Ticked @ ATT

Kimber Custom · Oct 1, 2012

So I'm paying my bill and see that a data plan was automatically added to my account to the tune of $30 a month. I didn't ask for a data plan. I didn't authorize a data plan. I don't *want* a data plan.

I called ATT and they say 'well the system figured out you have an iphone and therefore you must have a data plan'. Horse pucky!

It's my phone, what's it to Apple or ATT if I have data in my pocket or not?

:angry:

civilian75 · Oct 1, 2012

No surprise there, man. Now I can say at least two plans require data plans with an upgrade to a smart phone. My guess all of them do. It doesn't matter if you buy it w/o a 2yr contract. For how long did you get away with it? I am with Sprint and the 1st thing they tell me when I try to upgrade to a phone with a higher IQ than mine is "you got to change to a data plan". Stick to your old dumb phone and get yourself an iPad. That's what I wish I could do but my wife gave me an ultimatum, "upgrade me to an iPhone or else..."

Bigfoot · Oct 1, 2012

I went into the AT&T store last week to look into wireless home internet and cell service. The helpful gal there talked about plans and showed me totals in the $230 range. I left and and the last second I decided to check Best Buy, their AT&T combination was $110 mo. So I went back around the corner to AT&T and talked to someone else, he said Best Buy didn't know what they were talking about and gave me a number around $130 but this was limited to 6 gigs a month, I just downloaded 5 gigs a couple hours ago for two NFL games that I missed Sun. So I thought about getting just the Iphone service and they said what the OP said, $40 for internet and cell service and $30 for text.

I've been with AT&T for 15 years, screw them.

A buds kid pays $50 mo on a pay as you go phone and he gets text included. I'll try and find a cheaper provider that uses the AT&T network.

Looks like I'll have to keep my landline for DSL or stop downloading games, movies and music. Heh.

Stomper · Oct 1, 2012

Meh... how much bandwidth can you use downloading banjo music anyway?

Bigfoot · Oct 2, 2012

Shows what you know flatlander. Up in these woods we call em fiddles, and there's lots of fiddle music.

madiz27 · Oct 2, 2012

My girlfriend had a free email trial that she was automatically signed up for added to her account. For the last 4 months she has been charged for that service even though per her request data has been blocked from from her phone for 1 1/2 years now. I have been a customer for about 4 years and have had a few issues of my own with AT&T similar to the OP.
In the past few days I started looking at Consumer Cellular. Uses the AT&T network, you don't have to buy a new phone if you don't want to, no contract and it looks like I can cut my bill in half. See ya later AT&T!

ZigZagZeke · Oct 2, 2012

Bigfoot said:
I went into the AT&T store last week to look into wireless home internet and cell service. The helpful gal there talked about plans and showed me totals in the $230 range. I left and and the last second I decided to check Best Buy, their AT&T combination was $110 mo. So I went back around the corner to AT&T and talked to someone else, he said Best Buy didn't know what they were talking about and gave me a number around $130 but this was limited to 6 gigs a month, I just downloaded 5 gigs a couple hours ago for two NFL games that I missed Sun. So I thought about getting just the Iphone service and they said what the OP said, $40 for internet and cell service and $30 for text.

I've been with AT&T for 15 years, screw them.

A buds kid pays $50 mo on a pay as you go phone and he gets text included. I'll try and find a cheaper provider that uses the AT&T network.

Looks like I'll have to keep my landline for DSL or stop downloading games, movies and music. Heh.

My wife and I left AT&T long ago and we now both have iPhones with data plans on a family plan with 4 phones total at T-Mobile. The cost for all the phones is a total of $150 per month. What we did is get unlockable AT&T iPhones off Craig's list for about $150 each. We then took them to our iPhone guy who does unlocking and jailbreaking. For $40 each he did a factory unlock and a jailbreak on each phone. Then what you do is go to T-Mobile and get a T-Mobile SIM card to put in your unlocked iPhone. Tell them you want a data plan for each iPhone and maybe a family plan if you have multiple phones. In any case, their data plan is cheaper, and it's unlimited, I believe. At least we've never run into a data limit with our 4 phones sharing 750 minutes of air time. I think you can also put your iPhones on a pre-paid plan if that's what you want. The data plans are actually cheaper for pre-paid.

A factory unlock ($40), as opposed to a software unlock ($20), is permanent. You can upgrade the operating system, or buy stuff on iTunes without having Apple brick it, which when that happens requires unlocking it again for $20 if you are only doing software unlocks.

A big advantage of the jailbreaking is that you are then no longer limited to iTunes for apps. Cydia has tons of apps you won't find on iTunes. For instance, AT&T charges $4.95 per month for call blocking on up to 30 numbers. Have you gotten any of those spam cell phone calls with somebody speaking spanish trying to sell you Viagra? They change their 800 numbers regularly and you'll quickly use up your 30 numbers trying to block them. Since AT&T charges a monthly fee for call blocking they won't let Apple put a call blocking app in the iTunes store. But if you go to Cydia you can buy iBlacklist for your iPhone, which blocks unlimited numbers of calls, for a one time payment of $12.95. Our "unlock guy" can be called or texted at 503-750-7173. He has a heavy Asian accent, so it's better to text him. We've been dealing with him for a couple years now and he's always been honest and dependable.

locobob · Oct 2, 2012

Kimber Custom said:
So I'm paying my bill and see that a data plan was automatically added to my account to the tune of $30 a month. I didn't ask for a data plan. I didn't authorize a data plan. I don't *want* a data plan.

I called ATT and they say 'well the system figured out you have an iphone and therefore you must have a data plan'. Horse pucky!

It's my phone, what's it to Apple or ATT if I have data in my pocket or not?

:angry:

Interesting, I've been using an IPhone 3 that I bought from a friend, swapped in my sim, turned off the data and didn't sign up for the data plan. With AT&T too and have been getting away with this for several years now. I have seen the language on their site regarding what happened to you, for whatever reason I'm still slipping through the cracks. I think its crappy that they do this, but it's their network so I guess the only thing you can do is go elsewhere for cell service.

ZigZagZeke · Oct 2, 2012

locobob said:
Interesting, I've been using an IPhone 3 that I bought from a friend, swapped in my sim, turned off the data and didn't sign up for the data plan. With AT&T too and have been getting away with this for several years now. I have seen the language on their site regarding what happened to you, for whatever reason I'm still slipping through the cracks. I think its crappy that they do this, but it's their network so I guess the only thing you can do is go elsewhere for cell service.

If it does happen to you, get your iPhone unlocked and put a T-Mobile SIM card in it and you're good to go.

Kimber Custom · Oct 2, 2012

locobob said:
Interesting, I've been using an IPhone 3 that I bought from a friend, swapped in my sim, turned off the data and didn't sign up for the data plan. With AT&T too and have been getting away with this for several years now. I have seen the language on their site regarding what happened to you, for whatever reason I'm still slipping through the cracks. I think its crappy that they do this, but it's their network so I guess the only thing you can do is go elsewhere for cell service.

I actually have two lines of service on my account that were set up this way (iPhones no data). The one that was 'caught' was a 3Gs. My wife's newer 4 (where I had to call to get a new SIM for because of the different size) is still data free. ATT claimed this is an Apple edict.

locobob · Oct 2, 2012

Kimber Custom said:
I actually have two lines of service on my account that were set up this way (iPhones no data). The one that was 'caught' was a 3Gs. My wife's newer 4 (where I had to call to get a new SIM for because of the different size) is still data free. ATT claimed this is an Apple edict.

Now that is just really odd, they caught one but not the other? I've been debating on whether or not to buy a used I4, have my sim cut down to fit and see if I can continue to slip by unnoticed or.... just give in and re-up which would get me a I5 for $199 - I would be pissed if I spent $200 on a used I4 and then got "caught" by the data police a month later.

ZigZagZeke · Oct 2, 2012

Kimber Custom said:
ATT claimed this is an Apple edict.

That's complete BS. Apple sells hardware. They couldn't care less whether you use data or not. I've been an Apple stockholder for 10 years now and I'm sick and tired of the carriers blaming all of their BS on Apple.

ZigZagZeke · Oct 2, 2012

locobob said:
Now that is just really odd, they caught one but not the other? I've been debating on whether or not to buy a used I4, have my sim cut down to fit and see if I can continue to slip by unnoticed or.... just give in and re-up which would get me a I5 for $199 - I would be pissed if I spent $200 on a used I4 and then got "caught" by the data police a month later.

Buy the 4, get it unlocked and put it on T-Mobile. Your worries will be over.

locobob · Oct 2, 2012

ZigZagZeke said:
Buy the 4, get it unlocked and put it on T-Mobile. Your worries will be over.

I had T-Mobile many years ago, wasn't bad except for a few rural areas where I lost coverage, they have probably improved coverage since then.... be worth looking into as I haven't compared plans in quite a while.

JVK · Oct 2, 2012

i have my gf on a $60/mo no-contract unlimited everything plan from t-mobile. Been pretty happy with it. (using an android phone) (edit it's actually $65 after tax)

MrNiceGuy · Oct 2, 2012

I wouldn't pee on an iphone to prevent an apartment fire. Thankfully though, I'm grandfathered in with ATT's unlimited plan.
For $60/month I have no limits.
Last month I used over 13gb of data... that would have been ridiculously expensive otherwise.

The one drawback to having the unlimited data plan is that it doesnt support tethering. I have to root my phone and even then I risk multiple MAC addresses showing up on my service and them automatically dropping me from the unlimited plan. There's probably a way around this, but i'm lazy and uninformed.

To activate the tethering I would be paying a total of $10 more per month and would be limited to 2gb of data usage. Obviously that's not going to happen.

deen_ad · Oct 2, 2012

Kimber Custom said:
So I'm paying my bill and see that a data plan was automatically added to my account to the tune of $30 a month. I didn't ask for a data plan. I didn't authorize a data plan. I don't *want* a data plan.

I called ATT and they say 'well the system figured out you have an iphone and therefore you must have a data plan'. Horse pucky!

It's my phone, what's it to Apple or ATT if I have data in my pocket or not?

:angry:

Some phone companies REQUIRE you to have a data plan if you have certain phones. Ran into that with a grandson when we got him a new phone. Our cell phone cost went down by about $60 when he got his own plan. I guess you'll have to pay for the plan or cancel the service and pay the early cancellation fee.

deen_ad · Oct 2, 2012

We gave up on both AT&T and T-Mobile due to coverage limitations. With T-Mobile I couldn't get service at work if I was more than a few feet away from a window. We now have Verizon and I get service even in the basement and elevator shafts at work. This is in downtown Vancouver too. Even out in our MH on the way to Mt. St. Helens I have service.