I canceled my AT&T cellfone plan. WHY?

Mike L. I am in a rural Iowa area, and i have already canceled my service with them. I'm just undecided on which plan in my are to go with. T-mobile doesn't cover our area, but they are the same as i-Wireless and use the same cell towers in my area. It doesn't make a lot of since, but i-Wireless thing is; you can bring in your own fone and sign up with them from AT&T, or any other cell service, but then they don't give you a booklet on what to put in the APN (Access Point Name) settings. So that is a problem for me, but they sure do want you to buy one of their cheap and crappy fones though.

I have a nice, new Samsung Captivate i897 and it's an unlocked fone. I want to keep it, use it as well, but i-Wireless as well as Straight Talk seem to offer you the bring in your own fone and do the PayGo plan, but not help you with the settings you need for your fone to get the service up and going.

I hear you. I read an article somewhere that Verizon lost over a million customers the 1st quarter of this year. People are switching to the PayGo plans now all due to the one fixed price for all features. When I looked at Verizon's sire, they want to charge me 60 dollars for a mlthy plan and 2 gigs of data, and then 40 dollars a mth for tethering. Unfukkinbelievable. They want to charge me to use my own fone to connect to my own wireless router. Hell No!

I don't understand why peiople sign up woth these greedy cellfone cmpanies. I am 100% with the government making it easier for the consumers to have unlocked fones and being able to use their fones with other carriers.

Personally, after the way ATT messed up my fone number and then wanted to charge me an activation fee, I hope ATT as well as Verizon tanks, and the sooner the better they do, it will be for the good of all consumers imo.

Mike, I hear you as well. These companies are getting way too big for their britches and way too effen greedy if you ask me. They could care less about the customer. They just want to keep people locked into co0ntracts for 2 years at a time, and while you are locked in to a 2 year contract, by the tome yours end, they have suckered many others into their 2 year contracts. It's a revolving door that never stops, and takes advantage of the consumers.

I would suggest gong with your local PayGo plan and transfer your current number over to the new PayGo fone.

I will never sign up with a 2 year contract with any cell fone company. They are already too rich and too big and imo needs to be taken down more than a few notches.

The North American mobile phone service companies are absolute liars and thieves. Before I left for China I had purchased a top of the line Nokia from Rogers (Canada) using a two year contract that still had more than a year to run. I had been told that my phone would work virtually anywhere in the world except Japan and South Korea as they were on totally different systems. So I dished out almost $400 to buy out my contract and purchase the phone. When I got to China, even though they market the exact same model phone, I could not get it to work. I took it to the head office of Nokia in the big city where I was, where their major repair workshop was, and they could not unlock it. I then had to buy a new phone, but in China you buy the phone for cash and then pay whatever amount you want to purchase usage minutes. The phone cost me the equivalent of $65, had all the bells and whistles I wanted, and the minutes are so cheap I can use the phone for about 2 months after I've paid about $8. Roaming is very inexpensive as well, and the major company, China Mobile, which provides the minutes that are useable everywhere in the country.

Wow Buzz and only 8 bucks. That's cheap, but in America, no way are they going to have those prices here. It's all about money and greed and how much they can get out of the people glued to their cell fones.

My cell fone is an unlocked one and AT&T doesn't like that I guess. When both women on the fone told me I gad to drive back to the AT&T store and return my cell fone (the one I own) before they could cancel my account. I told both of them more than once that I own my own fone.

I've heard many AT&T horror stories before, but I never imagined that I would be writing one myself.

These cell companies are just interested on getting the money out of you, and will lie to sell whatever. If a prepaid service doesn't work in my area, I cannot return a prepaid card. That to me doesn't seem fair if the service doesn't work and then the companies get to keep the money.

I thought companies and people are suppose to evolve, but in ?america, it seems that no one is evolving, just screwing one another over to see how much they can get out of you and then say F-U to you at the same time.

jussayin-

lol Mike L.

I've had problems with them too! I cancelled my contract, and they wouldn't do it. I kept getting bills. I would not pay them, I had written them a certified letter, (which I kept a copy), mailed it to the local store, kept my return receipt, and I'm still getting bills?

Finally after 3 months, they called and threatened to turn off my phone. I said, TURN IT OFF, I've been trying to turn it off and get out of your service for 3 months. IF you will note, I've not made ANY calls in the past 3 months. I am NOT paying your bill and if you pursue this further, I will see you in court.

They finally got it straightened out. NEVER again will I use AT&T for anything...

I've been on AT&T since they bought out Cell One. Which has been several years. They are by far have the largest coverage in the area, because they own all the towers. I've had a few minor issues, but nothing major. A year ago I bought an iPhone and in 6 months the battery wouldn't hold a charge. I talked with customer service on the phone and after they couldn't get it working they said I could just go to the store and switch it out with a new one. I dug out myreceiptand trekkedacrosstown. No big deal - 10 minutes, but they said they could not swap out the phone. So back to my office and back on the phone with customer support which turns out NOT to be AT&T but Apple. They sent me to tech support and I spent an hour going through the whole list of things, before heconcededI did, indeed, need a new phone. I could go to any Apple store and swap it out for a new phone, but the nearest Apple store is 280 miles away, so I ended up putting a hold on a credit card for the amount of a new phone while they sent me a new one and once I got that I put the old one in the box and sent it back. I didn't have any other issues. Recently I changed to a share plan , 3 phones on data sharing plan.

They do rake you over the coals on fees.

I got sick and tired of Verizon and switched to Virgin Mobile. I was paying $82 a month for 700 minutes and 250 text messages.

Now I pay $45 for 1200 minutes, unlimited text and downloads of more than I can ever use. Phone is also a mobile hotspot. I had to pay $150 for the phone, but since it's a Samsung Galaxy I think I did pretty good.

So Verizon, after 20 years and about $100,000,000 in monthly payments, SCREW YOU!

P.S. Had to pay $180 early termination fee, but I'll save that long before my contract would have been up.

A few months after the service started, I signed my company up for limited Nextel service, specifically for the PTT (Push To Talk) feature which is like a walkie-talkie only it's was world wide instantaneous communications between me and my boss. We still have the service but I was able to sneak my daughters on the work plan, on a different channel. Unfortunately, that plan is now in jeopardy as it was through Sprint.

haha JR, I had been with AT&T for over 10 years and this is the first complaint i have had with them. They did what they did because they thought I would fold and sign up a 2 year contract with them again.

I have my own unlocked Samsung Captivate i897 cell fone and do not wish to be in another contract with any company unless they offer unlimited everything for $55 a mth or less as the Paygo phones offer to you.

There is no need for anyone to be paying a dome more than $55 a mth for cell fone service. To be it's just a bunch of greedy companies taking advantage of the consumer as the oil companies are doing at our gas pumps.

I looked in to Verizon as an option, but when they mthly plan was $60 a mth, unlimited minutes,text, and 2 gigs of data, I thought I would go for it, but then they automatically put in your $60 dollar a mth plan a $40 tether charge to use your fone.

If they had dropped the tethering charge, I might have signed up with Verizon, but no way in hell am I going to pay them $40 a mth to connect to my own wireless router inside my home or anywhere else.

Verizon has tons of sites where people are complaining and leaving their service. I just do not understand how a company can get away with something like charging a customer for tethering. Next, they will start charging you an alarm bill for using the alarm on your fone, turning on and off bill for turning off your fine and then turning it back on, or even a charging your fone fee or what ever.

Verizon imo is a joke if you ask me, and it's sad to see that people are stuck with that company for 2 whole freaking years.

TinyRebel, my fone service with AT&T has been shut off finally. They better not send me a bill, but I think they will try and get me to pay for an activation fee for their screw up, but then again, they gave me a 40 dollar credit as well for my time wasted which isn't a lot if you ask me. IMO, they should have given me a years service for free for their F-Up.

We don't get Sprint in my area, but I have read and a heard a lot of bad things about Sprint from my friends back in Los Angeles.

They do rake you over the coals on fees.

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Yep they do. I was paying $45 a mth for 450 minutes + rollover minutes.

Never again!

Well, if anyone knows about nthe Samsung Captivate 1897 cell fone and the setting of i-Wireless to put in to it, let me know.

I contacted i-Wireless today and they said t would be $75 for a sim card activation and 1 mth service, but they do not set up your B.Y.O.P (bring your own phone) fone. They just sell you a sim card, a mth of service and send you on your merry way.

Sounds stupid that they would offer the consumer a B.Y.O.F. option, but don't give you any settings for your APN and other stuff so you can use your own fone. I told the woman over the fone she was an idiot if she thought I was going to give her cash and I have to pull numbers outta my azz to try and get it to work. But, she said I could buy one of their fones and they work right out of the box. Yep, they want another $149 for a new fone, then $75 on top of that.

To me, it's a bait and switch to get people to come in, now info to help you get the service to get your B.Y.O.P to work, but buy their fone.

If anyone has the setting info on i-Wireless and a Samsung Captivate, i897, let me know.

Thanx!

It's just frustrating with the lack of customer service across board in this country; but the cell phone business is just about the worse.

I'm on T-Mobile, and like that, so far!