2 Messages
In-Home Experts Issues
On Jun 9th, we started an account with ATT fiber for our internet home in Oran County, CA. A representative from the AT&T In-Home Experts team by the name Alondra Leyva came to our house to offer us discounted cellphone lines with ATT, which we decided to take (transferring from T-Mobile after bing with them for 10+ years) given the good offers she made.
Originally we quoted 3 lines and 1 wearable device (she mentioned the plan she was quoting was the AT&T Unlimited Premium 5G plan). The phone plan she offered was priced each at $33.75 (monthly plan of $55, minus $10 for autopay & paperless bill, minus $11.25 plan discount) and the wearable device was priced at $7.50 (monthly plan $10 minus $2.50 plan discount). In addition she offered us 1 iPhone 14 Pro for each line as a trade-in for our old phones (she mentioned all our phones were applicable to have no charges for installment plans). The total she quoted for this plan was $98.31 for all the lines.
I told her with T-Mobile I had 4 lines (one of them a SIM card I use for when my parents visit from overseas). She mentioned she could add that to our account and there would be an additional discount bringing all 4 lines + the wearable to about $95.
On June 12 she came to our house with 2 iPhones and the SIM card to start the transfer process (the additional iPhone would be shipped to Cincinnati where my brother lives). We completed the transfer for two of the lines and activated the SIM card. She mentioned I could activate the wearable by following manufacturer instructions. She came again to our house on June 15 to pick up our old devices to process the trade in after we finished transferring our data. We gave her 1 Pixel 6 Pro (256GB) and 1 Pixel 7 Pro (128GB). Both phones were provided in working condition (no cracks on the screen, formatted to factory defaults, and provided on their original boxes).
The issues we have been experiencing are:
- When porting the lines, Alondra mentioned to us she would waive all the activation fees. I was charged these fees on all the lines. The activation fee was charged twice for one of the lines activated (luckily I already got one of them refunded by customer service), and once for each of the remaining lines, and the wearable device.
- On Jun 15 when she came to pick up our phones, I mentioned to her my wearable was not compatible with the iPhone, thus I would not be needing the wearable line (I would simply use the wearable as a Bluetooth device). She mentioned she would cancel it that night from her home. The wearable did not get cancelled and I got billed for it. I worked with customer service to get the plan fees waived since the device never worked, but they did not waive the activation fee (reference the first bullet point).
- The phone shipped to Cincinnati got lost in transit. On June 20th I contacted Alondra to get help with the lost phone. I did not receive any answer. After about 90 minutes on the phone with customer service, I was told my brother would have to go to a corporate store in Cincinnati with the tracking number showing the phone was lost in transit to be able to pick up a phone in the store. My brother was able to pick up the phone at his local store, but he was told he would be charged an activation fee as well (see the first bullet point).
- Alondra mentioned she would set us up for AutoPay and Paperless bill to get additional discounts. When we received the bill, we noticed neither of these services were set up, consequently we did not receive the mentioned discounts. Furthermore, the bill shows us charges for cellphone plans of $70 per line before discounts (very different from the $55 per month before discounts she quoted us originally). We tried to dispute these charges with customer service, but we were told it was too late for us to try to set it up and if there was any way to waive it, it would have to be processed by the team who created the accounts (in other words the In-Home Experts team).
- On the bill, we noticed we are being charged installment plans for the iPhones received at my house on June 12 for lines all the lines. When we inquired about the trade-in, the customer service rep mentioned the only trade-in registered in my account was for the trade-in my brother did physically in the store in Cincinnati. The customer service rep mentioned the most likely scenario is that Alondra had not processed our phones she picked up at out house yet. The customer service rep mentioned the trade-in should be done within 30 days, which would expire the day after we went to the store, meaning we would lose the window in which the trad-in would be accepted. Thus it was important for Alondra to process ASAP.
During this process, we tried contacting Alondra several times and never received any feedback (no replies on the text messages and never answered her phone after the last visit to our home). On July 8th, when we visited the corporate store, I was given Alondra's supervisor contact information: Garret. The corporate store associate told me the In-Home experts usually rest on Monday so she recommended me to call him on Tuesday and explain the situation. On July 11th, I called Garret and briefly explained the situation with Alondra, to what he replied that she had been put on leave and that was likely why the phones we gave her were never processed. He asked me to send him an email explaining everything. I wrote him a detailed email with all the information required, but never received an answer back from him. I sent subsequent follow up emails once new account statements were sent to me making it apparent that nothing had been taken care of. The follow up emails were sent on July 18th, and August 18th. To this date I have not heard from Garret or anyone on his team.
On my last statement I see we received credit for 1 of the lines, but the other 2 lines are still pending to be processed.
The personnel from the corporate store have told me they cannot do anything about it and that has to be the In-Home Experts team to solve this issue since they received the phones for the trade-in. However I never received a response from Alondra, Garret, or anyone else on that team. I hard sometimes the office of the president of the division get involved and solve this quite easily. Does anyone know how to contact this office?
formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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113.2K Messages
2 months ago
* Let's start with how much it cost for the premium plan with four phone lines versus three phone lines with the auto-pay and paperless billing discount
* discount for being a fiber internet customer
$180 vs $200
Less 25% = $135 or $150
* Switch credits are $10 per line for 25 months.
3 lines $105, 4 lines $120
* Sign up for autopay and paperless with your debit card or checking account online in your account.
* installments are always charged. You're trade-in phones were eligible, trade in credits against your installments usually begin within 3 months. Should have begun middle of September. You see one of 3 expected?
* A better Business bureau complaint is forwarded back to AT&T upper Management and someone will contact you.
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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113.2K Messages
2 months ago
Btw
There is no point paying $20 or more every month to add a fourth person to your plan for someone who visits on occasion. It makes a whole lot more sense to buy them prepaid service when they are in the United States
AT&T cheapest prepaid plan is $30. But you don't have to buy prepaid from AT&T you can buy them T-Mobile service, especially if they're bringing their own phone from another country it may not work on AT&T
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jorbarrera
2 Messages
2 months ago
I understand the standard plan costs as you described them. However, I should have mentioned that at the time I received a quote from Alondra. She sent it to my email showing the detail of what the charges would be for 3 lines totaling $98.31/month for the three lines + wearable.
In other words, either she gave me a false promise/quote, or when she enrolled me, she did not keep her part of the bargain. I have tried multiple times to have AT&T honor the quote to no avail.
Regarding the trade-in, I have only received 1 out of 3. I have not been successful on getting information regarding the remaining 2.
Update: I talked with Garret on Tuesday and he mentioned the corporate store reached out to him and he was working on my case. We will see what is the result in a few days.
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