Category Archives: Customer Service

How To Avoid Paying $900/Month For Your iPhone

Written by in Cell Phone, Customer Service, Negotiating, Saving
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My sister-in-law owns an iPhone, but when she went away on a business trip a few months ago, took a cheap international cell phone her mom had and left the iPhone at home for the week and a half she was away. My brother, Not thinking that his actions would have any consequences, took his sim card and put it in his wife’s iPhone and suddenly he had thousands of apps at his fingertips.

He was probably pretty amused by it for that week and a half, but what he didn’t realize is that if you’re going to use unlimited cell phone service, you should probably sign up for the unlimited data plan. For those 10 days he was happy as a clam, but every time he checked his email or downloaded an app, it was costing us money. And it wasn’t just a few cents here or there, it was over $900 for the 10 days he had the phone.

When the cell phone bill came out, I saw a $600 overage and realized something was wrong. I scanned the bill and found that one number used a ridiculous amount of data. I called my brother make sure it was a mistake (surely he didn’t actually use that much data), and when I told him that our account was messed up and it said he had an iPhone, he paused for a second and said, “O crap.” He really did it. I’ve had my share of negotiations with AT&T, so I told him not to worry, that it wouldn’t be a big deal, and that I would take care of it. But first I called him a few names and made fun of him quite a bit.

I called up AT&T to explain what happened and get the charges reduced, and got a customer service representative who listened to my problem and agreed to try and resolve the situation. The conversation went something like this:

Customer Service Representative: Hi, my name is Tracy, how can I help you today?

Me: Hi, I just got my bill and saw that there are some ridiculous overages for this month, so I wanted to try and get that reduced.

Tracy: I’ll be happy to help you. It looks like the 0480 number has a lot of data usage this month.

Me: Yah, my brother put his sim card in an iPhone and didn’t realize that he should have signed up for a data plan first. Is there a way to remove the charges?

Tracy: Well, unfortunately it looks like the charges are valid because he didn’t sign up for a plan before the billing cycle began, so there’s not much I can do. If he had called up in advance to get a data plan before doing so, it would have only been the $30 cost of unlimited data for the month.

Me: Yah, I know that the charges are technically valid, but if you looked what happened, it was obviously a mistake. He doesn’t have an iPhone usually and it was a temporary mistake. We’ve been loyal customers for 10 years and we’ve liked our service a lot, so I’d hate for this to give us a bad impression of AT&T. Is there anything you can do? I’d like as a courtesy to have the bill changed. Can you apply the $30 a month data package retroactively?

Tracy: Well, we do appreciate your business, so as a one-time courtesy, this is what I can do: While I can’t remove all the charges, I can retroactively apply a $30 data plan to that line so you’ll be charged only the $30 and not $600.

Me: Wow, that would be great. You just saved us $570!

Tracy: It’s not a problem. Actually, I can apply the data plan from the date he started using data, which was 7 days before the end of the billing cycle, so the charges will be prorated. So for those 7 days, it comes out to $7.32.

Me: Thanks, I really appreciate it. Since we just realized what was happening, can you do the same thing for this month as well? He’s been using it for the past few days, while the bill was coming out, but after the billing cycle started, so I’m sure he’s racked up some more charges.

Tracy: I’m unable to remove charges from a bill that hasn’t come out yet, but what I can do is keep the data plan on for this month. When your next bill comes out, you will see the charges on the account, so you’ll have to call back next month and a customer service representative will see my notes and make the adjustment for you.

Me: That’s not a problem. Thanks so much, I really appreciate you helping me out!

I called my brother and told him that I got the bill reduced to $300 and that he should send me a check because I already paid the bill. Just kidding. He was pretty relieved that he didn’t cause our family such a large, unnecessary charge. He felt bad about using the data, so he took out the sim card and put it back in his regular flip phone.

I called up AT&T again to have the data package removed since he stopped using the iPhone, and the prorated charges for the month totaling just $3. Then, when the next bill came out with $300 in data charges, I called up again, told them to reference the notes, and they were able to credit our account. So instead of paying over $900 for 10 days worth of data, we paid only $10.

While I like to think that I have special powers and just plain good at negotiating, the truth is that I’m nothing special. Customer service representatives are there to help you. They may not always jump at the opportunity to reduce your bill, but ultimately they are willing to help if you ask the right questions. If you think you’re paying too much for your phone, cable, or internet, call up and ask if they have any promotions that could save you money. You definitely won’t save money by sitting on the sidelines.

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Bank of America Sucks!

Written by in Banking, Customer Service, Negotiating
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We’ve all had bad bank experiences, and I wanted to share mine.

I opened my account back in March, and in August saw a banner on the site for $25 free when I start using bill pay. The only qualifications listed were that I had to make two bill pay transactions within the first month. No problem, I was about to start anyway, so the timing was great.

I started using bill pay, made my mandatory transactions, and about 3 months later realized that I never got my $25. Frustrated, I called up. After being put on hold for 20 minutes, a customer service representative said that since I opened up the account in a branch, technically my bill pay account was activated then even though I didn’t use it until August.

That’s a load of crap, the all time dumbest rule ever. I never signed anything saying I wanted to use bill pay, so I went into a branch to talk to an accounts manager, Wendy, who has been extremely helpful. She did some research, called up a few people, and got it all taken care of. They said that they would put in a request and a check would be mailed rather than deposited into my account. No problem, as long as I got the money in the end.

A month went by and I still never received my check, or any other communication from Bank of America, so I went to go visit Wendy again. Again she helped me and called up some people, complained about their system (which I loved because she knew that it shouldn’t be this difficult to get what you deserve), and put in a request for me.

Wendy was wonderful and I couldn’t thank her enough. After sitting with her for half an hour, she figured I had to get back to work after my lunch break and offered to finish up talking to different people over the phone and assured me that everything would be taken care of. I have no doubt that she exhausted all effort.

I just don’t trust Bank of America to come through.

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How to Negotiate with Wireless Carriers

Written by in Cell Phone, Customer Service, Negotiating
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A few months ago, my brother went over his text message allotment (200) as part of our family plan, and I thought this was an abberation, so I increased his text messages to 1,500 for the month. I didn’t want this to continue. With overage charges being 20 cents per text message over 200, it was not worth it to rack up $20 in charges for texts 201-300, so he was put on the $15, 1,500 text message plan. This was the first time he was going over his limit considerably, so the following month, I decreased him back to the 200 message plan for $5.

This month, it turns out that his texting again went over his limit, and halfway through the month he was already at 200 texts. So, it was time to make a change. I had a 1,500 text message plan for $8.99 that was put on awhile ago with a special code that has since expired. Finally, my father uses 10-15 text messages per month ($2-$3) and my mother usually calls 411 and gets text messages sent to her phone, but does not know how to access them ($1).

I called up AT&T to complain about the plan we were on, and the conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi, I have a problem. We have a line on the account that uses about 400 text messages per month and your plans only give us options that do not fit our account. Can you help me find a solution?
Customer Service Representative: I’d be happy to help you. Unfortunately, the only plans we offer are 200 messages for $5 per month and 1,500 text messages for $15 per month. I see that you have 1,500 text messages. I recommend the unlimited text messaging for the whole family for $30 per month.

Me: That’s silly, I would save money by just adding $15 to his account. Together we’d be paying ($15 + $8.99= )$24, which gives us more text messages that we would need for less than $30. I’m very unhappy about this situation, and we don’t have the money to spend another $15 on text messages. I know that Sprint has other options for us, can I talk to someone who can help me cancel the account?

Customer Service Representative: One moment, I’ll transfer you to the Customer Retention Specialist.

Me: Thank You.

Customer Retention Specialist: Hi, I understand that you are considering leaving AT&T and I hope I can help you. let’s take a look at your account…may I suggest the unlimited family texting for $30 a month?

Me: No, that doesn’t make sense for us. It would be more beneficial to pay for $15 for that line, but that seems unreasonable when he’ll only be using 400 text messages.

Customer Retention Specialist: I understand. Well, there is not much we can, we don’t offer plans with text messages between 200 and 1,500 messages.

Me: Ok, well it seems like Sprint has the plans I’m looking for, so as much as I like AT&T, if you can’t help me, maybe it’s time to switch over.

Customer Retention Specialist: Well, we don’t want that. Let me see what I can do to help you.
(After a 5 minute silent hold, she returns) Thank you for waiting. What I am able to do is reduce the price for 3 months. We can offer you the unlimited package for $30 and we will pay for half of that.

Me: That doesn’t really help me, that’s a very short term solution. What will happen in 3 months? I’m going to have the same problem. Is there a way to make that a year? That would be a lot more reasonable.
Customer Retention Specialist: I don’t think I can do that.

Me: What about 9 months?
Customer Retention Specialist: That’s still something I can’t do, unfortunately.

Me: Well, then 6 months would be good.
Customer Retention Specialist: Let me see what I can do. (After another silent hold, she returns.) Hi, thank you for waiting again. What I can offer you is either 8 months of unlimited text messages for half price, or we can do 4 months of unlimited text messages for free. Which would you prefer?

Me: OK, that sounds pretty good. We’ll go with unlimited text messages for 4 months.

I went with 4 months for free because I figure in 4 months I will be able to call back and negotiate a slightly better plan. It took 30 minutes, but we were able to save $8.99 + $15 my brother would have needed + $3-$4 my parents spend. That’s a savings of about $27 a month. Over the first 4 months, that saves $108! Not bad.

Now, I realize that I will lose my $8.99 text message plan, but with my brother returning from overseas in 10 months and heading off to college, we’ll likely need unlimited text messages for the whole family anyway at that point. Hopefully I’ll be able to negotiate that down from $30, but either way, I am happy about the money we are saving.

Right now, we use about 2,200 minutes as a family (4 lines) and get unlimited text messages for a nice low price of….$79.17 per month, plus taxes. And of course, we don’t have phone insurance. That’s less than the monthly cost of one iPhone on the cheapest plan (450 minutes) with a text message plan. Not bad. Not bad at all.

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Saving (Lots of) Money on Phone Plans

Written by in Cell Phone, Customer Service, Negotiating, Saving
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For the last few years, I’ve monitored my family’s AT&T plan by adding text messages for my brothers and me and arguing unnecessary charges from time to time. We started with 200 text messages, but there came a point where I was exceeding that limit and needed an upgrade. $15 for 1,500 text messages seemed like a lot, so I found a code online, spent an hour finding a representative who would add the code for me, and I now have 1,500 text messages for $8.99, which is must more reasonable.

What I didn’t consider until a few months ago is that while we were on a 2,100 minute plan, we were only using about 1800 minutes a month. So while we had lots of rollover minutes, we never had a need for them. I wanted a solution. I found another code online, this one for 200 free bonus minutes. I called up, talked to several different customer service representatives, and finally one agreed to add it to my line. Nervously, I asked the woman if she could add it to some of the other lines, and she said that it would be no problem. So suddenly we had an extra 1,000 minutes for the month that we weren’t paying for. I was able to drop us down to 1,400 minutes and reduced the monthly cost from $109.99 to $89.99 (plus an employer discount). I was pretty happy about saving the family about 200 a year.

My biggest accomplishment was not this, however. With 1,400 minutes, plus an additional 1,000 a month, we were now at a 2,400 plan for the price of 1,400. We were racking up rollover minutes an alarming rate, but they were never needed. I wanted to drop us down to 700 a month (for $69.99), but was aware of the AT&T policy that the number of rollover minutes could not exceed the number of minutes paid for each month. So with just 1,700 minutes (plus 700 rollover minutes to start), we’d be dipping into our rollover minutes and after a few months, we would need to go back to the 1,400 minute package. I called AT&T and negotiated reducing our minutes to 700 under the condition that as a buffer, they would add 1,000 rollover minutes. After getting this applied, we now had 700 minutes a month, plus 1,000 free minutes a month, plus 700 rollover minutes, plus an extra 1,000 rollover minutes. So 1,700 a month plus a 1,700 buffer. Our phone usage has increased steadily an we now use about 2,000 minutes a month, so I expect our buffer to last about 5 months. At that point, we’ll be forced to increase back to the 1,400 minute plan.

While that seems like an appropriate amount, AT&T has introduced a new feature, “A-List” which allows you to select 10 out of networks numbers that anyone in the family can call at any time, without using minutes. That’s a great deal, and would reduce the number of minutes used each month, but the offer only applies to plans with 1,400 minutes of more.

So eventually we’ll be stuck between a 700 minute plan (+1,000) that won’t cover our minute usage and a 1,400 minute plan (+1,000) that would cover us and give us many hundreds of rollover minutes a month. Neither plan is ideal, and the best idea seems to be to switch between plans every few months. It’s not ideal, but likely worth the little time and effort required.

Overall, I was able to reduce our monthly costs by $40 a month ($480 a year!), even while our phone usage increased. A little research a lot of haggling can sometimes go a long way.

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