Cell phone migrane! (continued from previous post)

WOW! I hope this is an isolated incident and not happening to anyone else. In the future I will refrain from sharing any information I receive from AT&T customer service since that information will most likely be incorrect and therefore screw up your account as well. If you read my previous blog you'll see we have a unique cell phone situation and I, being proactive sought out answers beforehand to ensure a smooth transition to our new cell phone carrier and mobile phones. Well that was a stupid idea!

© Photoeuphoria 

Our phones were supposed to activate themselves yesterday. I called my parents several times yesterday to check and nothing was happening. I called customer service and was told to allow more time and I was assured it was still going to happen last night. I called my parents again this afternoon. No change. I called customer service again (another hour on hold) and instead of doing anything to my account or checking anything she gave me generic trouble shooting advice and told me to try it and call back. Since the phones are with my folks and not physically here with me it of course becomes more complicated as I have to call my sixty some year old father and walk him through the steps she gave me. No change. I called customer service once again (only a 30 minute wait this time, woohoo!) and was told that due to a recent rate change request on my account my transition date had been postponed to allow them to update their system with the new plan and so it wouldn't  mess up my billing. He told me I would be receiving a new date view text message in a couple weeks. WTH? The only "change" to our account in the last few months was asking Alltel to remove the military suspension (as directed by customer service) so the account would be active for the transition. And THAT is what is screwing up our transfer?? He said as long as no other rate changes had happened he could manually activate our account. Now the next step is to call my father again and walk him through the process yet again and hopefully this will take care of the situation. I actually find it mildly amusing that following their direct instructions was what caused the issue, but I'm really agitated that the woman with the heavy accent I spoke to earlier couldn't have told me this. Nothing had changed between those two phone calls. Was she just a moron or was she trying to get me off the phone as fast as possible to keep her statistics up? I can tell I'm going to LOVE being an AT&T customer. (that was sarcasm for those of you that don't know me)




**UPDATE** April 26,2011*********************************
It just keeps getting better! I called AT&T customer service today to put the military suspension on and was told we could only put it on once a year and only for 180 days (6 months) but we'd still have to pay for the service while it was turned off. EFF OFF!! Thats NOT what we were told prior to this transition and thats not what it states on their own website: http://www.wireless.att.com/answer-center/main.jsp?solutionId=60168&t=solutionTab

(The above is a screen print from their website. I know its pretty small so here is what it says:)

Question:
I am in the military and am being deployed, can I suspend my service?

Answer:
If you are in the military and are being deployed, or transferred to an area that does not have AT&T wireless service, please read the information below and contact Customer Service at 1-800-331-0500 or 611 from your wireless phone to discuss your account options.

If you are being transferred or deployed for 90 days or longer to an area where AT&T wireless does not provide service, you have two options: 1) you can cancel your service and AT&T will waive any early termination fee (ETF) or 2) you can suspend your service and retain your telephone number if you resubscribe to service within 90 days after your deployment ends if your deployment is for 3 years or less. AT&T will waive the recurring monthly fees on your account while it is suspended, you will retain your original wireless number. All billable features are removed at the time of suspension. If you are changing from a Rollover Plan to a Military Plan, you will lose all accumulated rollover minutes. If you are in the military, have a family plan and all members of the plan are transferring with you, they are also eligible to have their service cancelled or suspended. If you are in the military and are on a family plan, the account owner can have just your service cancelled or suspended. 

You must contact us within 90 days after your deployment ends to resume your service with the same telephone number. If you fail to resubscribe to service within that 90 day period, you will have to complete an application for new service with a new telephone number. When you are ready to reinstate your service, you will need to choose from rate plans and features that are available at that time. 

I read this to the customer service rep who kept putting me on hold and coming back and telling me the exact same thing. Then after several times of doing this she started insinuating that we aren't technically "deployed". I pointed out to her that I haven't heard of any "war zone deployments" that lasted for 3 years and the only tours that are for 3 years are overseas tours which is what we are on. Not only that but it says in that paragraph, "..being transferred OR deployed for 90 or longer.."

She put me on hold again saying she was going to call Alltel and see how they handle it. When she came back she said we could either cancel the account under the buyers remorse clause, or we could wait 30 days (pay the 1st months bill) and then put it on hold for 38 months. I told her I had to talk to my husband. We have had nothing but issues with AT&T so far and we've only been customers for five days. I'm not sure I want to deal with them going forward. Has anyone else in the military experienced issues like these? I know of another with a similar situation. I'd like to hear your experiences! Feel free to share in the comments.

Cell phone headache?

For those of you who had or have Alltel service that is changing to AT&T but have your plans suspended due to an OCONUS deployment  hopefully this will help you. I went through hours of calls trying to get the correct info.


**UPDATE** PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTION BELOW - REFER MY BLOG FOR THE REASONS WHY**


Our Alltel plan is supposed to transition to AT&T this week. The instructions we received in the mail (which in no way applied to our situation by the way, just a mass generated instruction pamphlet, most likely you got one too) gave us a whole lot of information but didn't really help answer any of my questions due to our special circumstances. (See scan of the pamphlet below)

To make a long story short - I got passed back and forth a lot but here is what I finally got for instructions for accounts on a military suspension: 
*This will only work if your new AT&T phone is still in the states. We had ours sent to a parent since they wouldn't let us send them to our APO address. 


Charge up your new AT&T phone and turn it on the day before or day of transition. (Hopefully you've been getting some kind of notification as to when that is. If you have not you can contact AT&T and they can tell you the exact date.) Call Alltel a couple days before the transition date and have the military suspension removed from your account so that your line is active. It may take a day or two for it to go into effect. It is NOT necessary to have the Alltel phones turned on or charged. If your line is still under military suspension when your account is set to switch it may not work. You should get a text on your new phone on the transition date and that will activate the phone and switch it to AT&T. Make a test call to be sure it is working (or have someone in the states do all this for you.)  You can then call AT&T and have them put a military suspension on your AT&T account. (I was informed I wouldn't need to fax any paperwork in to prove it but I have feeling when it is time I will have to send something in. I guess we will see in a couple of days.) I don't know if there will be a prorated bill for those 2 days my account was active or not. Last time Alltel was able to see we were not in the states and not using the phones and were very helpful about crediting the charges for the few days when we were trying to get the suspension put on. If we get a bill I'm sure it will be very small. 


I do not work for Alltel or AT&T. I am only relaying information provided by their customer service departments. If I find out any of this is incorrect I will post an update. My purpose is to hopefully save some other military family the time I spent making all these calls and asking questions. Those of you living overseas know that 800 numbers aren't free to call from here and it's almost impossible to find a non 800 number to contact customer service anymore. Luckily we have a magic jack that has a US phone number and we are able to use it to call 800 numbers for free.