Declaring War on AT&T

I've been a loyal AT&T customer since I was 16 years old. I even "blessed" them by paying a $908 phone bill (which is another long, sad, painful blog post.) So when I graced them with my presence at two of their stores this week, I was extremely angry at the way the company has decided to treat their customers.

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and probably other wireless companies offer special new upgrade plans that allow you to get a new phone faster. AT&T's program is called Next, which looks great up front, but is a MAJOR ripoff. Essentially, the carrier doesn't want to give you a discounted phone in exchange for staying with them for two years now; they want you to buy your own phone. The Next plan encourages you to take a line of credit through AT&T and pay the price of the phone back in increments. Fine, whatever. So instead of paying $200 for the new iPhone, I have to pay back the full $650 for the phone. Plus pay for their service...

Looking at AT&T's website, I can select a new iPhone 6 for $0; only tax on the phone is due at the time. I can select a number (which is apparently the amount of time it takes for you to be eligible to trade the phone in, not the time it takes to pay the phone back) and then it will tell me how much I have to pay per month for the phone. I have three options: 12, 18 and 24. I'm going to select the 12, just for giggles...coming to $32.50 per month for the next twelve twenty months, interest free...if I have good credit and have a qualifying plan. If not, I get charged 3% interest per month while paying the phone back. It might be just me, but doesn't the average American already have $7,000 in credit card debt? Why would AT&T want to add to this? Oh, right, it's because they do not give a rip about their customers, as long as they are making their millions.

So, assuming that I don't read the terms and just accept the Next plan, I'm going to be paying an extra $32.50 per month, plus the cost of service. Oh, wait, but that's okay! As long as you use AT&T's Next plan, they'll give you a $25 discount on your line for using it! Aren't they so generous? Well, to someone unfortunate like me, who had to recently sign up for a two-year contract, as that was all that was offered to me, I'm now going to get an extra $25 tacked onto my bill. It's a discount if it works for you, a fine if it doesn't. So I'm getting fined by the company that I've been with for almost 10 years for not taking out a line of credit with them.

The plan that AT&T offered me this week was to change my plan to a family plan for $160 per month. Plus that lovely $25 fine. Plus the cost per month of Ash's new phone because of the Next Plan. But that's okay, since we get to upgrade in a year, right?! Well, yeah, if I wanted to give AT&T her practically brand new phone for them to resale, and then waste more money on another phone. And take out another line of credit. And the only way I can get out of that deal is to pay of the remaining balance of all my phones/credit lines.

In closing, the best way to handle the situation, I found, it to just buy the phone, straight up. Yes, I know it's a lot of money up front, but I'd rather pay cash for it then. And I still get the $25 "discount" since I didn't use a two year contract. And not that it will change anything, but I'm filing a Better Business Bureau complain against AT&T, just to try and waste their time. I don't want the Federal Government to regulate this kind of stuff,  since they also have no control over their spending, but I'm also calling my State Representatives, because almost forcing people to take a line of credit should be illegal. AT&T will not tell you this up front. They won't explain it to you. They don't care...they just want your money.

What cell phone carrier do you use? What do you like or dislike about them? Leave a comment below.