Alltel ripoff, takes over AT&T account, forces new phone plans on you or charge termination fee Little Rock Arkansas
In our area of Texas, AT&T did not fully merge with Cingular. They gave our acdount ot Alltel. We had no clue about this until we got a mail-out from Alltel saying "we are now your wireless company." The service seemed to stay the same as they said it would for a few months so I let it be.
In mid-September, we got a brochure that the AT&T network is going away in our area (which is what we were still on), and we need to call in to get our new Alltel plan. When I called I found out that I had until September 9 (one week earlier) to change carriers without facing a termination fee. We were never notified of this possiblity. They said they "put notices on TV and in the newspaper."
There seemed to be an 'out' in the brochure saying there was a 30 day opportunity to try their products and services, and if not satisfied, return the phones for no charges. I talked to several neighbors in the same circumstances. I even 'tried Alltels products and services' by checking out their phones and the reception in our area using my neighbor's phones.
Alltel's service plan was not satisfactory to me, and we could not continue calling our friends and family with Cingular for free. Others had told me of many extra charges from activating their Alltel phones, then trying to get out. So I called Alltel again to declare that I was an unsatisfied customer, and I wanted out. That wasn't good enough for them since I hadn't activated my Alltel phones, and I hadn't paid them all the hidden fees I had been warned about.
The Cingular rep here said I could go ahead and change over since my contract was with AT&T, not Alltel. I went ahead and changed, now Alltel has stuck me with a $470 bill including termination fees.
AT&T and Alltel did not act in good faith. They did not disclose my rights. In a very competitive market, AT&T sold my account to a much weaker company. Alltel refuses to back up their claim of "satisfaction guaranteed" from their brochure.
Jim
Mineral Wells, Texas
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Rob
Torington,Connecticut,
U.S.A.
Alltel AT&T fiasco
#2Consumer Suggestion
Sun, February 05, 2006
I am also one of the AT&T customers "divested" to Alltel (the highest bidder at the AT&T breakup table). And I also received an unexpected notice telling me that they were my new carrier. I even called Cingular to verify. My issue was that Alltel didn't support GSM and all 4 of my plan's phones were GSM (including an expensive TREO). After many calls and emails I had just about given up. I got no help from the Feds or my own state agencies. All I really wanted was confirmation that my equipment would be replaced with similar phones and my coverage would not deteriorate (Alltel is new to this area of the US). I finally stopped by the Alltel store in town (I'm lucky since they took over the AT&T store and the next closest Alltel store is 970 miles away). The manager there had plenty of P.O.'d AT&T customers who had expected to be switched to Cingular (who has great coverage in CT), but was willing to listen to my issue. I was given exactly the choice I wanted. I can get a TREO or PPC6700 for my old TREO and the other three phones would be upgraded to camera phones at no charge since they didn't have an exact replacement for the Nokias (I took the PPC6700 - it is so cool). If I wanted out of the contract, just switch the lines to Alltel (no phones) and invoke the 14 cancel option (no equipment=no calls=no fees). The last issue was coverage. The store was offering a "national" plan that still had roaming charges, so I was told to handle the switch through a special conversion phone number. My new plan is a little more expensive, but I am happy with the service from my local store so I'm staying. If you asked to opt out and were not told how to do it, you may have a good case to get out at a reduced cost at this point. Try a supervisor and keep your cool. Good Luck.