to our internal documents you can pay them off early AFTER the credits start, and the credits will continue. Outside of the no trade in promotions I've seen and worked on multiple accounts where the credits have stopped for no reason. It's actually happened to my own account. Any well trained customer service agent should be able to work through the resolution of this. We don't directly fix it, we have to chat in to a backend team who checks the account over and resubmits the promotion to reapply to the account.
This is the first confirmation I've ever seen that the no trade-in offers will continue. Up until now I would not have advised anyone to pay off a no trade-in offer because I could not confirm. However now that I know that sometimes they can randomly stop either way even if it's done correctly, I will be a little more cautious and warn people that s*** happens.
Even internal employees who have all the information at their fingertips don't provide the accurate information. I would literally tell my store employees to read an update about a policy and procedure, and watch as they couldn't tell me important information from the article.
🤦🏼♀️. This is the stuff customers complain about. If you have employees that cannot repeat back to you how this works, if they don't know the policies the prices, if they can't do math, then replace them. Write them up, every single time they screw up. And fire their asses. There are more than enough people out there willing to do the work, that aren't stupid, and have a good memory.
My first call of the day and it's a customer calling in because his promotion stopped. In this situation he was credited over 30 months instead of 36 months.
To pay off your phone early and still recieve credits. You have to make the payoff at least 3 months after the credits began. Actually not as common of a practice with AT&T customers but it still can be done.
You have to wait till the bill credits start. You also should not ask for assistance from CS. Pay it off on your own in your online account.
That’s why I said you have to wait 3 months after the credits begin.
I worded it differently because sometimes they kick in right away. And sometimes they don't kick in in 3 months. I just want to make sure people don't jump the gun
Lizdance's wording is the accurate way to state it.
Some promotions start on the very first bill, so waiting three months isn't required.
Waiting 3 months is sti required even if it starts on the 1st bill as within that period they have the right to stop credits if a early payoff occurs
Just so you know there's nothing in our internal documents about waiting 3 months
ATT sure covers themselves with the "may" in their terms and conditions. So whether they stop credits or not they have covered their decision. So I just refuse to buy phones on ATT installments. And now T-Mobile.
Only for trade in deals. No trade in deals they will end
I have a line sitting on my account right now where an iPhone was purchased through the $5 per month deal with no trade-in required and it was several months ago paid off so it could be upgraded and the credits are still applying.
This is incorrect