AT&T Rant - This Could happen to You

[BillandCarole]

AT&T Debacle
My wife and I travel frequently and consider ourselves somewhat Tech savvy. Internet communications have become a necessity for us as well as a major expense. Much of our current lifestyle is based on them and their costs have risen steadily in our expenditures. Our monthly electronic communications bills run in excess of $400 if you include satellite as well as internet and phone connections. The communications giants get more than a few of our hard earned dollars. They have extolled how much they have reduced our costs in recent years. However the big two, Verizon and AT&T, still earn as much as 50% on their invested dollars. Only Apple has a better rate of return.
Our December bill is a prime example of one reason for this. Our "provider" is AT&T. We were going to be away for the month of December so it seemed a good idea to reduce our "data" portion of our wireless communications bill. Accordingly we called AT&T and asked to have the monthly amount reduced to 2 gigabytes, and also at the same time added an unlimited international texting/with photos plan as we were going to be out of the country for the month, and increase of some $30 plus dollars. (Note that their "month" is 28 days, not 30.) Thus we went off on a long, well planned (we thought) vacation. The trouble began as soon as we arrived in Australia. My phone was using "roaming data" when it wasn't supposed to. Surprise, there was NO international help for AT&T customers. And the online "help" consumed even more of the very limited and expensive data. The only help was a collect call back to the states. We were on our own.
Today's smart phones are extremely complex with various menus going down as many a 4 or 5 sub-menus. And often they involve more than one menu screen. After much agonizing, I finally "locked" down the phone and carefully monitored usage after that. We theoretically stayed within our "phone budget". On our return however, we were greatly upset to discover that our supposedly reduced bill had nearly doubled to nearly $300. Over an hour later, and up to the supervisor level, we discovered some of the unmentioned intricacies our AT&T plan. (Verizon is not much different). It seems that the "prorated" domestic data had resulted in $41 in additional data charges despite the fact that we had gone from 10 gigs to 2 gigs, and all the while we had used none of it. It appears that the only way to avoid this double billing is to make changes on the monthly anniversary date. To add insult to injury, (for domestic users you can stop reading) it seems that while we had unlimited international texting, this applied only to messages we SENT, NOT to those we received. The latter were .$50 each even if they contained just an smiley face. And they also failed to mention that any photos attached to the texts came out of the limited data pool and were not "unlimited". The last wrinkle (translate as omission) was the category of "maritime texting". When you are in international waters, AT&T uses this type of charge to extract additional revenue. Apparently "unlimited" texting does not include "maritime" texting, and yes this charge applies to both to received and sent texts.
To say the least, I was incensed. All these "technicalities", exceptions that were buried in small print really irritated me. I wonder if the hour plus I spent with billing was worth it. I imagine most people just pay the bill. However, this rant is an attempt to 1. Make other aware of the type of billing practices of the industry, and AT&T in particular and 2. hope that others save their money by not making the same mistakes we did.
On a more practical level, how do you avoid these charges when traveling? Smart phones are a way of life for many of us, and it's not just smart phones that incur these charges. For those of you who have "feature" phones the basics are the same.
I would suggest:
1. Go to your providers showroom and have one of the persons there configure your particular phone (there are more types and versions than can be easily counted) for the area you are going to before you leave and according to the plan you have.
1. When out of your home area , (particularly outside the United States) turn off the phone (power it down) and just use the wifi portion when available.
3. Note, that it is the "tower" you connect to that determines the charges. You can be in the US and still be using Canadian or Mexican towers when you are near the borders. The same goes for ships in American ports (Alaska, California, Florida etc). You can be on land and still be attached to the cruise ship. Ouch.
4. Treat what the "help" folks tell you skeptically, as it was what they didn't tell us that caused our issues.
5. Consider buying a cheap ($30>$40) pay as you go phone that has a removable sim card that can be moved from country to country for those occasions when a phone is essential.
Happy Camping
Bill

[Almot]

BillandCarole wrote:

1. When out of your home area , (particularly outside the United States) turn off the phone (power it down) and just use the wifi portion when available.
...
5. Consider buying a cheap ($30>$40) pay as you go phone that has a removable sim card that can be moved from country to country for those occasions when a phone is essential.

#1. Yep. Dumb it down. Disable either phone or data portion, and use free WiFi when available.
Living a month without getting smiley face text from grandchildren or inlaws is not unthinkable either.

#5. "from country to country" is something more for globetrotters. US expats and seasonally migrating crowds in Mexico are usually getting a Mex cell phone.

[SaltiDawg]

I recently purchased my first Smart Phone (Galaxy S6 Edge.) My wife was paying AT&T $70 for a low data plan. Checked with AT&T as to what would be the least call to add my phone, still with a low data plan.

Per AT&T, just over $100 plus tax.

Went with Consumer Cellular. They use the AT&T Tower infrastructure, provide real live easy to reach human customer support and I have a User Web Site that shows a plot of my usage, and allows me to make changes in plan retroactive to the first of the billing cycle.

Per CC, $51.72 including taxes.

[trikepilot]

WyoTraveler wrote:

Just a hunch. I bet AT&T discounted that bill when you complained. They always do when I whine to them. :B Verizon won't do that for me.

You will never get anywhere with the customer service reps at Verizon. You have to call the Verizon Wireless Executive Relations Team at 800-435-6622. They can help you. I ran a credit for 4 months after an adjustment due to a "non-truth" (I won't call him a liar) told to me when purchasing a new phone at a Verizon store.

[ktmrfs]

coolmom42 wrote:
Sounds like you need to switch to Verizon. I move my data plan up and down pretty often, and the billing is always correct. If I change plans in the middle of the billing cycle, the plan prices are prorated. Plus, Verizon offers unlimited text/talk with the charge determined by your data plan. This change dropped my bill $20/month.

This is an excellent article on Cnet.com about international travel with cell phones.

And another one from Consumer Reports.

Another suggestion---if you travel a lot and generally lead active lives, chances are you don't really watch TV much. Drop your satellite/cable service and put up an antenna. You are likely to have as many as 30 over the air channels. Add a Netflix subscription to that, and you will have more TV than you ever have time to watch. I got tired of my Dish Network bill climbing relentlessly, and did that about 18 months ago. Even given the cost of putting up a large antenna with amplifier in my fringe reception area, I broke even in 6 months.

we do likewise with verizon. I have it at 2gb when we are home, the up it just before we travel. even in the middle of the month, it is prorated. Never had an issue.

Going outside the U.S. I ALWAYS call the Verizon Global service number, find out what my options are in advance of the time we leave, have them do the changes we want for international use and then the day we return get online and change them back.

And once out of the country turn off mobile data, which on our android phones is very very easy to do.

We have friends that travel with us that have ATT and do similar, so far no issues, and prorated like ours was.

[westernrvparkow]

Sorry, but I stopped caring as soon as your rant started complaining about the company's profit margins. They aren't a monopoly, so switch carriers if you think they make too much. Or, buy their stock. And by the way, if you look it up, AT&T has averaged around 7% return on invested capital over the last 10 years, nothing close to the 50% you claim. But why use facts when outlandish claims make a better argument.

[BennieH]

When we went to Germany a couple of years ago, we went to the At&T store and had our phones unlocked (no charge!). When we got to Germany, we bought SIM cards for our phones with calling and data for the phones. Worked pefectly for us.

[RV_CONUS]

sch911 wrote:
Used AT&T for years no issues. I make all changes myself online. Changes have always taken affect immediately and are properly prorated.

Ditto since 2003.


Son traveled to Afghanistan compliments of the USA. They made changes on his phone to accommodate foreign travel. Was billed $1000. A call to ATT fixed the problem on a Friday evening, and the billing error was corrected immediately if not sooner.

He did thorough homework ahead of his deployment. Even though the ATT rep only had authority to credit $500, he said he would bump it up immediately, but it would take a few days for the additional $550 credit to be applied. It was fixed almost as soon as we hung up.

Just did combined billing, and vets 15% discount dropped off. Call fixed billing issue, credit issued and discount reapplied.

Things happen, it's how it is fixed. ATT has always provided good customer service for us. Can't say the same for it's major competitor. Dropped them like a hot iron, when they gave me **** about a billing problem. That was 2001. Still have a memory. That was their landline service at the time. They never got to provide me with cell service.

[wildtoad]

When on a cruise, out of the country, I always re-acquaint myself with the off button. Every couple of days I'll power it up and get a burst of stuff maybe, then shut it down again. It nice not to have a lot of friends who send you useless junk. Short of turning it off find the settings that tell the apps to only use wifi and not cell data, or just airplane mode. I recently moved from AT&T to Verizon and like the ease of changing data plans on the fly.

And please keep using those cell and data plans. Just like WyoTraveler I am a stockholder in both companies.

[sch911]

Used AT&T for years no issues. I make all changes myself online. Changes have always taken affect immediately and are properly prorated.

[Big_Katuna]

Wouldn't happen to me. I would have Googled it first, read some travel forums and talked to people that travel often.

Probably have gone the National Geographic Talk Abroad Travel phone route; works in around 200 countries.

[DutchmenSport]

We took a Caribbean cruise a few years ago. We turned our phones off and forgot it! We were on vacation. We didn't want to be bothered by anyone for any reason. It was a week of REAL relaxation ... all breaks from technology! If going again, we'd do the same!

One thing the OP does make a good point of, before using any type of technology, you better understand the costs! Read the fine print.

[NinerBikes]

If you go to a foreign country, it's simple... buy a new sim card in the country you are in. Make sure you buy an unlocked phone like something by Verizon. Or an international version of the phone.

With an unlocked phone, you can remove "roam" features, and remove "Global" feature too.

Even better, if you are savvy enough, jailbreak or "root" your android phone, and get rid of and lock down all of your carriers apps so they can't spy on you or suck down all of your data.

At home, I try to run off of wifi exclusively, and only turn on data when absolutely necessary.

[WyoTraveler]

I have AT&T cell service and a internet module. I also have a Verizon internet module. We ran a farm & ranch business in WY and our total bill combined never ran over $250 a month. In fact AT&T has lowered their rates quite a bit. I think AT&T is more resonsive to my needs and whining than Verizon. However, we don't take business or personal trips abroad so I have no idea how expensive that billing is. One thing I don't understand in your post. You say AT&T is billing for a 28 day month. If that is correct then my billing date would change every month. My service has been billed on the same date every month for as long as I can remember. They upgrade my minutes and data on that same date every month. Please clarify.

These companies are in business to make money. I think cell phone service for all companies has dropped in price tremendously over the last few years. In addition we have a lot more cell towers in rural areas. When I was a kid back in the 40s we were on a 12 party land line and just about every call was a long distance call & charge. We have come a long way since those days.

All that said, I own stock in both AT&T and Verizon. Both pay close to 5% dividends. Great stocks and both are great companies.

Just a hunch. I bet AT&T discounted that bill when you complained. They always do when I whine to them. :B Verizon won't do that for me.

[beemerphile1]

I couldn't read your entire post with my tired eyes but I think I got the jist of it.

When traveling abroad you should set your device to only operate on WIFI. The other alternative is to buy a phone for the country you are traveling in or maybe swap sim cards in the phone you have. When you arrive in that country stop at a phone store and buy minutes for your trip.

Here are some articles providing tips about cell phone use abroad;
http://www.clarkhoward.com/technology/phones-mobile-devices/using-cell-phones-overseas