It's no secret that I have struggled with my relationship with AT&T - I dread going to their stores because I know we'll be treated poorly and won't leave feeling like the valued customers we have been for many years now.
Since the cell phone plan is in Wil's name we needed to make time to go in together to figure out what to do with the plan, and since my contract with AT&T was up and I was due for an upgrade, I decided it was also time to make the move to the iPhone! I had done some research about different plans as Verizon and Sprint are also selling the iPhone and I was ready to negotiate....especially after having read this blog entry: Recipe for a new iPhone 4S upgrade & $730 annual savings...
Past experience told us it might be a better idea to skip the AT&T store and head straight to Radio Shack - remember "Krazy Keith" anyone?? Well Krazy Keith wasn't there, but Sherry did a pretty decent job of getting us started. Wil was grandfathered into an unlimited data plan for his iPhone, but according to the data I pulled up through our account, he doesn't use much of it. We were hoping that there was some way to switch the unlimited data plan to my number (same acct., different number....doesn't seem too tough right?!) Wrong...apparently that's impossible. I know this because three different customer service agents told me so.
Once Sherry got on the phone with customer service it was clear she wasn't going to be quite as aggressive as I was prepared to be with them....I was out of contract after all! So I asked if I could take the phone and talk to them....she was fine with that. While talking to the first agent she picked up on my statement about leaving AT&T and pretty quickly moved me up the chain of command. After talking with that guy for awhile and still feeling like I was ready to jump ship, he got someone else on the line. I spent some time with him trying to convince me it was silly to move to Sprint for a variety of reasons (none of which I really believe) but I stayed firm on my position. (I want to assure everyone that knows me that I remained calm, friendly, and was even joking around with this guy from time to time!) I told him that I understood we weren't going to get the unlimited data plan moved to my line, but that it seemed like it was all going to end up costing me more if I stayed....that it was a shame that Wil had been a loyal customer for so long and they weren't really working with us to get us to stay...and I finally just laid out how much it would cost if we both got unlimited data plans at Sprint (essentially $80 if I went with an individual plan, or $140 if Wil and I both went to Sprint and got a family plan) I got put on hold for a little bit while this guy "worked on it" - he came back with a solution :)
- We were able to lower the base cost of our plan by $10 and to make sure we "never have to pay for any overages" he gave us 3000 more rollover minutes to add to the ones we already had...bringing us to 6000.
- The plan he changed us to has 450 minutes/month, but for the life of the 2-year contract he said he would throw in 100 more each month to bring us to the 550 we orginally had.
- Wil got to keep his unlimited data plan and we added the 2GB data plan on to my phone - this automatically got us our free mobile to mobile minutes for any carrier
- I'm not sure how, but unlimited text messaging is still in there for both phones and in fact there is some deal going on right now that will get us free texting for the next 6 months
- He also threw in some sort of $50 rebate
So our current bill for both lines has been about $137/month. Our new bill (keep in mind we added services!) will be $134/month - $67/person....below the numbers I gave him to shoot for and it will actually be more like $124/month for the next 6 months because of the free texting. YAY!
It may not seem like much, but if I had gone out on my own to an individual plan at Sprint it would have cost me about $960/year. I will be paying AT&T about $744 this year, a savings of $216. Every little bit counts....and on top of it all, I feel like AT&T really worked at keeping us....and that counts for something too.
As luck would have it, Radio Shack had ONE iPhone 4s left to sell (the rest they had were all pre-orders and they couldn't give me those) and I got it so I was able to leave the store with my new phone! They were able to transfer all my contacts over to the new sim card and they put on a great protective shield for me. Again - I can't say enough good things about Radio Shack's customer service...we had another really good experience working with them :)
I LOVE my phone and have been playing with it all weekend. I also updated my operating system on the laptop, so it's been a very tech-filled weekend. I have MUCH to learn about what my phone and computer can do together and separately...but I'm having a blast trying to figure it all out!
