Pursuant to the post below about my roof leaking, I wanted to get some pictures for the probable insurance claim.

As I was going down the steps into the mud room, I stumbled, dropped my phone (screen down, of course) and promptly stepped on it while getting my feet back under me. No insurance on the phone, of course. It did not survive the experience.

After exploring various options with the AT&T techie/salesman, the most cost effective solution was to pay off the old phone and get a new one. The new one is paid for via the calling plan for $2 a month "Interest Free" which simply means they jacked the price of the phone up enough to cover the interest. By the time I got done I was $300 out of pocket for pay off, new case and screen protector and activation fee.

This is all on my daughter's phone plan along with her two sons. All the various phones, hotspots and add-ons presents her with a bill of around $300 a month, unlimited calls/data/texts. I guess that's not horrible with 4 phones and 2 hotspots.

While doing all the paperwork, my military service came up and he said "If you put the plan in your name, you qualify for a 25% discount." Also, the old plan was set up in 1996 and didn't provide 5G coverage so they fixed that too and she'll save a few bucks a month so I guess it could have been worse.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PHPaul,

Hopefully you got to keep your old number. Getting THAT updated in all the places that record it can be a huge PITA.

PHPaul, Sorry to hear about all your bad luck!

I realize it's probably too late, but we used to have AT&T and switched to Cricket. Cricket uses the AT&T towers so there is no change in the network covearage areas.

Our bill went from ~280 to $110/month about 2 years ago. This was for 4 phones, 1 hotspot, and unlimited talk/text/data.

Our daughter was mortified her phone now said Cricket vs AT&T but did not take us up on leaving our plan to go out on her own. Note she has 2/4 of the phones and the hot spot.

We haven't looked back.

PHP if the plan is now in your name, and if you qualify for the 55+ rates, you should check to be sure they have you on that plan.

Big discount, $300 for 4 phones sounds high unless you are paying monthly for 4 new phones....

Well, well, well...

He made a "mistake" and the new plan didn't include unlimited data on the hotspots. Daughter got a notice that she was close to the limit and would be billed for overages.

Yeeaaahhhh, uh NO! That's not going to fly. My daughter inherited my stubbornness but fortunately not my short fuse. She was all over it for about 2 hours this morning and jerked a knot in their skivvies.

Not surprisingly, reverting to the original grandfathered plan from 1996 was not an option but by the time she got done she got the hotspots up to 50 gigs a month and the total cost of the plan went DOWN 50 bucks.

You do NOT want to piss that little girl off. She doesn't get mad, she gets even.

BTW, I specifically asked if the plan included unlimited data as that was a major requirement.

Good Old AT&T..."We're the phone company. We don't HAVE to care!" [/Lilly Tomlin]

I just finished an experience with AT&T that was outstanding.

Wanted an iPhone 14 for the precision tracking and because my old one was an XR.

Anyway, set up an appointment for 10AM at the local ATT store, went in Wednesday and had a sit down with one of the employees. He said $800.00 for the new phone and asked if I wanted to trade in my old phone. I told him no as the amount I'd get wouldn't be worth it to me and I'd rather keep it as a spare. He replied they'd give me $350.00 for my old phone. I said "sold".

He said they didn't have the small 6.1" screen version in stock so it would be shipped free and I'd get it in 5~8 days. He said to bring it in when I got it and they'd set it up for me. I guess they figured no one my age could set one up.

So Wednesday afternoon I get a tracking number from FedEx and it said it was being delivered overnight.

Thursday at 11:45 AM I got the new phone and started setting it up. Used iCloud restore to set it up as I'd done that before and it worked flawlessly. At 1PM I was done and 20 minutes of that time was waiting for the OS to update, the rest was restore followed by backup then deleting data on the old phone followed by a reset to factory defaults.

Went in Friday morning and gave them my old phone and the lady I spoke to told me they were surprised I'd erased it and done the reset as not many did that and the employees had to do it for them.

So $800.00 for a new phone, no activation fee, no change to my phone plan and $350.00 for my trade in which brought my out the door price to $450.00 for an iPhone 14.

I couldn't be happier with ATT especially considering that they'd given me the XR for free essentially a few years earlier.

quote:

As I was going down the steps into the mud room, I stumbled, dropped my phone (screen down, of course) and promptly stepped on it while getting my feet back under me. No insurance on the phone, of course. It did not survive the experience.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Glad you were not hurt. Fractures and back repairs are expensive

quote:

Originally posted by h2oys:
....Cricket uses the AT&T towers so there is no change in the network covearage areas.....

I am always wary about statements like this. A while back I needed a Blackberry for work. (Yes, it was a while!) I was in a rural area, but Nextel said they run on the Sprint network. (I may be mis-remembering carriers, but the concept is the same.) Well, that may have been true, but Sprint didn't let them use ALL their towers.

If you read the marketing materials for these second-tier providers, they say they run on the first-tier networks, but they don't specifically say that they hit all the first tier network's towers. So I'm not sure about coverage areas. If you're in a major metro area, not a big deal. If not, or if you travel, then maybe a big deal.

^^^ I understand your concern.

All I can say is we live in MO and our daughter has lived in VA since 2015. We’ve driven the trip, and she has as well, back and forth many times.

Never had a single coverage issue with ATT or after we switched to cricket.

Naturally we can’t attest to other areas of the country.

quote:

Originally posted by IntrepidTraveler:

quote:

Originally posted by h2oys:
....Cricket uses the AT&T towers so there is no change in the network covearage areas.....

I am always wary about statements like this. A while back I needed a Blackberry for work. (Yes, it was a while!) I was in a rural area, but Nextel said they run on the Sprint network. (I may be mis-remembering carriers, but the concept is the same.) Well, that may have been true, but Sprint didn't let them use ALL their towers.

If you read the marketing materials for these second-tier providers, they say they run on the first-tier networks, but they don't specifically say that they hit all the first tier network's towers. So I'm not sure about coverage areas. If you're in a major metro area, not a big deal. If not, or if you travel, then maybe a big deal.

I'm also wary of statements like these. Why? Think about it. Why would Verizon or ATT or whoever rent the ability to use their towers to people who are going to undersell them and cost them customers? The answer is that they wouldn't as it would put them out of business long term.

So there has to be throttling or inability to hit all towers or a combination of the above or something.

OTOH, most people pretty much stay in one place and don't go traveling all over the country on a regular basis so if it works for them, they'll be happy.

^^^ My understanding is the large conglomerates are forced by the Feds to lease their network.

Since the secondary carriers, i.e. Cricket, etc., have much lower overhead, they can provide the services at a much lower rate.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

Why would Verizon or ATT or whoever rent the ability to use their towers to people who are going to undersell them and cost them customers?

Third post in this thread, h2oys told us about changing from AT&T to Cricket.

Cricket is owned by AT&T. Cost-conscious customers who leave the big guys to save money, go to a pre-paid vendor. AT&T can capture some of this business by offering pre-paid service plans under another name (e.g., "Cricket").