Our Nightmare Phone Experience

It's our three year anniversary at the end of the month so we decided to make things a little more "official" by getting a phone plan together :3 My phone was completely paid off and I'd cracked the screen after I dropped it at the movies two months ago so it seemed like the perfect time :] My Darling was with Cricket for a few years and seemed to like it enough, but since we have to talk over video chat, it wasn't the best choice since the video was always really blurry and poor quality. I've always been with ATT and keeping with "happy wife, happy life", he decided to switch to ATT to keep me happy and because of the good data. I was really intent on not wanting to change my phone number so staying with ATT seemed to be the best option :D unfortunately, we were in for a nightmare that lasted over a week 😵😵😵

So... what happened?

At our job, there's actually a company called Premium Phones that take care of all of your phone-related needs. I'd been looking at the discounted prices for the phones for a few months before asking my Darling if he wanted to get a phone plan together so I already knew which one I wanted and he told me to get him a good Samsung phone since he was sick of iPhones. After a lot of comparing phones and considering what he would use it for and what features he would never use, I decided on an s8+ for him and a Note 9 for me :3 

We tried to go to the Premium Phone people together to set things up as a couple, unfortunately my Darling works two full-time jobs and was too busy. After a month and a half of waiting, I decided to set it up myself and get it out of the way. It seemed simple enough: tell whoever was working that I wanted a phone plan for four lines. Unfortunately, this is where my trouble began 🙁.

When I told him what I wanted to do and explained that we wanted a family plan together, I was denied service! The male worker told me that I needed my Darling to come to the store, give his social security number and to verbally tell this worker that he wanted two phones and that he wanted me to set up a family phone plan! At first, I responded that I didn't think this was necessary since the plan would be under my name and my social security number! And still, I was denied service and told that the only way he would help me was to have my Darling come to the store or else I would be turned away! When I told him my Darling was currently working in the back unloading a truck, he insisted I call him and get him to stop working just to give me permission to open our account. I was feeling very uncomfortable and getting upset, but not knowing what to do, I called my Darling. He answered only to tell me he was very busy and expressed shock at being told I was being denied service unless he came and gave verbal permission! He said if he did stop work to come to the phone department, he'd give the Premium Phones worker more than his verbal permission so to try and keep things civil, I told him I'd try and handle things.

I again told this man that my Darling was busy and that he could not nor would not come to talk to him and give his permission as I didn't need it. I insisted that we wanted to open a family plan and buy three phones and reminded him that everything would be under my name. Again, I was denied service and when I kept insisting, he called his manager over and told him in a very demeaning that I was insisting on opening a phone plan and wanted to buy three phones but that my fiancé was not present to give his permission and I was being difficult and insisting on opening the account. Imagine how relieved I was when his manager was shocked and told him that was he was doing was wrong and that under no circumstance was he to ever deny service to a woman for such a reason. I felt relieved, but I must admit I was very frazzled and flustered from my experience so far and sadly, this was not the end of my horrible experience.

They were unfortunately out of s8s, s8+s, s9s and s9+s, so I wasn't sure what kind of phone to get my Darling. He's a very tall man and normal-sized phones look like a baby's phone when he holds them, so I was very insistent that he needed a bigger screen. And since he's Deaf, I also told them he needed a good camera since he would need to be able to sign without his hands looking blurry on screen. They told me of what sounded like a very good deal: since I was buying a Note 9 and we were opening two new lines, he could get an s10e for free! I was elated and said that would be perfect, unfortunately, we were given an a10e. I admit it was my fault for not realising this deceit, but after at least two hours and the whole ordeal at first, I was very flustered and just wanted it to be over. We set everything up and I was told that we were set up for a family plan for three lines (the fourth was supposed to be a tablet, unfortunately, it wasn't able to be connected) and told our bill would be $160 a month. We also had insurance on our phones, and I felt very happy to see the manager personally set up my Darling's accessibility on his phones and I left after three hours feeling good. 

I was, unfortunately, unhappy to find my number had been changed and we were given a fourth line. However, when I called ATT to inquire about the line, I was glad that this mistake had been made: we were not signed up for a family plan for three lines, but for four individual family plans with four individual insurance plans! I was shocked to say the least, but the wonderful woman that I talked to was able to fix things for me and promised that we wouldn't be charged the huge bill since we had cleared it up so quickly. ATT was also able to tell me how to get my number in the phone, but I was very frustrated to learn that since my phone was bought on an installment plan on that line, we could not close the extra line or else I'd be charged the full amount. Still, I was relieved we'd caught the mistake before we'd received our first bill and been shocked at the amount and forced to pay it. 

Things were unfortunately going to get a lot worse.

Three days later, I logged into the MyATT app, and was horrified and shocked to see a bill for over $400!!! I immediately burst into tears after looking at the bill and called my Darling at work, hysterical and telling him I didn't know what to do. He told me to calm down and said we would sort things out once he was at lunch. Once he was free to talk on the phone, he called me and calmed me and told me to call ATT and demand they refund the huge extra amount we were charged. Unfortunately, when I first called ATT, the man I talked to refused to refund any amount and told me the only thing he could do was set us up for a payment plan. I hung up. I was already extremely upset over the huge amount we were being charged and this was just too much. I called my Darling in tears and told him what had happened and he said he would call through vrs after he got off.

I calmed down a little and waited for a few hours before deciding to try again over the Live Chat feature. I was able to be firmer through text and was insistent that if our bill wasn't reduced, we'd switch companies. Almost immediately, I was transferred to a supervisor who promised he'd lower our bill, but unfortunately, was unable to help us. He did, however, give me a number to call and promised me that if I were to call the next day and ask for a manager, our bill would be reduced. I spent the whole night upset and unable to sleep, and after telling my Darling what happened, he promised to wait before he called. I'm happy to say that our bill was finally reduced $150 by ATT and we were even given a $46 credit on our next bill! Unfortunately, we still have an extra line, but I'm hoping there's a way to fix that soon, in sha Allah.

If you're thinking of getting a new phone, I'd strongly suggest you go to anyone besides Premium Phones or if you want their discounted prices on phones, make sure you double and even triple check everything they do!