Expert: DebiN - 9/11/2009

Question
In Sept of 2008 we had two AT&T phones and wanted to upgrade one of them to the iphone, but neither was eligible at that time.  The sale man suggested adding a line to get the iphone and swap the phone number we wanted use to the iphone, which we did.  So the original phone # 1697 (phone wanted to upgrade, but not eligible) was assigned to her new iphone and the new (add a line) phone # 7543 was assigned to her old phone, which we tossed in the kitchen drawer.  We were told the extra line would only be 9.99 a month and we could drop the extra line in May of 2009 when the phone would have been eligible to be upgraded.

This is our fault but the account is automatically paid via our debt account and who actually looks at their electronic bill, but as we discovered in May 20009, the data plan on the old phone had not be removed and we had been paying an additional $27 a month, instead of the $9.99 as we were told, on the added line #7643 sitting in the kitchen drawer.  So when we tried to removed the extra unused line, we found out both lines had been renewed to the iphone contract date, Sept 2010.  After a lot of run around on the phone with AT&T and at the corporate store for a couple days, we finally found someone that was able to correct the contract date and removed the unused data plan (no refund for the service that should have been removed).  They said the line won't be eligible to drop until Sept 2009.  Fine a could months away, we weren't going to argue, cheaper than the $150 terminate fee we were told.

So hear we are and now we go into the corporate store where we have bought all our top of the line cell phones.  We wanted to switch the phone numbers and drop the unused line #7543/cell phone.  They said only the 1697 line was eligible to be dropped since it wasn't under contract.  I pointed out the 7543 line was on the unused cell phone and asked why it could not be removed even though it was not on the iphone or iphone plan.  They said the 7543 line could only be dropped for a termination contract fee of $115.  It doesn't make sense why the 7543 can't be dropped since it wasn't assigned or tied to the iphone.  

So lets do some math:

27.00 x  8 months = 216.00 (unwanted data plan)
9.99  x 12 months = 119.88 (unused added line)
                   ------
                  $335.88

So are options are either wait until the end of contract date of Sept 2010 and pay another 9.99 for the next 12 months or pay the termination fee.  So in the long run, AT&T is going to make over $450 on this add an extra line.

Is there anything that could be done or any suggestions?  

Answer
If it helps to understand this a little better, the phones themselves are really not the issue so much as the wireless numbers. You wound up getting another line so that you could get an iPhone since your two existing lines were not eligible for an upgrade. That makes complete sense. You should have been told that you should cancel the data plan from the other line and that's unfortunate that you were not told this. When you bought the iPhone, the other lines should not have been recontracted unless they were not on a current family plan and the family plan had to be redone in order to get you the iPhone (which is likely the case) and that may be why they were all recontracted. Still, what AT&T did for you by making the lines eligible again was definitely correct. You shouldn't be recontracted unless you get a new phone, so only the number associated with iPhone should have had a new contract date.

At this point, you can switch any of the numbers to any of the phones. This has nothing to do with contracts. If one of the lines is eligible to be dropped, then cancel it and you can take one of the other numbers and associate it another phone that you have. So instead of trying to drop 7543 that is still under contract, why don't you just drop 1697? If you are using 1697 in another phone, then just have 7543 put into that phone (swap the SIM card, but make sure you have the appropriate data plans, etc.). If you are tied to the number 1697, that is a different issue. AT&T (and any other carrier for that matter) can't swap around your numbers and make one number eligible for upgrade when it's not and another eligible for termination when it's not. All three numbers have their own contract start and end dates. But the good news with GSM technology is that you can move the SIM cards to different phones without having an issue and you can have a different IMEI associated and change the plans. Is it the numbers that you need to keep or does it matter which numbers you keep? If it doesn't matter, then just swap out the SIM cards, call AT&T and make sure that you have the appropriate plans for the appropriate devices and drop the extra line that is eligible to be dropped.

If it helps, AT&T isn't trying to make money on something you don't need. They simply have contracts on each line. You can drop your data plans that you are not using if that is the issue and can definitely drop one of the lines, just not necessarily the one you were wanting to drop.

Please let me know if I may be missing something that is important to this and perhaps not taking something else into account. I would like to try to help you get to a good resolution here. Thanks. DebiN