This review is for something that happened earlier this year, before the store was closed.
I came in with the specific purpose to buy an unlocked iPhone 11 for my mother. One of the retail sales consultant, Christian helped me out and informed me of a promotion they were doing where if we opened a new line and keep it for two years, we could get an iPhone X for free and also that I was on an outdated grandfather plan and could switch to a more dated plan that was unlimited and would be cheaper! This was a great deal since an unused line for 2 years still costed loads less than what the iPhone was worth and more data for a cheaper monthly rate? Superb! I asked if everything else about the plan was the same and I was assured it would be completely the same except it was an unlimited plan now instead of the plan we've had for almost ten years (it was only 15gb, though it had grown through the years, no plan change). I was super stoked! Signed right up!
Right before I signed the final document, I suddenly remembered that iPhones remain locked to AT&T unless the phone was paid off and this phone would technically not be paid off until the 2 year period (since the deal was in monthly credits). This is normally not a problem but my mother spends half the year out of the country and usually purchases a non-AT&T sim card to use with her phone. I asked Christian if this would be a problem and he went like "don't worry, don't worry, the person who installs the sim card will unlock the phone for you". I pushed him further because I was pretty sure that is not how unlocking a phone works, but he assured me and kept assuring me he knew what he was talking about and I believed him.
At the end of the whole ordeal, I made a joke about how I'm hoping this isn't going to turn into one of those AT&T horror stories I've heard so much about and Christian laughed and, once again, assured me everything was going to be fine. He also informed me that if there were any problems, I can take the phone back to any store within a week and get everything refunded and the newline stopped and plan reverted, no restocking fee as long as nothing was opened.
Everything was not fine. This turned out to be one of those AT&T horror stories I've heard about.
This is what I found out after the purchase and getting the phone:
1) My plan was not exactly the same with unlimited data. Christian forgot that tethering data is no longer part of my plan and that is something I do almost everyday. To add that back to my plan would be an extra monthly charge.
2) The phone cannot be unlocked until it was paid off. I called around, asked multiple people. The person installing the sim card cannot just simply unlock the phone, it absolutely does not work like that. wtf Christian?!
3) I was not allowed to simply go to any store and return the phone. This was extremely stressful because the first 2 stores I went to told me I'd have to go back to the original store. The original store I purchased it from was over two hours away (near where my mother lived). The 3rd AND ORIGINAL store I asked / called told me I could not return it in any store at all and that I need to go through customer support through the phone.
4) When I started calling, they told me I could not cancel the plan and stop the new line and get a refund UNTIL I RETURNED THE PHONE TO A STORE.
5) I called back a store and they told me to mail it in, which might take up to 2 weeks to get to AT&T at which point I would be over my allotted time to make a return and get a complete refund MINUS A RESTOCKING FEE, doesn't matter if the phone was opened or not.
I pretty much spent the entire day running around to and calling different AT&T stores and hanging out with customer service on the phone. Each. And. Every. Representative. required me to tell the entire story again.
Finally, probably around the 16th person I talked to, I practically broke down crying about how Christian made it seem like I was getting a great deal and told me how everything was going to be fine but it turned out I now had to pay more to have the exact same service and features except I have essentially a useless line I don't need and a phone that no one can use for half the year (because we can't even sell it because we need to keep the phone tied to the account for two years or we don't get the monthly credits). This 16th representative had mercy on me, gave me a full refund and cancelled the plan and let me mail in the phone. Seriously, god bless this man.
Overall, lesson learned. Do not go into AT&T for anything. Do not trust them at their word. If you need to call them for anything, they will make it unreasonably difficult if what you want will cost them money. What a nightmare.
Also, I went to the apple store and got a new phone. No hassles. read more