AT&T AT&T Wireless AT&T lied to me and took money from me all while refusing to unlock my phone until after X-mas because I moved to T-Mobile. Nationwide
I have been trying to move my mobile phone service from AT&T to T-Mobile since November 2016. This was part of a Christmas present for my kids, but AT&T did not want to lose our account and decided to be passive aggressive to ensure we regreded our attempt to choose our provider. We were told the numbers could be ported over and the remaining contract amount, owing on one of our five phones, could be paid by T-Mobile and we would pay T-Mobile. AT&T did port out the number, but did not unlock the phone as expected. I called after we realized the phone was not working on the T-Mobile site and was told by AT&T that we had to pay the remaining balance on the contract before they would unlock it. They said now we would have to wait another month until the bill cycled. Then the AT&T representative said he could take a payment over the phone and I would be emailed with the unlock codes in 72 hours. That was on Dec. 14, 2016. I called on Dec 17, 2016 as I did not get my email and was told the payment I made over the phone was applied to my phone bill and not the contract amount. They again refused to unlock the phone. Said I would have to wait until my bill came out on the 22nd. Called today, 22nd, and was told my request to unlock the phone was denied because they say phone was reported lost/stolen. Not true. I paid another $26 which was my current balance with all additional charges and opened another request to unlock, but AT&T refuses to help me.
GOD help us all if they merge with Time Warner and contol all access to communications and media!
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Robert
Irvine,California,
USA
Why would that be?
#2Consumer Comment
Thu, December 22, 2016
Here is a question. If T-Mobile was going to pay off the phone, what is the issue?
Oh...they weren't going to pay it off until after the phone was unlocked...right?
So let me ask you this, why would ANY company loose what ever leverage they had to get you to pay by basically letting you go with a balance? They don't allow this for one reason...history has told them that once a person leaves with a balance, they have to spend a lot more energy to get them to pay...if they ever do. I'm not saying this is you, but you are going to be lumped in with everyone else.
Do you think if you tried to sell your car the finance company would say "Sure...here is the title release...just give us the money from the sale whenever you get around to it".
Do you think you could even just go to a store to exchange a shirt, and tell them "Yea, I am just going to take this shirt now without paying, just give me an hour to go back home and I will bring back the one I want to return".
Of course not...this is NO different.
This has NOTHING to do with them loosing your account, you aren't that important and they could really care less. This is about you meeting the legal obligation you gave when you originally entered into the contract with them. If you have a balance due on the account, there isn't a single carrier who would provide you with any sort of unlock code.
Perhaps you should be going after T-Mobile for not paying off AT&T like they said they would.