WATCH OUT FOR THE LYING SALES REPS

Since you provide no details of what you are being charged that you were told you wouldn’t be charged, no way to know if you were lied to or not but be aware that credits for phone promotions take up to 3 bills to show up. First bills are also always higher due to activation fees, not all discounts and credits have started yet and you are billed for more than one month of service. Still, 3 times what you were told does seem rather high but I suspect your issue isn’t nearly as bad as you think it is and that once all those credits and discounts show up, your bill will be much closer if not exactly what was promised. In any event, you can escalate to corporate by filing an FCC or BBB complaint. You should definitely try that before going the legal route.

@sandblaster maybe the bill the op speaks of isnt an actual bill but the customer service summary?

Jeeez your lucky, I can’t even activate 4 new lines I paid for. It’s a complete joke! New business account with 5 lines ported numbers from Verizon and can’t get help for nothing. Return your phones and get a refund they have no clue what they are doing 

We are here to help activate your new lines Dm710!

Activate your AT&T wireless device by entering your wireless number and your ZIP Code. When you transfer your number to us from another carrier in one of our stores, your number transfer takes 1-3 business hours. Transfers done online or over the phone take 3-5 business days to complete.

Check the status of your number transfer by entering your phone number. If your transfer is taking longer than expected, please reach out to our Wireless Port Activation Centre at 888.898.7685 for additional assistance. 

Let us know if this helps! Thank you for reaching out to the AT&T Community Forums!

Rhoda, AT&T Community Specialist 

AttHelp  tried all that plus 2 1/2 hours on the phone with supervisors. 1 1/2 hours in your corporate store and nobody could help. I tried filling out fraud form, called global fraud number and absolutely nothing. I have 4 brand new iPhone 13 max sitting here with no help in regards to activation or returning. I just want to return them and get my money back if they can’t activate 

We definitely want to help, @Dm710.

Let’s meet in a Direct Message to discuss and assist further with activating your devices. Please check your Direct Message Inbox (it’s the chat icon next to the bell icon in the upper right corner of the Forums).

Look forward to helping!

Lynn, AT&T Community Specialist

@ATTHelp  ok I messaged ‘em. I’ll try solving there but I’ve tried various methods to no avail. 

@sandblaster There is NO way a $700 bill is going to go down to under $200 with “credits” after the “2nd or 3rd” billing cycle! I am NOT paying $700 for 3 months! This is NOT what was discussed!! 
I want my original phones back and get FAR away from these people!! But apparently there’s no way to do that - FRAUD- because they literally just told me 2 days ago they JUST finished processing the trade ins so that means they just had the phones in their hands. 
Now I wake up to phone not able to text message! I work off my phone and this is NOT ok!! So now I’ll sit on the phone for the next 2 hours with customer service (Edited per community guidelines)!! 
THESE PEOPLE ARE SCAMMERS! 
I have NEVER had issues like this with my other company EVER!! 

No one here can see your bill so we have no idea if your bill will continue to be $700 even without the discounts or credits kicking in but I bet it won’t continue to be that high. Apparently you ignored the part about one time charges and being billed for more than a month. Whatever, we can’t see your bill and you obviously don’t wish to share any actual details. As you have already found out, getting trade ins back is not going to happen. You are obviously past the return period for however many phones you bought so if you cancel now, you’ll be billed the remainder owed on the phones plus you’ll never get the trade in promotion credits. 

Let's try this.  I'm guessing expected bill something like:

AT&T Unlimited Elite® @ $60/line x 3 lines: 180 + taxes, including paperless and autopay, so let's call that $200.

How can we get the first bill up to $700?

Activation for 3 lines: $90

Iphone @$25/month x 3: $75 (Before trade in credit)

NextUp (They love to add, you should cancel) @$5 x 3 : $15

Insurance (they'll add, you can cancel): @$15 x 3: $45

3/4 month prorate service to billing cycle date: $150

3/4 month prorate NextUp/Insurance: $45

Assuming you do cancel NextUp and Insurance, I would see your first 4 bills looking something like this: