I’ve used AT&T’s mobile phone service since 2009 on a 5 phone family plan. Their coverage area is great (for the most part, unless you live in rural North Carolina or Montana) and the per phone price for 700 shared minutes and unlimited mobile to mobile calling is hard to beat. However, you’ve got to watch your back (er, make that your bill) with these guys. The nickel and dime approach to additional fees is downright annoying at times. Yes, there are those pesky 911 and government tax fees that keep rising, but I’m talking about other little annoying fees, like data usage billed by the kilobyte for cell phones that don’t (or shouldn’t) have data access.
Lately, I was noticing that my bill was slowly creeping higher each month, with no additional services being added to my lines. So, yesterday morning, I gave them a call and spent exactly an hour and ten minutes talking (with many repeated questions and statements) to someone who’s first language was quite obviously not English. Through the course of the conversation, I was able to negotiate the removal of some ‘errant’ data fees as well as a $150 credit for my troubles. The total amount credited towards my bill was $170.07.
Not bad for an hours work, right?