TXT and e-mail from AT&T regarding "ineligible" data plan with iPhone 3G

[nakamoniel]

YOU do what i did. You put your simcard in your old phone, call 611, press 1 to confirm your no. and then 7to8 0's to make automatic system transfer you STRAIGHT TO A HUMAN rep, first rep u talk to you get as mad at him/her as you can telling them how dare they add data plan automatically when you had it blocked and you DONT EVEN OWN SMARTPHONE and you used 0 BYTE OF DATA IN MONTH, if rep acts smart shut them up by asking to prove that you have an iphone, as long as you didn't buy subsidized iphone from att they will shut up. and refund you 25$. THIS WAY you will have to deal with reps every month, ( trust me they are very used to ppl geting mad at them, and they just refund to avoid customers yelling at them). i been doing this for 3 months now. before it used to take 15-20 mins, now i get it done in 5 mins. i think its good GET RID OF FRUSTRATION therapy. Whenever something goes wrong YOU CALL 611 and make att pay for THEIR WRONG DOINGS. its been saving me money that i would have to spend on therapists otherwise LOL.

I just went through what others have described here. I bought a 3G from a friend, immediately blocked all data with APN changer and Data Blocker and called ATT to block all data with a WIX block. Triple protection, right? Inserted my old sim from old phone and was fine for about 2 months. I can confirm that I used 0bytes of data during that time -- just go to Settings->General->Usage.

Anyway, I logged into my ATT account one day and found that the $25 2GB plan had been automatically added. I did not ever get a text message! Of course I put my sim back into my old phone and removed the plan but now what to do?? It looks like blocking the data is not enough as many have explained here. I am not trying to get something for free as some have suggested here. I am using ZERO bytes of data. In fact even when ATT had added the plan I still couldn't get data because the WIX block was still active!

I can deal with calling ATT every 2 months to cancel the plan. If it happens more often than that then I'll just chuck my iPhone - or use it as an iTouch.

[obama5493]

I have a 3G iPhone I purchased on Ebay that had already been activated. I popped my ATT SIM in & have been using ever since. I have Media Max 200 bundle for Data. Over the weekend I received both a text message & a email that states "Our records indicate that your service does not include a Data Plan for iPhone. A Data plan for iPhone is required. Data Plans for iPhone include unlimited data/email and Visual Voicemail and will prevent unexpected data overage charges". Yikes.....anyone else get this message??? I don't really want to pay $30 bucks for data & extra for texting....It looks like I may not have any choice...feedback??

I saw this on the blogs over the weekend. I don't think they can do a great deal. They obviously can't force you to sign a new contract but they could eliminate all data for you unless you buy the correct plan. I doubt anything will happen personally.

[mcbookair]

YOU do what i did. You put your simcard in your old phone, call 611, press 1 to confirm your no. and then 7to8 0's to make automatic system transfer you STRAIGHT TO A HUMAN rep, first rep u talk to you get as mad at him/her as you can telling them how dare they add data plan automatically when you had it blocked and you DONT EVEN OWN SMARTPHONE and you used 0 BYTE OF DATA IN MONTH, if rep acts smart shut them up by asking to prove that you have an iphone, as long as you didn't buy subsidized iphone from att they will shut up. and refund you 25$. THIS WAY you will have to deal with reps every month, ( trust me they are very used to ppl geting mad at them, and they just refund to avoid customers yelling at them). i been doing this for 3 months now. before it used to take 15-20 mins, now i get it done in 5 mins. i think its good GET RID OF FRUSTRATION therapy. Whenever something goes wrong YOU CALL 611 and make att pay for THEIR WRONG DOINGS. its been saving me money that i would have to spend on therapists otherwise LOL.

Do you realize you are shortening your life by 6-8 months every time you call to go through that scenario? Personally, I'd find a new form of therapy.

[jagrskmu]

Got my daughter's data unlocked and a 25$ credit. Plus a back credit for the time it was locked.

Still had to move up to $49.95 4gb plan, but I feel so much better!!!!

BTW - Data is data is data!!!!, so charge accordingly!

[AMRivlin]

I live in Canada, and occasionally visit USA and pop in my old (ACTIVE) att sim into my iphone 3gs (out of contract). Some cities, like San Fran, Los Angeles, others don't tell the system to turn on Data (unless I am attempting to use bytes) But for some reason the border towers and Seattle flip $25 2GB on everytime.

Each time I get back, I put the sim in a dumpphone call up, read them the IMEI, and they credit or remove the item.

Honestly ATT, if people don't want data, they shouldn't have to add it. If I end up calling 20x a year for 30 min to figure this out, it costs your company more than it is worth. Figure each human on the line costs $25 an hour to employee (Salary, Tax, Building, Training, Supervisor) so in a year your policy is actually losing you $200+ to man the phones and remove something I never added (AND ACTUALLY ASKED TO BLOCK)

Some how this should be a class action lawsuit.

[efparri]

The employees are paid the same whether you call in or not. They are not working for piece rate pay.

[smartpig]

No "hacktivating" required. I just put my SIM card in, do the APN switch while on wi-fi, and voila, I'm back in business.

[AMRivlin]

The employees are paid the same whether you call in or not. They are not working for piece rate pay.

The broad concept is; if less calls were coming in, ATT would hire less people, and cost structure would be less. While my singular calling (no pun intended) has little to no effect, if ATT was simplifying billing/services and has less dropped calls, their call centre would have less reliance on a call centre. This goes for all organizations.

[efparri]

It would probably be cheaper to pay for international roaming than to maintain an AT&T account just for the occasions you come to the United States.

[AMRivlin]

In my case, I pay 9.99+Tax a month as I piggy back on an old Unlimited original ATT family plan.

If that didn't exist, I would go with Tmo prepay.

I picked up a Wind/Tmo NexusS so this will eliminate ATT's smart phone data annoyances, and I may even have a shot at getting unlimited edge internet with it for 9.99 a month.

[efparri]

That is still $120 per year.

[me4tux]

I just went through what others have described here. I bought a 3G from a friend, immediately blocked all data with APN changer and Data Blocker and called ATT to block all data with a WIX block. Triple protection, right? Inserted my old sim from old phone and was fine for about 2 months. I can confirm that I used 0bytes of data during that time -- just go to Settings->General->Usage.

Anyway, I logged into my ATT account one day and found that the $25 2GB plan had been automatically added. I did not ever get a text message! Of course I put my sim back into my old phone and removed the plan but now what to do?? It looks like blocking the data is not enough as many have explained here. I am not trying to get something for free as some have suggested here. I am using ZERO bytes of data. In fact even when ATT had added the plan I still couldn't get data because the WIX block was still active!

I can deal with calling ATT every 2 months to cancel the plan. If it happens more often than that then I'll just chuck my iPhone - or use it as an iTouch.

Here are my personal observations:

I am currently on a medianet unlimited data plan.

A. When I swap my sim out from my non-smartphone to an old ATT Samsung BlackJack II (smartphone), I get the nasty TXT and when I checked OLAM, the 2GB plan is automatically added.

B. When I swap my sim out to a smartphone that is non-ATT issued (means I cannot see a phone model detected in OLAM), I get NO nasty TXT but usually after 20 days or so, I get an email (the email I provided in OLAM) from ATT indicating they changed something in my acct. When I login to OLAM, I see the 2GB plan automatically added.

ATT has done something interesting in how they catch this.... I am now somewhat convinced that they TIE your SIM card information to your IMEI that you registered with ATT. Again, I am just assuming this theory so pls don't flame me. YOu will be caught either by:

A. the system crawler that detects ATT issued smartphones with registered IMEI and immediately slaps the 2GB plan

B. the system crawler that detects IMEI mismatches with SIM card, and slaps the 2 GB plan. Obviously it is difficult to tell when this proggie runs, but so far it picked me up on the 20th. last month.

Perhaps you may be interested to read this blurb here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...rtphone&page=3

Quoted by user link12245:

The 'SmartPhone' exclusion is simply a way our system recognizes your non-smartphone. If you use your sim card in an atrix with any non-smartphone plan, it will more than likely work for about 30 days. We have a system crawler in place to check for imei mismatches, and once it gets to your market, it will find your phone, and place you on the $25 2gb plan. Either way, you'll be very lucky if all the functions of your phone work with the media net package (usually MMS, and some web function won't work like 3g or 4g). Simply put, yes, you can use your media net by tricking at&t, but yes, the system will find it and fix it over time.


Now, in my case, when I looked in OLAM, I don't see anything pertaining to "Smartphone Exclusion". Furthermore, I have been reading conflicting information about whether this "Smartphone Exclusion" is a good thing to have or a bad thing on your acct.... Assuming you wanted to still use a grandfathered data plan with a non-ATT issued smartphone.

I feel that if you have a "Smartphone Exclusion" on your acct, it feels like an ATT Trojan Horse. That way, you're in some sort of a listing that they can easily do system crawler sweeps. But then again, I am confused because some folks have reported success in not being detected by ATT where their accts have "Smartphone Exclusion".

Anyone here care to definitively explain how "Smartphone Exclusion" works??

Thanks.

[efparri]

The smartphone exclusion allows you to use a smartphone without any data plan if you applied before the cutoff date in late 2009. It only applied to the specific smartphone you had at the time you applied or for warranty or insurance replacement of that phone. The exclusion does not allow you to have a nonsmartphone data plan on a smartphone, it only applied to having no data plan at all. If you use a different phone, the exclusion will be permanently lost.

Since the iPhone always required a data plan, the smartphone exclusion never applied to its use on the AT&T Mobility network.

[me4tux]

The smartphone exclusion allows you to use a smartphone without any data plan if you applied before the cutoff date in late 2009. It only applied to the specific smartphone you had at the time you applied or for warranty or insurance replacement of that phone. The exclusion does not allow you to have a nonsmartphone data plan on a smartphone, it only applied to having no data plan at all. If you use a different phone, the exclusion will be permanently lost.

Since the iPhone always required a data plan, the smartphone exclusion never applied to its use on the AT&T Mobility network.

Thanks for your reply efparri. Now I understand it better.

[jacob avery]

nice info thanx for the post