ComplainerMan

My old Nokia phone stopped working right before Christmas. I hadn’t dropped it recently, but had dropped it a number of times in the 3 years I’d owned it. I need a cell phone for my business when I’m out and about, so I went shopping the very next day to get a replacement. First I tried the AT&T store on Hopyard in Pleasanton. The place had moved to a different place in the shopping center since my last visit, and was no longer Parrot Cellular, just AT&T. Unfortunately they were closed. On my way back home it dawned on me that it was just about time for Best Buy in the Hacienda Shopping Center to open, so I headed that way. I noticed several other people had also arrived just at opening time. I took my time getting out of my car and getting in to the store, and when I did, I noticed all off the people I saw outside were now in line in the cell phone department. I got in line too.

While in line I perused my options, because luckily it ran right by the AT&T display. I was only considering the free options, but my eavesdropping in on the conversations of the customers ahead of my let me know that the iPhone 3 was one of those options. It wasn’t advertised anywhere that I could see, but they had 19 in total and I was going to get one of them. But to data plan or not to data plan? That was the question. The helpful associate let me know that the 200 MB data plan was $15 per month, but if I went over the 200MB limit, I would be charged $10 for an additional Gigabyte of bandwidth. Sounded good to me.

I was very conservative during my first month of usage, but when I didn’t get close to the 200 MB limit, I threw caution to the wind and surfed the web, and even downloaded apps while on the 3G network. Then came the warning text message from AT&T that I was nearing my 200 MB limit. That was understandable, but the message went on the say that if I went over the limit, I would be charged another $15 for another 200 MB of bandwidth. What happened to my 1 GB for $10? It was now obviously too good to be true.

I called up AT&T wireless customer service, and spoke to one of their representatives (obviously speaking to me from somewhere in India). I told her my story and she repeated what my earlier text message had told me. I repeated the rate the associate at Best Buy had given me and asked why I was told the overage rate would be 1 GB for $10 when I purchased the data plan. She replied that the person at Best Buy must have been mistaken. “Oh. The old bait and switch” I responded. “Yes” she said. “Ok. Thanks for your help” I said and ended the conversation.