Phone fiasco - Part 4 (final)

So apparently, some water got into my phone and some of the keys stopped working. My first reaction was to turn the phone off and then turn it back on. That was the stupidest thing I could have done! When I had first gotten the phone, I set up a security code when the phone turns on. The buttons I needed for the code were either not working or typing in two characters for my one press. And the worst part was that the numbers were displayed as “*” so I couldn’t tell which of the numbers I had typed in and which were being doubled. I was now locked out of my own phone. With desperation, I got out a hair dryer and hoped that it would help. After two hours of trying, I finally was able to “hack” into my own phone.

Looking back on all of it, I’m glad AT&T was being too restrictive on their credit checks.

The next day at work, my boss knew I was looking for a cell phone plan and informed me of a Sprint Exclusive Referral Offer (SERO). His wife used to be an employee and if she referred other people to Sprint, they would get significant discounts on their cell phone plan. I remembered that Sprint had accepted my application without deposit back when I was in college, so I checked them out. I couldn’t believe the plans that they were offering! The one that looked the best was a 500 min, unlimited text and data for $30 a month. For $60 a month, 2 phones, 1000min and unlimited text and data is better than the other family plans being offered by AT&T. We picked out our phones and placed the order. Within a couple of days, we had our phones delivered and activated. All without any hassle, even with my "inadequate credit history."

Additionally with getting access to the discounted deals, Sprint was offering $25 certificates to the new customer and the person who refers the new customer. So for our two plans, we would get another $50 off. There was also some phone rebates that let us get the phones for free. Also by being a government employee, an additional monthly discount is applied. The end result, $62 monthly bill including taxes, fees, etc and a rebate check for $200.

So AT&T, how do you like dem apples? You lost a loyal customer because he wouldn't play your stupid credit game.

(And just to clarify...the Phone fiasco happened in the span of a couple weeks back in Aug 2007)

Phone fiasco - Part 3

So I called the Walmart Connection Center, a.k.a Let’s Talk.com to find out what the deal was. They said that due to my credit score, AT&T would require a deposit. Out of curiosity, I asked how much the deposit would be. $500....……..for each phone, a whopping cool $1000!!! Over a year’s worth of phone bills up front! Who would EVER pay that much just for starting cellphone service, and I know there are people with "worse" credit scores than me trying to get cell phones. T-mobile was offering service with no deposit, but I had my eyes set on AT&T because a lot of other people have that service and I’d get the free in-house minutes.

So I called AT&T to find out if this deposit could be waived, or significantly decreased. I was told that it’s their policy is to run a credit report through their “black box” which spits out the deposit required; there’s no changing it. They said it was due to my lack of credit history that they were requiring a deposit. I explained that I previously had 2 years worth of cellphone service with Sprint in my name and was on their company’s own family plan service for the past three years. Apparently, none of that mattered. “Can’t you put a spending limit on the plan, to say $90 a month and require less of a deposit.” “I’m sorry, sir, we can’t do that.”

I asked the nice lady if she thought that $1000 was a reasonable amount of money to request. She finally got out of her “Just look at the computer screen for the answers to the questions” mindset and chuckled and said “I wouldn’t pay that.” EXACTLY. I also asked her what she’d suggest I do in the meantime so that I wouldn’t have to pay $1000 upfront. “You could go out and buy a car. Aren’t you going to be buying a house any time soon?” This is the point where I lost it. I told her that as a sophomore in college making no money whatsoever, Sprint had allowed me phone service with no questions asked, but now her company was requesting $1000 from me. I said I intend to keep my business with you, but there is no way that I’m paying that deposit. “What do you expect me to do?” I asked. She said, “go with the other provider.” Bad answer for the company, but at least she was honest.

I had one more angle, which was to have mom, who was the owner of the family plan, call up AT&T and somehow “transfer” me to a new plan. She called them up and then called me back. While washing dishes, I picked up the phone and found out that I was then required to call them back to finish the deal. I called AT&T and they asked for my Social Security number to run a credit report. Here I was, again, in the same loop. Nothing changed. Since I wasn’t the owner of the family plan, it didn’t matter that I was had service with them for the past three years. They were still going to require the deposit. Goodbye AT&T.

A couple of minutes later, I noticed that some buttons on my cell phone weren’t responding. Little did I know that the fun was just beginning.